"Last Stand takes readers from the tallgrass prairies of Kansas to the Arctic tundra of Alaska to the deserts of the Southwest and bears passionate witness to our last wildernesses, reminding us why they must be preserved. Dedicated conservationist and acclaimed novelist Barbara Kingsolver teams with National Geographic photographer Annie Griffiths Belt to capture the essence of America' s endangered virgin lands. In her moving introduction and int he essays opening each chapter, Kingsolver deftly explores the ways of the wilderness, the threats against it, and what it needs to survive. Griffiths Belt' s accompanying hand-tinted infrared photographs breathtakingly evoke the spirit and beauty of these diverse bioregions.