Title:
This land is your land : the story of field biology in America / Michael J. Lannoo.
Author:
Lannoo, Michael J., author.
Publication Information:
Chicago, IL : The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
©2018
Call Number:
QH319.A1 L36 2018
Abstract:
Field biology is enjoying a resurgence due to several factors, the most important being the realization that there is no ecology, no conservation, and no ecosystem restoration without an understanding of the basic relationships between species and their environments--an understanding gleaned only through field-based natural history. With this resurgence, modern field biologists find themselves asking fundamental existential questions such as: Where did we come from? What is our story? Are we part of a larger legacy? Michael J. Lannoo answers these questions and more in a tale rooted in the people and institutions of the Midwest. It is a story told from the ground up, a rubber boot-based natural history of field biology in America. Lannoo illuminates characters such as John Wesley Powell, William Temple Hornaday, and Olaus and Adolph Murie--homegrown midwestern field biologists who either headed east to populate major research centers or went west to conduct their fieldwork along the frontier. From the pioneering work of Victor Shelford, Henry Chandler Cowles, and Aldo Leopold to contemporary insights from biologists such as Jim Furnish and historians such as William Cronon, Lannoo's unearthing of American--and particularly midwestern--field biologists reveals how these scientists influenced American ecology, conservation biology, and restoration ecology, and in turn drove global conservation efforts through environmental legislation and land set-asides. This Land Is Your Land reveals the little-known legacy of midwestern field biologists, whose ethos and discoveries have enabled us to preserve and understand not just their land, but all lands.
ISBN:
9780226358475
9780226580890
Physical Description:
xviii, 305 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
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Contents:
Introduction -- The foundation. The explorers ; The settlers ; The thinkers ; The institutions ; What it meant -- The natural historians. Bred in their bones ; What it meant -- The ecologists. An Illinois original ; The Nebraska school of plant ecology ; The Chicago school of plant ecology ; The Chicago school of animal ecology ; The Wisconsin school of limnology ; What it meant -- The wildlife biologists. The scattered become gathered ; What it meant -- The conservation biologists. The conservation/preservation tension ; Wither and how to engage? ; America's best idea, expanded ; The sole Midwestern wilderness : Quetico-Superior Boundary Waters ; Two agencies face tough transitions. Bureau of Biological Survey/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ; U.S. Forest Service ; What it meant -- The restoration biologists. All the king's horses and all the king's men ; Indiana Jones revisited ; This land is your land.
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