Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception of Nature (Hardcover)

by James A. Pritchard (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Pritchard describes the complex history of the interaction among culture, conservation strageties, expanding scientific understanding, institutional structures, and politics in the management of Yellowstone National Park. . . . This is a complicated story, dispassionately told and meticulously documented with 45 pages of notes, references, and a complete index. General readers; undergratuates through professionals."-Choice (Choice )

"This is one of the five most important books ever written about Yellowstone and perhaps the most important one about ecological management of the park."-Lee Whittlesey, archivist, Yellowstone National Park (Lee Whittlesey )

Product Description

American ecologists seeking to influence the founders of the National Park Service had hoped that protection of the parks would create preserves where “natural conditions” could exist in an idealized presettlement state. These hopes, however, produced a bitter irony. In order to secure a naturally functioning park, officials had to provide intensive management to preserve “nature at work.” For the better part of the twentieth century, the forms this management has taken have polarized public opinion. James A. Pritchard’s Preserving Yellowstone’s Natural Conditions demonstrates that even the most up-to-date scientific policy could not reckon with public expectations and animal behavior. When Yellowstone stopped its bear feeding program in an attempt to restore naturally regulated bear populations, the public bemoaned the loss of the spectacle. The bears, meanwhile, had learned to associate humans with food, and the loss of reliable meals brought them into campsites. Park officials had to shoot bears that made a menace of themselves, leaving many people frustrated with the park’s attempts to preserve Yellowstone as a natural ecosystem. Pritchard believes that restoring natural conditions for bears and other animals is a sound idea. Yellowstone, he argues, represents an ecological anchor, a relatively untrammeled slice of nature. Despite decades of tampering, the park provides scientists and managers with an outdoor laboratory for examining natural processes that existed before extensive settlement.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 370 pages
• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press (September 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803237227
• ISBN-13: 978-0803237223
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,297,655 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterful look at the real forces that drive Yellowstone, July 10, 2000

By	Todd Wilkinson "Todd Wilkinson" (Bozeman, MT) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Along with Paul Schullery, who not long ago penned the insightful and important Searching for Yellowstone, and Richard West Sellars, author of the definitive history of science in the U.S. National Park System titled Preserving Nature in the National Parks, Jim Pritchard has established himself as one of the premier observers on the often perilous collision course between science and politics. While Pritchard's Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions: Politics and the Perception of Nature is destined to become required reading for university environmental studies programs‹as well it should‹it is a lively and entertaining read for anyone who loves our national parks, but in particular the mother of parks, Yellowstone. He deserves praise for a fine piece of work.