Best of
Conservation

1991

Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas


Sy Montgomery - 1991
    Studies the work and unique methods of three women scientists who contributed to understanding chimpanzees, mountain gorillas, and orangutans.

The River of the Mother of God: and Other Essays


Aldo Leopold - 1991
    This book brings together the best of Leopold's essays.

Heating, Cooling, Lighting: Design Methods for Architects


Norbert Lechner - 1991
    * Useful appendices provide sun path diagrams and solar site evaluation tools. Appendices new to this edition include practical checklists of strategies and issues in evaluating energy use in the building design stage, and an annotated list of helpful sustainability videos to use in class, professional meetings, or with clients. * A new chapter on photovoltaics discusses their use as an ideal energy source, offers design options, and case studies as well as their future role in building design. * A new chapter on sustainable "green" design includes case studies and examples of water conservation measures, effects from energy production and consumption, and an analysis of indoor air quality. * Mathematical formulas are excerpted from the text and appear in side boxes, so they don't cloud the text with overly-technical information.

Chasing the Dragon's Tail: The Struggle to Save Thailand's Wild Cats


Alan Rabinowitz - 1991
    It was hoped his research would help protect the many species that live in that fragile reserve, which was being slowly depleted by poachers, drug traffickers, and even the native tribes of the area. Chasing the Dragon's Tail is the remarkable story of Rabinowitz's life and adventures in the forest as well as the streets of Bangkok, as he works to protect Thailand's threatened wildlife.Based on Rabinowitz's field journals, the book offers an intimate and moving look at a modern zoologist's life in the field. As he fights floods, fire-ant infestations, elephant stampedes, and a request to marry the daughter of a tribal chief, the difficulties that come with the demanding job of species conservation are dramatically brought to life. First published in 1991, this edition of Chasing the Dragon's Tail includes a new afterword by the author that brings the story up to date, describing the surprising strides Thailand has made recently in conservation.Other titles by Alan Rabinowitz include Beyond the Last Village and Jaguar.

The Way of the Wolf


L. David Mech - 1991
    An engaging overview of wolf behavior and biology. Nature Book Society Feature Selection; Outdoor Life Book Club Selection.

Wings for My Flight: The Peregrine Falcons of Chimney Rock, Updated Edition


Marcy Cottrell Houle - 1991
    With no phone or running water, she and her research parmer immerse themselves in the study of a pair of endangered peregrine falcons that return to their ancestral nesting site on Chimney Rock.Coming to know these birds intimately while sharing their home, Houle develops an abiding devotion to them. She observes their breathtaking flight, their indomitable character, and their urgent will to survive.Before me a peregrine falcon emerged from the cliff with a fierce beauty; with utmost ease and perfect control it spun in a dizzying dive to the earth. Talons outstretched, it lightly grazed the object of its attention -- a trespassing prairie falcon who had slipped across the peregrine's invisible territorial line.... Its flight was a gust of pure energy.While conducting her research, Houle learns that Chimney Rock is the site of an Anasazi ruin slated for commercial development. She meets the unexpected resistance and hostility of townspeople who resent the obstacle the endangered birds pose to potential tourist dollars. Houle uncovers the depth and complexity of the issue that leads this community -- and so many others like it in today's growing world -- to an angry impasse. With compassion, insight, and fairness, Houle explores the dilemma between environmentalists and developers, both of whom value the land, but in different ways.Wings for My Flight is the story of one biologist who, through the help of another species, comes to a greater understanding of her own. As a Colorado press, Pruett Publishing is proud to reissue thisaward-winning book that addresses issues vital to Coloradans and Westerners.

Heaven is Under Our Feet


Don Henley - 1991
    Filled with moving, personal essays by concerned celebrities and thinkers, edited by Don Henley and Dave Marsh, it is a call to arms for anyone who cares about the environment and the future of the earth.

The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology


Max Oelschlaeger - 1991
    An intellectual history, it draws together evidence from philosophy, anthropology, theology, literature, ecology, cultural geography, and archaeology to provide a new scientifically and philosophically informed understanding of humankind’s relationship to nature. Oelschlaeger begins by examining the culture of prehistoric hunter-gatherers, whose totems symbolized the idea of organic unity between humankind and wild nature, and idea that the author believes is essential to any attempt to define human potential. He next traces how the transformation of these hunter-gatherers into farmers led to a new awareness of distinctions between humankind and nature, and how Hellenism and Judeo-Christianity later introduced the unprecedented concept that nature was valueless until humanized. Oelschlaeger discusses the concept of wilderness in relation to the rise of classical science and modernism, and shows that opposition to “modernism” arose almost immediately from scientific, literary, and philosophical communities. He provides new and, in some cases, revisionist studies of the seminal American figures Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold, and he gives fresh readings of America’s two prodigious wilderness poets Robinson Jeffers and Gary Snyder. He concludes with a searching look at the relationship of evolutionary thought to our postmodern effort to reconceptualize ourselves as civilized beings who remain, in some ways, natural animals.

California's Changing Landscapes: Diversity and Conservation of California Vegetation


California Native Plant Society - 1991
    Enjoy a wide range of high quality drawings and beautiful color and black-and-white photographs of California's plants and landscapes. Learn the history of how California's vegetation has changed due to human activities over the past two centuries. Travel from seaside to the Eastern Sierra, observing the interaction of groups of plants species as they form communities. Discover how plants were used by native Californians in pre-European times. See three possible futures fo California's plant cover, including successful examples of plant restoration.

Last Stand: Logging, Journalism, and the Case for Humility


Richard Manning - 1991
    Manning's articles won his paper an award, but cost him his job. This courageous book is his story as well as a report on the destruction of America's woodlands and its cover-up.