Nature's Keepers: The New Science of Nature ManagementFor more than a century, nature lovers have held fast to the belief that preserving the wild means keeping people out. Today, policies that dictate everything from the regulation of ocean fisheries to the protection of endangered species are founded on an almost religious conviction that nature is constant, eternal, self-regulating - "in balance" - save only when man intrudes. But as Stephen Budiansky dramatically illustrates, these credos of modern environmentalism are flatly contradicted by modern ecological research and have led to spectacular disasters. Because paradoxes abound in nature, many of the straightforward solutions that have been proposed to save endangered species, eliminate pests, or enlarge populations of game animals have backfired again and again. Based on a mythical view of a natural world where man never treads, such policies threaten to destroy the very things they claim to preserve - biodiversity, endangered species, unique wilderness landscapes. Now, however, modern ecological research is providing the tools for effective environment management by revealing for the first time how ecosystems really work and interact. This new science of nature management, rooted in the mathematical relationships that link the fates of all plants and animals, is being applied to actual problems, such as elk overpopulation in Yellowstone, management of game bird populations and fisheries, and ecological restoration. |
Contents
Good Poetry Bad Science | 3 |
The Cult of the Wild | 27 |
Disorderly Conduct | 69 |
Copyright | |
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acres agriculture American animals artificial balance biodiversity biological biologist birds burning burros cattle century clear climax Conservation cycle deer disturbance diversity earth ecological ecologists economic Ecosys ecosystem edited effect endangered species Endangered Species Act England environmental environmentalists exotic extinction farm fire fish fishery forest grasses grasslands grazing grouse numbers grow growth habitat harvest rate herbivores human hundred idea Indians Invasions Island land landscape Leopold mathematical ment million Minimum Viable Populations National Park native nature lovers Nature Reserves Nature's nesting northern Oak Savannas Park Service percent pine plants political population prairie predators preservation preservationists Press prey Restoration Ecology scientific scientists settlers simply soil song wren species-area species-area curve stability stands strategy Theoretical Ecology theory Thoreau thousand tion trees tropical U.S. Congress vegetation weeds wild wilderness Wildlife wolves woods Worster Yellowstone Yellowstone National Park York