Back from the Collapse

American Prairie and the Restoration of Great Plains Wildlife

Curtis H. Freese (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

376 Seiten

2023
University of Nebraska Press (Verlag)
978-1-4962-3132-1 (ISBN)

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Back from the Collapse covers the evolution, Euro-American-driven collapse, and large-scale restoration of Great Plains wildlife through efforts by the nonprofit organization American Prairie to assemble a protected area of 3.2 million acres on the plains of northeast Montana.

2024 Wildlife Society's Publication Award shortlist

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.”

Curtis H. Freese, an ecologist, is cofounder of American Prairie and founding managing director of World Wildlife Fund’s Northern Great Plains Program. He formerly ran the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Latin America program and was World Wildlife Fund’s vice president for conservation programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He is the author or editor of four books, including American Bison: Status Survey and Conservation Guidelines.

List of Illustrations
List of Maps
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Introduction

Part 1: History
Chapter 1: How It Started
Chapter 2: From Sea, Ice, and Forest Emerges a Prairie
Chapter 3: From the End of One Faunal Collapse to the Dawn of Another
Chapter 4: From Euro-American Settlement to Today

Part 2: Wildlife Collapses and Recoveries
Chapter 5: American Beaver and River Otter
Chapter 6: Ungulates
Chapter 7: Carnivores
Chapter 8: Rocky Mountain Locust
Chapter 9: Black-tailed Prairie Dog and Black-footed Ferret
Chapter 10: Pallid Sturgeon and Other Fish Stories
Chapter 11: Grassland Birds

Part 3: Conclusion
Chapter 12: Where We’ve Been and Where We Need to Go
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Erscheinungsdatum	25.05.2023
Zusatzinfo	16 photographs, 14 illustrations, 3 tables, index
Verlagsort	Lincoln
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Natur / Ökologie
	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
	Naturwissenschaften ► Geowissenschaften ► Geografie / Kartografie
ISBN-10	1-4962-3132-5 / 1496231325
ISBN-13	978-1-4962-3132-1 / 9781496231321
Zustand	Neuware