The beasts of the east : the fall and rise of America's eastern wilderness / Andrew Moore

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Moore, Andrew, 1985- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Natural history--North America.

Natural history.

Natural history--East (U.S.).

Wildlife conservation.

Wildlife management.

Habitat (Ecology)--East (U.S.).

Habitat (Ecology).

natural sciences.

Environmental policy.

Human ecology.

City planning.

Urbanization.

Urban ecology (Sociology).

Middle West.

Southern States.

Northeastern States.

Genre:

Informational works

History

Informational works.

Physical Description:

vii, 415 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map, 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition

Other Title:

Fall and rise of America's eastern wilderness

Place of Publication:

New York : Mariner Books, [2026]

Summary:

Before skyscrapers and smokestacks rose across the eastern U.S., elk, bison, wolves, and cougars roamed. Typically imagined as icons of the West, these large mammals are in fact native to what was once a kind of Eden--towering forests in the Northeast, rolling prairies in the Midwest, and cypress swamps in the Deep South. But, in mere decades, industrialization and unregulated hunting brought these emblems of the East to the precipice of extinction; by the 1950s, squirrels were one of the few wild mammals an easterner was likely to encounter. Now, even as the climate and biodiversity crises loom, eastern wildlife are staging an unlikely comeback. Herds of bison graze on Illinois prairies, red wolves lurk in North Carolina's coastal marshes, and abandoned coal mines in Kentucky are now home to thousands of elk. Such rewilding promises to restore balance to eastern ecosystems and return one of the most biodiverse regions in the world to its former luster--but not without controversy. In The Beasts of the East, we follow environmental writer and James Beard Award finalist Andrew Moore as he meets conservationists, hunters, biologists, and nature lovers as they confront herculean challenges: How can we enable wildlife migration in the midst of suburban sprawl? Are these success stories viable in the long-term? When humans and wildlife come in close contact, how do we define wilderness?

Contents:

Prologue: Eastern wilds, eastern beasts

Elk of the eastern mountains

From bushy tails to whitetails

Moving large mammals

Not a novelty

Moving mountains

Who wants them?

The comeback

Hunting elk

The forests and the elk

The land, the grassy lakes, and the tall grass

To save and to make a prairie

Nachusa Grasslands and the rise of ecological restoration

The decision

The return of the grazer

The Singer Tract

Rescue mission

A last wilderness

The Alligator River

The perfect storm

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [367]-391) and index.

ISBN:

9780063001220

0063001225

OCLC:

1593564081

Publisher Number:

90104776268