In the early 1970s, the environmental movement was underway. Overpopulation was recognized as a threat to human well-being, and scientists like Michael Soulé believed there was a connection between anthropogenic pressures on natural resources and the loss of the planet's biodiversity. Soulé'thinker, philosopher, teacher, mentor, and ......
""When we grasp fully that the best expressions of our humanity were not invented by civilization but by cultures that preceded it, that the natural world is not only a set of constraints but of contexts within which we can more fully realize our dreams, we will be on the way to a long overdue reconciliation between opposites which are of our own ......
How We Create and Understand Environmental Messages
A broader and more comprehensive understanding of how we communicate with each other about the natural world and our relationship to it is essential to solving environmental problems. How do individuals develop beliefs and ideologies about the environment? How do we express those beliefs through communication? How are we influenced by the ......
Integrating Science And Politics For The Environment
Using the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest as a case study, Kai Lee describes the concept and practice of ""adaptive management,"" as he examines the successes and failures of past and present management experiences. Throughout the book, the author delves deeply into the theoretical framework behind the real-world experience, ......
Indicator, Umbrella, Keystone, Flagship, and Other Surrogate Species
The vast scope of conservation problems has forced biologists and managers to rely on ""surrogate"" species to serve as shortcuts to guide their decision making. These species-known by a host of different terms, including indicator, umbrella, and flagship species-act as proxies to represent larger conservation issues, such as the ......
Prairie dogs and the grassland habitat in which they play a key ecological role have declined precipitously over the past two centuries. The current number of prairie dogs is believed to be less than 2 percent of the number encountered by Lewis and Clark in the early 1800s, and only a fraction of grassland ecosystem remains. Conservation of ......
Between 1996 and 2007, voters approved almost $24 billion for local government park, open space, and other conservation purposes. Despite this substantial sum for land protection, there was at that time no book available to guide officials as they implemented voters' mandates. The Conservation Program Handbook was written in response to ......
For more than a century the establishment of national parks and protected areas was a major threat to the survival of indigenous people. The creation of parks based on wilderness ideals outlawed traditional ways of life and forced from their homelands peoples who had shaped and preserved local ecosystems for centuries.Today such tragic conflicts ......
Scientific Foundations Of Regional Reserve Networks
The Wildlands Project is a far-reaching effort by scientists and activists to develop better ways of protecting nature, wilderness, and biodiversity. Its ultimate goal is to establish an effective network of nature reserves throughout North America -- core conservation areas linked by corridors, and buffered, where appropriate, by lands that may ......
