Description
Book SynopsisWolves on a wilderness island illuminate lessons on the environment, extinction, and life. For more than a quarter century, celebrated biologist John Vucetich has studied the wolves, and the moose that sustain them, of the boreal forest of Isle Royale National Park, an island in the northwest corner of Lake Superior. During this time, he has witnessed both the near extinction of the local wolf population, driven largely by climate change, and the intensely debated relocation of other wolves to the island in an effort to stabilize and maintain Isle Royale's ecosystem health. In Restoring the Balance, Vucetich combines environmental philosophy with field notes chronicling his day-to-day experience as a scientist. Examining the fate of wolves in the wild, he shares lessons from these wolves and explains their impact on humanity's fundamental responsibilities to the natural world. Vucetich's engaging narrative and unique, clear-eyed perspective provide an accessible course in wolf biolog
Trade ReviewThis book is juicy with field notes—the stories of charismatic individual wolves like the Old Gray Guy, and complex science made understandable and seductively enticing to the reader with even the tiniest interest in wolf survival and natural history.
—Nancy Jo Tubbs,
International WolfThe book is many things in one: a fascinating memoir, a collection of field notes, a chronology of the 63-year study of the wolves and moose of Isle Royale.... It can even be used as a textbook on environmental history and biology and ecology of wolves and moose.
—
Community EcologyTable of ContentsForward
Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Why Wolves?
2. Thoughts of a Moose
3. Beginnings
4. Balance of Nature
5. Exogenous Forces
6. The Old Gray Guy
7. The Unraveling
8. Sense of Place
9. All Natural
10. Restoring the Balance
Coda
