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The Land between the Lakes is a sprawling 170,000-acre nature preserve in southeastern Kentucky. This beautifully illustrated guide highlights the vast herds of elk and bison in the region and over 100 familiar and unique species of animals and plants inhabiting this pristine preserve. Created in collaboration with the Land Between the Lakes Association, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this guide support its important work. Laminated for durability, this lightweight, pocket-sized fold...

Grassland covers 26 per cent of the world's total land area. It produces feed for livestock; maintains soil fertility; protects and conserves soil and water resources; creates a habitat for wildlife; provides recreational space for sport and leisure and contributes to the general landscape. This book provides an up-to-date account of progress and potential in the genetic improvement of grassland to meet all needs. It encompasses work on a wide range of temperate and tropical grassland species (i...

This book brings together two aspects of grassland soil management which, by and large, have hitherto been considered separately. Issues related to nutrient cycling and soil quality have dominated research directed towards aiding broad and local scale policy issues for improving land use. Protecting the environment and maintaining/preserving natural habitats and biodiversity, tend to be considered separately. In this book we attempt to bring what are, in reality, inseparable aspects of grassland...

For thirty years David Campbell has been conducting ecological studies in the Brazilian Amazon. It is a place of extraordinary abundance: in the eighteen hectares of rainforest Campbell has studied are 20,000 individual trees of about 2,000 species - three times as many species of trees as there are in all of North America. And each tree is an ecosystem in itself, bearing fungi, lichens, mosses, reptiles, mammals, birds, spiders, scorpions, beetles and uncountable legions of insects. Campbell kn...

The A World to Preserve series brings together breathtaking landscapes, inspiring quotes, and infographics about environmental issues that take the reader on a journey through the depths of the earth. "We really have the most beautiful planet in our solar system. None other can sustain life like we know it. None other has blue water and white clouds covering colorful landmasses filled with thriving, beautiful, living things like human beings." - Sunita Williams The mesmerising pictures in The Ea...

This book offers a series of interviews with Canadian ranchers that highlight the innovative and effective ways that they manage vast swaths of grassland for two complementary goals: commercial viability and sustainable habitats. The book’s author is an academic who grew up among ranchers in the grasslands of Canada, and the expertise and viewpoints she has distilled from these interviews complement the academic literature in accessible and surprising ways . As these productive landscapes face i...

This engaging volume explores the management of fire in one of the world's most flammable landscapes: Australia's tropical savannas, where on average 18% of the landscape is burned annually. Impacts have been particularly severe in the Arnhem Land Plateau, a centre of plant and animal diversity on Indigenous land. Culture, Ecology and Economy of Fire Management in North Australian Savannas documents a remarkable collaboration between Arnhem Land's traditional landowners and the scientific commun...

From Abronia to Zinnia, Jewels of the Plains describes the natural history and garden merits of more than five hundred Great Plains wildflowers. Considered the authoritative guide by native plant enthusiasts and horticulturists, it captures the unique beauty, resilience, and variety of wildflowers in the Great Plains. Claude A. Barr did not set out to be a writer. In 1910, he homesteaded 160 acres of prairie in the southwest corner of South Dakota, intending to become a farmer. Despite challeng...

This book by the renowned naturalist and writer Paul A. Johnsgard tells the complex biological and environmental story of the western Great Plains under the black-tailed prairie dog’s reign—and then under a brief but devastating century of human dominion.  An introduction to the ecosystem of the shortgrass prairie, Prairie Dog Empire describes in clear and detailed terms the habitat and habits of black-tailed prairie dogs; their subsistence, seasonal behavior, and the makeup of their vast coloni...

A holistic approach to analyzing distinct grassland habitats that integrates ecological, historical, and archaeological data.   Today the southeastern United States is a largely rural, forested, and agricultural landscape interspersed with urban areas of development. However, two centuries ago it contained hundreds of thousands of acres of natural grasslands that stretched from Florida to Texas. Now more than 99 percent of these prairies, glades, and savannas have been plowed up or paved over,...

America's Great Plains once possessed one of the grandest wildlife spectacles of the world, equaled only by such places as the Serengeti, the Masai Mara, or the veld of South Africa. Pronghornantelope, gray wolves, bison, coyotes, wild horses, and grizzly bears: less than two hundred years ago these creatures existed insuch abundance that John James Audubon was moved to write, "it is impossible to describe or even conceive the vast multitudesof these animals." In a work that is at once a lyric...