"Now, for the first time, Dennis Anderson -- outdoors editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press--brings the best of his columns together in An Hour Before Dawn: Stories of the Outdoors. He features the series "Empty Skies: Ducks in Crisis," for which he was honored as a Pulitzer Prize finalist. The columns deal with controversial duck hunting laws along major migration routes all the way from Mexico to Louisiana, to the Upper Midwest and Canada. With a keen investigative eye, Anderson documents the criminal overbagging of ducks in these areas and follows developments in the decline of the waterfowl population. An Hour Before Dawn also explores the wonder of the outdoors and the poeple who know how to appreciate it. In the tradition of a true storyteller, Anderson takes readers from British retriever trials in Scotland to a cutting horse ranch in the wilds of Montana. Along the way, we meet fascinating outdoorspeople from all walks and share in Anderson's passion for the sporting life"--Back cover