Grass

by Truett, Joe C.

• ISBN13: 9780520258396
• ISBN10: 0520258398
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-11-03
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Part autobiography, part philosophical rumination, this evocative conservation odyssey explores the deep affinities between humans and our original habitat: grasslands. In a richly drawn, anecdotally driven narrative, Joe C. Truett, a grasslands ecologist who writes with a flair for language, traces the evolutionary, historical, and cultural forces that have reshaped North American rangelands over the past two centuries. He introduces an intriguing cast of characters-wildlife and grasslands biologists, archaeologists, ranchers, and petroleum geologists-to illuminate a wide range of related topics: our love affair with turf and how it manifests in lawns and sports, the ecological and economic dimensions of ranching, the glory of cowboy culture, grasslands and restoration ecology, and more. His book ultimately provides the background against which we can envision a new paradigm for restoring rangeland ecosystems-and a new paradigm for envisioning a more sustainable future.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Prologue	p. xv
Promethean Legacy	p. 1
Out of the Forest	p. 7
Science and Faith	p. 12
Playing God	p. 19
Pleasing to the Eye	p. 23
Where the Short Grass Grows	p. 31
Turf	p. 38
Grass and Grazers: An Ecological Primer	p. 51
Bison Plains and Prairie Dogs	p. 61
Taming of the West	p. 71
Production Science Comes to the Range	p. 83
The Last Pariah	p. 93
The Trouble with Livestock	p. 106
Subsidizing John Wayne	p. 117
Collateral Damage	p. 126
Cowboy	p. 138
Resurrection	p. 145
Pleistocene Park	p. 156
Diversity	p. 167
Long Road Home	p. 177
Epilogue	p. 189
Notes	p. 193
References	p. 199
Index	p. 211
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