The View from Bald Hill: Thirty Years in an Arizona Grassland (Organisms and Environments) [Hardcover]

Carl E. Bock (Author), Jane H. Bock (Author), Harry W. Greene (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 18, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0520221834 | ISBN-13: 978-0520221833 | Edition: 1

In 1540 Francisco Vasquez de Coronado introduced the first domestic livestock to the American Southwest. Over the subsequent four centuries, cattle, horses, and sheep have created a massive ecological experiment on these arid grasslands, changing them in ways we can never know with certainty. The Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch in the high desert of southeastern Arizona is an 8,000-acre sanctuary where grazing has been banned since 1968. In this spirited account of thirty years of research at the ranch, Carl and Jane Bock summarize the results of their fieldwork, which was aimed at understanding the dynamics of grasslands in the absence of livestock. The View from Bald Hill provides an intimate look at the natural history of this unique site and illuminates many issues pertaining to the protection and restoration of our nation's grasslands.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An intimate look. . . illuminates many issues pertaining to the protection and restoration of the nation's grasslands." -- Phoenix magazine

From the Inside Flap

"This book brings together nearly every aspect of grassland research in the American Southwest and is written to appeal to both academics and the general public. It refutes conventional myths about some causes of grassland change, tests hypotheses in restoration ecology, and offers new perspectives on the recovery of ecosystems free from livestock grazing. It is a book that every naturalist or ecologist should read."--Conrad Bahre, author of A Legacy of Change

"I expected another nature book. What I found was, to my surprise, a love story. Carl and Jane Bock visited the Research Ranch in the early 1970s and fell in love--with the Sonoita Plains, the plants and animals there, and the people who called it home. Like all good love stories, this one is full of passion and joy, excitement and disappointment, and sadness and humor. . . . With their successful blend of storytelling and scientific reporting, the Bocks share the most intimate details of their love affair and make the reader curious to learn more about this little-known land."--H. Ronald Pulliam, Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia

"Jane and Carl Bock write precisely as well as lovingly of the dynamics of the distinctive grasslands near the U.S./Mexico border in Arizona. They also bring 25 years of first-rate science to bear on their topic. Their seasoned view of ecological and perceptual changes in this community are unique and will go a long way toward healing and restoring the remaining fragments of this biome in southeastern Arizona."--Gary Paul Nabhan, author of Cultures of Habitat

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 221 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (April 18, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520221834
• ISBN-13: 978-0520221833
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,989,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars native grassland conservation & research in SE AZ, February 8, 2001

By 

bee active (Gainesville, FL) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The View from Bald Hill: Thirty Years in an Arizona Grassland (Organisms and Environments) (Paperback)

THE VIEW FROM BALD HILL: THIRTY YEARS IN AN ARIZONA GRASSLAND, Carl E. Bock, and Jane H. Bock (University of California Press, Berkeley CA 94720, 196pp.): For about twenty-five years, Drs. Carl and Jane Bock (both of them professors at the University of Colorado) have spent their summers in research at the National Audubon Society's 7,800 acre Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch 60 miles southeast of Tucson. Originally part of the Babocomari Grant, the Research Ranch and the land surrounding it had been heavily grazed by cattle for many years until 1968, when the Appleton family, who owned it at the time, removed the cattle altogether and dedicated the Ranch as an environmental preserve and as a lab for ecological research. The Bocks arrived soon afterward. This very readable book relates what they have learned over the years about an arid grassy region left entirely alone to be its natural self. Their book tells an exciting story about an increasingly rare kind of landscape.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Watching the Grass Grow, August 9, 2007

By 

Smallchief - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The View from Bald Hill: Thirty Years in an Arizona Grassland (Organisms and Environments) (Paperback)

In 1968, all cattle and other domestic animals were removed from the 7,800 acre Bald Hill ranch in southern Arizona. The authors moved to the ranch to conduct a lengthy experiment: what happens to ungrazed, unutilized, unmanipulated-by-man land? Not entirely unmanipulated, of course, natural events -- fire, flood, and drought were allowed to go unchecked and their impact evaluated. The results, the authors are quick to assert, are not all in yet -- but many of their findings and observations are interesting and subtle. For example, grazing -- or lack thereof -- has an impact on grasshopper, rodent, and bird populations, both in terms of their numbers and the species that are present. And there is no stability; a fire, a dry year, or a wet year can discombobulate what seemed a "natural" equilibrium.

"The View from Bald Hill" is a fine piece of nature writing with scientific content accumulated during 30 years of mostly passive observation of grass growing and birds buzzing on a a big chunk of semi-desert land. It tackles the long-term confrontation betweeen ranchers and environmentalists in a sensitive and fair way. The authors are environmentalists but not hostile to ranching. They tell us that they find ranchers "more interesting than lawyers, lobbyists, or legislators." Good photographs dot the text and an extensive bibliography and notes refers the reader to sources. This is an important book to read for those are interested in environmental issues in the Southwest.

Smallchief