Grizzly Wars: The Public Fight over the Great Bear - Hardcover

Knibb, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 159766037X ISBN 13: 9781597660372

Publisher: Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Grizzly bears are the most striking symbol of the North American wild, as well as one of the most controversial animals on the continent. David Knibb's book highlights the policy and political issues involved in efforts to save the Great Bear from extinction, including the heated debate over the decision to remove Yellowstone' grizzly bears from the list of threatened species. As Lance Craighead points out in the book's foreword, Knibb tells this compelling story with a refreshing immediacy, almost as if he were there in the conference room, meeting halls, private offices, and public chambers where the fate of the grizzly bear was negotiated.

Knibb looks at grizzly bear recovery on both sides of the border, from the North Cascades to the Northern Rockies. He discusses the critical role of state governments, the need for links between recovery areas, and the question of whether bears in each area should be treated as distinct populations. In the process, he underscores the need for American-Canadian cooperation in the management of bears living along the border.

Grizzly Wars is both a history of the grizzly bear recovery effort and a case study in how the Endangered Species Act actually works. The book spans the period at the turn of the twenty-first century when American environmental policy underwent a radical change in direction. Situating grizzly bears in a broader context, Knibb shows how much they and other endangered species must contend with shifts in the national political climate.

About this title

About the Author:

A Seattle lawyer, DAVID KNIBB has observed and participated in the struggles around environmental issues in the western United States for over four decades. He is the author of Backyard Wilderness, a study of the congressional battle over the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington's Cascade Mountains.

Review:

"As surely as the polar bear is losing its sea ice, the grizzly bear of the continental United States is threatened with massive habitat loss owing to global warming. Knibb tells us of the battle to preserve American's quintessential wilderness animal in the mountains of the Northern Rockies and North Cascades.

One of the Bush administration's most dire decisions was the removal of Yellowstone's grizzlies from federal protection under the Endangered Species Act—a fraudulent move that has been challenged in court on legal grounds detailed in Grizzly Wars. Indeed, there is great hope on the wildlife horizon for restoring Yellowstone's bears to federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, which would recognize that all grizzlies south of Canada are a single mobile population whose survival necessitates travel corridors and human tolerance. The next few years are critical. This important book tells us why." (Doug Peacock, author of The Essential Grizzly: The Mingled Fates of Men and Bears)

"Dave Knibb has a remarkable ability to distill the complex efforts by many dedicated people to rescue the magnificent grizzly bear from its current slide toward extinction. Grizzly Wars is important and unusual because it weaves into this moving story the human passions, the political opposition, and the internal conflicts that are a part of the continuing debates about species protection.

This book is for anyone who cares about the wilderness and the creatures who inhabit it—and above all, for anyone who wants to get involved in the politics that can make the rescue of an imperiled species a reality." (Brock Evans, president, Endangered Species Coalition)

"If you think you're tough enough, enter Knibb's expository terrain, which reveals the actions of the governmental authorities who decide whether to save big, beautiful animals. That truth isn't as beautiful as a grizzly, but it is no less compelling, no less emblematic of the dangers involved." (John Byers, author of Built for Speed: A Year in the Life of Pronghorn)

About this edition

• Publisher: Carnegie Mellon University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 159766037X
• ISBN 13: 9781597660372
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304