The Farm as Natural Habitat

The Farm as Natural Habitat PDF Author: Dana L. Jackson
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781597262699
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
The Farm as Natural Habitat is a vital new contribution to the debate about agriculture and its impacts on the land. Arising from the conviction that the agricultural landscape as a whole could be restored to a healthy diversity, the book challenges the notion that the dominant agricultural landscape -- bereft of its original vegetation and wildlife and despoiled by chemical runoff -- is inevitable if we are to feed ourselves. Contributors bring together insights and practices from the fields of conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, and environmental restoration to link agriculture and biodiversity, farming and nature, in celebrating a unique alternative to conventional agriculture.Rejecting the idea that "ecological sacrifice zones" are a necessary part of feeding a hungry world, the book offers compelling examples of an alternative agriculture that can produce not only healthful food, but fully functioning ecosystems and abundant populations of native species. Contributors include Collin Bode, George Boody, Brian DeVore, Arthur (Tex) Hawkins, Buddy Huffaker, Rhonda Janke, Richard Jefferson, Nick Jordan, Cheryl Miller, Heather Robertson, Carol Shennan, Judith Soule, Beth Waterhouse, and others.The Farm as Natural Habitat is both hopeful and visionary, grounded in real examples, and guided by a commitment to healthy land and thriving communities. It is the first book to offer a viable approach to addressing the challenges of protecting and restoring biodiversity on private agricultural land and is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of land or biodiversity conservation, farming and agriculture, ecological restoration, or the health of rural communities and landscapes.

The Farm as Natural Habitat

The Farm as Natural Habitat PDF Author: Dana L. Jackson
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781597262699
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 316

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Farm as Natural Habitat is a vital new contribution to the debate about agriculture and its impacts on the land. Arising from the conviction that the agricultural landscape as a whole could be restored to a healthy diversity, the book challenges the notion that the dominant agricultural landscape -- bereft of its original vegetation and wildlife and despoiled by chemical runoff -- is inevitable if we are to feed ourselves. Contributors bring together insights and practices from the fields of conservation biology, sustainable agriculture, and environmental restoration to link agriculture and biodiversity, farming and nature, in celebrating a unique alternative to conventional agriculture.Rejecting the idea that "ecological sacrifice zones" are a necessary part of feeding a hungry world, the book offers compelling examples of an alternative agriculture that can produce not only healthful food, but fully functioning ecosystems and abundant populations of native species. Contributors include Collin Bode, George Boody, Brian DeVore, Arthur (Tex) Hawkins, Buddy Huffaker, Rhonda Janke, Richard Jefferson, Nick Jordan, Cheryl Miller, Heather Robertson, Carol Shennan, Judith Soule, Beth Waterhouse, and others.The Farm as Natural Habitat is both hopeful and visionary, grounded in real examples, and guided by a commitment to healthy land and thriving communities. It is the first book to offer a viable approach to addressing the challenges of protecting and restoring biodiversity on private agricultural land and is essential reading for anyone concerned with issues of land or biodiversity conservation, farming and agriculture, ecological restoration, or the health of rural communities and landscapes.

Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat

Violet Mackerel's Natural Habitat PDF Author: Anna Branford
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1442435941
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 112

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Book Description
As the youngest in her family, seven-year-old Violet identifies with small creatures in the natural world, but when she tries to help special ladybug, she learns an important lesson about animal habitats.

New England Wildlife

New England Wildlife PDF Author: Richard M. DeGraaf
Publisher: UPNE
ISBN: 9780874519570
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 502

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Book Description
The only comprehensive guide to the natural histories and habitats of all inland New England species

New England Wildlife

New England Wildlife PDF Author: Richard M. DeGraaf
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Animals
Languages : en
Pages : 500

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Book Description


Cultures of Habitat

Cultures of Habitat PDF Author: Gary Paul Nabhan
Publisher: Counterpoint LLC
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Twenty-four essays explore the deep and complex connections between nature and people. Concentrating on cultures of habitat--human communities with long histories of interacting with one particular kind of terrain and its wildlife--the author considers such topics as the correlation between upheavals in human communities and the incidence of endangered species, the perils of monoculture in the Tequila fields of Mexico, and the nature of aggression and the struggle for limited resources. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Darwin Comes to Town

Darwin Comes to Town PDF Author: Menno Schilthuizen
Publisher: Picador
ISBN: 1250127831
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
*Carrion crows in the Japanese city of Sendai have learned to use passing traffic to crack nuts. *Lizards in Puerto Rico are evolving feet that better grip surfaces like concrete. *Europe’s urban blackbirds sing at a higher pitch than their rural cousins, to be heardover the din of traffic. How is this happening? Menno Schilthuizen is one of a growing number of “urban ecologists” studying how our manmade environments are accelerating and changing the evolution of the animals and plants around us. In Darwin Comes to Town, he takes us around the world for an up-close look at just how stunningly flexible and swift-moving natural selection can be. With human populations growing, we’re having an increasing impact on global ecosystems, and nowhere do these impacts overlap as much as they do in cities. The urban environment is about as extreme as it gets, and the wild animals and plants that live side-by-side with us need to adapt to a whole suite of challenging conditions: they must manage in the city’s hotter climate (the “urban heat island”); they need to be able to live either in the semidesert of the tall, rocky, and cavernous structures we call buildings or in the pocket-like oases of city parks (which pose their own dangers, including smog and free-rangingdogs and cats); traffic causes continuous noise, a mist of fine dust particles, and barriers to movement for any animal that cannot fly or burrow; food sources are mainly human-derived. And yet, as Schilthuizen shows, the wildlife sharing these spaces with us is not just surviving, but evolving ways of thriving. Darwin Comes toTown draws on eye-popping examples of adaptation to share a stunning vision of urban evolution in which humans and wildlife co-exist in a unique harmony. It reveals that evolution can happen far more rapidly than Darwin dreamed, while providing a glimmer of hope that our race toward over population might not take the rest of nature down with us.

The Great Smokies

The Great Smokies PDF Author: Daniel S. Pierce
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 9781572330795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Seeking a taste of unspoiled wilderness, more than eight million people visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year. Yet few probably realize what makes the park unusual: it was the result of efforts to reclaim wilderness rather than to protect undeveloped land. The Smokies have, in fact, been a human habitat for 8,000 years, and that contact has molded the landscape as surely as natural forces have. In this book, Daniel S. Pierce examines land use in the Smokies over the centuries, describing the pageant of peoples who have inhabited these mountains and then focusing on the twentieth-century movement to create a national park. Drawing on previously unexplored archival materials, Pierce presents the most balanced account available of the development of the park. He tells how park supporters set about raising money to buy the land--often from resistant timber companies--and describes the fierce infighting between wilderness advocates and tourism boosters over the shape the park would take. He also discloses the unfortunate human cost of the park's creation: the displacement of the area's inhabitants. Pierce is especially insightful regarding the often-neglected history of the park since 1945. He looks at the problems caused by roadbuilding, tree blight, and air pollution that becomes trapped in the mountains' natural haze. He also provides astute assessments of the Cades Cove restoration, the Fontana Lake road construction, and other recent developments involving the park. Full of outstanding photographs and boasting a breadth of coverage unmatched in other books of its kind, The Great Smokies will help visitors better appreciate the wilderness experience they have sought. Pierce's account makes us more aware of humanity's long interaction with the land while capturing the spirit of those idealistic environmentalists who realized their vision to protect it. The Author: Daniel S. Pierce teaches in the department of history and the humanities program at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, and is a contributor to The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture.

Bringing Nature Home

Bringing Nature Home PDF Author: Douglas W. Tallamy
Publisher: Timber Press
ISBN: 1604691468
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
“With the twinned calamities of climate change and mass extinction weighing heavier and heavier on my nature-besotted soul, here were concrete, affordable actions that I could take, that anyone could take, to help our wild neighbors thrive in the built human environment. And it all starts with nothing more than a seed. Bringing Nature Home is a miracle: a book that summons butterflies." —Margaret Renkl, The Washington Post As development and habitat destruction accelerate, there are increasing pressures on wildlife populations. In his groundbreaking book Bringing Nature Home, Douglas W. Tallamy reveals the unbreakable link between native plant species and native wildlife—native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants. When native plants disappear, the insects disappear, impoverishing the food source for birds and other animals. Luckily, there is an important and simple step we can all take to help reverse this alarming trend: everyone with access to a patch of earth can make a significant contribution toward sustaining biodiversity by simply choosing native plants. By acting on Douglas Tallamy's practical and achievable recommendations, we can all make a difference.

The Nature of Nature

The Nature of Nature PDF Author: Enric Sala
Publisher: Disney Electronic Content
ISBN: 1426221029
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
In this inspiring manifesto, an internationally renowned ecologist makes a clear case for why protecting nature is our best health insurance, and why it makes economic sense.

April 2024: Portraits of Wildlife in their Natural Habitat

April 2024: Portraits of Wildlife in their Natural Habitat PDF Author: Jennifer Beck
Publisher: Jennifer Beck
ISBN:
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 25

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Book Description
Welcome to the April edition of wildlife and nature photography. Journey with me into the heart of nature's canvas as we explore the untamed beauty of creatures flourishing in their natural habitats. Using my Nikon camera, I try to capture the stories of the wild animals we live with in their habitat.