Review by Choice Review
Franke (a professional writer) provides a detailed and slow-moving account of the tortuous 120-year history of the battles between Yellowstone National Park, Native Americans, ranchers, and environmental advocates. The story does not progress toward a resolution but circles endlessly, crossing the same ground again and again. Few general readers outside Montana will find that the book captures their interest, and its primary audience will be undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals with an interest in the bureaucratic and legal history of the conflict. The book is carefully annotated with many black-and-white illustrations and graphs, and the index is extensive. There is no bibliography, but the author provides 32 selected references. The language is not technical, and all terms are carefully explained so that general readers and undergraduates will not find the book difficult to read. Although the author has tried to be evenhanded, Western readers may perceive a bias against ranching and snowmobiling interests. ^BSumming Up: Optional. All levels. T. C. Williams emeritus, Swarthmore College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
The only truly wild bison left in the U.S. are in Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone's bison descend from fewer than 100 animals, the last free-roaming bison in the country, and are untainted by crossbreeding with cattle. From the early 1900s to the 1960s, the bison were managed by culling the herds, but from then on the idea of natural control has taken hold and bison numbers have grown. At some point early in the last century, bison were infected with the cattle disease brucellosis, which causes spontaneous abortion. The stage was now set for the conflict--Yellowstone's growing bison herd, members of which sometimes leave the park in winter to find food, versus Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho's cattle industries, which don't want possibly infected bison to come into contact with their cattle. Franke, a nine-year employee of Yellowstone, writes an in-depth history of the bison controversy, covering both the ecological and political aspects and all sides of the question. --Nancy Bent Copyright 2005 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Wild bison, better known as buffalo, are closely associated with this country's natural heritage, yet little attention is paid to the fact that most are no longer truly wild. In this lucid account of the controversy over how to maintain the bison in Yellowstone National Park, Franke (Yellowstone in the Afterglow: Lessons from the Fires) shows that keeping the animals in natural conditions is almost impossible. Park officials must balance competing interests-Indian tribes for whom the bison are an important religious symbol; environmentalists who oppose any control of the bison's movements; property owners who suffer when the animals roam outside the park; ranchers who fear the bison will transmit disease to cattle. Many management policies have been tried: the bison's movements are monitored; diseased animals are culled; wanderers found outside the park's boundaries are slaughtered. All these activities threaten the wild bison in Yellowstone-not with extinction, but with loss of their wildness. The author considers each option in depth, finding that so far there are no satisfactory solutions. She does, however, present plenty of food for thought as she explores the ramifications of humankind's desire and ability to control natural processes. 26 b&w illus., 4 maps. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Franke (Yellowstone in the Afterglow: Lessons from the Fires) has worked at Yellowstone National Park for nine summers and knows firsthand the complex issues surrounding wildlife-livestock disease. In her latest book, she maintains that the brucellosis bacteria through which bison threaten Western ranch cattle has probably been around as long as the bison themselves. Franke begins with the history of human-bison relations in North America and the establishment of Yellowstone's famous bison herd; additional chapters on predators, snowmobiling, and native North American culture illustrate the variety of influences on the bison population, but most of the text is devoted to the bison's threat to livestock. Franke offers a well-documented work, but her bias is sometimes difficult to ignore: she is at times critical of both environmentalists and the livestock industry, siding only with the bison themselves. Olson, a Canadian park warden, has written a brief field guide to the bison, the bulk of which identifies these animals by gender and at various stages of maturity. Aimed at bison watchers and Western outdoor enthusiasts, the book contains a rich array of images and anatomical illustrations by equine photographer Janelle. The sheer number of these images, however, overpowers Olson's behavioral notes, safety tips for bison watching, and other textual matter. While Franke's book is recommended for agriculture and zoology collections, libraries can pass on Olson's book. For more in-depth coverage of this subject, see Dale F. Lott's American Bison: A Natural History, which also includes photographs depicting the mammal's physical and behavioral characteristics, and Andrew C. Isenberg's The Destruction of the Bison: An Environmental History, 1750- 1920.-Alvin Hutchinson, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
