I’m still not sure what side this book is on. It seems like it is trying to convince me of something, what that is I’m not exactly sure.
The book is roughly built around the suit brought by the survivors of a late 1960s grizzly bear mortality and it uses this device to introduce the major players in grizzly bear management and Park policy in general during the sixties and seventies.
I have to admit to being fairly uninformed about the history of grizzly bears in the northern rockies and still don’t have too much interest. I enjoyed the book as many of the themes presented seemingly repeat themselves up to this very day. I had to go back and read pieces again as I’d skipped them due to boredom.
What happened is I read a review, when I tried to check it out of my local library it wasn’t there yet, new book, so I put a hold on it and got it when it came in.
There seems to have been a few different types of conservationists at work way back when just like today.
There were the Puritans, who wanted absolutely no messing with plants or animals as exemplified by the Muries of early wolf, carnivore, and other large fauna research mostly at Denali National Park.
Then there were the more pragmatic types as with Starker Leopold who wanted Parks returned to as natural a state as possible but with some manipulation to get there and stay there. (note Starker is my avatar though I know little of his public policy, I like his personal letters to his dad and I like the fact that in the photo his hand is on a hanging Mexican wolf)
There are also the Craighead brothers who were the first intense griz advocates and researchers using radio collars with very effective results. They were maybe too species centric but they were mostly right about bears harassing people once the dumps were closed.
Lastly were the National Park Service managers who wanted natural looking parks and for fewer people to get killed or mauled by grizzlies while at the same time making the place look less like a touristy zoo and more like a showpiece of natural management.
A lot of turf fights and a lot of chewed on people.
The humorous parts were where someone getting chewed immediately becomes a blame the victim game. Things change and other things remain the same.
Maybe get it from the library but I wouldn’t cut down a tree to read it.
www.amazon.com/...
First fatality that I’ve heard of in the US this year just happened this afternoon near West Glacier: www.kpax.com/...