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Repairing Paradise: The Restoration of Nature in America's National Parks

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Humans' destruction of the environment is sufficiently pervasive that we have damaged several of our best-loved national parks: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and the Everglades. The environmental harms inflicted on these special places has been firmly politically entrenched, making change possible. In this book, Lowry examines how to create the political conditions for repairing the damage done over the last century.

Lowry argues that change requires a strong advocacy coalition, which can include interest groups, journalists, researchers, and agency officials. The coalition needs to change how the problem is defined, show that reform is economically beneficial, provide scientific evidence that change will improve the environment, and obtain strong commitments from state and federal agencies. Those conditions aren't really surprising, but they provide a useful analytical hook on which Lowry can hang his story.

The strength of this book is the four stories: wolf reintroduction in Yellowstone, dealing with automobile congestion in Yosemite Valley, restoring natural flows of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon and of the Everglades hydrologic system. Only the first of these has been successful, though Everglades restoration has begun. His analytical framework helps explain these successes and failures.

The book is well-written and would be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in environmental politics and policy. If you're unfamiliar with the cases, he presents the stories well; even if you know them well, his perspective will bring you some new insights into them.

This is a great book, well-written and easy to read and to follow the ideas in it. Lowry has a good way of writing that makes the topics interesting for people with or without familiarity with environmentalism. He also writes a very balanced view of the issues, making sure to give a voice to all sides. It's also clear that a lot of quality research and passion went into the writing of this book.

The natural history of America is important. "Repairing Paradise: The Restoration of Nature in America's National Parks" tells the story of the national park system and America's movement towards conservation. Speaking of the flaws that led to the formation of these systems to the triumphs of the return of the wolves to Yellowstone, undamming the Grand Canyon, and so much more, William R. Lowry paints a comprehensive history of the National Park Movement in America. "Repairing Paradise" is a strong pick that should not be ignored for environmental studies history collections.

Repairing Paradise: The Restoration of Nature in America's National Parks by William Lowry details why America's national parks are at risk and what it will take to reverse the damage from misguided past policies. William Lowry, one of the country's leading experts on natural resource policy, writes with intense detail but includes personal experiences that make the book not merely factual but entertaining as well.

As Repairing Paradise: The Restoration of Nature in America's National Parks relates, identifying physical problems in the parks is only the start of the restorative process. No positive effort comes about without intensive coalition for change, and there are many reasons why the status quo comes with an inertia that is fiercely hard to break. In the Everglades, for example, any number of physical problems have been identified, funds have been allocated, and yet the grim prospect of "too little, too late" still looms. If the Everglades are to be saved, much still needs to be accomplished.

Dr. Lowry mentions that, "Advocacy coalitions contain not just interest groups but also journalists, researchers, and agency officials who `seek to influence public policy' in a particular domain." Advocacy efforts also must convince the larger public of the need for change. Repairing Paradise: The Restoration of Nature in America's National Parks addresses the changing polices in our national parks and the effort to repair damage from past policies. The book specifically analyzes the reintroduction of wolves at Yellowstone, the attempt to reduce automobile impacts at Yosemite, restoring water to the Everglades, and removing impediments to river flows in the Grand Canyon.

Perhaps the reader of this review has personally enjoyed a trip to the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone or the Everglades. If so, the reader will understand how vital it is that the "crown jewels" of the United States be preserved for all future generations. The issues involved are far more complex than this review can spell out. For anyone who cares about preservation, the urgency of the situation and the importance of reading Repairing Paradise: The Restoration of Nature in America's National Parks cannot be spelled out strongly enough. Start taking action; read this book!