Fraser’s colorful stories do not conceal rewilding’s painful educational curve and mixed results, but she makes a convincing...
A passionate, optimistic account of a sometimes successful movement aimed at restoring natural habitats.
During the past decades, nature researchers have discovered a practical tactic for preserving native environments and slowing the massive extinction now in progress. “Rewilding,” writes journalist Fraser (God’s Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church, 1999), does not try to re-create wilderness, but it requires “Cores, Corridors, and Carnivores.” Cores such as national parks are too small to do the job alone. Censuses in American parks always show a steady decline in the number of species. Corridors connecting refuges enable wildlife to disperse widely and multiply; they may include farms and even towns, but barriers (fences and highways) are disastrous. Fraser notes that large predators are the key to maintaining species diversity. In the absence of wolves, deer eat everything in sight. More bird species thrive when coyotes are present than when they are absent because coyotes eat domestic cats, the leading bird-killer. The author focuses on several dozen projects around the world, ranging from modest links between two parks to massive ongoing efforts to connect a million square miles from Yellowstone Park in Wyoming to the Yukon in northern Canada (“Y2Y”) and in southern Africa. Sad experience has taught that successful schemes require money, long-term commitment, relatively honest governments and—most important—cooperation of the people living on the land.
Fraser’s colorful stories do not conceal rewilding’s painful educational curve and mixed results, but she makes a convincing case that it represents the only realistic strategy for conserving our steadily diminishing wildlife.Pub Date: Dec. 22, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8050-7826-8
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Metropolitan/Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A thoughtful, evenhanded, and accessible mix of reporting and analysis concerning population control, by the diplomatic correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor. Acknowledging the complexities of population growth, Moffett finds cause for both trepidation and hope. He ranges widely to illustrate the issues involved. Considering Cairo as a case of third-world urban overcrowding, he describes the political effects (including the resurgence of radical Islam among the poor) and the economic effects (such as urban encroachment on farmlands). Drawing on successful examples elsewhere, he suggests decentralization, housing deregulation, increased farm output, and a stronger private sector as solutions. Considering countries like Kenya, which can no longer feed their people, he proposes such nation-specific strategies as water conservation and replenishing the soil with nutrients, noting that biotechnological research has seldom focused on Third World agricultural problems. Still, if developing countries are to lower their rate of population growth, their citizens must begin to want smaller families, a change in attitude that will require improving the education and status of women in societies that are often patriarchal. While Moffett observes that religious belief does not preclude contraception in many Catholic countries, he is critical of the Church's population policies and its power at the United Nations. Though the Reagan and Bush administrations, influenced by laissez-faire economics and opposition to abortion, retarded world population control, Moffett thinks much can still be done. He may be pollyannish about the peace ushered in by the end of the Cold War, but he's right in observing that favorable conditions exist for wealthy nations and international organizations to address the world demographic explosion. The book could use more edge, both in its prose and its attitude toward experts, but it should aid anybody engaged with this vital issue. (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-670-85235-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
Simon (Jupiter's Travels, 1980) chronicles the David-and- Goliath struggle over the fate of a California river valley. Back in the mid-1960s, the Army Corps of Engineers targeted Round Valley in Northern California for inundation. The purpose was flood control on the Eel River, the corps claimed, thinly disguising their mission to send water south to the thirsty (and politically powerful) ranchers of the San Joaquin Valley. California's Department of Water Resources and the Metropolitan Water District, bureaucratic bullies used to getting their way, also liked the idea. The future looked bleak for the pretty, classically proportioned valley, with its cozy sense of place and sedate country pace. But Richard Wilson wasn't happy about the prospect of his farm lying under 300 feet of water, his valley just another notch on the corps's belt. So he engaged the behemoths in battle. It didn't hurt that Wilson had a hefty bankroll he could dip into whenever needed or that he could turn to friends like Dean Witter (yes, the investment house really is named after one person) and Ike Livermore, then-governor Reagan's close adviser. But why quibble? Wilson's cause was just and his instincts true—dams aren't worth their salt when it comes to flood control, as a presidential commission has just recently confirmed. In the end, after much blood, sweat, and tears (and a healthy dose of good luck), Wilson brought the arrogant agencies and bureaucracies to their knees. Simon's reporting of the fight is well paced for all its detail, although much of the deep background material could have been left on the editing floor without hurting the story. An immensely gratifying tale in which small-town America gives its comeuppance to a bloated, blustering federal agency with a self-appointed mission to subdue nature. (Photos, not seen) (Author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-679-42822-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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