The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Redefining America`s Wilderness Heritage [Paperback]

Professor Robert B. Keiter (Author), Professor Mark S. Boyce (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 1994

In this important book, experts in science, economics, and law discuss key resource managment issues in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem---among them the managment of fire, elk, wolves, and bison---using them as starting points to debate the matter in which humans should interact with the environment of this region. Generously illustrated with special archival photographs of the Yellowstone area, the book will be the major source of information on this area and a valuable resource for worldwide wildland preservation for years to come. This edition contains a postscript written specifically to bring readers up to date on developments affecting the Yellowstone ecosystem between 1990 and 1993.

Product Details

• Paperback: 442 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (October 23, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300059272
• ISBN-13: 978-0300059274
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,303,009 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not totally for the layman, November 12, 2003

By 

Jonathon Lever (Green River, WY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Redefining America`s Wilderness Heritage (Hardcover)

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.

4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive edited volume on management problems surrounding Yellowstone, May 19, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Redefining America`s Wilderness Heritage (Paperback)

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.

0 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What do the authors think about the nuclear/hazardous waste?, August 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Redefining America`s Wilderness Heritage (Paperback)

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?