Download or read book Visions of the Tallgrass written by James P. Ronda and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2018-09-13 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In centuries long past, a vast swath of grassland swept down the center of North America, from Canada’s Prairie Provinces to central Texas. This once-plentiful prairie has now all but disappeared. Humans have grazed, mowed, and plowed the plains, dammed the rivers, and imposed their will on the land and its creatures. Fortunately, some remnants have survived, including the Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northeastern Oklahoma. In this visually stunning volume, wildlife photographer Harvey Payne and historian James P. Ronda offer an intimate look at and into one of America’s Last Great Places. Spanning nearly 40,000 acres in Oklahoma’s Osage County, the Preserve is a living witness to a world that once existed. But the Osage prairie is not a museum or theme park—and it is not frozen in time. Under the stewardship of The Nature Conservancy, which has overseen its restoration, the Preserve lives on as a fully functioning ecosystem. And for twenty-five years, Payne and Ronda have explored these lands, together and in solitude. Rendered here in brilliant color and paired with Ronda’s informative yet deeply personal commentary, Payne’s photographs open our eyes to the ever-changing world of the Tallgrass Preserve. In chapters focused on grass, sky, birds, bison, and fire, Ronda and Payne reveal that the “Big Empty” is, in fact, teeming with life. Through interwoven images and words, Visions of the Tallgrass shows that our nation’s grasslands are sacred ground, a priceless piece of our American past—and future.
Download or read book Tallgrass written by Sandra Dallas and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2007-04-03 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential American novel from Sandra Dallas, an unparalleled writer of our history, and our deepest emotions... During World War II, a family finds life turned upside down when the government opens a Japanese internment camp in their small Colorado town. After a young girl is murdered, all eyes (and suspicions) turn to the newcomers, the interlopers, the strangers. This is Tallgrass as Rennie Stroud has never seen it before. She has just turned thirteen and, until this time, life has pretty much been what her father told her it should be: predictable and fair. But now the winds of change are coming and, with them, a shift in her perspective. And Rennie will discover secrets that can destroy even the most sacred things. Part thriller, part historical novel, Tallgrass is a riveting exploration of the darkest--and best--parts of the human heart.
Download or read book Picturing the Prairie written by Philip Juras and published by . This book was released on 2021-05 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fifty-four paintings in this volume celebrate the natural beauty of the rare tallgrass prairie environments of Illinois and the remarkable legacy of conservation that sustains them. Artist and author Philip Juras's evocative canvases are based on extensive research, travel, and time in the field with prairie conservation experts. As a result, his luminous paintings, and his descriptions of them, are rich in ecological and historical detail. An accompanying essay by acclaimed conservationist Stephen Packard tells the story of how the tallgrass prairie ecosystem was, and is, being saved from extinction in Illinois by a series of remarkable individuals and initiatives-efforts that have inspired conservation practices well beyond the state's borders.Picturing the Prairie invites us to get to know these restored landscapes, both within these pages and in the corresponding 2021 exhibition at the Chicago Botanic Garden. In them we can experience the magnificence of this archetypal American grassland, both in its present nature, and as it was in the past.
Download or read book The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook written by Stephen Packard and published by Science and Practice of Ecolog. This book was released on 2005 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TheTallgrass Restoration Handbook is a hands-on manual that provides a detailed account of what has been learned about the art and science of prairie restoration and the application of that knowledge to restoration projects throughout the world. Chapters provide guidance on all aspects of the restoration process, from conceptualization and planning to execution and monitoring. Appendixes present hard-to-find data on plants and animals of the prairies, seed collection dates, propagation methods, sources of seeds and equipment, and more. Also included is a key to restoration options that provides detailed instructions for specific types of projects and a comprehensive glossary of restoration terms. Written by those whose primary work is actually the making of prairies, The Tallgrass Restoration Handbook explores a myriad of restoration philosophies and techniques and is an essential resource for anyone working to nurture our once vibrant native landscapes back to a state of health.
Download or read book In the Tall Grass written by Stephen King and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-10-09 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now a major motion picture streaming on Netflix! Mile 81 meets “N.” in this novella collaboration between Stephen King and Joe Hill. As USA TODAY said of Stephen King’s Mile 81: “Park and scream. Could there be any better place to set a horror story than an abandoned rest stop?” In the Tall Grass begins with a sister and brother who pull off to the side of the road after hearing a young boy crying for help from beyond the tall grass. Within minutes they are disoriented, in deeper than seems possible, and they’ve lost one another. The boy’s cries are more and more desperate. What follows is a terrifying, entertaining, and masterfully told tale, as only Stephen King and Joe Hill can deliver.
Download or read book Living in the Tall Grass written by R. Stacey Laforme and published by Every River Poems. This book was released on 2018-01-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Living in the Tall Grass: Poems of Reconciliation, Chief Stacey Laforme gives a history of his people through stories and poetry to let Canadians see through the eyes of Indigenous people. Chief Laforme's universal message is, "We should not have to change to fit into society the world should adapt to embrace our uniqueness."
Download or read book The Vision Keepers written by Doug Alderson and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are all seekers. Some find their path on pilgrimage to the Mahabodhi Temple in India or the Haji Ali mausoleum as they embark on a journey to Mecca; others find God at the burial site of St. James in the Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. Author and environmentalist Doug Alderson meets the Great Spirit through the ancient spiritual practice of walking. The Vision Keepers is the compelling true story of a seeker who, under the guidance of Bear Heart, a Muskogee Creek Indian and Medicine Man, finds unity with our nation’s native people and reconnects with the earth through profound and mysterious means. At a time when our global community is in great conflict, we can learn much from Native Americans. The Vision Keepers not only recounts the story of one man’s experience with native people and their spirituality, but it offers unique insight into the struggles of an entire culture, personal reconciliation, world peace, and preservation of the Earth and its ancient wisdom.
Download or read book Chirri Chirra written by Kaya Doi and published by Chirri & Chirra. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first in a wonderfully imaginative series about two girls that is marked by revealing and lyrical small details.
Download or read book Tallgrass Conversations written by Cindy Crosby and published by . This book was released on 2019-04-23 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through short writings and photographs, Cindy Crosby and Thomas Deanenter a conversation to inspire in readers new understandings of the Midwesterntallgrass prairie through word and image. Tallgrass Conversations encourageslooking and listening to the prairie through the heart and mind as well as eyes,ears, and other senses, advancing both conservation and creative efforts on behalf of the tallgrass prairie.
Download or read book Visions of Paradise written by John Warfield Simpson and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1999-04-15 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book synthesizes views of America's changing environment, and the Ideal of that environment, from the time of the Founding Fathers to the present. It is an exceptionally engaging account of American attitudes toward pristine and altered landscapes which they encountered, settled in, modified, and moved westward from during the last three centuries.
Download or read book A New Garden Ethic written by Benjamin Vogt and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a time of climate change and mass extinction, how we garden matters more than ever: “An outstanding and deeply passionate book.” —Marc Bekoff, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals Plenty of books tell home gardeners and professional landscape designers how to garden sustainably, what plants to use, and what resources to explore. Yet few examine why our urban wildlife gardens matter so much—not just for ourselves, but for the larger human and animal communities. Our landscapes push aside wildlife and in turn diminish our genetically programmed love for wildness. How can we get ourselves back into balance through gardens, to speak life's language and learn from other species? Benjamin Vogt addresses why we need a new garden ethic, and why we urgently need wildness in our daily lives—lives sequestered in buildings surrounded by monocultures of lawn and concrete that significantly harm our physical and mental health. He examines the psychological issues around climate change and mass extinction as a way to understand how we are short-circuiting our response to global crises, especially by not growing native plants in our gardens. Simply put, environmentalism is not political; it's social justice for all species marginalized today and for those facing extinction tomorrow. By thinking deeply and honestly about our built landscapes, we can create a compassionate activism that connects us more profoundly to nature and to one another.
Download or read book Visions of the Land written by Michael A. Bryson and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2002-06-29 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The work of John Charles Fremont, Richard Byrd, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, John Wesley Powell, Susan Cooper, Rachel Carson, and Loren Eiseley represents a widely divergent body of writing. Yet despite their range of genres—including exploration narratives, technical reports, natural histories, scientific autobiographies, fictional utopias, nature writing, and popular scientific literature—these seven authors produced strikingly connected representations of nature and the practice of science in America from about 1840 to 1970. Michael A. Bryson provides a thoughtful examination of the authors, their work, and the ways in which science and nature unite them. Visions of the Land explores how our environmental attitudes have influenced and been shaped by various scientific perspectives from the time of western expansion and geographic exploration in the mid-nineteenth century to the start of the contemporary environmental movement in the twentieth century. Bryson offers a literary-critical analysis of how writers of different backgrounds, scientific training, and geographic experiences represented nature through various kinds of natural science, from natural history to cartography to resource management to ecology and evolution, and in the process, explored the possibilities and limits of science itself. Visions of the Land examines the varied, sometimes conflicting, but always fascinating ways in which we have defined the relations among science, nature, language, and the human community. Ultimately, it is an extended meditation on the capacity of using science to live well within nature.
Download or read book The Emerald Horizon written by Cornelia F. Mutel and published by University of Iowa Press. This book was released on 2008-03 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Emerald Horizon, Cornelia Mutel combines lyrical writing with meticulous scientific research to portray the environmental past, present, and future of Iowa. In doing so, she ties all of Iowa's natural features into one comprehensive whole. Since so much of the tallgrass state has been transformed into an agricultural landscape, Mutel focuses on understanding today’s natural environment by understanding yesterday’s changes. After summarizing the geological, archaeological, and ecological features that shaped Iowa’s modern landscape, she recreates the once-wild native communities that existed prior to Euroamerican settlement. Next she examines the dramatic changes that overtook native plant and animal communities as Iowa’s prairies, woodlands, and wetlands were transformed. Finally she presents realistic techniques for restoring native species and ecological processes as well as a broad variety of ways in which Iowans can reconnect with the natural world. Throughout, in addition to the many illustrations commissioned for this book, she offers careful scientific exposition, a strong sense of respect for the land, and encouragement to protect the future by learning from the past. The “emerald prairie” that “gleamed and shone to the horizon’s edge,” as botanist Thomas Macbride described it in 1895, has vanished. Cornelia Mutel’s passionate dedication to restoring this damaged landscape—and by extension the transformed landscape of the entire Corn Belt—invigorates her blend of natural history and human history. Believing that citizens who are knowledgeable about native species, communities, and ecological processes will better care for them, she gives us hope—and sound suggestions—for the future.
Download or read book Surviving Your Serengeti written by Stefan Swanepoel and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2011-02-04 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Praise for SURVIVING YOUR SERENGETI "One of a kind. You'll actually know more about yourself after you read this book." KEN BLANCHARD coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and Leading at a Higher Level "Beautifully illustrates nature's basic survival strategies and how they help you create a sense of meaning and purpose." SUSAN SCOTT New York Times bestselling coauthor of Fierce Conversations 7 Questions This Book Tackles 1. Are you experiencing a challenge that you wish to overcome? 2. Do you want to discover your hidden survival skills? 3. Do you have a goal you have yet to achieve? 4. Would you like to discover your instinctive strengths? 5. Can you benefit from problem-solving thinking? 6. Do you know someone who has potential to excel? 7. Are you looking for a positive message to share?
Download or read book Grassland Dynamics written by Alan K. Knapp and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 1998 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first volume in the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Series. Established in 1980, the LTER program is exploring a wide variety of biomes characteristic of the United States and developing a baseline for ecosystem dynamics over long time periods and broad spatial scales. The volumes in this series will include both comprehensive reviews of research from particular sites and topical overviews which use data from many sites to examine important questions in ecology. This volume, which focuses on the Konza Prairie in northeastern Kansas, is a synthesis of over 15 years of research in pristine tallgrass prairie. It gives a comprehensive site description and summarizes the key long-term studies that form the basis for the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research Program. It then presents a synthesis of the many research areas involved and develops a foundation for future ecological studies in tallgrass prairie. With over 150 figures and tables, chapters that encompass microbial through landscape scales, and an emphasis on lessons learned from long-term studies, this volume provides a unique and comprehensive perspective on the structural and functional ecology of the grassland ecosystem that once covered most of central North America.
Download or read book The Nature of Nebraska written by Paul A. Johnsgard and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where the eastern and western currents of American life merge as smoothly as one river flows into another is a place called Nebraska. There we find the Platte, a river that gave sustenance to the countless migrants who once trudged westward along the Mormon and Oregon trails. We find the Sandhills, a vast region of sandy grassland that represents the largest area of dunes and the grandest and least disturbed region of mixed-grass prairies in all the Western Hemisphere. And, below it all, we find the Ogallala aquifer, the largest potential source of unpolluted water anywhere. ø These ecological treasures are all part of the nature of Nebraska. With characteristic clarity, energy, and charm, Paul A. Johnsgard guides us through Nebraska?s incredible biodiversity, introducing us to each ecosystem and the flora and fauna it sustains and inviting us to contemplate the purpose and secrets of the natural world as we consider our own roles and responsibilities in our connection with it.
Download or read book Natural Visions written by Finis Dunaway and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-12-20 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Walden Pond. The Grand Canyon.Yosemite National Park. Throughout the twentieth century, photographers and filmmakers created unforgettable images of these and other American natural treasures. Many of these images, including the work of Ansel Adams, continue to occupy a prominent place in the American imagination. Making these representations, though, was more than a purely aesthetic project. In fact, portraying majestic scenes and threatened places galvanized concern for the environment and its protection. Natural Visions documents through images the history of environmental reform from the Progressive era to the first Earth Day celebration in 1970, showing the crucial role the camera played in the development of the conservation movement. In Natural Visions, Finis Dunaway tells the story of how visual imagery—such as wilderness photographs, New Deal documentary films, and Sierra Club coffee-table books—shaped modern perceptions of the natural world. By examining the relationship between the camera and environmental politics through detailed studies of key artists and activists, Dunaway captures the emotional and spiritual meaning that became associated with the American landscape. Throughout the book, he reveals how photographers and filmmakers adapted longstanding traditions in American culture—the Puritan jeremiad, the romantic sublime, and the frontier myth—to literally picture nature as a place of grace for the individual and the nation. Beautifully illustrated with photographs by Ansel Adams, Eliot Porter, and a host of other artists, Natural Visions will appeal to a wide range of readers interested in American cultural history, the visual arts, and environmentalism.
