HOW WILDLIFE SURVIVES NATURAL DISASTERS

With a disconcerting minimum of transition and interpretation, Riedman piles up a number of sound examples of how wildlife responds to natural disasters. Wildfires are found to be ""nature's system of restoring, in fact furthering,"" the life of the forest; hurricanes can be destructive but also advantageous; eventual recovery from floods, drought, earthquakes, and volcanoes is usual, and population eruptions and cycles are self-regulating mechanisms with long-run benefits. The message is that left alone nature will muddle through and that though species and ecosystems die, an overall balance is maintained, whereas man's assualt has proved more rapidly and often irreversibly devastating. Jerky, but well supported.