Review by Choice Review
La Frontera, defined as the US/Mexico borderlands, cuts a 200-kilometer-wide by 3100-kilometer-long swath across North America. This arbitrarily defined transect (100 kilometers on either side of the border) includes portions of six major floristic provinces. Though plants seldom honor political boundaries, people do and human activities along the borderlands are the principal focus of the 12 contributions to this volume. Based on five papers given at a symposium sponsored by the Botanical Society of America in 1995, with additional invited papers, the work contains review articles and original research (some of which dates from 1990). Fire and grazing are the most important influences on the vegetation of La Frontera, and both are closely tied to human activities. The different histories of fire and grazing management practices on either side of the border are the subject of most of the contributions. An analysis of the oak species of La Frontera with a taxonomic treatment (appendix) of those occurring in the Sierra Madre Occidental complements the otherwise exclusively ecological papers. This focus on a politically sensitive region is timely. Recommended for biology collections, and potentially of interest to anthropology, Latin American studies, and political science programs. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals. L. J. Dorr Smithsonian Institution
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
