Cast in the Woods

When angler and author Stephen Sautner bought a streamside cabin and some land in the heart of fly fishing country in the Catskill Mountains, he thought he had finally reached angling nirvana. Little did he know what loomed: a series of historical floods, a land rush over fracking for natural gas, and constant battles with invasive species, plagues of insects, and other pests. He takes on all of these threats – between casts for wild trout and other gamefish – and along the way gains a better understanding of stewardship and the interconnectedness between angling and the natural world. Praise for A Cast in the Woods:“New York State's ban on fracking was one of the great triumphs of modern environmentalism, and behind it lay a thousand individual stories of resistance. None has been better told than this one, by a worthy Catskills heir to the literary tradition of John Burroughs and a man who has earned his fishing.”--Bill McKibben, author Radio Free Vermont“If you love wild woods and wild trout, Sautner’s word magic will transport you to the best of both. His battle to preserve them from a daunting array of natural and unnatural forces amuses even as it instructs and inspires.” --Ted Williams, outdoor writer and environmental journalist