Environmental management Books
University of Iowa Press The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the
Book SynopsisMost prairies exist today as fragmented landscapes, making thoughtful and vigilant management ever more important. Intended for landowners and managers dedicated to understanding and nurturing their prairies as well as farmers, ranchers, conservationists, and all those with a strong interest in grasslands, ecologist Chris Helzer's readable and practical manual educates prairie owners and managers about grassland ecology and gives them guidelines for keeping prairies diverse, vigorous, and viable. Chapters in the first section, 'Prairie Ecology', describe prairie plants and the communities they live in, the ways in which disturbance modifies plant communities, the animal and plant inhabitants that are key to prairie survival, and the importance of diversity within plant and animal communities. Chapters in the second section, 'Prairie Management', explore the adaptive management process as well as guiding principles for designing management strategies, examples of successful management systems such as fire and grazing, guidance for dealing with birds and other species that have particular habitat requirements and with the invasive species that have become the most serious threat that prairie managers have to deal with, and general techniques for prairie restoration. Following the conclusion and a forward-thinking note on climate change, eight appendixes provide more information on grazing, prescribed fire, and invasive species as well as bibliographic notes, references, and national and state organizations with expertise in prairie management. Grasslands can be found throughout much of North America, and the ideas and strategies in this book apply to most of them, particularly tallgrass and mixed-grass prairies in eastern North Dakota, eastern South Dakota, eastern Nebraska, eastern Kansas, eastern Oklahoma, northwestern Missouri, northern Illinois, northwestern Indiana, Iowa, southwestern Wisconsin, and southwestern Minnesota. By presenting all the factors that promote biological diversity and thus enhance prairie communities, then incorporating these factors into a set of clear-sighted management practices, ""The Ecology and Management of Prairies in the Central United States"" presents the tools necessary to ensure that grasslands are managed in the purposeful ways essential to the continued health and survival of prairie communities.
£30.56
Workman Publishing Midwest Foraging: 115 Wild and Flavorful Edibles
Book Synopsis“This full color guide makes foraging accessible for beginners and is a reliable source for advanced foragers.” —Edible Chicago The Midwest offers a veritable feast for foragers, and with Lisa Rose as your trusted guide you will learn how to safely find and identify an abundance of delicious wild plants. The plant profiles in Midwest Foraging include clear, color photographs, identification tips, guidance on how to ethically harvest, and suggestions for eating and preserving. A handy seasonal planner details which plants are available during every season. Thorough, comprehensive, and safe, this is a must-have for foragers in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and North Dakota.
£19.00
University of Utah Press,U.S. Desert Water: The Future of Utah's Water
Book SynopsisHal Crimmel has brought scientific research together with the experienced voices of environmental social scientists, humanists, and activists to provide a broad perspective on Utah water issues. The matters discussed are relevant beyond this one state, as similar conditions and concerns—especially over supply and demand in the face of demographic and climate change—exist throughout the West. Some of the essays are scientific and analytical; others literary and personal. Together they draw attention to problems that Utah residents and legislators must address but also emphasize ways to build solutions. Desert Water will help citizens, policy makers, and anyone interested in Utah’s water supply and use understand the real challenges—and ethics—involved in managing this vital, finite resource. By increasing awareness, these essays should create a sense of urgency for finding workable solutions.Trade Review"Extremely well-rounded, representing a variety of approaches to water in arid Utah." —Michael D. Burke, professor of English, Colby College. "The contributors to Desert Water present a clear-eyed look at history and the unreal present in hopes of averting the coming train wreck of waste, climate change, and intractable politics. Yet everywhere the love of Utah's rivers and landscapes seeps through, inspiring a sense of urgency and hope that we can do better. This examination of Utah's particulars is relevant wherever water is precious and finite—that is, everywhere in the West." —Bradley John Monsma, author of The Sespe Wild: Southern California's Last Free River. “For anyone interested in learning more about the condition of water resources in Utah, Desert Water is an overall valuable resource.... It offers a fair evaluation of pressing issues and conservation motivations from a multitude of perspectives.”–University of Denver Water Law Review
£21.56
University of Utah Press,U.S. Past and Future Yellowstones: Finding Our Way in
Book SynopsisDrawing on historical perspectives, personal excursions, and decades of professional research and work in the field, Paul Schullery illuminates many of the possible truths embedded within the natural and cultural reality that is Yellowstone National Park. By varying the scale of observation—from a single encounter between a cow elk and a grizzly bear to the sweeping forces of evolution—Schullery celebrates the park’s history and future potential as a laboratory of ideas. It is, as he states, a place with “layers of meaning waiting to be explored . . . many possible truths to be weighed.” He thus invites us all to participate in the “Yellowstone conversation.”According to Schullery, national parks allow for the study of relatively unmanipulated ecological processes, even amidst civilization’s increasing influence. They act as reservoirs for water, wildlife, and essential wildness. The uncertainties inherent in wild landscapes and in the unfolding idea of Yellowstone allow scholarly and popular dialogues to advance management practices and public understanding. Through this inquiry, Schullery establishes a framework for approaching conservation and the experience of America’sgreat wildlands.Paul Schullery delivered this lecture on March 26, 2014, at the 19th annual symposium sponsored by the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment at the S. J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah.Trade Review"Schullery is an excellent choice for this prestigious lecture series as he has long been one of the keenest observers of Yellowstone and the area around it."—Ranger: The Journal of the Association of National Park Rangers
£8.50
Island Press Ecological Restoration, Second Edition:
Book SynopsisOriginally published in 2007, "Ecological Restoration" has become one of the seminal books in this quickly developing field. This completely revised and reorganised edition presents up-to-date developments and current trends in the field by two of its leaders. Among its key features are: entirely new Virtual Field Trips, with additional examples woven into chapters; full treatment of the controversial topic of the restoration of semicultural ecosystems; up-to-date discussion of reference systems and reference models, which inform almost every aspect of restoration planning; and full discussion of the global issue of ecosystem impairment and the complex topics of what restoration recovery means and how it is accomplished. The authors focus on clarifying terminology, stressing the importance of precision in language for a field that is quickly becoming an established discipline. This new edition will be an invaluable resource for practitioners and theoreticians from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives, ranging from backyard volunteers to highly trained academic scientists and professional consultants.
£23.99
University of Massachusetts Press Tidal Wetlands Primer: An Introduction to Their
Book SynopsisAt a time when more than half of the U.S. population lives within fifty miles of the coast, tidal wetlands are a critical and threatened natural resource. The purpose of this book is to introduce the world of tidal wetlands to students and professionals in the environmental fields and others with an interest in the subject.Illustrated with maps, photographs, and diagrams, this volume provides a clear account of the factors that make these habitats unique and vulnerable. It discusses their formation, the conditions affecting their plant and animal life, and the diversity of types across North America, as well as their history, use by wildlife and humans, current status, conservation, restoration, and likely future. The emphasis is on vegetated wetlands - marshes and swamps - with additional discussion of eelgrass meadows, rocky shores, beaches, and tidal flats.Ralph Tiner’s previous field guides to coastal wetland plants in the Northeast and Southeast have been widely praised. Tidal Wetlands Primer joins Tiner’s earlier publications as an authoritative and user-friendly guide that should appeal to anyone with a serious interest in coastal habitats.
£44.06
Arbordale Publishing LLC Natural or Man-Made? a Compare and Contrast Book
Book Synopsis
£10.40
Chelsea Green Publishing Co Bringing Back the Beaver
Book Synopsis"Derek Gow might be the most colorful character in all of Beaverdom."--Ben Goldfarb, author of Eager Read the 2021 Profile of Derek on NewYorker.com: An Ark for Vanished Wildlife Bringing Back the Beaver is farmer-turned-ecologist Derek Gow's inspirational and often riotously funny firsthand account of how the movement to rewild the British landscape with beavers has become the single most dramatic and subversive nature conservation act of the modern era. Since the early 1990s--in the face of outright opposition from government, landowning elites, and even some conservation professionals--Gow has imported, quarantined, and assisted the reestablishment of beavers in waterways across England and Scotland. In addition to detailing the ups and downs of rewilding beavers, Bringing Back the Beaver makes a passionate case as to why the return of one of nature's great problem solvers will be critical as part of a sustainable fix for flooding and future drought, whilst ensuring the creation of essential lifescapes that enable the broadest possible spectrum of Britain's wildlife to thrive. "Bringing Back the Beaver is a hilarious, eccentric and magnificent account of a struggle . . . to reintroduce a species crucial to the health of our ecosystems."--George Monbiot "A treasure."--Booklist
£16.16
Verso Books Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban
Book SynopsisHow will climate change affect our lives? Where will its impacts be most deeply felt? Are we doing enough to protect ourselves from the coming chaos? In Extreme Cities, Ashley Dawson argues that cities are ground zero for climate change, contributing the lion's share of carbon to the atmosphere, while also lying on the frontlines of rising sea levels. Today, the majority of the world's megacities are located in coastal zones, yet few of them are adequately prepared for the floods that will increasingly menace their shores. Instead, most continue to develop luxury waterfront condos for the elite and industrial facilities for corporations. These not only intensify carbon emissions, but also place coastal residents at greater risk when water levels rise.In Extreme Cities, Dawson offers an alarming portrait of the future of our cities, describing the efforts of Staten Island, New York, and Shishmareff, Alaska residents to relocate; Holland's models for defending against the seas; and the development of New York City before and after Hurricane Sandy. Our best hope lies not with fortified sea walls, he argues. Rather, it lies with urban movements already fighting to remake our cities in a more just and equitable way. As much a harrowing study as a call to arms Extreme Cities is a necessary read for anyone concerned with the threat of global warming, and of the cities of the world.Trade ReviewExtreme Cities is a ground-breaking investigation of the vulnerability of our cities in an age of climate chaos. We feel safe and protected in the middle of our great urban areas, but as Sandy and Katrina made clear, and as this fine book reveals anew, the massive shifts on our earth increasingly lay bare the social inequalities that fracture our civilization. -- Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org and author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New PlanetMany books have elucidated the ever-increasing dangers of climate change, particularly the disastrous impact that rising sea levels will have on coastal regions, but Dawson goes further as he outlines some potential solutions to this crisis. Massive technological projects may not be what's needed, he finds; instead, the solution may already exist in radical movements to forge a more just and equitable society. * Publishers Weekly *The way we design and live in cities will determine humanity's ability to avoid an anthropogenic mass extinction event in the coming century. Dawson makes this vividly clear in Extreme Cities, laying out in detail the nature of the problem and some possible positive actions we can take. Crucial to his argument is the fact that technological solutions will not be enough, so that we need to drastically reform the capitalist economic system to properly price and value the biosphere and human lives. His point that social justice is now a necessary survival strategy makes this not just a meticulous history and analysis of our situation, but also an exciting call to action. -- Kim Stanley Robinson, author of The Red Mars Trilogy and New York 2140Cities both in the North and the South are already suffering the effects of climate change. Government and business fitfully recognize and respond, but in ways that reinforce existing injustices and as often as not make things worse. Dawson shows how social movements have combined action on disaster relief with forms of equitable common life to produce models for radical adaptation from which we can all learn. This is a brilliant summation of what we know and what we can do build a new kind of city in the ruins of the old. -- McKenzie Wark, author of Molecular Red: Theory for the AnthropoceneA powerful argument in a dire situation: that we revise our cities to the new game changer, or climate change will revise urban existences as we know it. -- Kazi Khaleed Ashraf, director-general of Bengal Institute of Architecture, Landscapes and SettlementsA sophisticated and provocative exploration of the unfolding impact of climate change on urban environments. -- Christoph Lindner, Professor of Urban Theory and Visual Culture, University of OregonA revelatory confrontation between two forms of 'surplus liquidity': the rent-seeking excess of circulating global capital and the more literal liquidity of the rising tides of climate change. The setting is the city and this meticulously researched and argued book probes the nexus of myopia, greed, environmental disaster-and hope-that has placed the urban habitat of billions of us in extremis. -- Michael Sorkin, author of All Over the Map: Writing on Buildings and CitiesA must-read for everyone who wants to understand the politics of climate change in an increasingly urban planet, and to explore the possibilities for radical change beyond all technological fixes and governmental adjustments that only reproduce the system as it is. -- Marco Armiero, director of the Environmental Humanities Laboratory, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, SwedenA superb essay of political ecology, Extreme Cities demonstrates that there is nothing more depending on nature than the city, offering both a diagnosis and a possible therapy for one of the greatest challenges of our time. -- Serenella Iovino, editor of Material Ecocriticism and Environmental Humanities: Voices from the AnthropoceneExtreme Cities takes the critical long view to challenge city decision-makers to deal seriously with the clash of business-as-usual development, threats from climate change, and persistent social inequality to develop real transformations to drive cities toward sustainability and resilience. -- Timon McPhearson, Director, Urban Systems Lab at The New School, New York CityWith the majority of humanity located in cities, it behooves us to consider urban ecologies as recent and future sites of non-natural disasters as well as inspiring places of collective resilience and struggles for justice. Dawson's book is a guiding light. -- T.J. Demos, Professor of History of Art and Visual Culture at UC Santa Cruz, Director of its Center for Creative EcologiesThe definitive study of an urban-and planetary-system pushed to the breaking point. Extreme Cities paints a terrifying, but also hopeful, picture, weaving together accounts of iron-fisted states, greedy real estate developers, and the communities that challenge their rule. -- Jason W. Moore, author of Capitalism in the Web of LifeA profoundly sobering picture of climate change's uneven urban toll, both across global expanses and within particular neighborhoods, while also spotlighting instances of radical, on-the-ground resistance to such trends. -- Emily Scott, Postdoctoral Fellow, Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture, ETH Zuric and co-editor of Critical Landscapes: Art, Space, PoliticsA substantive contribution to the growing dialogue about our response-or lack thereof-to climate change. * Kirkus Reviews *Dawson makes a convincing case that, unless urban dwellers and civic leaders engage in a fundamental reconceptualization of the city and whom it serves, the future of urban life is dim. * Publishers Weekly (? Starred Review) *[Dawson] is well attuned to the ways that upheavals and disasters disproportionately affect the socioeconomically disadvantaged. As Donald Trump continues to roll back protection measures and disavow the U.S.'s role in global cooperation to mitigate the effects of climate change, [Extreme Cities] is a clear-eyed reminder of who, and what, will be left most vulnerable as a result. * Fast Company *Books on climate change are a dime a dozen now, but few, if any, truly reckon with the potential scale of the disasters that await. Dawson reveals the inadequacies of current plans to deal with the problems that cities around the world will face. Forget such buzzwords as 'green cities,' 'resilience,' and 'sustainable development' - the age of 'disaster communism' is here. * Publishers Weekly *Named one of the top 10 books of the year by Publishers Weekly * Publishers Weekly *[Extreme Cities] is a sobering account of how planetary urbanization has put us on a collision course with the natural world. -- Jonathan Hahn * Sierra Magazine *Extreme Cities is an angry book-as it should be ... Ashley Dawson outlines the existential dilemma facing coastal cities, and the refusal of various powerbrokers to acknowledge that reality, in bold and frequently horrifying terms. -- Chris Barsanti * Rain Taxi *Invoking terms such as "climate apartheid," he greatly expands what people traditionally think of as relevant climate policy language. Recognizing that climate change mitigation and adaptation are interwoven with-and exacerbated by-social inequities and other problems plaguing modern cities is sobering, but this realization provides hope that humanity can move toward greater resilience to environmental problems by addressing non-climatic factors that will improve cities in the presence or absence of climate change. * Choice *Extreme Cities takes on the needed work of slowing down to chronicle and consider this meantime, without shying away from its messiness.More than simply lay out the existence of disparities, it illuminates the relationship between them. -- Liz Koslov * Public Books *
£20.00
University of Wisconsin Press Managing Lakes and Reservoirs: North American
Book SynopsisUnderstandable and useful, Managing Lakes and Reservoirs addresses the enormous amount of information on lake management that has developed in the decade since the publication of the manual's first two editions (Lake and Reservoir Restoration Guidance Manual, 1988 and 1990). The first two manuals dealt primarily with restoration of lakes, but this third edition moves beyond restoration issues to focus on ongoing management of lakes and processes that communities of citizens, policymakers, scientists, and enforcement agencies can use to achieve desired outcomes for their local lakes.
£44.95
The University of Chicago Press A Biological Assessment of Laguna del Tigre
Book SynopsisThe Laguna del Tigre National Park - a critical reservoir of wetland and tropical dry forest habitats - is currently threatened by human encroachment, out-of-control fires, and hydrocarbon exploitation. This rapid assessment of the region reveals a freshwater reef, two new species of fish, and range extensions for an endemic deer mouse and an aquatic snake, as well as providing detailed observations of the endangered Morelet's crocodile and the first species list for ants and phytoplankton in the park. Of special significance are toxological studies of DNA damage to two fish species, drawing international attention to the potential effects of hydrocarbon operations on the park's ecosystems.
£23.22
Koenemann Bamboo Contemporary Architecture Interiors
Book Synopsis
£19.99
NUS Press Community, Commons and Natural Resource
Book SynopsisIn many traditional societies, certain resources are held in common, with their use and disposition controlled by the community collectively. Such common-pool resources have come to play a significant element in programs of environmental preservation in Asia, and for this reason historical changes in arrangements for controlling them are of considerable importance. Through case studies from Japan, Korea, Thailand, India and Bhutan, this volume examines attitudes toward common-pool resources in different local contexts, with a particular emphasis on forests and policies relating to environmental conservation.The authors are specialists on the regions they study who use historical documents in local languages along with data collected during long-term fieldwork. Their conclusions raise questions about understandings of natural property resources based on dichotomous frameworks like “modern versus traditional societies”, “state versus community” and “commercialization versus subsistence economies”. The case studies indicate that in pre-modern and early modern Asia natural resources were frequently under free-access regimes, and that where systems of control existed, subsequent institutional changes involved a variety of sequences that cannot be summarized readily within a simple modernist framework.
£36.31
