Engineering Eden: A Violent Death, a Federal Trial, and the Struggle to Restore Nature in Our National Parks
Mar 2019 · The Experiment
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"Weaves together a dramatic court case in Los Angeles, a grizzly-bear attack, and a surprisingly fascinating debate . . . a thrilling read." — The Wall Street Journal
Winner of the California Book Award, Silver Medal for Nonfiction
Longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Literary Science Writing
One of Outside magazine's 10 Outdoor Books that Shaped the Last Decade
In the summer of 1972, twenty-five-year-old Harry Eugene Walker hitchhiked away from his family's northern Alabama dairy farm to see America. Nineteen days later, he was killed by an endangered grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. The ensuing civil trial, brought against the US Department of the Interior for alleged mismanagement of the park's grizzly population, emerged as a referendum on how America's most beloved wild places should be conserved. Two of the twentieth century's greatest wildlife biologists testified—on opposite sides.
Moving across decades and among Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, and Sequoia National Parks, former park ranger Jordan Fisher Smith has crafted an epic, emotionally wrenching account of America's fraught, century-and-a-half-long attempt to remake Eden—in the name of saving it.
"This meticulously investigated history of Yellowstone and its wildlife management problems should appeal to fans of Jack Olsen's classic Night of the Grizzlies." — Library Journal
"A wonderful book . . . Smith uses [Walker's death] as a narrative focal point to explore science, policy making, bureaucracy, ego, even the law, and when he explores something he goes deep." —John M. Barry, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Great Influenza
"First-rate storytelling." — Seattle Times
Winner of the California Book Award, Silver Medal for Nonfiction
Longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Literary Science Writing
One of Outside magazine's 10 Outdoor Books that Shaped the Last Decade
In the summer of 1972, twenty-five-year-old Harry Eugene Walker hitchhiked away from his family's northern Alabama dairy farm to see America. Nineteen days later, he was killed by an endangered grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. The ensuing civil trial, brought against the US Department of the Interior for alleged mismanagement of the park's grizzly population, emerged as a referendum on how America's most beloved wild places should be conserved. Two of the twentieth century's greatest wildlife biologists testified—on opposite sides.
Moving across decades and among Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, and Sequoia National Parks, former park ranger Jordan Fisher Smith has crafted an epic, emotionally wrenching account of America's fraught, century-and-a-half-long attempt to remake Eden—in the name of saving it.
"This meticulously investigated history of Yellowstone and its wildlife management problems should appeal to fans of Jack Olsen's classic Night of the Grizzlies." — Library Journal
"A wonderful book . . . Smith uses [Walker's death] as a narrative focal point to explore science, policy making, bureaucracy, ego, even the law, and when he explores something he goes deep." —John M. Barry, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Great Influenza
"First-rate storytelling." — Seattle Times
"Weaves together a dramatic court case in Los Angeles, a grizzly-bear attack, and a surprisingly fascinating debate . . . a thrilling read." — The Wall Street Journal
Winner of the California Book Award, Silver Medal for Nonfiction
Longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award for Literary Science W...
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B. G. white
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September 25, 2019
Gives the history of Yellowstone, its plants and animals with a interwoven story leading to the attack on Harry Walker and the later effects.
About the author
Jordan Fisher Smith worked for 21 years as a park ranger in California, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska. The author of Nature Noir and narrator of the documentary Under Our Skin, he has written for The New Yorker, Men's Journal, and many other outlets.Jack E. Davis won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for History for The Gulf: The Making of an American Sea.
Jordan Fisher Smith worked for 21 years as a park ranger in California, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska. The author of Nature Noir and narrator of the documentary Under Our Skin, he has written for The New Yorker, Men's Journal, and many other outlets.Jack E. Davis won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Hist...
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