Park University Books

This book lies halfway between (1) a history of the national parks as a whole and (2) a history and critique of National Park Service policy toward wildlife, ecosystems, and science. The first several chapters discuss the history of park system, which is characterized mostly by an absence of policy toward "nature" other than scenery. This half of the book is pretty conventional, and follows material available elsewhere. It is best seen as an update of other histories such as Runte's _National Parks: The American Experience_.

The second half of the book focuses more narrowly on (for lack of a better term) "nature policy." This half provides a valuable history from a critical standpoint, and it marks the book's central contribution.

Several themes reappear throughout the book. The first is the park service's disregard for scientific research. Sellars doesn't quite distinguish the two, but the NPS has little use for either the scientific method or scientific evidence. Briefly put, the NPS does not want to learn facts that conflict with current management policy. It also does not want to use a method that might give it answers that differ from the answers that it wants.

Other themes can be grouped together: wildlife, forests, and fire. The NPS seems to lack any understanding of how predators and prey interact, and how top-level processes (wolves and elk) can affect other processes (aspens and beavers). It also has a purely scenic view of forests, which leads to policies that spray insecticide on native beetles in the Rockies and Sierras. Fire policy has evolved toward a greater appreciation of how fire affects ecosystems, but here politics stands in the way of better management practices. Sellars provides an excellent discussion of these and similar issues throughout the book.

To understand the politics here, it would be helpful if Sellars spent more time looking outside the NPS to American society as a whole. What does the public want, and why? How has the growth of the environmental movement affected the park? How has Congress changed its management of the NPS? For example, the growth of earmarking in budget legislation has strengthened the pork-barrel elements of national park policy, ultimately leading to the embarrassment of Steamtown USA.

Like most histories of national parks, Sellars takes an elitist, wilderness-oriented perspective that is critical of tourism and economic development. I'm sympathetic to that perspective, but we should recognize it for what it is. Sellars doesn't reflect on his own values here - - if an overwhelming majority of the public in a democracy want national parks developed for recreational tourism, what right does a pro-wilderness minority have to disagree?

Those criticisms address more what Sellars doesn't do than what he does. I'll give it 5 stars for what he does, but it's really more of a 4.5.

The Organic Act, which in 1916 created the National Park Service, implied that preservation of nature was part of the new agency's mandate to leave parks unimpaired for future generations. The legislation did not specifically authorize scientific investigation as a part of park management. Just as the Founding Fathers did not directly address slavery in the U.S. Constitution, the authors of the act in effect placed a "to be dealt with later" stamp on the issue of how the fledgling bureaucracy would manage nature preservation. Richard Sellars, in Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History, details how the NPS, for most of its existence, has paraded as a bastion of environmental management while strongly advocating recreational tourism development and placing little importance on scientific investigation.

Throughout its history, the NPS has been ignorant of its natural resources and unaware of the ecological consequences of park development. The NPS is steeped in the tradition of visitor accommodation as the most important measure of success set by Stephen Mather and Horace Albright, its first directors. In the agency's first 25 years, no public organizations demanded scientifically based management of park resources (147). Not until the 1960s, according to Sellars, was park management judged far more on ecological criteria (203).

Scientific management received sporadic support in the NPS. At times the notion was shunned. The NPS wanted to do little more than meet the regulatory standards of the Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which gave science power it had never enjoyed before. George B. Hartzog, NPS director from 1964-1972, created the Division of Natural Science Studies within the bureau, but the NPS underfunded the new division and its first two directors complained that the park service hierarchy only paid lip service to scientific investigation. Five years after its inception, the division lost its high organizational status and was buried lower into the park service bureaucracy. Sellars reveals that the NPS, even as late as 1991, was short on self-criticism, overlooking its failure to adopt a truly ecological perspective on park management (277).

The book's biggest strength is its abundance of self-criticism, due to the fact that Sellars served as a historian with the NPS for over 20 years. Preserving Nature in the National Parks explains a story most in the park service hierarchy would be afraid to tell. He thoroughly covers the subject of the lack of scientific management within the NPS, sometimes redundantly and with too much detail, but more critically than previous volumes on national park history. If the NPS were to respond positively to Sellars' admonition, it could be what it portends - a leader in nature preservation. If the bureau discounts such chastisement, it will continue to be a leader in only one field, recreational tourism.

The concept of national parks, setting aside unbroken tracts of land and sea for the enjoyment of people, has been called America's best idea. In Preserving Nature in the National Parks, Richard West Sellars meticulously traces the evolution of the national park concept and America's national park system from 1870 to the present. From beginning to end, he confronts readers with evidence that disputes tradition. Among other beliefs, he authoritatively challenges the romantic campfire myth of an altruistic birth of Yellowstone National Park and the national park concept. He offers in its place a pragmatic rationale more consistent with the times. This book is a scholarly presentation of carefully researched and documented facts, woven into an unbroken story.

The tale unfolds from the perspective of the National Park Service, the primary governmental agency responsible for conserving parks. It starts with the campfire myth and renowned landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. crafting and shaping the National Park Service's mission "to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life [in parks]...unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." It ends with the 1993 creation of the National Biological Survey and the sweeping reorganization of the National Park Service in 1995. Throughout, readers get an insider's view of America's favorite government agency. As the story approaches the present, it necessarily shallows to encompass ever more territory, losing its rich historical texture, but gaining a journalistic perspective that serves readers well.

Great new ideas always create tension and elicit vigorous debate. Sellars skillfully draws our attention to a series of tensions created by the national park idea that shaped the concept and its manifestations in the 20th century. Creation of national parks was an attempt to resolve conflict over how to wrest the greatest good and profit from the land: consumption through private exploitation or through public tourism. Sellars also examines the tension between development in parks to facilitate access, lodging, and consumptive recreation versus wilderness preservation. Landscape architects, engineers, and biologists expressed conflicting interpretations of "unimpaired" during the 1920s and 1930s. This tension has evolved into a continuing discussion of scenery or façade versus ecosystem management.

Clearly, early promoters of national parks had no qualms about developing facilities in parks and consuming park resources. In promoting creation of the National Park Service in 1916, Robert Sterling Yard wrote in The Nation's Business "We want our national parks developed....We want good fishing. We want our wild animal life conserved and developed." The first two directors of the National Park Service, businessman Stephen Mather and lawyer Horace Albright, both believed the public needed to be enticed into parks with roads, lodges, and enhanced fishing, in addition to the parks' scenery and other natural assets. They set about building facilities, including fish hatcheries, and planting alien fish in parks as their first order of business for the new agency. They also believed they should `enhance' the parks by suppressing fires, eradicating predators, and controlling forest pests and diseases, which they did vigorously.

At its inception, national park management was a new human endeavor. No one before had tried to preserve intact large tracts of wild land and seascapes for public enjoyment and to pass them on to future generations. Unlike forest and fisheries managers who had centuries of practice, park managers had no precedents. They were truly exploring the unknown and relied on extant professions for guidance. Foresters, landscape architects and engineers who used land to produce commodities and who molded landscapes to fit human perceptions of idyllic and pastoral settings came the closest to fitting the new paradigm so they got the job: directed by businessmen and lawyers. However, national park management is more than a simple combination of these early professions, it also requires applied sciences, particularly ecology. Adding ecologists to this mix, was like combining oil and water. We're still looking for an emulsification agent.

Sellars makes it clear that the tension between scientists and non-scientists regarding national park management was the same in the 1930s as it is today. In part, the differences arise from non-scientists' reliance on untestable, belief-based consensus versus scientists' adherence to a testable knowledge-based system of learning from experience. If one believes that fire destroys forests, or that wolves threaten elk populations, there is no reason to waste time and money testing the concepts. One simply acts on their beliefs and suppresses fire and kills wolves. Testing such beliefs threatens the belief and the believers, and thus creates a perception that science would make park management more costly, difficult, and time consuming. This may be at the root of the issue that creates the tension between so-called traditional and ecological approaches to park stewardship.

Science as a way of knowing should make attainment of the National Park Service mission more certain and cost effective. The true costs of ecological restoration and of losing America's heritage to unfounded beliefs is vastly greater than the costs associated with learning first how ecosystems work and doing the job right the first time. We paid dearly for early misguided forest fire suppression. First we paid the unnecessary costs of suppression. Now we are paying the costs of restoring fire, and if we delay any longer, risk losing the very assets we sought to protect. We paid to eradicate wolves and other predators, then paid to reduce elk and deer, lost soil and vegetation, and now we must pay to restore wolf populations. This kind of cost dwarfs the minimal costs of using science to learn what is in parks, how to restore impaired assets, how to maintain restored parks, and how to protect parks from pollution, unsustainable uses, fragmentation, and alien species. In short, using science to learn from our experience reduces both uncertainty and costs.

In the last century, the parks could afford the boosterism, `enhancements,' and facilities of Mather and Albright and still recover, because parks were not the islands in a fragmented and diminished landscape they are today. Few refugia exist today, outside legislated wilderness, from which to find replacement genomes and species to repair the damage wrought by misguided policies. Time is short. Options to conserve and pass unimpaired parks on to future generations become more limited every year.

Change is inevitable. Will we use science to learn from experience, or continue to blindly accept and act on unsubstantiated beliefs? The National Park Service will not accept a change from its primary goal of recreational tourism to science-guided resources protection until its leaders personally experience success with science. As a result, people such as Richard Sellars run great risk of being attacked by opponents vested in the old system and only moderately supported by skeptics of the new, science-based system. Since the national park concept is new, unique, few have the necessary personal experience, yet. Perhaps the introspection in this book will lead to trying new ways to conserve parks.

Until we learn our history, we risk endlessly repeating the same mistakes. This account illuminates our path. Read it. You will like it. You may not agree with everything in it, but you will learn from it. We and our national parks will all be better for it.

In a workmanlike, if unexciting, literary style, Sellars provides a good deal of helpful information about the way the National Park Service has grown to maturity. Nevertheless, he lacks sufficient interest in the political world that has molded the NPS. (Disinterest in the public reaction to the 1988 Yellowstone fire is one indicator.) Had Mather, Albright, and the other founders of the Park Service not promoted tourism in their day, there would be less, not more, park ecology for "dedicated scientists" to manipulate in our own. As the author himself says, national park development is locked with preservation in a state of perpetual tension (181). May that tension long continue.

I have just finished reading the Kindle version of this book, and found it fascinating reading. Mr. Park is an amazing explorer. The story of his initial adventures is amazing and humbling. He really was a persistent guy!

Worth reading for the insights to slavery as it existed in those days, as well as traveling both as a priveleged white man and later as a fugitive.

The Kindle version works well and was cheap. I doubt I could have found this book readable or affordable in its initial form.

Kate Ferguson Marsters' edition of Mungo Park's TRAVELS is an excellent example of the travel narrative - easily comparable with the Journals of Lewis & Clark or Francis Parkman's OREGON TRAIL. The book is broken into three parts: Park's travel narrative , Marsters' Introduction & Major Rennell's Geographical Illustrations Of Mr. Park's Journey (which is rather dry and dated).

The main work is a narrative of Park's travels from Barra, on the West African coast, to the town of Silla, just west of Jenne and his return to the western coast. Park provides many interesting details and asides, including that of Mumbo Jumbo (also mentioned by Francis Moore) for disciplining wayward wives. Park also spends a fair amount of time explaining local governments and social norms. Throughout, the account attempts some degree of neutrality while noting acts of kindness and avarice by various individuals and rulers; although, not surprisingly, he explicitly criticizes the Moors who continually interfered with his progress and those who robbed and stripped him. Perhaps his most disturbing account is of the female slave who becomes too sick to continue traveling with the coffle. The entire work puts black slaves and their families in a very sympathetic light and shows the slave trade at its worst; although, due to the continuing conditions of slavery and internal conquest pre-dating major European involvement in the trade, Park stated that the termination of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade would not provide as great a benefit to the populace in Africa as many hoped.

The Introduction is important in providing the history of Park's early years, the important role of the African Association and its leader, Sir Joseph Banks. More importantly the Introduction deals with the Bryan Edwards controversy. Richard Burton and Orlando Patterson's criticisms have held that internal African slavery and slave trading was not nearly so prevalent as suggested by Park. In light of this, Marsters' statement that Joseph Banks, a critic of slavery, had to approve every piece of Edward's editing becomes extremely important. In addition, it is made clear that the reason for the stylistic differences is that the original TRAVELS was a book derived from Park's notes whereas the published work of his second, ill-fated journey was merely a compilation of those notes retrieved from the dead man's party!

All-in-all, an excellent and informative read!

Mungo Park (1771-1806?) was the first European to visit the Niger River basin in 1796. He resolved, once and for all, a debate that had European cartographers and geographers confused for centuries.

His initial journey (1795-1797) was a tale of tremendous personal hardship and suffering, but triumph in the end. After returning to Scotland in 1798, he became acquainted with Sir Walter Scott. They became close friends, and it was Sir Walter Scott who convinced him to return to Africa to encover the secret of the mouth of the Niger River.

In 1805 he convinced the British government, in the middlle of a war against Napoleon, to send another expedition to seek out the mouth of the Niger. With 100 officers and men he set out, retracing his earlier steps. The journey was filled with personal tragedy and heroism. After arriving on the Niger, he built a boat, named the Joliba, and travelled down the river. During the course of his journey he met and traded with the many kingdoms that lined the river. However, he also incurred the wrath of many local kings and chiefs who believed that he was cheating them.

Near the town of Bussa (now covered by a huge dam), Mungo Park met his unexpected end. For many years it has been assumed that he was attacked by hostile natives seeking to rob him. In fact it may have been due to the fact that he just failed to navigate the river

This book is not too bad, but it would have been better if its author and editor were frank with their "facts".
Mungo Park, an inquisitive Scottish doctor and explorer, displayed a lot of courage in his adventures. He was steadfast and result-oriented. However, it is wrong for anybody to assume that he discovered the 'Nile of the Negroes', (as the River Niger was then called). The indigenous Africans who lived by the river banks knew its course long before Mungo Park's forefathers were born. They showed the Scot the way!
Thus, claiming that Dr. Park discovered River Niger is absurd. It is as ridiculous as claiming that the first African who sailed across River Thames discovered the English river.

This should be a "hit" for anyone interested in the history of our 1st National Park. The in-depth accounts of the parks "growing pains" bog down a bit at times but still makes for an enjoyable journey into the past. From the detailed historical facts to the enlightening little "stories" and quotes, this "history book" is tough to put down.

Haines' complete "Yellowstone Story", vol. 1 and 2, are what can only be described as sensational. The sheer volume of intricate detail leaves the reader feeling as if he or she had lived each moment or event. From the race to "discover" the area to the push to "civilize" it, the reader is left feeling sad that an era of exploration, inginuity and discovery is now far behind us. But, at least for a few brief moments, Haines is able to bring us back to that time and to impart to us the sense of history and pride and wonder that many of the parks earliest vistors must have felt. This book is not for the casual visitor of Yellowstone, rather, it is for the rabid fan of Wonderland!! Enjoy!!

When I went to Yellowsone N.P. and was researching the Archives there the librarian there said that they consider this book the most complete and accurate account of the history of the park. I liked it because it was well written and nicely illustrated, making it not just a good reference, but enjoyable to read as well. This park is truly a unique place and the first of a most wonderful concept. If you have any intrest in Yellowstone, or plan to travel there, this book will provide some rich history you should not miss.

This book isn't what I'd call a "light read." It's a hard-core history book packed with detail, verification of the detail, and even more detail. At times, this depth is fascinating. At others, it's a little dry. If you're looking for the facts mixed with some really great stories, you'll love this book.

(Planeta.com Journal) - One of the most influential books this year, this work examines the relationship of parks and Indian cultures. Remarkably, this story has not been well told -- until now. The authors point out that "one can find thousands of books about American Indians, a considerable body of literature about natural parks, but almost nothing linking the two." The book draws on extensive research and more than 200 interviews with Native Americans, environmentalists, park rangers and politicians. It also asks important questions such as what are the obligations owed to those displaced by park creation and do aboriginal people have special rights to their homelands. This book is one of the year's must reads.

The National Park Service, throughout most of its history, has treated American Indians as museum pieces suspended in time - colorful, nostalgic versions of environmentalists (239-242). In books about national parks, even as late as 1989, Native Americans were seen as artifacts and scenery more than people. To correct this oversight, Robert Keller and Micheal Turek add a much-needed chapter to Native American history with their book American Indians and National Parks. Keller and Turek explain that the relationship between American Indians and the National Park Service has been one fraught with contradiction and exploitation.

Surprisingly, the official policy of Congress since the 19th century has been to promote American Indians and protect their welfare (18). As in nearly all areas of the United States, the contrary happened to Indians in national parks. Philetus Norris, the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park, in his order for Indian expulsion, decreed that park land was not Indian country, that Indians feared geysers and that Yellowstone is "for the use and enjoyment of all Americans" (24). Early national park leaders felt pressure to conform to popular ideals of nature. Those perceptions excluded Native Americans, which fell decidedly against the notion that national parks were for the use and enjoyment of all Americans and official Congressional policy. How could national parks claim to be created for the enjoyment all Americans when they shunned the first Americans - American Indians?

Another way Congress's directive towards Native Americans became contradicted was in the National Park Service's presentation of Indian history through its interpretive programs. Mesa Verde National Park's programs exclude Ute history, largely because of ongoing disputes with the tribe over land issues. Interpretation of modern Indian life in national parks has been an afterthought (42). Early park directors and superintendents knew little about natives (28). Native American names abound in national parks, but many of their meanings are mute to visitors. Only in the last 15 years has the NPS increased its awareness and sensitivity towards American Indians, but bitterness still prevails as past wounds slowly heal.

Economic exploitation of national parks even affected Native Americans. Concessionaires used tribal images of the Blackfeet, whose ancestral land became Glacier National Park, in park promotion. Louis Hill, president of the Great Northern Railroad featured images of Blackfeet warriors to proliferate the Indian mystique on the railroad's advertisements, calendars and in lodge décor. Hill hired natives to perform for tourists by drumming, dancing and signing postcards. Hill directed the natives to be friendly, "have good costumes, put on a good show, and live in peace and harmony" (57). The Blackfeet became a living exhibit for park visitors when Hill directed a few tribal families to inhabit teepees on the lawn of the East Glacier Hotel. Even the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) protested such exploitation. Later the BIA compromised by requiring employers utilizing Indians for exhibition purposes to sign contracts and supply the natives with food, transportation and medical care. Once a noble tribe, at the dawn of the twentieth century the Blackfeet surrendered to the encroachments of capitalism and mythic images in what many Americans might consider the most unlikely of places - a National Park.

American Indians and National Parks tells essentially the same story in different locales - Native Americans being exploited and excluded at the hands of American bureaucracy and capitalism. Keller and Turek's narrative is engaging and makes it clear the two are passionate about their subject matter, even to the point of editorializing on occasion and encouraging any reader who so desires to add to the body of work on the natives' relationship with the NPS. The book does suffer from factual misrepresentation, such as identifying Heber J. Grant as a "Mormon bishop" when in actuality he was president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Despite its few shortcomings the volume adds needed depth to a subject previously ignored.

Beginning with Yosemite and Yellowstone, American Indians & National Parks explains how the creation of these two oldest national parks affected native peoples and set a pattern followed with the subsequent creations of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore; Canyon de Chelly; Chaco Culture National Historical Park; Death Valley National Monument; Everglades National Park; Glacier National Park; Glen Canyon; Grand Canyon National Park; Mesa Verde National Park; Monument Valley Tribal Park; Navajo National Monument; Olympic National Park; Pipe Spring National Monument; Rainbow Bridge National Monument; and Wupatiki National Monument. Robert Keller and Michael Turek collaborate to show how and why the National Park Service changed its policies and attitudes toward Native American tribes, the response of environmental organizations to native demands, and how the park service dealt with native claims to hunting and fishing rights in Glacier, Olympic, and Everglades National Parks. American Indians & National Parks is a carefully researched, ably presented reference that is highly recommended to students of Native American studies, environmentalists, and National Park Service operatives.

Wille opens a window into the usually closed back room dealings behind major urban renewal projects. Having apparently unlimited access to the developers allows her to see the entire process of urban renewal from conception to fruition from the inside. The size of this project is unique for a private development: Dearborn Homes originally was meant to encompass the entire area directly south of Chicago's loop. Its backers were alos unique--the real movers and shakers of Chicago's business community between the late 60's and the early 80's.

The fact that deveklopment of Dearborn park spanned so many administrations in Chicago (including Daley I, Harold Washington, and Daley II) means that the politics involved were complex. Dearborn Park also became the focus of several intense community struggles--sometimes directly related to the development, and sometimes the development was only part of a much larger struggle over the general direction of development in Chicago.

The weakness of Wille's book derives directly from its strength. While Wille provides an unmatched view of the development porocess from the developer's prospective, Wille gives short shrift to the perspective of politicians and other City officials (who come accross as shallow people who stand in the way of the development for no apparent reason), and woefully short shrifts the very powerful grass roots movement which challenged the City's concentration on developing middle and upper income housing, at the expense of low cost housing.

Ultimately, Dearborn Park can only be understood as part of this larger debate on the direction of the City of Chicago. Wille has produced a book unmatched for its insights into the actions and motivations of one set of players in this debate--Chicago's major financial and real estate institutions. The book does not, however, tell the story from any other perspective.

This book is every bit as good as "Boss" without Mike Royko's acid pen. It should be required reading for urban planners, architects, city zoning officials, and anyone who thinks they know how people should live better than the people themselves.

It's a graphic depiction of how a wonderful, noble idea (the transformation of abandoned railyards and boarded-up industrial and skid-row buildings into the vibrant residential neighborhoods known as Dearborn Park and Printers Row) was nearly destroyed by partisan politics and petty differences. I had the opportunity to see the physical changes firsthand over the last 25 years, and they were painfully slow. I had no idea of the behind-the-scenes sleight-of-hand that made it all possible, and Lois Wille makes what could have been something boring into a page turner.

I won't give away the climax. I will say that the children of this brand-new central-city neighborhood were robbed, and "robbed" is the only word that adequately describes what happened.

If you're a longtime city resident you already care about our cities. If you're a NIMBY suburbanite or small-town resident, or if you live on a farm and can see the half-finished frames of yet another subdivision marching toward you, you should care. Why? When cities become unlivable and people pack up and leave, guess where they go?

Whoever you are, buy and read this book.

I have loved every minute of this book. This is a great summary of the entire South Loop development, including Printers Row, Dearborn I and II, Central Station, River City...

What has been most fascinating is the insight into Chicago politics beginning with Richard M. Daley's administration and continuing to Richard J. Daley's current City Hall. Readers gain a real appreciation for what goes on in Chicago to get neighborhood projects developed and financed.

While certainly an informative read for South Loop denizens, this book offers great Chicago development stories that any Chicago area resident will appreciate. Plus, anyone that doubts the clout of City Hall in Chicago will quickly learn otherwise.

If theme parks just ain't your thing, here's an interesting book for the Orlando-bound traveler. Brotemarkle's uncovered hundreds of fascinating sites that most Florida visitors never even consider on their way to Space Mountain. Art festivals, unique architecture, and a fabulous historical legacy abound in central Florida; see them and support them before they're all paved over.

Ben Brotmarkle has covered the local art/culture scene for Central Florida for the last 7 years on WMFE radio, so he has a good grasp of the material. This is a great book for locals who want ideas on other places to go besides the big theme parks, and for visitors to know the depth of the local scene. A good buy for anyone who lives here or plans on visiting....

Mr. Brotemarkle is an expert in what the arts have to offer in the tourist capital of the south. His knowledge of all kinds of sites is amazing from opera, to historic sites to museums. He does this with a breezy style that makes of good reading and is a must if you live here and have visitors all the time. I got sick of the big parks years ago, so now I take my friends places like Leu Gardens, and museusm.

This gorgeous book really excited me when I found a copy at the San Diego REI store. The California Coastal Guide, by the California Coastal Commission, is a delicious menu of beaches, cliffs, boardwalks, marshy estuaries, tide pools and baysides. For under 25 dollars, this makes a great gift for anyone planning to move to or travel along the long, endlessly changing California coastline.

From San Diego, my plan was to drive along the coast to Seattle, camping and hiking enroute. This book showed me the BEST places to leave the highway and get to the water, and includes everything there is to see - even the tiny, hidden gems only locals know of. Each section includes a map of the local town or city, and how it fits into the coast at that area. Mileages are given between areas for reference.

Places to camp and hike on EVERY SECTION of the coast are included - thank goodness! It's hard to get this kind of information from any one resource. I didn't want to drive north with a gazillion guidebooks to each part of California.

The guidebook starts with the northern coast and works south, so I mentally had to read backwards while I traveled, which was fine. Each section of the coast is also given an introductory treatment with highlights of flora and fauna (ie. - want to identify sand verbenas and pickleweed? Know a sanderling from an avocet? Dig for clams? There's a lot of fun stuff here.

My main regret about this cool book was that it did not continue up into Oregon and Washington! I felt like I was abandoned once I crossed the border. Not their fault. :)

This book is a work of art and science for anyone who loves California and hiking along the sunniest beaches of the Pacific Ocean.

This book have complete guide for ocean side and srounding area in California. Excellent with chart of many sections such as fire pits, camp sites, etc. all covers along with coastal line on North to South of whole California. Also many terminology and explanations related with ocean and coastal environments, too. This is a must have guide book to looking for camping or barbequeing for family.

Good reference for the camper. We love to camp on the state beaches and this is a very helpful ref.

Ordained a deacon in the Episcopal church three years after graduating from West Point, Polk was offered a commission by his West Point classmate Jefferson Davis shortly after the war began. After some hesitation, Polk accepted, was made a Major General, and began serving by helping fortify and defend Mississippi defenses. He later defeated Grant at Belmont, MO, and fought gallantly at Shiloh. He was second-in-command at Perryville, KY, and saw action at Stones River, TN. He failed to attack when ordered by Bragg to do so at Chickamauga and was removed from command (Bragg wanted him court-martialed but Davis refused). He was killed at Pine Mountain, GA, in June 1864. Davis lamented the loss greatly, though he was not considered by most as being a superior military commander.

Parks's book, first published in 1962 and reissued 30 years later, is a workmanlike account of Polk's life and career. His approach is scholarly (there are lots of footnotes), but not numbingly academic. He writes with authority and has studied his subject well. The book definitely has the feel of being definitive.

That's a tough question, and I don't suppose there is a logical answer. My friends [and enemies] know me as an unreconstructed Confederate whose two biggest heroes are the Right Reverend Leonidas Polk and Secretary Judah P. Benjamin. This fine book gives an excellent portrait of a most unusual man...note that I gave Polk's title as "Right Reverend", not "Lieutenant General", though both are true....

In Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18 we read of Christ and the Rich Young Ruler...a young man who turned away sad, rather than follow The Master. Now, what would have happened had he made a different choice? Naturally, that would have been up to God's superintending Grace, but the story of Leonidas Polk is one possible answer...

Polk was born in Raleigh, NC, in 1806, of a family that had used the Revolutionary War land grants to full advantage...Having the choice to be educated anywhere he wanted, he followed the family tradition of military service and attended West Point. There he did quite well in his studies, formed a friendship with Jefferson Davis, and came under the influence of Chaplain Charles McIlvaine. Converted to Christ, he was the first man ever baptized in the West Point Chapel. Feeling a call to the Ministry, he resigned from the Army after graduation [this was allowed in an Army overstocked with officers], went to Seminary in Alexandria, VA, then was called to be Associate Rector of Monumental Church in Richmond. {The Church still stands, and has a memorial plaque for Bishop Polk, though it hasn't been used as a Church since 1965}.

Bishop Polk soon embarked on a dual career as priest of small Churches, and as an increasingly rich Tennessee planter. Yes, he owned slaves, about 500 of them. Remember, in that time and place , no one saw a conflict...he made sure the slave's Spiritual welfare was taken care of {Episcopal and Baptist services were available on the plantation}, kept a doctor in residence, kept families together, and in general provided as well for his slaves as well as anybody, anywhere. Consecrated a Missionary Bishop in 1838, he grew in the job, starting numerous Churches, spreading the Gospel, and eventually becoming presiding Bishop of Louisiana.

The Bishop had long seen a need for a distinctively Southern Episcopal university....thus, The University of the South, in Sewanee, TN was born. The author gives much space to this story, as well he should. When war came, The Bishop was offered General's stars by President Davis. After much soul-searching, he accepted, and served as a Corps commander in the Army of Tennessee until he was killed at Pine Mountain, GA in June 1864. It wasn't all roses...[almost] everybody had problems with Braxton Bragg, and Polk was no exception...there were conflicts in Kentucky, at Murfreesboro, and, finally, at Chickamauga. Polk was blamed for an incomplete victory, and, in truth, there is enough blame to go around. For all his problems as a General, Polk remains the only man to beat US Grant on the field of battle [at Belmont, MO].

Not long before he was killed, The Bishop baptized Generals Hood and Joe Johnston...a fitting final chapter for a man who was both Bishop and General. BUT, there is not yet a final chapter...numerous Churches consecrated by the Bishop still preach the Gospel, and Sewanee still educates young people for Christ.

This is a fine study of a very great man. Well written, well organized...until last fall, it was the best available...then, Glenn Robins wrote "The Bishop of the Old South", one of the very finest books I've ever read [see my review]. Still, this book is worth reading, if you can find it at a decent price [not easy; I was lucky]. Robins' book is superior, and is easy to find...still, the serious student should read both.

Parks has written a solid bio of "The Fighting Bishop" in this work first published in the 1960s. This book delves into Polk's family history, his days at West Point, how he got into the priesthood, his days as a bishop, his friendship with Jefferson Davis & Albert Sidney Johnston, and his feud with Braxton Bragg, among others. One sore point of the book, however, is that Parks has a great deal of respect for Polk and therefore hardly ever criticizes any moves made by Polk even though Polk is widely known as a below-average corps commander. Still, this a good bio (one of the few on Polk) and very much worth reading if you are interested in Polk.

Like many others,, this book examines ecosystem management in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. (Sidenote: why doesn't anyone seem to study the Greater Yosemite or Smoky Mountain Ecosystems?) The concept of "ecosystem management" has plenty of wrinkles to it - - hence the need for this book - - but the basic idea is to management both processes and outcomes at the level of an entire ecosystem instead of managing individual species.

The book focuses on three controversial issues, fire, elk and wolves. However, many other ecosystem issues appear through the book as well.

This book is explicitly multidisciplinary, with contributions from lawyers, economists, biologists, and land managers. The contributors address the kinds of topics that you'd want them to address, such as the role of top-level carnivores (wolves and bears), the consequences of elk (over)grazing, forest fire, and the like. The chapters fall into three rough groups - - the first, one the history and policy of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) concept, varying approaches to ecosystem management, and then particular processes (especially forest fire). The book is intended for the specialist rather than the layman - - but specialists in one discipline won't have any trouble understanding contributions from other disciplines, and advanced-level undergraduates in many fields would be able to read the book.

Like any edited volume, the contributions vary significantly in quality. Some authors have a clear view of the "big picture," while others are more limited to their own specialty. The biologists tend to have the greatest tunnel vision, but John Craighead's chapter does a great job seeing biological issues in a larger historical and political context.

It's also dated in significant ways, reflecting debates over the northern range of Yellowstone in the 1980s and 1990s. Since the introduction of wolves in 1995, top-down regulation of elk by predators has supplanted the policy of "natural regulation" of elk by food supply that motivated many of these changes.

Nonetheless, if you're interested in ecosystem management, or in the management of Yellowstone National Park, you'll want to read this book. It doesn't really address topics outside of these, so the general reader will probably find it frustratingly specialized.

The DOE plans to build a nuclear/hazardous waste incinerator directly upwind of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. What do the authors think about this recent development?

The essays compiled in this book are an excellent resource for someone who is trying to understand the complex issues surrouding the protection of the Greater Yellow Ecosystem. However, a number of the essays, in providing evidence to support the arguments are geared more toward the policy maker or toward the scientist who is gathering background information on the issues.

Not all of the essays are written in such a fashion that they are beyond the comprehension of the average reader. Some essays are written clearly and do provide an effective starting point for someone coming into the field to understand the issues surrounding issues such as fire policy or wolf management. Both of which are still hot topics in the region today.

Finally, many of the essays are better for understanding a historical perspective to the issues. Wolf reintroduction has occurred and now Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho are looking to have wolves delisted. The essays on wolf management are dated enough that they are a starting point to understand the underpinnings of the issues of today, rather than where we are going in the near future.

All in all, if the reader can move past some of the more technical aspects of the book, they will have a better grasp of how and why various management issues are occuring in this wonder of nature.

There are so few grizzly bears left alive in the Lower 48 that grizzlies have become mytholigized as either demonic carnivores or hapless river wading salmon fishers.

Adolph Murie was one of our greatest naturalists. His books on wolves, mammals, and grizzlies all share the same great style of writing; that mix of wonder and research that illuminates the true nature of wildlife and man's place among them.

There are so few grizzly bears left alive in the Lower 48 that grizzlies have become mytholigized as either demonic carnivores or hapless river wading salmon fishers.

Adolph Murie was one of our greatest naturalists. His books on wolves, mammals, and grizzlies all share the same great style of writing; that mix of wonder and research that illuminates the true nature of wildlife and man's place among them.

Murie's book (originally a scientific monograph) on Ursus horribilis, the great brown bear, is a 242-page collection of observations of the grizzly's actions and relationships with its habitat. Murie's first-hand observations date from 1922 to the 1960s and were made around Denali (the original native name of Mount McKinley).

Murie's observations are dispassionate and objective, seemingly free of any bias for or against the great bear (although, at the conclusion, his admiration for the beast and his passionate desire that mankind refrain from "managing" wildlife do emerge). His observations include such topics as bears' range and movement, mating, mother-cub interaction, food habits, and relationship with various types of potential prey such as caribou, moose, Dall sheep, squirrels, marmots and mice.

As mentioned, Murie's observations deal only with the grizzlies of interior Alaska around McKinley National Park. He occasionally refers to but does not report on the brown bears of the Alaskan southern coastal areas, although he does accept them as a variety of grizzly (some feel that they are different species or sub-species).

Before buying this book, the reader should understand that it is not a "story book" about bears. There is no connected "story line" throughout the book, nor is it a collection of harrowing tales about grizzly attacks on hapless humans. Readers looking for entertainment or excitement should seek elsewhere. However, the book is quite illuminating as to the normal habits of normal grizzlies in their normal environment, and readers who wish to understand the actions (and, dare I say, the thought processes) of these animals will find the book a realistic, down-to-earth resource. It does not propose any encompassing scientific theories or postulate new hypotheses about grizzlies; it merely reports on how they act, where they roam, and how they live. In the end, this fairly long series of observations is quite effective in painting a very realistic and useful picture of both the grizzlies and, to a lesser extent, of the animals upon which they prey or with which they coexist.

There are a few somewhat grainy, black and white photographs reproduced in the book, indicative of the photographic technology available to Murie. Somehow, though, their quality adds to the overall impression of the book as the product of a keen observer of wildlife half a century and more ago. In brief, I found the book interesting and informative, if not exactly a "page-turner," and it should be useful to those who would become naturalists, who are curious about grizzlies, or who, like me, will always feel somewhat entranced by Alaska, the Last Frontier, and its still-wild creatures.