Children’s Book with Lasting Impact

Written By: Deena Bouknight | Issue: July 2023 | Photograph By: Susan Renfro

Jason Love

Highlands Biological Station’s Associate Director Jason Love’s 2019-published children’s book, Shady Streams, Slippery Salamanders, is ongoing ecological education for children and adults alike. Available at the Highlands Nature Center, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Shakespeare & Company, state parks, and more, the book combines inspiration from a childhood experience and Love’s extensive experience working in ecological research facilities before joining HBS.

Love earned his Bachelor of Science in forest resources from the University of Georgia and a Master’s of Science in wildlife and fisheries management from West Virginia University. Before he joined HBS, he worked at Coweeta Hydrologic Lab as a site manager for the Coweeta Long-term Research Program, which is part of a consortium of research stations – some of which are affiliated with universities and the U.S. Forest Service. A main focus was to look at animal and stream dynamics, climate change, etc.

“It was determined that every LTER site should have a children’s book that focuses on an aspect of the research accomplished at that site,” said Love. “I wanted the salamanders I was writing about to be accurately depicted. It was great interacting with the illustrator and seeing the story come to life.”

He added, “The story had been ruminating in my head for a while. The characters are actually based on Christopher, my best friend growing up, and Jonathon, my brother. There was a creek behind Christopher’s house, and we spent hours and hours playing and catching salamanders and other creatures and studying them. So that was the inspiration for the book.”

In the Shady Streams, Slippery Salamanders story, Love has the boys meeting biologists and they get to go out and learn the importance of shade for streams and about different fish and salamanders.

Love pointed out that the illustrated book, while written for third through fifth graders, educates parents and guardians as well. “It focuses on why we have so many salamanders in this area, more so than other parts of the world, and why salamanders are lung-less, etc. The goal is for children and adults to think about the care of streams and managing their properties better, so they keep streams and stream life in mind before they make changes to the landscape – such as cutting down trees and eliminating shade around streams.”

Since Love wrote the book as a civil servant, he receives no royalties, but noted that the project was rewarding and that he would be open to writing another book, perhaps on the threatened Eastern Hellbenders or the Sicklefin Redhorse.