Saving Nature's Legacy: Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity
Written by two leading conservation biologists, "Saving
Nature's Legacy" is a thorough and readable introduction
to issues of land management and conservation biology. It presents
a broad, land-based approach to biodiversity conservation in the
United States, with the authors succinctly translating principles,
techniques, and findings of the ecological sciences into an
accessible and practical plan for action.After laying the
groundwork for biodiversity conservation -- what biodiversity is,
why it is important, its status in North America -- Noss and
Cooperrider consider the strengths and limitations of past and
current approaches to land management. They then present the
framework for a bold new strategy, with explicit guidelines on:
inventorying biodiversityselecting areas for protection designing
regional and continental reserve networks establishing monitoring
programssetting priorities for getting the job done Throughout the
volume, the authors provide in-depth assessments of what must be
done to protect and restore the full spectrum of native
biodiversity to the North American continent.
...offers the most comprehensive direction to date on what the United States can do to stop the downward spiral of ecosystem deterioration and to implement policies of ono net losso of the nationAEs native biological riches.... Who needs this book? Conservation biologists should read it to better understand the challenges and practical demands of putting theory into practice. Managers should read it to more fully understand the rationale and context for new management concepts, and to be better able to apply the concepts toward useful purpose in ecosystem management.... Actually this would be a good book for all citizens to read, if only to see what could be were we to muster the will to alter our individual and collective behaviors. --Winifred B. Kessler, Journal of Forestry
