Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys
When some individuals checking out you while reviewing Varmints And Victims: Predator Control In The American West, By Frank Van Nuys, you may really feel so happy. But, instead of other individuals feels you must instil in on your own that you are reading Varmints And Victims: Predator Control In The American West, By Frank Van Nuys not because of that reasons. Reading this Varmints And Victims: Predator Control In The American West, By Frank Van Nuys will certainly give you more than people admire. It will overview of know greater than the people staring at you. Already, there are several resources to discovering, reviewing a publication Varmints And Victims: Predator Control In The American West, By Frank Van Nuys still ends up being the front runner as an excellent method.
Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys
Download Ebook PDF Online Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys
It used to be: If you see a coyote, shoot it. Better yet, a bear. Best of all, perhaps? A wolf. How we've gotten from there to here, where such predators are reintroduced, protected, and in some cases revered, is the story Frank Van Nuys tells in Varmints and Victims, a thorough and enlightening look at the evolution of predator management in the American West.As controversies over predator control rage on, Varmints and Victims puts the debate into historical context, tracing the West's relationship with charismatic predators like grizzlies, wolves, and cougars from unquestioned eradication to ambivalent recovery efforts. Van Nuys offers a nuanced and balanced perspective on an often-emotional topic, exploring the intricacies of how and why attitudes toward predators have changed over the years. Focusing primarily on wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, and grizzly bears, he charts the logic and methods of management practiced by ranchers, hunters, and federal officials.Broad in scope and rich in detail, this work brings new, much-needed clarity to the complex interweaving of economics, politics, science, and culture in the formulation of ideas about predator species, and in policies directed at these creatures. In the process, we come to see how the story of predator control is in many ways the story of the American West itself, from early attempts to connect the frontier region to mainstream American life and economics to present ideas about the nature and singularity of the region.
Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys- Amazon Sales Rank: #816849 in Books
- Published on: 2015-11-09
- Released on: 2015-10-16
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.20" h x 1.10" w x 6.40" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
Review "In this passionate and engaging survey of human-animal encounters in the American West, Frank Van Nuys tracks the process by which predatory animals went from being 'game's worst enemies' to faunal heroes and, in the process, advances our understanding the 'messiness' of the frontier experience. Claude Levi Strauss tells us that animals 'are good to think with'—Varmints and Victims shows us that they are also good to argue about."—Karen R. Jones, author of Wolf Mountains: The History of Wolves Along the Great Divide“Frank Van Nuys delivers material not readily covered by other scholars and clearly needed. Varmints and Victims provides a nuanced account of the shifting ideas among administrators and experts, dealing with the usual suspects—Leopold, the Murie brothers, and George Wright—in appropriate fashion to reach the conclusion that wildlife in the American West often served as surrogates for the much older struggle over who got to make land policy decisions. An excellent synthesis.”—Thomas Dunlap, author of Saving America’s Wildlife: Ecology and the American Mind, 1850–1990"This wide-ranging and comprehensive summary of efforts to eliminate varmints since the 19th century reveals the many causes and broader significance of a shift to thinking of predators as victims. Van Nuys reveals the constant struggle between those who assail predators as varmints and those who defend them as victims."—Christian C. Young, author of In the Absence of Predators: Conservation and Controversy on the Kaibab Plateau
About the Author Frank Van Nuys is professor of history at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and author of Americanizing the West: Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship, 1890–1930.
Where to Download Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Clashing views on what we should do with wolves, cougars, grizzly bears and coyotes. Complex issues made clear. By lyndonbrecht This is an excellent account of the history and present status of predator control in the Western US. The book focuses primarily on wolves, grizzly bears, cougars and coyotes--mostly on wolves. It is quite well-written and informative. Some of the history is on the dull side, such as the bureaucratic infighting in federal agencies, but still important to understand to make sense of the history. The focus is also mostly on federal programs, rather than private efforts to destroy these species--that aspect is covered early as background.The book has a lot of history but it's important to realize the program is ongoing--in 2014 the agency responsible for predator control killed nearly three million animals. This has been going on for more than a century, so the total kill would be huge were anyone to total it up. The worst was when poison was widely used, because while it was highly effective, it also produced a large unintentional kill total; a carcass poisoned to kill wolves might also kill vultures, eagles, crows and any other species that feeds on carrion when available.The book chronicles some changing attitudes and slower-changing policies. It's a good if depressing case study in popular understanding leading federal agencies to change. Killing predators would a century ago have been of little public concern and those who knew about it probably in great majority would approve. That gradually changed, partly due to figures such as Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, and also a slowly growing scientific awareness that predators were important in a healthy ecosystem. Most of the American public--the portion that is aware of nature, anyway--likely is sympathetic to the cause of wolf and cougar survival, but there remains very strong opposition in the West among rural communities, ranchers and some hunters. These latter are and probably will remain deeply suspicious of the federal government and opposed to regulations related to the environment. There's also a chronic mistrust of science in the sense that many hunters see getting rid of predators as a way to get more game to hunt--a point, innocent of scientific understanding, that has remained strong or a century. The basic point of the book is that there are differing views of how the public lands should be managed, which remains a strongly contested set of issues.I found the last two chapters to be most compelling, on the creation of the EPA and the efforts to reintroduce the grey wolf to Yellowstone and the Mexican wolf to the Southwest (there's some discussion of grizzlies and cougars with coyotes in the general background).
See all 1 customer reviews... Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van NuysVarmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys PDF
Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys iBooks
Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys ePub
Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys rtf
Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys AZW
Varmints and Victims: Predator Control in the American West, by Frank Van Nuys Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar