Over the past 500 years, many species of animals have become extinct. But if we had a time machine to take us back five centuries, the first thing we’d notice when we stepped outside wouldn’t be those few extra species. Instead, we’d stand in awe of the natural abundance before us: skies filled with birds, seas and rivers teeming with fish, and forests and grasslands of a hunter’s dream, with populations of game too abundant and diverse to fathom.
For one part of the world, we do have a time machine. In North America, countless historical reports, books, paintings, and documents describe first hand the extraordinary sights that greeted European explorers, settlers, and pioneers. Drawing from his book Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery, wildlife filmmaker Steve Nicholls discusses these historical sources to present a single coherent picture of the spectacular environment found in an unknown America. Nicholls cites ecological and archaeological research to recreate a picture of what it would have been like to stand on the North American continent just a few hundred years ago and marvel at the sheer force of nature.
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