Born in Tucson Arizona, Alexander has an affinity for the language spoken by dry desert rock, and the scent of sagebrush after a cloud burst. Yet, soon after his first breath of Sonoran Desert air he found himself in the sub-equatorial rain forests of eastern Australia. There he learned to walk, and drink beer, ironically at the same time. Trained from boyhood in woods-lore, his connection to the land is direct, to walk it, sense its textures, listen and watch its moods. When he moved to Washington in his late teens, his first walk in northwest rain forest felt like coming home. As a young man...