STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK

Conservation Writer Mike Medberry has written a number of books, including “On the Dark Side of the Moon,” a memoir about having a debilitating stroke in the wilderness of Craters of the Moon.

Now he has published a new book. “Living in the Broken West,” which contains 18 essays on a variety of topics from hiking the drainage of the Los Angeles River to a trip down the Colville River in Alaska’s Arctic and oil country.

Some are funny; some are not. In all, they touch 11 Western states, including Idaho.

Medberry, a former resident of the Wood River Valley, will read from that book at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, May 5, at the Hailey Town Center—the site of the old Copy and Print building at 116 S. River Street.

"Mike is a well-known conservationist and writer living in Boise. But for many years he was the Idaho Conservation League’s Public Lands director based out of Ketchum,” said Kristin Fletcher, the library’s programs and engagement manager. “He cares deeply about the West and thoughtfully examines its many issues and contradictions in his writings. Eleven of the essays in his new book are about the natural world in Idaho.”

Medberry has been a lead staff person for The Wilderness Society, Idaho Conservation League, Hells Canyon Preservation Council and other organizations for three decades.  He has written essays on conservation for 30 years, sharing them in such books as “Idaho Wilderness Considered” and “River by Design.”