Defending Our Wildlife Heritage: The Life and Times of a Special Agent [Paperback]

Terry Grosz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Continuing the chronicle he began in Wildlife Wars (1999) and For the Love of Wildness (2000), former conservation officer Grosz adds to the story of his years defending the nation's natural resources and wildlife. The author and his colleagues arranged the surprise dawn arrest of a group of hunters slaughtering ducks, and meanwhile they started a myth of paratrooping California wildlife agents. A promotion to a special-agent position with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service then broadens the field for this wildlife policeman. Posted to the northern plains, he battles Native Americans who illegally sell eagle feathers, catches farmers as they drain and fill wetlands in the middle of the night, ambushes American hunters smuggling their kills into the U.S., and helps start a wildlife forensics laboratory. Throughout the breezy, entertaining book, Grosz's intellectual and emotional commitment to the cause shines through, and his many scathing remarks about how wildlife agencies are badly underfunded really hit home. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

". . . must reading for anyone who loves wildlife and abhors the greedy profiteering that would steal it away . . ." -- Rocky Mountain News, Oct. 10, 2001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Johnson Books (September 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555663168
• ISBN-13: 978-1555663162
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,075,896 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tiny gets his groove back, November 5, 2007

By 

Arthur Digbee (Indianapolis, IN, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: Defending Our Wildlife Heritage: The Life and Times of a Special Agent (Paperback)

This is the third book in a series of memoirs by Terry "Tiny" Grosz, a six-foot four, 325-pound agent of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. As in the first two books, Grosz is a born raconteur with a lot of good stories to tell from his career as a game warden and wildlife agent.

In the first part of the book, Grosz lands a supervisory position in the Dakotas. He and his staff first tackle the problem of wetland easements. The US had paid farmers cash in the 1930s to protect wetlands on their lands in perpetuity (a protection taking the legal form of an "easement"). Unfortunately, as the economy improved, farmers began to drain and plow these wetlands, in violation of the easements. These easements had not been enforced until Grosz arrived, and it's interesting to see how he tackles the problem of enforcing a law that everyone breaks.

Then Grosz turns his attention to North Dakota's border with Canada. Large numbers of Americans hunt in Canada and apparently most of them violate Canadian and provincial laws. It's illegal to bring wildlife products into the US in violation of the laws of the land where they were taken, so Grosz has a field day catching violators. The best culprits are ingenious in finding places to hide their goods, but Grosz and his colleagues "fish" them out.

After this, Grosz gets a promotion to a desk job in DC, since he's complained too long about headquarters getting in the way of the field officers. He doesn't present the office politics well, and this part of the book drags. Then Grosz receives authority over US enforcement of the Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which includes a two-month-long trip to southeast Asia. He's quite the ugly American, but his blunt styles seems to accomplish some things in Indonesia and the Philippines, while Hong Kong and Thailand run circles around him.

After the disappointment of his second book on ducks, ducks, and ducks, this book brings Grosz back to form. There's a nice variety of stories and he tells them well.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Defending Our Wildlife Heritage, November 9, 2001

By 

John R. Adams 111 (Buckeye, Az. United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Defending Our Wildlife Heritage: The Life and Times of a Special Agent (Paperback)

I never cease to be amazed at Terry Grosz's books. All the stories in his 3d book describing the inner workings of a U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent kept me interested and entertained. His stories were alive and action packed, they allowed me to cry, laugh and be amazed. Furthermore I learned a lot about wildlife (the best time to hunt ducks: Moon of the Duck) and how to preserve it (preserve the pot holes: Wetland Easement Wars). Keep up the great work Terry, can hardly wait to read your next book!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strongly recommended for wildlife protection activists., March 28, 2002

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Defending Our Wildlife Heritage: The Life and Times of a Special Agent (Paperback)

Defending Our Wildlife Heritage: The Life And Times Of A Special Agent is the autobiographical story of Terry Grosz, a man who worked and struggled for 32 years to protect wildlife in America. Poignant, emotion, filled with the travails of an endless struggle against human greed and carelessness, Defending Our Wildlife Heritage is a fascinating glimpse into the lives of those who labor so that future generations may share in the wonder of America's natural beauty and wildlife. Defending Our Wildlife Heritage is strongly recommended reading for nature enthusiasts, as well as environmental and wildlife protection activists.