Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America [Paperback]

Kim Todd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 2002

A bewitching look at nonnative species in American ecosystems, by the heir apparent to McKibben and Quammen.

Mosquitoes in Hawaii, sea lampreys in the Great Lakes, mountain goats in the Olympic Mountains of Washington State—not one of these species is native to the environment in which it now flourishes. Kim Todd's Tinkering with Eden is a lyrical, brilliantly written history of the introduction of exotic species into the United Sates, and how the well-meaning endeavors of scientists, explorers, and biologists have resulted in ecological catastrophe. Todd's assured voice will haunt her readers, and the stories she tells—such as the druggist who brought starlings to America because he wanted the landscape to feature every bird mentioned by Shakespeare—will forever change how we see our increasingly afflicted landscape and its unanticipated inhabitants.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A fascinating narrative enhanced by Todd's far-reaching research and story-telling abilities. -- Bookpage

You really can't fool Mother Nature, as Kim Todd vividly shows in her fascinating, cautionary first book. -- New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Winner of the PEN/Jerard Award, Kim Todd holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.F.A. from the University of Montana. She lives in San Francisco, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 328 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (June 17, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393323242
• ISBN-13: 978-0393323245
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Natural History

More About the Author

Kim Todd is an award-winning science and environmental writer.

Her first book, Tinkering with Eden, a Natural History of Exotics in America (W.W. Norton 2001), tells the stories of non-native species and how they arrived in the United States. Species covered range from pigeons, brought over by some of the earliest colonists, to starlings, imported by a man who wanted to bring all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare to Central Park. The book explores our developing understanding of exotic species as we become more aware of the potential problems they may pose for native ecosystems. Tinkering with Eden received the PEN/ Jerard Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award and was selected as one of Booklist's Top Ten Science/ Technical Books for 2001.

Her second book Chrysalis, Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis (Harcourt, 2007) looks at the life of a pioneering explorer/ naturalist who traveled to South America in 1699 to study insect metamorphosis. The story also traces ideas about metamorphosis through time. The New Yorker called it a "spellbinding biography," and Kirkus Reviews said Chrysalis was "a breathtaking example of scholarship and storytelling." It was selected as one of 25 "Books to Remember" for 2008 by the New York Public Library. Research for Chrysalis led her to Surinam to retrace Merian's steps through the rain forest.

Her most recent book is Sparrow (Reaktion 2012). Part of Reaktion Books much praised "Animal Series," Sparrow explores at the history and natural history of this much loved, much hated bird.

Her work has also appeared in the anthologies Two in the Wild (Vintage 1999), City Birds (Stackpole 2003), Torn, True Stories of Kids, Career, and the Conflict of Modern Motherhood (Coffeetown, 2011), and The Pacific Crest Trailside Reader (Mountaineers Books, 2001). She has hiked much of the Pacific Crest Trail through Washington State, and hopes to do the whole thing some day.

She has lectured extensively about Merian, invasive species, and the intersection of history and biology, including talks at the Getty Museum, the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the Denver Botanical Gardens, and Wellesley College.

She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two children. Please visit her web site at www.kimtodd.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating blend of human and natural history, March 19, 2003

By 

Tim F. Martin (Madison, AL United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America (Paperback)

This book is a fascinating blend of American natural and human history, author Kim Todd showing that in a sense our history is almost as much one of animal immigrants as that of human immigrants. North America, already one of the richest continents in the world in terms of biodiversity, is home now to many thousands of introduced plant and animal species.

Some were brought in for a taste or touch of home, missed by European settlers in the strange wilds of North America. Some, such as the honey bee, also proved of later significant commercial importance, becoming so vital to agriculture and indeed everyday life - pollinating plants, providing wax and honey - that later there would be many who found it hard to believe that the honey bee was not native to North America. Others, such as the rock dove or pigeon, provided a mixed track record; as Todd puts it, noting how revered the dove is in Western literature and how hated the pigeon often is; that in essence, "the colonists brought doves to the New World and ended up surrounded by pigeons." As much as the rock doves proved useful for food, for delivering messages (labeled by some in this regard according to Todd as "gallant" birds, praised in poetry and song), and as prized pets, they proved a huge problem in cities. Others, such as the European starling, proved downright pests. Brought over in a misguided attempt to introduce to the continent all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare, it has spread throughout North America and become a plague like no other, pushing out native species from prime habitat and forming such large flocks in some areas as to present health hazards.

Many introductions were accidental. When a canal was opened between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario in the 19th century, allowing goods from the Great Lakes and the interior of Canada and the United States to reach the sea via the St. Lawrence River (in a chapter she appropriately calls "An Artificial Wedding"), more than just ships plied these waters. The sea lamprey, long resident in Lake Ontario, had not been able to bypass Niagara Falls and enter the rest of the Great Lakes previously. Once present, Todd chronicles how the predator preyed upon the formerly vast schools of fish in the Great Lakes, sending fishing stocks plummeting and completely reworking the entire ecology of the lakes. Another creature taking unfortunate advantage of mankind to enter a new habitat - in this case the Hawaiian Islands - was the mosquito. Once an island chain completely free from this pest, this insect entered the islands from the emptied dregs of ship's water barrels. Quickly becoming a pest not only to humans but also to birds, the mosquitoes nearly wiped out many of the archipelago's avian fauna by spreading bird pox and avian malaria. Todd also writes of a recent immigrant, the monk parakeet, which first started to appear in the wild in the late 1960s thanks largely to escaped pets. Becoming more widespread, the author shows the debate between the parakeet's champions and those that seek to eliminate the exotic, scared of it achieving pest status, who ask themselves is this species of bird going to be end up becoming the next starling?

Other introductions were done to "improve" nature, primarily in the latter part of the 19th century.. The ring-necked pheasant from China was imported to improve the hunting, a bird thought worthy of the sport hunter and more of a challenge than native game birds. Similar motives were at work with the brown trout of Europe, a prized game fish that did much to foster the refinement and popularity of fly fishing in the United States (though their benefactor, Fred Mather, believed that they could provide a vital new source of food for the American people). With few concerns for the alien species' effects on native fishes the brown trout became by 1900 established in 38 states. Reindeer, introduced in Alaska with epic ideas to provide the native peoples with animals to herd and with new means of transportation and methods to make money, proved a failure as expected results failed to materialize for many reasons as the book shows.

Finally some introductions were simply done to make money. The story of the nutria, an imported marsh denizen of South America, is fascinating. Brought in to help meet demands for furs - in the days when fur farms were in their infancy and the wild fur-bearing animals becoming scarce - it degenerated from a promising project into get-rich-quick pyramid schemes (which even involved federal investigation) as the semi-valuable nutria pelts were hyped up to gullible buyers in a high-stakes game that penalized those who actually sought to take their pelts to market. Even native animals were moved about the country for such endeavors; the mountain goat, not native to the Olympic Mountains in Washington state, was brought in to try and improve tourism. The region was deemed good mountain goat country; indeed it was too good, with no predators and a variety of very rare and highly local alpine plants that were not able to withstand steady grazing by the agile animals, the mountain goat has proved an ecological disaster.

Todd discusses in an almost short-story format these and many other animals, including a variety of insect pests. The book is well worth purchasing; my only compliant was that even more species could have been detailed.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read even for those not interested in natural science, November 29, 2002

By 

"atres" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tinkering with Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America (Paperback)

Kim Todd wields an endlessly entertaining story, even for those who do not have any interest in exotic species. She does what few naturalists are able to do; she makes a story about a science read like a human-interest piece, and a compelling one at that. The pages flow easily and her craftily constructed prose will have whisked you to the end of the book long before you wanted it to end.