Wiese - Born to Explore

Julio Aguilar, professional alligator and snake wrangler

Ed Anderson, Beretta USA

Franco Gussalli Beretta, Beretta USA

Borden Radio Company

Boy Scouts of America

Wildman Steve Brill, edible plant expert

Martin Buser, four-time Iditarod winner

Kim A. Cabrera, educator, tracker

Kathy Chaponton, chef

Joe Conlon, Spectrum Brands-Cutter Insect repellants

Paul Cormack, PCLIX

Jim Fowler, animal expert and TV personality

David A. Francko, assistant vice president for academic affairs and dean of the graduate school of the University of Alabama

Lisa Hacken, editor

Mark Hemming, photographer

Blake Holl, boat-building assistant

Rich Hilsinger, director of the Wooden Boat School in Brooklin, Maine

Hunter Public Relations

Stefani Jackenthal, researcher and editor

Sam Javanrouh, photographer

Kirk Johnson, chief curator at the Denver Museum of Science

Lloyd Kaufman, professor emeritus at NYU

Sean Lambert, researcher

Charles Lanza, crab expert

Dr. Richard Lanza, MIT department of nuclear engineering

Nina Lanza, planetary geologist

Wyatt Lawrence, boat builder

Brian Lang, University of New Hampshire

John Loret, explorer

Leah Lyon, outdoor chef

Christopher Mangun, researcher

Jim Mason, Buck Knives

Del Morris, tracker

William Needham, Hikers Notebook

Bryan Norcross, meteorologist

Oleg Novikov, photographer

Ben C. Oppenheimer, curator of astronomy, American Museum of Natural History

Porters and Guides of Mt. Kilimanjaro

Mathew Pittman, Snow maker

Chris Roddick, curator, the Brooklyn Botanical Garden

Sue Purvis, survival expert

Jim Reid, outdoor spokesman, Coleman

Steve Resler, research diver

Lorie Roach, outdoor chef

Paul Schurke, arctic survival expert

Ian Scott, GSI Outdoors

Stephanie Shore, researcher

Robert Smith, boat-building assistant

Michael Smith, boat-building assistant

Tina Smith, tracker

Josh Schneider, director, Wollemi Pine North America

Carl Sommers, writer, New York Times

Nicole Young, researcher, editor, and cheerleader

Richard Wiese senior, celestial navigator

E. O. Wilson, zoologist, Harvard University

Richard Wilson, physicist

Inspired by the giant redwood cross section at the American Museum of Natural History

Inspired by the Great Hall of Dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History, New York City.

The creative people of Africa for all the neat things that they make and recycle

My imaginary friend who taught me about rainbows, whom I have not seen in years

The wilderness has been my playground ever since my mother told my brothers and me to quit roughhousing and go outside and play. We went outside and began to climb trees, take hikes, and ascend hills. To me, wandering in the great outdoors is as natural as breathing.

On my first real mountain, the Tootha fang of rock that sticks out of a jawbone ridge in the Cascade MountainsI was absolutely terrified of the height. I made a vow that if I got off the mountain alive, I would never climb again. Needless to say, I broke that promise and a fascinating new world was revealed to me.

Throughout my life I have been drawn forcefully to the outdoors, to the forests and mountains, seacoasts and oceans, drawn by both a conscious delight in the grandeur and diversity of the planet and an unconscious spiritual yearning to be in the natural world. It is in the wild placesin the damp, clean air of an ancient forest, on a heaving ocean in unpredictable winds, on a snowy summit at the top of the worldthat I enter my own personal cathedral.

When I met Richard Wiese while he was president of the Explorers Club in New York, I found a kindred spirit. He, too, is intimately familiar with wild placesthe wonders and beauty to be found in the depths of a forest, on a river, on a beach, in high alpine country amid the snow, ice, and rocks, and on the oceans that connect us all.

Richards book, Born to Explore , is not only a story about adventure and how to survive while exploring the wonders of the great outdoors, but also about exploration and how to find nature everywhere and at any time. He has written this book with fun projects that will immediately get your imagination soaring and have you thinking like an explorer.

Of concern to all explorers are the basic questions of food, shelter, weather, and navigation. Richard deals with all these issues in a modern and unique way. He not only has information on Starting a Fire without a Match, but also includes chapters on how to use the Miracle Material: Duct Tape for just about everything, along with other fascinating projects that will have you counting the minutes till you can get outdoors.

The knowledge gained from this book can give you what is needed to go places that are still waiting for the first human footprint or to make discoveries that you never thought possible in your own backyard.

Those who have lived the adventurous life know that the benefits are many. It is a healthy, vigorous lifestyle that promotes physical and mental well-being. Wilderness experiences can be the seed of positive growth for many individuals. Practical knowledge of the outdoors enables one to feel comfortable while enjoying its beauty and the transformative journeys waiting for all. That is exactly what this book delivers.

Another long-term benefit is what this book can do for our planet. If we can get young adults into the natural worldNo Child Left Insidethey will learn to love it. When they love it, they will want to take care of it, to preserve it. They will want to pass this magical planet on to the next generation, and the next generation, and on and on.

Richards book, Born to Explore , can help make this happen.

Jim Whittaker

First American to summit Mount Everest

I was inspired to write Born to Explore during a trip I took to Antarctica with a group of 70 high school students in December 2002. The students were mostly from the United States and Canada, and the trip was intended to expose them to Antarcticas wondrous ecosystem in a time of notable global warming.

Aboard a burly icebreaker, we were traveling along the Drake Passage, which separates South America from Antarctica and is considered the roughest body of water in the world, when our ship came upon a pod of approximately 50 whales. The whale biologist onboard nearly tripped overboard as he ran to the rails because he had never seen so many whales in one place at the same time. It was an extraordinary spectacle of nature that none of us would likely ever again witness.