Island of Grass

Island of Grass By Ellen Wohl Boulder: University Press of Colorado, 2009. xiv + 224pp. Diagrams, photos, maps, notes, bibliographic references, glossary, and index. $24.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-87081-963-6.Interest in preserving nature has been a hot topic over the last half century we panic over its loss. Since the mid-1800s, around the onset of Euro-American settlement on the Great Plains, scholars estimate that settlers have usurped 60 80 percent of the shortgrass prairies for grazing, urbanization, and other land uses that alter the natural landscape. Such metamorphosed are now unable house the original flora and fauna that lived in and on these ecosystems. Island of Grass is a case study on a preserved shortgrass prairie located in Fort Collins, Colorado - the Cathy Fromme Prairie Natural Area. city dedicated this open space, which they had reserved in I960 serve a barrier between the cities of Fort Collins and Loveland, preservationist and Councilwoman Cathy Fromme, who passed away from breast cancer in 1992. Anyone interested in geography - the conservation, preservation, and ecology of shortgrass prairie systems - and/or the natural history of Colorado will find this diagram, map, and photo-filled book useful.Ellen Wohl, a professor of geology at Colorado State University, has authored over sixty publications, including six books, with the majority of her publications focusing on aspects of fluvial geomorphology. This book comes both from Word's firsthand observations and her archival research. In 1997, Wohl moved a location just two streets away from Fromme Soon after, she witnessed the carving up of the prairie for the suburban boxy houses so desired by Americans (p. 148). She points out that Americans often regard they do deserts - as wasted lands be exploited or thoroughly remade (p. 180). Indeed, American culture is, Wohl explicates, marked by a lack of appreciation for the interior grasslands (p. 3). Wohl seeks impact such thinking.Wohl's case study adds another volume studies on grassland preservation and ecology she highlights the connectedness among plants and that works in ecosystems like that of the Fromme Prairie (p. 30). Even though the Fromme Prairie is the main study area, Wohl works hard prove that all such islands of grass, regardless of size, should be noticed, preserved, and emotionally possessed (p. 181) and foster a basic respect for the natural environment even if it is not particularly dynamic or exciting (p. 1). In order foster that appreciation, she introduces us to the millions of non-human lives that are lived out on this landscape (p. 6) that form an of nature whereby every element in the system is dependent on another in order sustain life (p. 179).The book is divided into two sections - The Greater Context and The Fromme Prairie. first section details the evolution of the Great Plains that stretch from Alberta, Canada northern Mexico, from deep time, the first inhabitants, on the European settlers, and then a look at the prairies today. This is partially because of the diffusion of invasive plant species. Wohl explains that the state of the prairies today is not only the result of the diffusion of invasive plant species but also of the impact humans had technological advances, the Green Revolution, and different types of land uses developed in the region over time.In Part Two, Wohl explains the complex ecological communities of the Fromme To show that the Fromme Prairie is an intricate web of nature - a system of delicately interdependent elements - Wohl provides the reader with a seasonal tour of the prairie from the perspectives of the many animals and insects that make their homes in this area. …

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.