R. Edward Grumbine

I was excited to see the title "Thinking like a Mountain", a phrase popular by Aldo Leopold in his book "A Sand County Almanac". Leopold is known as the father of wildlife ecology and the United States' wilderness system.

R. Edward Grumbine is passionate when stating there is, "no endangered ecosystem act" and he writes, "from an ecosystem perspective, people are uterly dependent on biodiversity but so far, biological or economic meta-analyses to the consequenes of reducing biodiversity have not done much to alter peoples everyday behavior."

When I'm not blogging, I enjoy hiking at preserves and praries and this book provides a wealth of information that I was not aware of. There's a section on page 39 which explains that not all species benefit from edges and that forest songbirds have seen declines. Grumbine goes on to explain, "nest predation and parasitism increase dramatically near the edge of habitat patches. Much of this is because of increased population of racoons, skunks, opossums, and other middle-sized ominovores that thrive in fragmented landscapes."

Anyone who hikes the same preserve over a period of time will notice change. It's simply impossible not to. Up north of us, once stood sand dunes and praries with grasses and flowers. Between the dunes were wetlands with mucky, rich soil. These areas harbored a diverse landscape of rare plants and animals but today are a mere shadow of what they once were as fragmentation and land developement changed the landscape - trees crowded, groundwater levels flucuated, and invasive plants caused change to the landscape.

A thought provoking detail in the book reminds us, "Humans discount species that are difficult to interact with, that do their work unseen- spiders, soil, inverteb rates, mycorrhizal, fungi, insects and so on."

Unfortunately, the emerald ash borer, an exotic beetle from Asia, attacked the ash trees here causing a large precentage to fall or be removed. In cases where the trees are diseased or weak, removal will aid in providing more sunlight for rare plants to thrive. However, this must be watched closely to make sure invasive plants are contained. The “American Reinvestment and Recovery Act” of 2009 has helped begin the restoration of habitats with other native trees.

Yes, the natural world is a community to which we all belong and as the author eloquently points out, "Mountains may be silent, but they also lift the human spirit, they are role models for the long run and the far-reaching view.

I thought this was a very good Ebook....the author does refer to his previous book Ghost Bears...and you can tell all his books are a labor of love. This book does provide a few images and ilustrations that are also enjoyable. I reviewed this book for Island Press and Net Galley.… (meer)

This is my first review here, let’s see how I do! Now that I am reviewing, I wonder how many other people are writing the same (or similar) things as I am. Before starting this brief text, one probably wonders: what does a mountain think like? This could be an example of why books have subtitles; this one’s is “an ecological perspective on earth” as you can read in the picture I copied above. The idea is that mountains are around much longer than humans (on an individual basis), and thus witness environmental change on a far greater scale. It’s up to humans to appreciate this, and conservation biology is one way of addressing related issues.

I tried to read this as a book, though it is really more like a text book, a sort of primer of conservation biology, or an extended scientific review paper. So, it felt a little too much like school or work for me, though that’s not a bad thing. I’m studying and reading this because it’s what I care about and am most interested in. Maybe it’s just that I was already familiar with much of the material, but it is still is good stuff. Grizzly bears and spotted owls are the main examples used, with a focus on the North Cascades. “Thinking like a Mountain” is also an excerpt from the book “Ghost Bears,” which is part of Island Press’s really cool e-ssentials series. Check it out!
So, this was just a short read, but I have a lot more lined up!

Note: this book was provided through Net Galley, and my review also appears on my blog (http://matt-stats.blogspot.com/).… (meer)