A. B. (Alonzo Beecher) Brooks

Born in French Creek, West Virginia, in 1873, A. B. Brooks built his career from practical work in surveying, farming, and teaching into a life devoted to forestry and natural history. He studied at West Virginia Wesleyan College and later earned a degree in agriculture from West Virginia University, experiences that deepened the hands-on knowledge already shaped by rural life.

Brooks became an important figure in West Virginia conservation. He served as the state's first chief game warden and later worked as a forester for the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey. He wrote widely on trees, forestry, birds, and outdoor life, with West Virginia Trees among the books most closely associated with his name.

He is also remembered as a beloved nature educator. During his years at Oglebay Park in Wheeling, he led bird walks, lectures, and training programs that introduced many people to the pleasures of careful observation outdoors. That mix of scientific interest and warm public teaching gives his work an inviting, lived-in quality that still appeals to readers today.