This Land Is Your Land: A Field Guide to North America's Endangered Native Ecosystems

Discusses the individual ecosystems of the United States and demonstrates how they are all interconnected, revealing the state of these biospheres, what is being done to save them, and what each of us can do. Simultaneous.

After an elementary introduction to the concept of ecosystems, the authors consider the endangered and threatened ecosystems of North America: water systems such as rivers, wetlands, and the edge of the sea; and land systems, including forests, deserts, and grasslands. They then turn to the individual citizen's relationship to the land in terms of laws and regulations that affect ecosystems, listing more than 60 environmental and conservation organizations like American Rivers, League of Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club, which protect threatened systems. At the end of each section, they list special resources pertaining to the system in question and a reading list. The authors conclude with a how-to section on addressing government officials, a glossary of terms and abbreviations, and an index. Altogether, theirs is a handy reference book for environmental activists, particularly for young people or groups just getting started. However, many of the issues described are far from simple, and to devote but a few pages to the enormous economic and ecological problems involved in, say, the control of the Colorado River, is giving only a bare outline that can lead to wrong conclusions and ill-considered action. Recommended as a beginning handbook with the hope that readers will continue to acquire more timely and more detailed information before writing indignant letters to Washington or joining protest movements.
- Eleanor Mass, Maass Associates, New Milford, Pa.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.