Back from the collapse : American Prairie and the restoration of Great Plains wildlife / Curtis H. Freese.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Freese, Curtis H., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prairie restoration--Great Plains.

Prairie restoration.

Wildlife reintroduction--Great Plains.

Wildlife reintroduction.

Great Plains--History.

Great Plains.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxi, 351 pages) : illustrations, maps

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2023]

Summary:

"Back from the Collapse is a clarion call for restoring one of North America's most underappreciated and overlooked ecosystems: the grasslands of the Great Plains. This region has been called America's Serengeti in recognition of its historically extraordinary abundance of wildlife. Since Euro-American colonization, however, populations of at least twenty-four species of Great Plains wildlife have collapsed-from pallid sturgeon and burrowing owls to all major mammals, including bison and grizzly bears. In response to this incalculable loss, Curtis H. Freese and other conservationists founded American Prairie, a nonprofit organization with the mission of supporting the region's native wildlife by establishing a 3.2-million-acre reserve on the plains of eastern Montana, one of the most intact and highest-priority areas for biodiversity conservation in the Great Plains. In Back from the Collapse Freese explores the evolutionary history of the region's ecosystem over millions of years, as it transitioned from subtropical forests to the edge of an ice sheet to today's prairies. He details the eventual species collapse and American Prairie's work to restore the habitat and wildlife, efforts described by National Geographic as "one of the most ambitious conservation projects in American history" -- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction

Part 1. History

How it started

From sea, ice, and forest emerges a prairie

Holocene wildlife settle in

From Euro-American arrival to today

Part 2. Collapses and recoveries

American beaver and river otter

Ungulates

Carnivores

Rocky Mountain locust

Black-tailed prairie dog and black-footed ferret

Pallid sturgeon

Grassland birds

Conclusion.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Freese, Curtis H. Back from the Collapse

ISBN:

9781496236647

1496236645

9781496236630

1496236637

OCLC:

1381441033