DUMMERSTON — Lynn Levine, an author who has just released her second book, has been passionate about nature and wildlife since she was a junior in college.
“Someone pointed out a tree to me and told me it had a name,” she recalls. “That just hit my heart. I had never known that plants had names.”
Levine became a forester, and for 32 years, she has run her own business, Forest Care.
“My job involves working with private landowners and their woodlands,” says Levine, the first woman consulting forester in New England. “I help them manage for long-term interest goals, take inventory of the wildlife, mark trees, supervise harvests, and listen a lot.”
Levine, who also describes herself as an environmental educator, has written curriculum for Vermont Institute of Natural Science and the Learning Tree Project.
“Connecting people to the woods is my passion,” she says.
Levine's first nonfiction wildlife reference book, Mammal Tracks and Scat, was inspired by her interest in learning to identify animal tracks in the woods while she worked.
She studied the art and science of identifying tracks and scat under people like Paul Rezendes and Sue Morse, both nationally recognized trackers.
Snow Secrets
Levine's most recent fiction book, Snow Secrets, about two young girls using their wildlife-identifying skills to find one girl's missing cat, draws its plot from a “conglomeration” of all the stories Levine has heard about domestic pets falling prey to wild animals.
Both books took Levine 2½ years to write, and she benefitted from a support system of writers who provided constructive criticism along the way.
“Snow Secrets was about revision and getting critique from wonderful people like Eileen Christeow, Jesse Haas, Karen Hesse and Michael Daley,” she said of the four well-established Windham County children's book authors.
“We're part of a critique group that meets once a week, and the book changed dramatically with feedback,” Levine says. “I was willing to listen to what people had to say. Karen Hesse has been a mentor for me, and when she told me she loved the book, it was the ultimate praise for me.”
Levine says if readers are unable to put the book down after the first chapter, then she knows she has written a good story.
She is also very invested in portraying “different kinds of learners” in her characters. The two girls in Snow Secrets are Sarah, described as “school smart,” and Jasmine, who is more familiar with “outdoor learning.”
The girls become closer as they search for Sarah's missing cat, whom her mother believes was taken by a fisher. With the help of an Abenaki woman named Tess, they use their new wildlife tracking skills to find the cat.
“The end mystery [of Secrets] is that fisher cats get blamed for every cat that disappears,” the author hints. “Is that true? That's part of the storyline.”
Teaching skills through books
Levine, who lives in Dummerston, Vermont with her husband and daughter, hopes that both children and adult readers of Secrets will take away the knowledge that nothing in her books is made up, and she hopes they will be inspired to explore the outdoors for themselves.
“All the tracking is accurate,” she says. “My passion is teaching skills and getting people involved with the natural world. I want people to get out [of doors] after reading my books!”
True to her philosophy, Levine has helped to build five interpretive nature trails around Brattleboro, and recently a presentation on wildlife tracking in Pisgah, N.H. Levine says she is hoping to “do more [nature-based] programs in schools.”
On the writing front, Levine is considering making Snow Secrets into a seasonally-based series, in which Jasmine and Sarah go through the seasons honing their skills.
“I want to have the girls find out and uncover more secrets. They'll have to go by all sorts of other clues in the spring.”