Customer Reviews:
Wilderness and the American Mind .......2007-10-13
This book is about the origins of the wilderness preservation movement. Apparently it began as a doctoral dissertation and has been layered over and revised in subsequent publications since 1967. Whatever its original focus was, the bulk of the current version is concerned with the politics of wilderness preservation in America. This is hardly a book about how Americans have explored, experienced, or lived adventurously in the wilderness. Nor is it chiefly about the tension between civilization and nature. There is some of all of that in the early chapters, but the discussion there is more of an overview and so lacks detail and depth. In later chapters the writing often descends into journalistic reporting of tedious minutia. This will delight some readers and tire others.
When I read this in 1974, I wish I had had it in 1969/70.......2006-07-22
While not a perfect book, this is one of the few books I know which I would call "required reading" for people in the environmental movement and ecology. It's not a science book, which is one of my minor problems with it, but I titled this review comment with my opinion prior to taking the first of 2 classes (1974) by one of Nash's student colleagues and then Nash himself. I, and a slew of my colleagues in 1970 really needed to have read this during the organization and preparation for what was then termed "The First Environmental Teach-In" now called ridiculously "Earth Day."
I felt this way in 1974, because I could see that we had retrod ground done by Brower 2 decades earlier and Muir seven decades. And then I learned of names I had never heard before like G. Pinchot and the roles of people like John Wesley Powell independent of the Grand Canyon survey and Stephen Mather and the Natl. Park PR machine (not all bad). This book is part of why students are supposed to take history classes.
The 2nd ed (pub. 1973)., which I had and still have, covered events I lived and can confirmed happened. That's toward the end of the book. The beginning of the book are about pre-American precursors in Europe such as the Romantic movement and various humanist issues like painting and writing. Some of these parts were were a little slow for me (I did read Rousseau), but it did put the Black Forest in perspective more than a type of cake. And that helps with understanding forestry schools.
Nash is good in showing the development of the conservation movement (incl. soil reclamation and forestry [and why hunters and fishers are conservationists]) to the shortcoming of conservation and the start of preservation (Muir, Mather), and the latter shortcomings of "loving wilderness to death" and the rise of environmentalism and ecological biology (Nash likes Leopold, I prefer Rachel Carson, we agree on reading Ed Abbey).
Rod is good at tying together art, literature (here your transcendalists in American Literature come in), popular culture (recreation), religion (See his Rights of Nature book for more depth), and science (barely). He has a good bibliography, one of the finest that I have seen if you want more depth and references, but the field is pretty vast and Nash's text is already thick so his survey is at best described as shallow (supplementary reading like Doug Strong's The Conservationists helps).
Alaska in the 3rd ed. is important to the future. I have been given by Rod in the past "seed" copies, and I purchase "Wilderness" as gifts. I stopped doing that until recently when I was surprised a bio prof friend was unaware. I know he will enjoy reading "Would you flood the Sistine Chapel to get closer to the ceiling?"
I wish that Gaylord Nelson (then Sen., Wisc.) had had us read this book. I think that we would have gone further on that day in 1970. The book is just a shadow of the class experience, I leave lots of book detail out in this review/summary.
Wilderness: One of America's Most Important Ideas .......2005-12-27
Those who have been so quick to pronounce the "death" of environmentalism surely have not taken Roderick Frazier Nash's Wilderness and the American Mind into account. With roots in European Romanticism, and blossoming in mid-19th Century writings of Thoreau and Emerson, the idea of wilderness is one of the most important ideas America has contributed to the world.
The wilderness idea has no abler chronicler than Roderick Nash, whitewater rafting guide, adventurer, descendent of Canadian explorers and professor emeritus of environmental studies, who first published this book in 1967 and has taken it through four editions. His entertaining narrative covers the life of Muir and the early preservation struggles of The Sierra Club. He provides special insight into Aldo Leopold and sets the whole discussion of Leopold's land ethic in its historical context.
While wilderness is everywhere under assault, many still understand the continuing need to preserve our wilderness system, a network of wild areas free from all other human activities. In fact, it's difficult to come away from Nash's book without understanding that wilderness is an intrinsic American value.
The most articulate advocate of wilderness was Theodore Roosevelt, who believed the modern American was in danger of becoming an "overcivilized" man, who has lost strength and higher virtue in a trend toward "slothful ease." Nash gives great credit to Roosevelt and shows how his ideas and experiences contributed to later 20th Century concepts of environmental preservation.
America, according to Roosevelt, needed to preserve the remnants of the pioneer environment because, "no nation facing the unhealthy softening and relaxation of fibre that tends to accompany civilization can afford to neglect anything that will develop hardihood, resolution, and the scorn of discomfort and danger."
Wilderness evokes deep sentiments in the mystic chords of American memory. It is not merely a political movement thought up in the 1960s--a trend that will fade as baby boomers age and our present generation of environmental leaders moves on. Nash shows us how wilderness came to be that way and suggests the wilderness idea is likely to endure at the vital center of our national psyche.
Not perfect but still a classic thanks to regular updating.......2005-07-09
As the other reviews will confirm, this is a classic book on the American concept of wilderness. Nash wrote the first version in the 1960s, originally as his dissertation. The main narrative has held up well. Nash has also put the text through regular revisions, so it lacks any embarrassingly outdated claims that might detract from the book.
The first part of the book is an intellectual history of "wilderness." Wilderness may exist as a state of mind or as the product of an intellectual movement (as in Nash). This kind of analysis is invariably subjective and selective. Nash, like others engaged in this kind of history, draws from a subset of all the people who wrote on the topic at a given moment (and, as he recognizes, necessarily leaves out the views of people who don't write them down). Then, like others, he organizes this material, calling it a "Romantic" view of wilderness or whatever.
I find such exercises interesting but generally unpersuasive by their very nature. For example, Nash interprets the Bible and other foundational texts for Western civilization as embodying a "subdue the wilderness" ethos. Fine. But what of Jesus' reference to the "lilies of the field"? Certainly that implies a valuation of nature as beautiful and worthy in itself - - "Romantic," perhaps. My point is that anyone can always do this, and any intellectual history can always be criticized for leaving things out and thus mischaracterizing what it discusses.
That said, Nash is not too objectionable on that front. In fact, his categorization is helpful, and would be especially good as an introduction to these ideas. This is doubtless why this book is used in so many undergraduate ecology courses.
The second part of the book focuses on various battles over wilderness. Here he moves closer to a straight history. His narrative is forceful and engrossing.
The last chapter, on international issues, is really too superficial to be useful. It leaves the impression that he is trying to be complete with each new edition, without really having fresh insights into the subject.
Overall, the book is very well-written and easy to read - - I classify it as the kind of book that is good to read on an airplane (which is in fact where I read it).
Better for Environmentalists then Others.......2003-12-01
I believed that this book would be an exploration of the concept of "wilderness" as it relates to the American mind. And it is, for about one hundred pages. Since this is a four hundred page bok, that leaves a lot of space to fill.
I found the first two hundred pages to be interesting, the last two hundred to be a slog. Nash spends an interminable amount of time covering "contemporary" environmental struggles. Were it my book, I would have omitted the chapter about Alaska. I imagine that most who read this book have a grasp on the environmental struggles of the recent past.
As I mentioned before, the reason I read this book was to gain a perspecitve on how these struggles came about.
This book is, I suppose, a classic in the field. I guess, ultimately, it's just a field (environmentalism/ecology) that doesn't interest me that much. So I'm glad I read it, but I wouldn't recommend it to others, unless those others consider themselves dedicated environmentalists. Then you HAVE to read this book.
Book Description
Arusha National Park in northern Tanzania, known for its scenic beauty, is also a battleground. Roderick Neumann's illuminating analysis shows how this park embodies all the political-ecological dilemmas facing protected areas throughout Africa. The roots of the ongoing struggle between the park on Mount Meru and the neighboring Meru peasant communities go much deeper, in Neumann's view, than the issues of poverty, population growth, and ignorance usually cited. These conflicts reflect differences that go back to the beginning of colonial rule. By imposing a European ideal of pristine wilderness, Neumann says, the establishment of national parks and protected areas displaced African meanings as well as material access to the land. He focuses on the symbolic importance of natural landscapes among various social groups in this setting and how it relates to conflicts between peasant communities and the state.
Book Description
Dave Foreman is one of North America's most creative and effective conservation leaders, an outspoken proponent of protecting and restoring the earth's wildness, and a visionary thinker. Over the past 30 years, he has helped set direction for some of our most influential conservation organizations, served as editor and publisher of key conservation journals, and shared with readers his unique style and outlook in widely acclaimed books including The Big Outside and Confessions of an Eco-Warrior.
In Rewilding North America, Dave Foreman takes on arguably the biggest ecological threat of our time: the global extinction crisis. He not only explains the problem in clear and powerful terms, but also offers a bold, hopeful, scientifically credible, and practically achievable solution.
Foreman begins by setting out the specific evidence that a mass extinction is happening and analyzes how humans are causing it. Adapting Aldo Leopold's idea of ecological wounds, he details human impacts on species survival in seven categories, including direct killing, habitat loss and fragmentation, exotic species, and climate change. Foreman describes recent discoveries in conservation biology that call for wildlands networks instead of isolated protected areas, and, reviewing the history of protected areas, shows how wildlands networks are a logical next step for the conservation movement. The final section describes specific approaches for designing such networks (based on the work of the Wildlands Project, an organization Foreman helped to found) and offers concrete and workable reforms for establishing them. The author closes with an inspiring and empowering call to action for scientists and activists alike.
Rewilding North America offers both a vision and a strategy for reconnecting, restoring, and rewilding the North American continent, and is an essential guidebook for anyone concerned with the future of life on earth.
Customer Reviews:
Finally.......2006-03-13
Finally there is something which dares to challenge conventionality in its face and say capitalism and manifest destiny arent doing us any favours... This books opens your mind to greater processes and aspirations than what were are trained for in society... go for it!
The "Sand County Almanac" of our time!.......2005-03-08
Nearly 60 years ago, Aldo Leopold gave the world a treasure: his "Sand County Almanac". "Rewilding North America" is the Sand County Almanac of our time, in eloquence as well as vision. Dave Foreman, who raised the conservation bar so shockingly (and successfully) with "Earth First!" 25 years ago, has now become an elder, a respected colleague of the leading lights in conservation biology, while carrying on his legacy of showing the rest of us new possibities for bolder and more biocentric paths of ethics and action.
"Rewilding North America" is THE environmental vision for this era and for this continent. The book begins with the most succinct and heart-stoppingly depressing summary of the bad news of biodiversity and ecological losses that I have yet encountered. But hang in there, because Foreman then masterfully unfolds a program of possibility that is both radical and realistic -- and inspirational beyond measure!
As we biodiversity and wilderness advocates continue the important work in the paradigm of preservation (that is, saving all the pieces we can against the onslaught of vapid consumerism), we can also begin to take the exciting first steps in a new form of ecological restoration. Dave's "rewilding" proposal is long-term in both directions: He considers a baseline for rewilding that goes back 13,000 years to just before the first humans arrived in North America, while setting forth a vision that is intended -- dare I say, destined -- to grow over this century and the next. That means we don't just stop at bringing back Wolf and Griz; we also start plotting paths for repatriating Cheetah to its continent of origin, and assisting Order Proboscidea in once again leisurely reshaping the tusked behemoths of the Old World into New World natives.
Onward with the Great Work!
A level-headed, serious call to action!.......2004-08-12
Foreman paints both a depressing and hopeful picture of the state of eco-affairs. Sobering information regarding the war on nature along with a plan to recoup some of the biological losses mother nature has endured in the industrial/tech ages.
This is a MUST READ book for anyone with an ounce of caring in their bones for the future of life on Earth.
Book Description
For nearly 15 years Wilderness Management has presented the most comprehensive and authoritative information available on wilderness stewardship and the protection of its resources and values. Directed toward wilderness stewards everywhere, especially in U.S. federal land management agencies, this new and completely revised third edition retains relevant material from the first and second editions and embraces new literature, experiences, events, changes and materials that have occurred in wilderness-related professions over the past decade. This reference classic will serve as an invaluable addition to environmentalists and conservationists, resource managers, researchers, teachers, students, scientists, policy makers, and wilderness users around the world.
Customer Reviews:
Authoritative management handbook, somewhat repetitive.......2006-06-02
This is a book on wilderness and wilderness management policy, intended for use in undergraduate courses on forestry, recreational management, and similar topics. The book would also be a useful resource for professionals to have on their shelves, since it includes texts of some legislation, planning document guidelines, and other reference material in addition to a long bibliography.
The book does not assume any specialized knowledge in a particular discipline but would be accessible to any college-level reader. Like other textbooks, it can be a bit dry, but it's better than most. The book's coverage of wilderness issues is both exhaustive and authoritative, and specialists contributed several of the chapters.
Using specialist contributors has one important disadvantage: the book is repetitive in many places. The problem is that issues that contributor X views as essential for his or her topic are either (a) the subject of a previous chapter; or (b) also essential for contributor Y's chapter, and thus addressed in both places. I would estimate that one-fourth of the entire text could be eliminated by a strong editor - - or by forcing each contributor to read the entire book, which will never happen. (Voice of experience on this one, folks.)
Though it includes chapters on the history of wilderness legislation, and brief summaries of how countries outside the US handle wilderness, the bulk of the book is intended to help people who manage wilderness areas. Their approach is technical and managerial, and tries to ignore the political environment as much as possible. For example, the authors don't discuss political pressures on management decisions in wilderness areas. To take one illustration, it is well known that outfitters make strong demands for certain uses in some wildernesses, and that they have the local and/or state clout to make those demands effective. Dealing with politics is part of the management problem, and it would have been helpful to address those issues in the book.
That said, this is really the best book out on there on the topic, though in some respects, it's the only book. It does a good job but there is room for improvement as I have noted, so it's a four-star effort.
Resources are hard to find.......2003-05-23
I have searched for a comprehensive, all-in-one resource for a long time. Here it is. Previously, I would have to gather info piecemeal and try to filter and organize. No longer. Engaging writing, easy to follow. Good index. 5 stars based on the fact that there's not much else out there in this arcane field. Otherwise 4 stars because both glossaries could be improved. Only a few acronyms are covered in the existing glossary of acronyms. Biggest complaint? Authors take pains to date citations in the text but sometimes overlook placing dates to establish timeline in the text. One must sometimes backtrack to learn a timeline and at times, one must just out-and-out guess.
Especially written for wilderness stewards.......2002-09-08
Collaboratively written by John C. Hendee (Professor Emeritus of the University of Idaho Wilderness Research Center) and Chad P. Dawson (Professor of Recreation Resources Management, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York--Syracuse), and in an completely updated third edition, Wilderness Management: Stewardship And Protection Of Resources And Values is a comprehensive, 640-page reference and resource on wilderness stewardship and the protection of wilderness resources. Individual chapters present resources and information on U.S. legal authority with regard to wild areas, wild ecosystems, managing wilderness recreation, and a great deal more. Especially written for wilderness stewards and U.S. federal land management agencies, is also very highly recommended for environmental activists and non-specialist general readers with an interest in the upkeep of natural lands. Wilderness Management is a benchmark publication and an essential, core addition to professional, academic, and community library Environmental Studies reference collections.
Average customer rating:
- OUTSTANDING - a MUST READ for anyone working in the outdoors
- Wilderness Medicine
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Wilderness Medicine (Wilderness Medicine: Management of Wilderness and Environmental Emergencies)
Paul S. Auerbach
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Field Guide To Wilderness Medicine (Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine)
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Wilderness Medicine, Beyond First Aid, 5th Edition
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Tarascon Pocket Pharmacopoeia, 2007 Classic Shirt-Pocket Edition
ASIN: 0323009506 |
Book Description
Thoroughly revised, updated and expanded, this critically acclaimed reference prepares you to manage medical emergencies caused by environmental encounters, including injury prevention and respect for natural environments. Included in the text are color illustrations that give the reader a better view of the situation at hand. Packed with how-to explanations and practical, direct advice, it covers emergencies such as envenomations, altitude illness, burns, motion sickness, and problems caused by cold, heat, snakes, sharks, and marine microbes. Includes totally new information on bear attacks, cave rescue, airway and eye emergencies, wilderness clothing, and much more!
Customer Reviews:
OUTSTANDING - a MUST READ for anyone working in the outdoors.......2002-11-29
As a field geologist, Gulf War veteran and former EMT, I can say that this book is the most comprehensive text I have ever seen regarding outdoor dangers, survival and wilderness medicine. If you work outdoors or spend a lot of time recreating outside, this is a MUST HAVE book!
Wilderness Medicine.......2001-11-15
As an RN,Trauma Nurse Specialist, I found this book to be well written and highly informative. With the speed of modern travel it's also a great reference to have for injuries and illnesses that can occur in far away places that one doesn't see often, or ever in your "home" ED.
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Wilderness Management
John C. Hendee ,
George H. Stankey , and
Robert C. Lucas
Manufacturer: Fulcrum Publishing
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ASIN: 1555919006 |
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- A most important owner's manual
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Blue Ridge 2020: An Owner's Manual
Steve Nash
Manufacturer: The University of North Carolina Press
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ASIN: 0807847593
Release Date: 1999-02-24 |
Amazon.com
The Blue Ridge Mountains run 500 miles from Pennsylvania to Georgia and take in some of the eastern United States' wildest country, including seven national parks and many state parks and wilderness areas. The mountain chain also embraces, environmental journalist Steve Nash writes, 29 species of snakes, 70 species of mammals, more than 200 species of birds, 70 species of fish, 1400 species of flowering plants, and more than 130 species of trees--almost as many as can be found in all of Europe. The richness is astonishing, but also, Nash writes, seemingly unappreciated, for the Blue Ridge is now under threat from industrial, commercial, and residential development, with acid rain and other hazards affecting its many ecosystems. Guiding his readers through many scenarios on how these environmental problems might best be lessened, Nash points out that conflicting scientific data lends an "illusion of precision" to the idea, on one hand, that nature will automatically right itself or, on the other hand, that catastrophic change is irreversible. Neither case, he suggests, is strictly true, and he invites his readers to participate in the business of developing a vision for the Blue Ridge's sustainable future. Residents of the region and students of regional planning alike will find Nash's book to be of much interest. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
The mountain chain known as the Blue Ridge traces a 550-mile arc through Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia. Along the way, it encompasses Shenandoah National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, seven national forests, numerous federal wilderness areas and state parks, and parts of the Appalachian Trail. It is the largest concentration of public lands east of the Mississippi and home to an astonishing diversity of plant and animal life. But as the most extensive natural area in the increasingly populous Southeast, the Blue Ridge ecosystem faces unique challenges in the next decades.
Drawing on scientific research in a variety of disciplines, journalist Steve Nash provides a clear and evenhanded introduction to some of the most hotly disputed environmental issues facing the Blue Ridge, including the invasion of exotic plants and insects, the explosive growth of suburban-style communities in natural areas, worsening air and water pollution, and the erratic management of national forests. Informative and highly readable, Blue Ridge 2020 takes a hard look at what is at risk in these mountains and what we—as the "owners" of the public lands—must do if we intend to preserve their future.
Customer Reviews:
A most important owner's manual.......2000-11-14
Just the title provides food for thought: Blue Ridge 2020, An Owner's Manual, reminds us that the public has a responsibility for effective stewardship of the public lands in the Blue Ridge. I also like the play on words of 2020--hindsight is 20/20, and if we don't take a hard, clear look at what is happening to the ecology of the Blue Ridge and work hard to improve it, we will have deep regrets by the year 2020. The human scale of twenty years is very effective. I'm 31--what kind of Blue Ridge will I experience at 51? As a local environmental activist in the Page Valley, I find this book is a tremendously useful and motivating resource. In one book, Steve Nash provides an overview of specific problems and practical solutions. His writing style is clear and accessible. If you care about the health about the Blue Ridge or want up to date information about the quality of air and water in the mountains, this is a book you need to read. This is one of the best "state of the ecology" books I've read, and it is particularly useful for its regional approach.
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Smokey Bear and the Great Wilderness
Elliott Speer Barker
Manufacturer: Sunstone Press
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ASIN: 086534017X |
Book Description
In this important book experts in science, economics, and law discuss key resource management issues in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem-among them the management of fire, elk, wolves, and bison-using them as starting points to debate the manner in which humans should interact with the environment of this region. Generously illustrated with special archival photographs of the Yellowstone area, it will be the major source of information on this area and a valuable resource for worldwide wildland preservation for years to come.
Customer Reviews:
Comprehensive edited volume on management problems surrounding Yellowstone.......2007-05-20
Like many others,, this book examines ecosystem management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. (Sidenote: why doesn't anyone seem to study the Greater Yosemite or Smoky Mountain Ecosystems?) The concept of "ecosystem management" has plenty of wrinkles to it - - hence the need for this book - - but the basic idea is to management both processes and outcomes at the level of an entire ecosystem instead of managing individual species.
The book focuses on three controversial issues, fire, elk and wolves. However, many other ecosystem issues appear through the book as well.
This book is explicitly multidisciplinary, with contributions from lawyers, economists, biologists, and land managers. The contributors address the kinds of topics that you'd want them to address, such as the role of top-level carnivores (wolves and bears), the consequences of elk (over)grazing, forest fire, and the like. The chapters fall into three rough groups - - the first, one the history and policy of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) concept, varying approaches to ecosystem management, and then particular processes (especially forest fire). The book is intended for the specialist rather than the layman - - but specialists in one discipline won't have any trouble understanding contributions from other disciplines, and advanced-level undergraduates in many fields would be able to read the book.
Like any edited volume, the contributions vary significantly in quality. Some authors have a clear view of the "big picture," while others are more limited to their own specialty. The biologists tend to have the greatest tunnel vision, but John Craighead's chapter does a great job seeing biological issues in a larger historical and political context.
It's also dated in significant ways, reflecting debates over the northern range of Yellowstone in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the introduction of wolves in 1995, top-down regulation of elk by predators has supplanted the policy of "natural regulation" of elk by food supply that motivated many of these changes.
Nonetheless, if you're interested in ecosystem management, or in the management of Yellowstone National Park, you'll want to read this book. It doesn't really address topics outside of these, so the general reader will probably find it frustratingly specialized.
Not totally for the layman.......2003-11-13
The essays compiled in this book are an excellent resource for someone who is trying to understand the complex issues surrouding the protection of the Greater Yellow Ecosystem. However, a number of the essays, in providing evidence to support the arguments are geared more toward the policy maker or toward the scientist who is gathering background information on the issues.
Not all of the essays are written in such a fashion that they are beyond the comprehension of the average reader. Some essays are written clearly and do provide an effective starting point for someone coming into the field to understand the issues surrounding issues such as fire policy or wolf management. Both of which are still hot topics in the region today.
Finally, many of the essays are better for understanding a historical perspective to the issues. Wolf reintroduction has occurred and now Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho are looking to have wolves delisted. The essays on wolf management are dated enough that they are a starting point to understand the underpinnings of the issues of today, rather than where we are going in the near future.
All in all, if the reader can move past some of the more technical aspects of the book, they will have a better grasp of how and why various management issues are occuring in this wonder of nature.
What do the authors think about the nuclear/hazardous waste?.......1999-08-09
The DOE plans to build a nuclear/hazardous waste incinerator directly upwind of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. What do the authors think about this recent development?
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Aldo Leopold's Wilderness
Aldo Leopold ,
David E. Brown , and
Neil B. Carmony
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0811718646 |
Books:
- Working With Water in Medieval Europe: Technology and Resource-Use (Technology and Change in History)
- Zapping Conflict in the Health Care Workplace
- 100 Caterpillars: Portraits from the Tropical Forests of Costa Rica
- 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth
- A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs: Northeastern and north-central United States and southeastern and south-centralCanada (Peterson Field Guides(R))
- Air Pollution Control (3rd Edition)
- All You Need to Know about the Music Business
- Analysis and Management of Animal Populations
- Animal Underworld: Inside America's Black Market for Rare & Exotic Species
- Apologia pro Vita Sua (Penguin Classics)
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Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature
Turtle Island (A New Directions Book)
Sand County Almanac (Outdoor Essays & Reflections)
The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology
The Great New Wilderness Debate
