Audubon Wildlife Report 1989/1990 covers important challenges to the continued health of different species and ecosystems, furthering the debate on issues such as old-growth forests, the relationship between water and wildlife, and the need to preserve and restore wetlands and grassland range territory. The book starts by providing a comprehensive overview of the featured federal agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including its history, legislative mandate, and key programs that affect the environment. The text then discusses federal court decisions that provide new interpretations of federal wildlife law; the conservation of coastal wetlands in the Southeast; and global climate change and its potential effects on fish and wildlife. A monitoring and research strategy for nongame migratory birds, as well as the conservation of ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest are also considered. The book further tackles the restoration of the public rangelands in the West; discard bycatch in marine fisheries with a special focus on the Gulf of Mexico; and the trends in western water law and their implications for the environment. The text also encompasses the appropriations and related congressional policy directives for federal fish and wildlife programs. Biologists and people with an advocacy of preserving wildlife will find the book invaluable.

Each spring, formations of sandhill cranes crisscross the skies along Nebraska's Platte River in one of the last great migratory spectacles on the North American continent. From across the globe, tens of thousands of visitors gather to witness a land transformed, "wild with birds." But the central Platte River system is witness to even more than this wondrous annual event. It is also an abiding source of natural, agricultural, and economic life in three states as an icon of western history and as a place of wonder. In This River Beneath the Sky, Doreen Pfost seamlessly blends memoir and nature writing, tracking the Platte River valley for one calendar year, ushering readers through its diverse and changing landscape and the plants, animals, and humans that call the ecosystem home. From serving as a tour guide for visitors who come to see the sandhill crane migration to monitoring the population count on a bluebird trail, from exploring the human settlements surrounding the Platte River to wading the river with biologists, Pfost immerses herself in the rhythm and life of the area. Along with Pfost's personal experiences of the river, she explores the river's history, the land- and water-use choices that were made decades ago and their repercussions that must now be mitigated if cranes--and other species--are to survive and flourish, and the legislative and scientific efforts to preserve the diverse species and their essential habitat.

Readable and practical account of wetland bird ecology and conservation.