Winner, Independent Press Award - Conservation/Green, 2021 The only hope for successful conservation of America’s threatened, endangered, and at-risk wildlife is through voluntary, cooperative partnerships that focus on private land, where over 75% of at-risk species can be found. Private landowners form the bedrock of these partnerships, and they have a long history of rising to meet the challenge of conservation. But they can’t do it alone. This book is a guide for private landowners who want to conserve wildlife. Whether engaged in farming, ranching, forestry, mining, energy development, or another business, private working lands all have value as wildlife habitat, with the proper management and financial support. This book provides landowners and their partners with a roadmap to achieve conservation compatible with their financial and personal goals. This book introduces the art and language of land management planning as well as regulatory compliance with laws such as the Endangered Species Act of 1973. It categorizes and explains the tools used by wildlife professionals to implement conservation on private lands. Moreover it documents the multitude of federal, state, local, and private opportunities for landowners to find financial and technical assistance in managing wildlife, from working with a local NGO to accessing the $6 billion per year available through the federal Farm Bill.

This handbook is a guide to the federal Endangered Species Act, the primary U.S. law aimed at protecting species of animals and plants from human threats to their survival. It is intended for lawyers, government agency employees, students, community activists, businesspeople, and any citizen who wants to understand the Act--its history, provisions, accomplishments, and failures.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) is one of the most cherished and reviled laws ever passed. It mandates protection and preservation of all the nation’s species and biodiversity, whatever the cost. It has been a lightning rod for controversy and conflicts between industry/business and environmentalists. The year 2023 marks the 50th anniversary of this law, and provides an opportunity for a measured and thorough evaluation thereof. We cannot know today’s challenges and opportunities without understanding their histories. This book is the most comprehensive history of the ESA ever published, and the first to consider the entire history of the law from all angles in a single volume. The history of the ESA has been one of increasing impact, complexity, and controversy. In 1978, the Supreme Court declared that Congress intended for the U.S. government to save all species at any cost, and thereafter application of the ESA became steadily more controversial, as seen in the example of the northern spotted owl and the timber wars in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s and early 90s, and then everywhere as the ESA became a political football in the highly partisan environment of the late 1990s and amendments to the law ceased. This book is not only a history, but a call to action. It will take more conservation, more funding, and more innovative solutions if we are to save our wildlife and biodiversity. It will take the engagement to every American to muster the collective will to meet this challenge. The hope of this book is that we will be able to look back and say that we accomplished more in the second 50 years of the ESA than we did in the first.

"As Secretary of the Interior, implementing the Endangered Species Act was one of my most important, and challenging, responsibilities. All who deal with this complex and critical law need a clear and comprehensive guide to its provisions, interpretation, and implementation. With chapters written by some of the foremost practitioners in the field, the new edition of Endangered Species Act: Law, Policy, and Perspectives is an essential reference for conservationists and the regulated community and the attorneys who represent them."---Bruce Babbbitt, former Secretary of the Interior --

"An audacious and concrete proposal…Half-Earth completes the 86-year-old Wilson’s valedictory trilogy on the human animal and our place on the planet." —Jedediah Purdy, New Republic In his most urgent book to date, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and world-renowned biologist Edward O. Wilson states that in order to stave off the mass extinction of species, including our own, we must move swiftly to preserve the biodiversity of our planet. In this "visionary blueprint for saving the planet" (Stephen Greenblatt), Half-Earth argues that the situation facing us is too large to be solved piecemeal and proposes a solution commensurate with the magnitude of the problem: dedicate fully half the surface of the Earth to nature. Identifying actual regions of the planet that can still be reclaimed—such as the California redwood forest, the Amazon River basin, and grasslands of the Serengeti, among others—Wilson puts aside the prevailing pessimism of our times and "speaks with a humane eloquence which calls to us all" (Oliver Sacks).

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a far-reaching law that has sparked intense controversies over the use of public lands, the rights of property owners, and economic versus environmental benefits. In this volume a distinguished committee focuses on the science underlying the ESA and offers recommendations for making the act more effective. The committee provides an overview of what scientists know about extinctionâ€"and what this understanding means to implementation of the ESA. Habitatâ€"its destruction, conservation, and fundamental importance to the ESAâ€"is explored in detail. The book analyzes: Concepts of speciesâ€"how the term "species" arose and how it has been interpreted for purposes of the ESA. Conflicts between species when individual species are identified for protection, including several case studies. Assessment of extinction risk and decisions under the ESAâ€"how these decisions can be made more effectively. The book concludes with a look beyond the Endangered Species Act and suggests additional means of biological conservation and ways to reduce conflicts. It will be useful to policymakers, regulators, scientists, natural-resource managers, industry and environmental organizations, and those interested in biological conservation.

A single-resource volume of information on the most current and effective techniques of wildlife modeling, Models for Planning Wildlife Conservation in Large Landscapes is appropriate for students and researchers alike. The unique blend of conceptual, methodological, and application chapters discusses research, applications and concepts of modeling and presents new ideas and strategies for wildlife habitat models used in conservation planning. The book makes important contributions to wildlife conservation of animals in several ways: (1) it highlights historical and contemporary advancements in the development of wildlife habitat models and their implementation in conservation planning; (2) it provides practical advice for the ecologist conducting such studies; and (3) it supplies directions for future research including new strategies for successful studies.Intended to provide a recipe for successful development of wildlife habitat models and their implementation in conservation planning, the book could be used in studying wildlife habitat models, conservation planning, and management techniques. Additionally it may be a supplemental text in courses dealing with quantitative assessment of wildlife populations. Additionally, the length of the book would be ideal for graduate student seminar course.Using wildlife habitat models in conservation planning is of considerable interest to wildlife biologists. With ever tightening budgets for wildlife research and planning activities, there is a growing need to use computer methods. Use of simulation models represents the single best alternative. However, it is imperative that these techniques be described in a single source. Moreover, biologists should be made aware of alternative modeling techniques. It is also important that practical guidance be provided to biologists along with a demonstration of utility of these procedures. Currently there is little guidance in the wildlife or natural resource planning literature on how best to incorporate wildlife planning activities, particularly community-based approaches. Now is the perfect time for a synthestic publication that clearly outlines the concepts and available methods, and illustrates them. - Only single resource book of information not only on various wildlife modeling techniques, but also with practical guidance on the demonstrated utility of each based on real-world conditions. - Provides concepts, methods and applications for wildlife ecologists and others within a GIS context. - Written by a team of subject-area experts