Author: Marty Essen

Publisher: Encante Press

ISBN: 978-0-9778599-9-3

Marty Essen's second book, Endangered Edens: Exploring the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Costa Rica, the Everglades, and Puerto Rico was published on January 8, 2016. It promptly became an Amazon #1 Hot New Release in five categories.

As Essen states in the introduction, “My hope is that you'll laugh and learn something while reading the stories, linger over the photos, and, perhaps once or twice, grit your teeth at the shortsightedness of people who see no value in protecting wild places.”

The book comprises four chapters and are sequenced in the order Essen and his wife Deb had experienced the events. As mentioned, each adventure features a paradisaical location that unfortunately faces a future that is very much uncertain because of human activities but a different stages of endangerment.

The first chapter, which originally appeared as a shorter article in the Reptiles Magazine, Essen and his wife search out the Puerto Rican boa but along the way the couple come across all kinds of fascinating animals including the coqui frog, the marine toad, the fiddler crab, the hermit crab, the gray kingbird, the adelaide's warbler, and even the Puerto Boa.

The second chapter pertains to the couple's trip to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which they visited in 2008. As he states, his goal was to experience an adventure in one of the few pristine regions left in the USA and to increase awareness for protecting that region. Although the couple acknowledge the importance of oil, they are strongly against is drilling of environmentally sensitive areas including this wildlife refuge which is at risk of being destroyed due to short-sighted government policies that are not too interested in supporting renewable energy but rather pollutable energy. To exemplify, Essen points out that the Prudhoe Bay oil field was possibly the ugliest place they have ever been to in their lives with all of the pipes and drilling sites dotting the landscape.

In the third chapter we travel with Essen to the Everglades which is one of his favorite spots in the USA. Some of the animals that are more fully described and spotted are the alligator, the anhinga bird, little blue herons, great egret, cotton mouth snake, tiny lizards, white ibis, black vultures, great blue heron, Everglades rat snake, cloudless sulphur butterfly, Zebra Longwing butterfly, Viceroy butterfly, and various plants.

The final chapter describes the couple's trip to Costa Rica where they inform us that it is the least Endangered Eden in the book. The reason is due to the fact its government is one of the most environmentally enlightened ones in the world. It has worked to protect twenty-five percent of its land for conservation.

Along with his fascinating travel essays, Essen provides a thrilling collection of more than 180 rich, in-depth stunning, dazzling color pictures featuring wildlife photograph, adventure travelogues, and environmental education. These extraordinary photographs will appeal to all who want to enjoy the colors and sensations that comprise wildlife.