Download or read book Between Urban and Wild written by Andrea M. Jones and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her calm, carefully reasoned perspective on place, Andrea Jones focuses on the familiar details of country life balanced by the larger responsibilities that come with living outside an urban boundary. Neither an environmental manifesto nor a prodevelopment defense, Between Urban and Wild operates partly on a practical level, partly on a naturalist’s level. Jones reflects on life in two homes in the Colorado Rockies, first in Fourmile Canyon in the foothills west of Boulder, then near Cap Rock Ridge in central Colorado. Whether negotiating territory with a mountain lion, balancing her observations of the predatory nature of pygmy owls against her desire to protect a nest of nuthatches, working to reduce her property’s vulnerability to wildfire while staying alert to its inherent risks during fire season, or decoding the distinct personalities of her horses, she advances the tradition of nature writing by acknowledging the effects of sprawl on a beloved landscape. Although not intended as a manual for landowners, Between Urban and Wild nonetheless offers useful and engaging perspectives on the realities of settling and living in a partially wild environment. Throughout her ongoing journey of being home, Jones’s close observations of the land and its native inhabitants are paired with the suggestion that even small landholders can act to protect the health of their properties. Her brief meditations capture and honor the subtleties of the natural world while illuminating the importance of working to safeguard it. Probing the contradictions of a lifestyle that burdens the health of the land that she loves, Jones’s writing is permeated by her gentle, earnest conviction that living at the urban-wild interface requires us to set aside self-interest, consider compromise, and adjust our expectations and habits—to accommodate our surroundings rather than force them to accommodate us.
Download or read book Wild Urban Plants of the Northeast written by Peter Del Tredici and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-15 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this field guide to the future, esteemed Harvard University botanist Peter Del Tredici unveils the plants that will become even more dominant in urban environments under projected future environmental conditions. These plants are the most important and most common plants in cities. Learning what they are and the role they play, he writes, will help us all make cities more livable and enjoyable. With more than 1000 photos, readers can easily identify these powerful plants. Learn about the fascinating cultural history of each plant.
Download or read book Urban Wildlife Management Second Edition written by Clark E. Adams and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2012-06-15 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When the first edition of Urban Wildlife Management was published two years ago, it provided conservationists, ecologists, and wildlife professionals with a welcome shift in the way that interactions between humans and wildlife were viewed and managed. Instead of focusing on ways to evict or eradicate wildlife encroached on by urban development, this unique work took a holistic, ecosystems approach. Gathering information from more than five hundred academic sources and the popular media, this book educated us on the complete nature of the problem. See what's new in the Second Edition: New information garnered from secondary data sets Added contributions from an extended list of leading wildlife specialists Original research conducted by the authors and their students New chapters on urban soils, urban waters, and zoonotic diseases More perspective essays and case studies Single species profiles in each chapter that focus on management issues Numerous tables examining trends by species and by region Through discussions of past and present approaches in the United States, the book explores the changing landscape of wildlife management and future approaches. Urban habitats and hazards are defined in terms of green and gray spaces. Sociopolitical issues are discussed in terms of wildlife management, stakeholder responsibilities, and legal considerations. And wildlife are viewed as adaptive inhabitants of an evolving ecosystem rather than as interlopers in a humans only world. The author maintains a blog exploring wildlife in our own backyard.
Download or read book Between Urban and Wild written by Andrea M. Jones and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2013-11 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Andrea Jones focuses on the familiar details of country life balanced by the larger responsibilities that come with living outside an urban boundary. Jones reflects on life in two homes in the Colorado Rockies, first in Fourmile Canyon in the foothills west of Boulder, then near Cap Rock Ridge in central Colorado. Whether negotiating territory with a mountain lion, balancing her observations of the predatory nature of pygmy owls against her desire to protect a nest of nuthatches, working to reduce her property's vulnerability to wildfire while staying alert to its inherent risks during fire season, or decoding the distinct personalities of her horses, she acknowleges the effects of sprawl on a beloved landscape.--from publisher's description.
Download or read book Wild Urban Woodlands written by Ingo Kowarik and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2005-12-05 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a first overview of the phemonemon of post-industrial urban wilderness: urban landscapes once shaped by heavy industry that are being re-colonized naturally by forests. These new types of urban woodlands are often overlooked by ecologists, foresters and planners. Individual chapters consider urban woodlands from the perspectives of ecology, environmental sociology, forestry, nature conservation and landscape architecture.
Download or read book Urban Wildlife Conservation written by Robert A. McCleery and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the past, wildlife living in urban areas were ignored by wildlife professionals and urban planners because cities were perceived as places for people and not for wild animals. Paradoxically, though, many species of wildlife thrive in these built environments. Interactions between humans and wildlife are more frequent in urban areas than any other place on earth and these interactions impact human health, safety and welfare in both positive and negative ways. Although urban wildlife control pest species, pollinate plants and are fun to watch, they also damage property, spread disease and even attack people and pets. In urban areas, the combination of dense human populations, buildings, impermeable surfaces, introduced vegetation, and high concentrations of food, water and pollution alter wildlife populations and communities in ways unseen in more natural environments. For these ecological and practical reasons, researchers and mangers have shown a growing interest in urban wildlife ecology and management. This growing interest in urban wildlife has inspired many studies on the subject that have yet to be synthesized in a cohesive narrative. Urban Wildlife: Theory and Practice fills this void by synthesizing the latest ecological and social knowledge in the subject area into an interdisciplinary and practical text. This volume provides a foundation for the future growth and understanding of urban wildlife ecology and management by: • Clearly defining th e concepts used to study and describe urban wildlife, • Offering a cohesive understanding of the coupled natural and social drivers that shape urban wildlife ecology, • Presenting the patterns and processes of wildlife response to an urbanizing world and explaining the mechanisms behind them and • Proposing means to create physical and social environments that are mutually beneficial for both humans and wildlife.
Download or read book Urban Wildlife Habitats written by Lowell W. Adams and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 1994 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Urban Wildlife Habitats was first published in 1994. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. In cities, towns, and villages, between buildings and parking lots, streets and sidewalks, and polluted streams and rivers, there is ever less space for the "natural," the plants and animals that once were at home across North America. In this first book-length study of the subject, Lowell W. Adams reviews the impact of urban and suburban growth on natural plant and animal communities and reveals how, with appropriate landscape planning and urban development, cities and towns can be made more accommodating for a wide diversity of species, including our own. Soils and ground surface, air, water, and noise pollution, space and demographics are among the urban characteristics Adams considers in relation to wildlife. He describes changes in the composition and structure of vegetation, as native species are replaced by exotic ones, and shows how, with spreading urbanization of natural habitats, the diversity of species of plants and animals almost always declines, although the density of a few species increases. Adams contends, however, that it is possible for a wide variety of species to coexist in the metropolitan environment, and he cites a growing interest in the practice of "natural landscaping," which emphasizes the use of native species and considers the structure, pattern, and species composition of vegetation as it relates to wildlife needs. Urban habitats vary from small city parks in densely built downtowns to suburbs with large yards and considerable open space. Adams discusses the opportunities these areas--along with school yards, hospital grounds, cemeteries, individual residences, and vacant lots--provide for judicious wildlife management and for the salutary interaction of people with nature. Lowell W. Adams is vice president of the National Institute for Urban Wildlife in Columbia, Maryland.
Download or read book The Practice of the Wild written by Gary Snyder and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of captivatingly meditative essays that display a deep understanding of Buddhist belief, wildness, wildlife, and the world from an American cultural force. With thoughts ranging from political and spiritual matters to those regarding the environment and the art of becoming native to this continent, the nine essays in The Practice of the Wild display the deep understanding and wide erudition of Gary Snyder. These essays, first published in 1990, stand as the mature centerpiece of Snyder's work and thought, and this profound collection is widely accepted as one of the central texts on wilderness and the interaction of nature and culture.
Download or read book The Way of Coyote written by Gavin Van Horn and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2018-10-05 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hiking trail through majestic mountains. A raw, unpeopled wilderness stretching as far as the eye can see. These are the settings we associate with our most famous books about nature. But Gavin Van Horn isn’t most nature writers. He lives and works not in some perfectly remote cabin in the woods but in a city—a big city. And that city has offered him something even more valuable than solitude: a window onto the surprising attractiveness of cities to animals. What was once in his mind essentially a nature-free blank slate turns out to actually be a bustling place where millions of wild things roam. He came to realize that our own paths are crisscrossed by the tracks and flyways of endangered black-crowned night herons, Cooper’s hawks, brown bats, coyotes, opossums, white-tailed deer, and many others who thread their lives ably through our own. With The Way of Coyote, Gavin Van Horn reveals the stupendous diversity of species that can flourish in urban landscapes like Chicago. That isn’t to say city living is without its challenges. Chicago has been altered dramatically over a relatively short timespan—its soils covered by concrete, its wetlands drained and refilled, its river diverted and made to flow in the opposite direction. The stories in The Way of Coyote occasionally lament lost abundance, but they also point toward incredible adaptability and resilience, such as that displayed by beavers plying the waters of human-constructed canals or peregrine falcons raising their young atop towering skyscrapers. Van Horn populates his stories with a remarkable range of urban wildlife and probes the philosophical and religious dimensions of what it means to coexist, drawing frequently from the wisdom of three unconventional guides—wildlife ecologist Aldo Leopold, Taoist philosopher Lao Tzu, and the North American trickster figure Coyote. Ultimately, Van Horn sees vast potential for a more vibrant collective of ecological citizens as we take our cues from landscapes past and present. Part urban nature travelogue, part philosophical reflection on the role wildlife can play in waking us to a shared sense of place and fate, The Way of Coyote is a deeply personal journey that questions how we might best reconcile our own needs with the needs of other creatures in our shared urban habitats.
Download or read book The Nature of Cities written by Michael Bennett and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 1999-10 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities are often thought to be separate from nature, but recent trends in ecocriticism demand that we consider them as part of the total environment. This new collection of essays sharpens the focus on the nature of cities by exploring the facets of an urban ecocriticism, by reminding city dwellers of their place in ecosystems, and by emphasizing the importance of this connection in understanding urban life and culture. The editorsÑboth raised in small towns but now living in major urban areasÑare especially concerned with the sociopolitical construction of all environments, both natural and manmade. Following an opening interview with Andrew Ross exploring the general parameters of urban ecocriticism, they present essays that explore urban nature writing, city parks, urban "wilderness," ecofeminism and the city, and urban space. The volume includes contributions on topics as wide-ranging as the urban poetry of English writers from Donne to Gay, the manufactured wildness of a gambling casino, and the marketing of cosmetics to urban women by idealizing Third World "naturalness." These essays seek to reconceive nature and its cultural representations in ways that contribute to understanding the contemporary cityscape. They explore the theoretical issues that arise when one attempts to adopt and adapt an environmental perspective for analyzing urban life. The Nature of Cities offers the ecological component often missing from cultural analyses of the city and the urban perspective often lacking in environmental approaches to contemporary culture. By bridging the historical gap between environmentalism, cultural studies, and urban experience, the book makes a statement of lasting importance to the development of the ecocritical movement. CONTENTS Part 1ÑThe Nature of Cities 1. Urban Ecocriticism: An Introduction, Michael Bennett & David Teague 2. The Social Claim on Urban Ecology, Andrew Ross (interviewed by Michael Bennett) Part 2ÑUrban Nature Writing 3. London Here and Now: Walking, Streets, and Urban Environments in English Poetry from Donne to Gay, Gary Roberts 4. "All Things Natural Are Strange": Audre Lorde, Urban Nature, and Cultural Place, Kathleen R. Wallace 5. Inculcating Wildness: Ecocomposition, Nature Writing, and the Regreening of the American Suburb, Terrell Dixon Part 3ÑCity Parks 6. Writers and Dilettantes: Central Park and the Literary Origins of Antebellum Urban Nature, Adam W. Sweeting 7. Postindustrial Park or Bourgeois Playground? Preservation and Urban Restructuring at Seattle's Gas Works Park, Richard Heyman Part 4ÑUrban "Wilderness" 8. Boyz in the Woods: Urban Wilderness in American Cinema, Andrew Light 9. Central High and the Suburban Landscape: The Ecology of White Flight, David Teague 10. Manufacturing the Ghetto: Anti-urbanism and the Spatialization of Race, Michael Bennett Part 5ÑEcofeminism and the City 11. An Ecofeminist Perspective on the Urban Environment, Catherine Villanueva Gardner 12. "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman": The Political Economy of Contemporary Cosmetics Discourse, Laura L. Sullivan Part 6ÑTheorizing Urban Space 13. Darwin's City, or Life Underground: Evolution, Progress, and the Shapes of Things to Come, Joanne Gottlieb 14. Nature in the Apartment: Humans, Pets, and the Value of Incommensurability, David R. Shumway 15. Cosmology in the Casino: Simulacra of Nature in the Interiorized Wilderness, Michael P. Branch
Download or read book Wild Cities written by Ben Lerwill and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Picture a city. What do you see? Traffic and towering buildings? Or maybe you imagine something a little . . . wilder? These are the astonishing stories of the animals who are adapting to live in our urban world - and how you can help them to thrive. From the pitter-patter of penguins in Cape Town, to the prowl of a leopard in Mumbai, the splash of a seal in Sydney, cities are home to all sorts of unexpected residents. Keep your eyes wide open as as we travel the globe discovering wild cities. With magical illustration and beautiful storytelling, these incredible stories will fascinate every reader who has the travel bug, or is an animal fan, or has ever wondered what else exists in our big cities. Featuring: London, Berlin, Paris, Warsaw, Calgary, New York City, Chicago, Sydney, Beijing, Tokyo, Mumbai, Singapore, Cape Town and Seoul.
Download or read book Wild Animal Neighbors written by Ann Downer and published by Twenty-First Century Books ™. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would you do if you found an alligator in your garage? Or if you spotted a mountain lion downtown? In cities and suburbs around the world, wild creatures are showing up where we least expect them. Not all of them arrive by accident, and some are here to stay. As the human population tops seven billion, animals are running out of space. Their natural habitats are surrounded—and sometimes even replaced—by highways, shopping centers, office parks, and subdivisions. The result? A wildlife invasion of our urban neighborhoods. What kinds of animals are making cities their new home? How can they survive in our ecosystem of concrete, steel, and glass? And what does their presence there mean for their future and ours? Join scientists, activists, and the folks next door on a journey around the globe to track down our newest wild animal neighbors. Discover what is bringing these creatures to our backyards—and how we can create spaces for people and animals to live side by side.
Download or read book Darwin Comes to Town written by Menno Schilthuizen and published by Picador. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Carrion crows in the Japanese city of Sendai have learned to use passing traffic to crack nuts. *Lizards in Puerto Rico are evolving feet that better grip surfaces like concrete. *Europe’s urban blackbirds sing at a higher pitch than their rural cousins, to be heardover the din of traffic. How is this happening? Menno Schilthuizen is one of a growing number of “urban ecologists” studying how our manmade environments are accelerating and changing the evolution of the animals and plants around us. In Darwin Comes to Town, he takes us around the world for an up-close look at just how stunningly flexible and swift-moving natural selection can be. With human populations growing, we’re having an increasing impact on global ecosystems, and nowhere do these impacts overlap as much as they do in cities. The urban environment is about as extreme as it gets, and the wild animals and plants that live side-by-side with us need to adapt to a whole suite of challenging conditions: they must manage in the city’s hotter climate (the “urban heat island”); they need to be able to live either in the semidesert of the tall, rocky, and cavernous structures we call buildings or in the pocket-like oases of city parks (which pose their own dangers, including smog and free-rangingdogs and cats); traffic causes continuous noise, a mist of fine dust particles, and barriers to movement for any animal that cannot fly or burrow; food sources are mainly human-derived. And yet, as Schilthuizen shows, the wildlife sharing these spaces with us is not just surviving, but evolving ways of thriving. Darwin Comes toTown draws on eye-popping examples of adaptation to share a stunning vision of urban evolution in which humans and wildlife co-exist in a unique harmony. It reveals that evolution can happen far more rapidly than Darwin dreamed, while providing a glimmer of hope that our race toward over population might not take the rest of nature down with us.
Download or read book Human Wildlife Interactions written by Beatrice Frank and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-02 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents solutions to turn conflict into tolerance and coexistence, with an emphasis on the human dimensions of human-wildlife interactions.
Download or read book City Critters written by Nicholas Read and published by Orca Book Publishers. This book was released on 2012-04 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the lives of wild animals that live in a North American urban environment--
Download or read book The Urban Bestiary written by Lyanda Lynn Haupt and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2013-09-17 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Crow Planet, a compelling journey into the secret lives of the wild animals at our back door. In The Urban Bestiary, acclaimed nature writer Lyanda Lynn Haupt journeys into the heart of the everyday wild, where coyotes, raccoons, chickens, hawks, and humans live in closer proximity than ever before. Haupt's observations bring compelling new questions to light: Whose "home" is this? Where does the wild end and the city begin? And what difference does it make to us as humans living our everyday lives? In this wholly original blend of science, story, myth, and memoir, Haupt draws us into the secret world of the wild creatures that dwell among us in our urban neighborhoods, whether we are aware of them or not. With beautiful illustrations and practical sidebars on everything from animal tracking to opossum removal, The Urban Bestiary is a lyrical book that awakens wonder, delight, and respect for the urban wild, and our place within it.
Download or read book Feral Cities written by Tristan Donovan and published by Chicago Review Press. This book was released on 2015-04-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We tend to think of cities as a realm apart, somehow separate from nature, but nothing could be further from the truth. In Feral Cities, Tristan Donovan digs below the urban gloss to uncover the wild creatures that we share our streets and homes with, and profiles the brave and fascinating people who try to manage them. Along the way readers will meet the wall-eating snails that are invading Miami, the boars that roam Berlin, and the monkey gangs of Cape Town. From feral chickens and carpet-roaming bugs to coyotes hanging out in sandwich shops and birds crashing into skyscrapers, Feral Cities takes readers on a journey through streets and neighborhoods that are far more alive than we often realize, shows how animals are adjusting to urban living, and asks what messages the wildlife in our metropolises have for us.
