Paul A. Johnsgard is Foundation Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and winner of several state and national writing awards for his books. He is the author of more than forty books, including Prairie Dog Empire: A Saga of the Shortgrass Prairie, Crane Music: A Natural History of American Cranes, and This Fragile Land: A Natural History of the Nebraska Sandhills, all available from the University of Nebraska Press.