The 1987-89 drought was a signal event in the evolving interrelationshipsamong climate, natural resources management, technology,and society in the United States. Over half of the country experiencedsevere to extreme drought by midsummer of 1988 (Figure 1.1). Lossesupward to $39 billion illustrate the continuing, perhaps growing,vulnerability of many natural resources and economic sectors to droughtand other climate fluctuations.Despite decades of crop breeding, water system development, andother improvements in climate-sensitive technologies, the droughtdemonstrated that the simple lack of "normal" rainfall still provokesserious disruptions in agriculture, water supply, transportation,environmental quality, and other areas. It can affect the health and wellbeingof millions of people and evoke billions of dollars in governmentaid.

Saskatchewan: Geographic Perspectives is Saskatchewan's first comprehensive geography textbook. Its major sections cover these themes: Physical Geography, Historical and Cultural Geography, Population and Settlement, and Economic Geography. Eighteen chapters provide an excellent overview of the province from a variety of geographic perspectives, while twenty-nine focus studies explore specific topics in depth ... presents the work of forty-three scholars and is well-illustrated, with more than 150 figures, 70 tables, and over 60 full-colour plates. It also includes full reference lists and a comprehensive index. Although prepared specifically for use in post-secondary geography programs, this book is also appropriate for high school research projects and for anyone interested in the many facets of this vast and varied province."--Googlebooks.

A beautifully rendered reference guide to the Great Plains portion of the famous expedition through the American West highlights the explorer's remarkable encounters with previously undocumented flora and fauna as they moved through the Plains region. Original. (Biology & Natural History)

Utilizes basic concepts of economics and finance to explain the relationship of the economy to the ecosystem, seeing the ecosystem as imposing biophysical constraints on economic growth. Means of sustainable economic development and sustainable resource use are stressed. Background material and alternative, more efficient, problem-solving approaches are included.

The Great Plains of North America stretch from Texas to Alberta. The region's history is rich and its population diverse. But throughout this huge area, one issue has dominated culture and politics since before history began to be recorded. The need for water, the disputes over its use and ownership, and the consequences of those uses and disputes are concerns common to everyone who has ever lived here, concerns that grow sharper as water grows scarcer. Local and state governments have attempted to allocate water rights, but their efforts have been piecemeal and often short-sighted. In the absence of a coherent policy for protecting water resources, supplies are depleted, and what is left becomes more and more polluted by industrial, agricultural, and biological waste products. In fact, the Great Plains is on the brink of a water crisis, a silent crisis that threatens the health of people, environments, and economies. In Water on the Great Plains: Issues and Policies, Peter J. Longo and David W. Yoskowitz have collected current scholarship on the cultural, economic, environmental, legal, and political implications of water policy. The ten essays contained here tell a lively history of successful and unsuccessful water policies, and of how dedicated people and communities can work together to protect their homes. The authors sound an urgent call for wise management to preserve 04 Activeable water resources for the use of future generations. The importance of water to politics in the West is likely to grow as management of dwindling supplies fails to meet demands. How will water policy be made? Will water continue to flow uphill toward money or will public interest drive water allocation and use? --Joan M. Blauwkamp, Chapter 10

A Project of the Center for Great Plains Studies and the School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska Great Plains Bison traces the history and ecology of this American symbol from the origins of the great herds that once dominated the prairie to its near extinction in the late nineteenth century and the subsequent efforts to restore the bison population. A longtime wildlife biologist and one of the most powerful literary voices on the Great Plains, Dan O’Brien has managed his own ethically run buffalo ranch since 1997. Drawing on both extensive research and decades of personal experience, he details not only the natural history of the bison but also its prominent symbolism in Native American culture and its rise as an icon of the Great Plains. Great Plains Bison is a tribute to the bison’s essential place at the heart of the North American prairie and its ability to inspire naturalists and wildlife advocates in the fight to preserve American biodiversity.