The Promise of Wilderness
The Promise of Wilderness

Author: James Morton Turner

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2012-08-01

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 029580422X

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From Denali's majestic slopes to the Great Swamp of central New Jersey, protected wilderness areas make up nearly twenty percent of the parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and other public lands that cover a full fourth of the nation's territory. But wilderness is not only a place. It is also one of the most powerful and troublesome ideas in American environmental thought, representing everything from sublime beauty and patriotic inspiration to a countercultural ideal and an overextension of government authority. The Promise of Wilderness examines how the idea of wilderness has shaped the management of public lands since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964. Wilderness preservation has engaged diverse groups of citizens, from hunters and ranchers to wildlife enthusiasts and hikers, as political advocates who have leveraged the resources of local and national groups toward a common goal. Turner demonstrates how these efforts have contributed to major shifts in modern American environmental politics, which have emerged not just in reaction to a new generation of environmental concerns, such as environmental justice and climate change, but also in response to changed debates over old conservation issues, such as public lands management. He also shows how battles over wilderness protection have influenced American politics more broadly, fueling disputes over the proper role of government, individual rights, and the interests of rural communities; giving rise to radical environmentalism; and playing an important role in the resurgence of the conservative movement, especially in the American West. Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsq-6LAeYKk

Reforming Federal Land Management
Reforming Federal Land Management

Author: Allan K. Fitzsimmons

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 1442215968

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For over a century, American have created laws, processes, objectives, priorities, and rules for federal land management that often conflict with each other. We now have inconsistent laws, unclear priorities, procedural mazes, and an antiquated bureaucratic structure. The result is a loss of public benefits and undesirable impact on natural resources. The author argues for major changes and offers new ideas for how those changes can be accomplished.

Wildlife Politics
Wildlife Politics

Author: Bruce Rocheleau

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-03-30

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 1316949834

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Attitudes towards charismatic animals such as tigers, lions, bears and wolves vary greatly and change over time, resulting in bitter political debates. This comprehensive book identifies and analyses the factors that influence policies across the globe, highlighting how this impacts conservation as a whole. Issues such as overexploitation, hunting, ecotourism and the struggle to prevent illegal wildlife trafficking are examined and science's role in policymaking is assessed. The conflicting forces behind legislation, including institutions, interest groups and the media are analysed, with particular focus on the significance of the Endangered Species Act, covering over forty-five species that have become matters of political debate in sixty-seven different countries. Case studies and conceptual frameworks provide a clear understanding of the key topics, shedding light on this important yet often overlooked area of environmental politics.

Cultural Analysis
Cultural Analysis

Author: Aaron Wildavsky

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-02-06

Total Pages: 626

ISBN-13: 1351524615

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As a result of a lifetime of incomparably wide-ranging investigations, Aaron Wildavsky concluded that politics in the United States and elsewhere was a patterned activity, exhibiting recurring regularities. Political values, beliefs, and institutions were neither endlessly varied, nor haphazardly organized. They tended to exhibit a limited range of variation, and were organized in discoverable, predictable ways. In Cultural Analysis, the fourth collection of his essays posthumously published by Transaction, Wildavsky argues that American politics, public law, and public administration are the contested terrain of rival, inescapable political cultures.Analysts of American politics distinguish liberals from conservatives and Democrats from Republicans, but do not explain how these categories of political allegiance develop, maintain themselves, or change. Wildavsky offers a cultural-functional explanation for ideological and partisan coherence and realignment. Wildavsky also felt that these dualisms did not adequately capture the ideological and partisan variation he observed on the political landscape. Like others, he detected another recurring strain of political allegiance: that of classical liberalism or libertarianism. People of this political stripe valued freedom more than equality (the primary political value of contemporary liberals), and also more than order, the primary political value of conservatives.The value of Wildavsky's reconceptualization of the ideological and social foundations of political conflict, compromise, and coalition is assessed here by Wildavsky's former colleagues and students at the University of California, Berkeley: Dennis Coyle, Richard Ellis, Robert Kagan, Austin Ranney, and Brendon Swedlow.

Models for Ecological Data
Models for Ecological Data

Author: James S. Clark

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-10-06

Total Pages: 634

ISBN-13: 0691220123

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The environmental sciences are undergoing a revolution in the use of models and data. Facing ecological data sets of unprecedented size and complexity, environmental scientists are struggling to understand and exploit powerful new statistical tools for making sense of ecological processes. In Models for Ecological Data, James Clark introduces ecologists to these modern methods in modeling and computation. Assuming only basic courses in calculus and statistics, the text introduces readers to basic maximum likelihood and then works up to more advanced topics in Bayesian modeling and computation. Clark covers both classical statistical approaches and powerful new computational tools and describes how complexity can motivate a shift from classical to Bayesian methods. Through an available lab manual, the book introduces readers to the practical work of data modeling and computation in the language R. Based on a successful course at Duke University and National Science Foundation-funded institutes on hierarchical modeling, Models for Ecological Data will enable ecologists and other environmental scientists to develop useful models that make sense of ecological data. Consistent treatment from classical to modern Bayes Underlying distribution theory to algorithm development Many examples and applications Does not assume statistical background Extensive supporting appendixes Lab manual in R is available separately

Bioregional Assessments
Bioregional Assessments

Author: K. Norman Johnson

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 9781610913867

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In diverse regions around the country, impending crises over dwindling natural resources and conflicts over land use have given birth to a new approach to environmental management and policymaking. Known as bioregional assessment, the approach gives science and scientists a crucial role in the policymaking process, bringing together experts on a range of issues to assess existing ecological and social conditions and to provide a base of knowledge from which to develop policy options and management decisions. A number of high-profile assessments have been conducted, and while much has been written on individual projects, little has been done to compare assessments or integrate the lessons they provide. Bioregional Assessments synthesizes the knowledge from many regions by examining the assessment process and detailing a series of case studies from around the country. Each case study, written by knowledgeable leaders from the region, features a detailed description of the project followed by reviews from the perspectives of science, management, and policy. Case studies examined are the Forest Ecosystem Management Assess ment Team (FEMAT) Assessment; the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Assessments; the Everglades-South Florida Assessments; the Northern Forest Lands Assessments; Southern California Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP); the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project; and the Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project. In addition, the book features introductory chapters that examine the challenges inherent in the assessment of complex regional systems, and the role of science in the assessment process. The concluding chapter provides a synthesis and analysis of the assessment process. Bioregional assessments are quickly becoming an essential part of ecosystem management. This book provides a unique look at the theory and practice of bioregional assessments, and is an essential volume for resource managers, scientists, policymakers, and anyone involved with formulating or implementing strategies for regional planning and ecosystem management.