After the success of Living Waters: Springs of Missouri and Saving Bull Creek, the Ozarks Studies Institute is publishing retired Springfield biologist Loring Bullard’s memoir. This third book is now in production, with publication on track for 2025.

Currently titled An Environmental Journey: Tales of Tragedy and Hope from the Heartland, this eloquent book reflects on the 73-year-old author’s life from his 1950s and ’60s urban and rural American childhood through college and adulthood and up to his retirement and present-day life, all weaved seamlessly in with historical events that shaped him and the world around him. The Cuban Missile Crisis. Nuclear testing. Earth Day. The contamination of Spring River and the ghost town of Times Beach. The production of Agent Orange in Missouri. Lead mining controversies in the eastern Ozarks. Rivers that caught fire. The rise of factory farming. Legislative progress and setbacks. Along the way, he provides ideas and resources for protecting the land, water, and air that we all share. 

Look for Bullard’s memoir next spring.