I’ve been to Yellowstone twice and I’m so glad I’ve had that experience. The World’s first National Park and the home of Old Faithful, the Great Prismatic Spring, beautiful views, Grey Wolves, Brown Bears and quite a lot of controversy.
This book is, as the title fairly suggests, a book about nature conservation in the area around and including the National Park. It is not a guide book to the nature and it is not stuffed full of beautiful images of landscapes or wolf packs. This is an account, a fairly technical account, of the battles won and lost, and remaining, in securing wildlife in this area.
I am a recreational naturalist and have been a conservation professional. I have led a life of dealing with different interest groups and with government officials and politicians in order to try to bring about a better future for wildlife and so many of the issues in this book ring bells. Some of the issues discussed in this book (eg predator numbers, densities of large herbivores, disturbance, recreation and natural processes) may have different species involved in UK discussions but there are still similarities with the ructions described here. For a UK reader the agencies involved are, of course, different and the interplay between state and federal government is a novelty, as is the need to consult with native peoples.
My favourite phrase in the book; “Despite efforts by the Bush and Trump administrations to roll back many of these conservation advances, the basic ecosystem-focused conservation framework remains in place through agency rules and policy directives as well as the Northwest Forest Plan, Greater Yellowstone Coordinating Committee, Crown Managers Partnership, Desert Managers Group, Sierra Nevada Framework, and other place-based initiatives…“. That accurately describes the romance of statutory nature conservation.
Greater Yellowstone is a wonderful place but it is an imperfect place and there are many more battles to be fought, and won or lost, here. I wish those with the responsibility of speaking up for nature well.
The cover? It reminds me of being there. I’d give it 7/10.
Conserving Nature in Greater Yellowstone: controversy and change in an iconic ecosystem by Robert B. Keitle is published by University of Chicago Press.
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