Emily Stevens was a patron of the Wyoming Outdoor Council. She was also a book lover. Today her legacy lives on in the form of the Emily Stevens book fund.

The book fund is an educational project of the Wyoming Outdoor Council’s board of directors. Named in honor of former board member Emily Stevens, the purpose of the fund is to purchase natural history books for Wyoming county libraries.

Every year, the Wyoming Outdoor Council sends a list of 10-15 titles to each county library, asking the library to choose one book from the list. In all, 23 books are donated annually to 23 county libraries across Wyoming. “Since the inception of this program in 1997, we have consistently received good feedback on the variety of books included on the list as well as on the actual selected volumes,” says board member Barbara Oakleaf, who is a librarian at the Fremont County Library in Lander.

Contact your local library for past and current books donated by Wyoming Outdoor Council. The books for 2005 were recently sent out to county libraries. For a copy of the list, please contact Molly Absolon at molly@wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org.