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"When Steve Packard first saw the abandoned tract of land along the north branch of the Chicago River, it was choked by weedy brush and strewn with mattresses, car seats, and other debris of human civilization. Vestal Grove, once a thriving habitat with its tallgrass and ancient oaks, had been beaten down to the vanishing point. But Packard, a charismatic, modern-day Thoreau and a man with an extraordinary vision, was determined to overcome the odds and rescue Vestal Grove from the edge of oblivion. To do so, he had to uncover its ecological secrets. Little did he know how wondrous those secrets would be." "Beginning in 1977, Packard and a small platoon of volunteers started clearing the land on a series of ecologically shattered prairie remnants in the heart of suburban Chicago. As they worked, Vestal Grove stunningly revealed itself to be a long-lost ecosystem no one realized had existed. Neither prairie nor forest, Vestal Grove was part of a third type of living community - one whose web of life was so finely tuned that only certain plants and animals could live in its unique dapple of sunlight and shade. The challenge now was to restore this ecosystem as closely as possible to its condition before the first white settlers had appeared, and provide a haven where uncommon and threatened species could recover and thrive." "Driven by their passion for nature, the restorationists cut through tangles of Bureaucratic red tape, only to discover they faced even greater frustrations as flora and fauna they had planted at first refused to flourish. Crawling on hands and knees in a futile search for blossoming plants, Steve Packard feared the dream was lost. Then the restorationists stumbled upon the answer - a Rosetta stone of the ecosystem that held the secret to success, and to more unexpected victories. Armed with their newfound knowledge, the restorationists painstakingly scoured the countryside for the seeds they needed to rebuild Vestal Grove. They discovered rare species, many on the verge of extinction, clinging to life like refugees - along railroad tracks, in vacant lots, and at the edges of cemeteries. Miraculously, the dream seemed possible again...."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (más)
A nice find. Uses the example of oak savanna restoration in the Chicago area as a starting point for introducing the reader to the idea of why different landscapes are important to save. Many people now are familiar with prairie restorations and tend to think savannas are just a prairie with a few more trees. However, there are bird and insect species which specialize, and require, this tree/open mix. Much of the book describes the work of Steve Packard in beginning restoration work, mainly under the auspices of The Nature Conservancy, and the team of volunteers he gathered for ongoing involvement which turned out to be vital for restoring savanna patches. It appears Chicago, despite being a large metropolis, had areas of "parks" which were large enough to maintain some rare plants and that, once invasive buckthorn and honeysuckle were removed, more savanna plants sprouted from seeds in the soil just waiting for the right conditions. Of course not every place was so fortunate--some had been overused so that wild seeds needed to be hand gathered elsewhere and sown. Some mention was made of restoration efforts in other parts of the country--California, Arizona,Florida, for example--but the real focus really is on Illinois. The book would be useful for people wanting to develop volunteer workers, as it tells what worked and what didn't in how the volunteer groups were developed and managed. He ties in E O Wilson's term "biophilia" to discuss why involvement with nature was so appealing to people. This book didn't tell me much that was new about ecology, so I skimmed over some of those sections, but learning about the specific Illinois project was something I could learn from. I wish he had provided an index, as he made occasional reference to other leaders I was familiar with, e.g. Wisconsinites Curtis, Aldo Leopold, Alan Haney. The appendix included a list of plants (thankfully including Latin names with the common), references, and contact list for volunteering (out of date by now, but gives an indication of where to search). The line drawings were beautiful section illustrations. ( )
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
To Joan, Jim, Elizabeth, and All Who Come After
Primeras palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
Vestal Grove has not always been the magical spot it is today.
[Introduction] For tens of thousands of years, at least, humans have molded the earth and altered the surroundings--and thus the existence--of their fellow living creatures.
Citas
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
To most people, 'nature is what they experienced when they were 13 years old,"...not pristine nature at all, but rather an altered form of nature...thickets of buckthorn, hwathorn, and dogwood that overran the prairie and savanna in the absence of natural fires became, in the minds of most people, true nature.... settlers had essentially interrupted and suppressed a long, ancient, postglacial evolutionary progression that had produced the wondrously diverse biological assemblages of the prairies and savannas. The goal of restoration...[was to] allow presettlement ecological processes to reestablish themselves.
"ecological restoration has more to do with readjusting the relationship of people to the landscape than with the botanical relationships that take place."
Últimas palabras
Información procedente del conocimiento común inglés.Edita para encontrar en tu idioma.
That is perhaps the least and the most anybody can do. It is a lot.
"When Steve Packard first saw the abandoned tract of land along the north branch of the Chicago River, it was choked by weedy brush and strewn with mattresses, car seats, and other debris of human civilization. Vestal Grove, once a thriving habitat with its tallgrass and ancient oaks, had been beaten down to the vanishing point. But Packard, a charismatic, modern-day Thoreau and a man with an extraordinary vision, was determined to overcome the odds and rescue Vestal Grove from the edge of oblivion. To do so, he had to uncover its ecological secrets. Little did he know how wondrous those secrets would be." "Beginning in 1977, Packard and a small platoon of volunteers started clearing the land on a series of ecologically shattered prairie remnants in the heart of suburban Chicago. As they worked, Vestal Grove stunningly revealed itself to be a long-lost ecosystem no one realized had existed. Neither prairie nor forest, Vestal Grove was part of a third type of living community - one whose web of life was so finely tuned that only certain plants and animals could live in its unique dapple of sunlight and shade. The challenge now was to restore this ecosystem as closely as possible to its condition before the first white settlers had appeared, and provide a haven where uncommon and threatened species could recover and thrive." "Driven by their passion for nature, the restorationists cut through tangles of Bureaucratic red tape, only to discover they faced even greater frustrations as flora and fauna they had planted at first refused to flourish. Crawling on hands and knees in a futile search for blossoming plants, Steve Packard feared the dream was lost. Then the restorationists stumbled upon the answer - a Rosetta stone of the ecosystem that held the secret to success, and to more unexpected victories. Armed with their newfound knowledge, the restorationists painstakingly scoured the countryside for the seeds they needed to rebuild Vestal Grove. They discovered rare species, many on the verge of extinction, clinging to life like refugees - along railroad tracks, in vacant lots, and at the edges of cemeteries. Miraculously, the dream seemed possible again...."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Much of the book describes the work of Steve Packard in beginning restoration work, mainly under the auspices of The Nature Conservancy, and the team of volunteers he gathered for ongoing involvement which turned out to be vital for restoring savanna patches. It appears Chicago, despite being a large metropolis, had areas of "parks" which were large enough to maintain some rare plants and that, once invasive buckthorn and honeysuckle were removed, more savanna plants sprouted from seeds in the soil just waiting for the right conditions. Of course not every place was so fortunate--some had been overused so that wild seeds needed to be hand gathered elsewhere and sown. Some mention was made of restoration efforts in other parts of the country--California, Arizona,Florida, for example--but the real focus really is on Illinois.
The book would be useful for people wanting to develop volunteer workers, as it tells what worked and what didn't in how the volunteer groups were developed and managed. He ties in E O Wilson's term "biophilia" to discuss why involvement with nature was so appealing to people. This book didn't tell me much that was new about ecology, so I skimmed over some of those sections, but learning about the specific Illinois project was something I could learn from. I wish he had provided an index, as he made occasional reference to other leaders I was familiar with, e.g. Wisconsinites Curtis, Aldo Leopold, Alan Haney. The appendix included a list of plants (thankfully including Latin names with the common), references, and contact list for volunteering (out of date by now, but gives an indication of where to search). The line drawings were beautiful section illustrations. (