Saving the Big Sky: A Chronicle of Land Conservation in Montana
Autor Bruce A. Bugbee, Robert J. Kiesling, John B. Wright Fotograf Kevin Leagueen Limba Engleză Hardback – 15 iul 2025
Aplicabilitatea practică a volumului Saving the Big Sky rezidă în documentarea metodică a strategiilor de conservare care au permis protejarea a peste șase milioane de acri de teren în Montana. Autorii Bruce A. Bugbee, Robert J. Kiesling și John B. Wright demonstrează că succesul ecologic pe termen lung nu depinde de parcele izolate, ci de menținerea unor peisaje vaste și conectate. Remarcăm modul în care lucrarea echilibrează rigoarea științifică cu necesitățile pragmatice ale proprietarilor de terenuri, punând accent pe servituțile de conservare voluntare și compensate financiar.
Din punct de vedere vizual și cartografic, volumul publicat de Oregon State University Press este impresionant, oferind 30 de hărți „înainte și după” care atestă impactul politicilor de mediu. Din perspectiva analizei comparative, lucrarea extinde cadrul propus de Stitching the West Back Together cu date noi din perioada anilor '70 până în prezent, arătând cum colaborarea între triburi, agenții guvernamentale și organizații nonprofit poate depăși conflictele ideologice. În timp ce Conserving Nature in Greater Yellowstone se concentrează pe evoluția unui ecosistem specific sub incidența legii parcurilor naționale, Saving the Big Sky oferă o viziune mai largă, regională, incluzând zone precum Frontul Munților Stâncoși și Rezervația Indiană Flathead. Putem afirma că textul constituie o resursă esențială pentru înțelegerea mecanismelor prin care drepturile de proprietate privată și conservarea biodiversității pot coexista armonios.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 1962645363
Pagini: 240
Ilustrații: 30 color maps, 94 color photos
Dimensiuni: 229 x 337 x 23 mm
Greutate: 1.59 kg
Editura: Oregon State University Press
Colecția Oregon State University Press
De ce să citești această carte
Această carte se adresează specialiștilor în planificarea teritoriului, ecologiștilor și celor interesați de politici publice de mediu. Cititorul câștigă o înțelegere profundă a modului în care instrumentele juridice voluntare pot proteja habitatele sălbatice fără a încălca drepturile private. Este un studiu de caz esențial despre cum colaborarea comunitară și respectul pentru moștenirea culturală pot salva peisaje de importanță globală.
Despre autor
Bruce A. Bugbee, Robert J. Kiesling și John B. Wright sunt experți recunoscuți în conservarea terenurilor, cu decenii de experiență în administrarea resurselor naturale din vestul american. John B. Wright este cunoscut pentru analizele sale comparative asupra politicilor de conservare, fiind și autorul volumului Rocky Mountain Divide. Kevin League, fotograful care completează echipa, este specializat în capturarea peisajelor vaste și a vieții sălbatice, munca sa fiind fundamentală pentru documentarea vizuală a succeselor ecologice prezentate în acest volum premiat.
Descriere scurtă
Winner of the 2025 Nature and the Environment National Outdoor Book Award
“The essential purpose of Saving the Big Sky is to inspire the reader to help conserve even more of Montana,” write Bruce Bugbee, Robert Kiesling, and John Wright in this compelling study of how six million acres of biodiverse land were conserved in Montana over the past fifty years. Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge about land stewardship has evolved and since the 1970s tribes, nonprofit organizations, land trusts, and government agencies have conserved land in many creative ways. Beautifully illustrated with more than ninety color photographs and thirty detailed maps, Saving the Big Sky showcases land conservation achievements across eight regions of the state: the Rocky Mountain Front, the Blackfoot Valley, the Greater Yellowstone, the Missoula Region, the Helena Region, Northwest Montana, the Flathead Indian Reservation, and the American Prairie.
Land protection is shown to work best when large, intact, connected landscapes can be conserved, rather than small, fragmented, isolated parcels. Conservationists have found that landowners in Montana more widely accept conservation easements and other voluntary, financially compensating tools that respect private property rights. The brilliant images and striking before-and-after maps featured here celebrate the ranches, farms, wildlife habitats, and scenic open spaces that are forever safeguarded.
In documenting conservation accomplishments and suggesting what more can be done, Saving the Big Sky invites readers to participate in conserving Montana—or whatever cherished landscape they call home.
Recenzii
“Montana is robust and precious. Hereabouts we treasure what’s natural and wild. At a time when so many Americans get their notions of the state from a cheesy horse opera titled Yellowstone, it couldn’t be more important to present certain realities—about what’s worth conserving, and how best to conserve that—in a tapestry made vivid not by fantasy but by fact. Bugbee, Kiesling, and Wright do that superbly (with a bit of crucial help from Shane Doyle) in this deeply informed, loving book.” —David Quammen, New York Times bestselling author of The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions
“Saving the Big Sky is a fine blend of history, culture, and land conservation success stories. The beautiful illustrations complement the authors’ inspiring accounts of how a mix of private landowners, tribes, land trusts, and funders have conserved more than six million acres of Montana’s landscapes.” —Tom Daniels, author of The Environmental Planning Handbook: For Sustainable Communities and Regions
“This is an extraordinarily well researched, in-depth history of what led to the creation of the many conservation easements now in place around the state of Montana, and I know it will be referred to for many decades. I found it to be an absolutely fascinating read.” —Land M. Lindbergh, rancher and conservationist
“Conjured from afar, the name Montana rings in the mind like a bell, romantic apotheosis of all that’s wild and fresh about the American West. But those of us who know the state personally understand the enormous effort required to keep Montana the inspirational place it’s been for so long. In Saving the Big Sky, readers from the far away to the nearby now have a superb volume in hand to teach us all just how to keep Montana magical.” —Dan Flores, New York Times bestselling author of Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History and Wild New World: The Epic Story of Animals and People in America
“The maps! They light you right up with hope. In each chapter focused on a key Montana region, you’ll discover a pair of maps contrasting the acreage safeguarded as of 1970 with the total in 2021. This is what a half-century of galloping conservation success looks like: Protected areas proliferate in number and size. More link to others. Whole countrysides—whole ecosystems—become connected through preserved public lands, tribal lands, and impressive arrays of private lands where owners have arranged conservation easements on their property. What’s driving all this? The book offers plenty of case histories and compelling perspectives to help answer the question. Beyond that, well. . . . I reckon most everybody around here just knows that a big sky looks best over unspoiled landscapes.” —Douglas H. Chadwick, author of The Wolverine Way
"This handsome volume tells an invaluable story of how Montanans have collaborated to conserve land and preserve both the state’s natural and cultural heritage." —William Wyckoff, The AAG Review of Books
Notă biografică
Robert J. Kiesling is a real estate broker, conservation consultant, and former executive director of the Montana Environmental Information Center and the Big Sky (Montana/Wyoming) office of The Nature Conservancy.
John B. Wright has completed over one hundred conservation easements in Montana and the Rocky Mountain West and is professor emeritus of geography and environmental studies at New Mexico State University.