Book Description

Stretching from the redwoods of California to the vast stands of spruce and hemlock in southeast Alaska, coastal temperate rain forests have been for thousands of years home to one of the highest densities of human settlements on the continent. Given its mild climate, magnificent scenery, and abundant natural resources, the region should continue to support robust economies and vibrant communities for many years to come. However, the well-being of this region is increasingly threatened by diminishing natural capital, declining employment in traditional resource-based industries, and outward migration of young people to cities.

The Rain Forests of Home brings together a diverse array of thinkers-conservationists, community organizers, botanists, anthropologists, zoologists, Native Americans, ecologists, and others-to present a multilayered, multidimensional portrait of the coastal temperate rain forest and its people. Joining natural and social science perspectives, the book provides readers with a valuable understanding of the region's natural and human history, along with a vision of its future and strategies for realizing that vision.

Authors describe the physical setting and examine the geographic and evolutionary forces that have shaped the region since the last glacial period, with individual chapters covering oceanography, climate, geologic processes, vegetation, fauna, streams and rivers, and terrestrial/marine interactions. Three chapters cover the history of human habitation, including an examination of what is known about pre-European settlement, a consideration of the traditions of local and indigenous knowledge, and a description of the environmental and cultural upheaval brought by European explorers and settlers. The book concludes with an exploration of recent economic and cultural trends, regional and local public policy, information gathering, and the need for integrating local knowledge into decision making.

Interspersed among the chapters are compelling profiles of community-level initiatives and programs aimed at restoring damaged ecosystems, promoting sustainable use of resources, and fostering community-based economic development. The case studies describe what coastal residents are doing to combine environmental conservation with socioeconomic development, and document some of the most innovative experiments in sustainable development now underway in North America.

The Rain Forests of Home offers for the first time a unified description of the characteristics, history, culture, economy, and ecology of the coastal temperate rain forest. It is essential reading for anyone who lives in or cares about the region. ... Read more

Book Description

Deep in the jungles of Ecuador live the Cofan people, a so-called primitive clan little changed over the centuries. Their leader has led the Cofan in a cagey, media-wise, and sometimes hostile struggle against an uninvited new neighbor - Big Oil. This leader, this "Amazon Stranger," is an American named Randy Borman. Author Mike Tidwell spent many months with the Cofan people and with Borman - and has returned with this riveting tale. Amazon Stranger is the story of a man obsessed with the jungle and desperate to save it and its people. It is an unforgettable book, written with vividness and drama by a superb investigative reporter. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

vivid, fascinating, heartbreaking and hopeful
This book is at once an adventure story, a profile of a fascinating individual, a heartbreaking account of one of the greatest environmental crimes taking place in the world today (the destruction by oil companies of one of the world's richest ecosystems, Ecuador and Colombia containing the greatest biodiversity of the entire Amazon Basin) and a David-and-Goliath story of a tiny Amazonian tribe, the Cofan, battling for survival against multinational corporations. As all of those things, it bears comparison with Joe Kane's "Savages," but the Cofan have already dealt with much more destruction than have the Waorani, and this book spends more time on first-hand descriptions of both the riches of the Ecuadorian rain forest and the consequences of oil exploration. (I would recommend this book not only to activists who are trying to save the Amazon, but also to those who are working to save the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil exploitation, to explode to smithereens the notion that oil exploitation would not devastate the ecology there.)

The editorial reviews here cover just about everything else I would say about this book, so I won't repeat their comments, just direct the reader to them.

...One factual error this book makes repeatedly that I would like to correct: although they speak the same language as the Indians of the Andean highlands, and although they expanded northward into Cofan territory relatively recently, the Amazonian Quichua are NOT migrants from the highlands and NOT newcomers to the rainforest. They are true Amazonian people, distinct syncretic cultures created from the remnants of various destroyed Amazonian tribes who blended together and adopted their lingua franca (Quichua) as their first language. Though the Amazonian Quichua have been influenced (=weakened) by missionaries for much longer than the Cofan, their roots in the rainforest are every bit as deep. ... Read more

Book Description

The Science Easy Readers are simply written for beginning readers. Each book includes a teacher/parent page that lists related activities. These full-color books are just the right size for small hands (5 1/2" x 8 1/2"). ... Read more

Book Description

Reproductive Ecology of Tropical Forest Plants reviews recent developments in the reproductive ecology of tropical forest plants and explores the implications of current findings on forest structure, function, management, and conservation. It examines how insights gained from reproductive ecology can be helpful in the management of tropical forest resources and discusses directions of future research. ... Read more

Book Description

Floodplains are ecosystems which are driven by periodic inundation and oscillation between terrestrial and aquatic phases. An understanding of such pulsing systems is only possible by studying both phases and linking the results into an integrated overview. This book presents the results of a 15-year study of the structure and function of one of the largest tropical floodplains, the Amazon River floodplain. It covers qualitative aspects, e.g., adaptations of aquatic and terrestrial organisms to the flood pulse as well as quantitative aspects, e.g., studies of biomass, primary production, decomposition, and nutrient cycles. The authors interpret their findings and the most important data from other studies under an integrating scientific concept, the Flood Pulse Concept. ... Read more

Book Description

Although tropical rain forests form the worlds most species-rich ecosystems, their origin and history remain unclear, except on the very short timescale of the last 40 000 years or so. This book provides the first comprehensive review of the history of tropical rain forests on a long term geological timescale, commencing with the origin of the angiosperms over 100 million years ago, which today overwhelmingly dominate these forests. Tropical rain forest evolution is discussed in a global context within an up to date plate tectonic, palaeogeographical and palaeoclimatic framework, primarily by reference to the record of fossil pollen and spores. A particularly important aspect of this book is that in addition to published literature, it relies heavily on unpublished palynological data generated for petroleum companies during the course of hydrocarbon exploration programmes. Without access to such data the book could not have been written. The main text of the book reviews the evolution of tropical rain forests on a continent by continent basis, culminating with a global synthesis of their history in relation to the changing positions of the worlds tectonic plates and changing climates. This section also establishes the age of the great tropical rain forest blocks and identifies the worlds oldest tropical rain forests. The final chapter compares 20th Century tropical rain forest destruction with prehistoric forest clearance in temperate regions, and looks for analogues of the present phase of destruction within the geological record before considering long term implications of total rain forest destruction. The book will be of interest to all concerned with tropical rain forests, especially biologists, botanists, ecologists, and students of evolution. It will be valuable for postgraduates and advanced undergraduates, as well as stratigraphers, palaeobotanists, palynologists, and petroleum geologists. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Superb summary of a world of data
I love the one previous review--I wish my kids would review my books! But perhaps we need more detail here.... This is a truly superb integration of a mass of data, much of it unpublished palynological material from oil company files and other sources. On the basis of these data, Morley manages to overturn every standard cliche about rain forest history. The rainforests are not as old as often claimed; they took final form in the early Tertiary, or at the oldest in the very late Cretaceous. The Southeast Asian/Malesian forest is not the origin point for rainforests or for angiosperms; its richness in ancient forms is due to its serving as refugium during many climatic and geotectonic vicissitudes. Plate tectonics is critical to understanding the history of the forests. (I recall how plant geographers, in my student days, tied themselves in knots trying to explain rain forest plant distributions without invoking the hated and feared theory of continental drift.) The whole story, as told by Morley, is amazingly gripping--a sort of mega-detective-story. If you are literate in tropical plant taxonomy, you will be on the edge of your chair, whether you are a botanist, a cultural ecologist (like me), or just a plant lover. Be warned, though--if you haven't been there (to at least a couple of tropical rain forest areas) and gotten to know the major families, this book will be hard going. The book closes with the inevitable and all too appropriate gloom. My grandchildren will probably never see a tropical rain forest. By the time they will be old enough to travel, there will be no tropical rain forests left, except perhaps in inaccessible reserves--unless we can turn around a process that seems out of control. Morley blames "short-term human greed" on his ultimate page (286), but the truth is more complex; see William Ascher's book, WHY GOVERNMENTS WASTE NATURAL RESOURCES, for the whole story. Anyway--this is one book that should be on the "must read" list of everyone interested in tropical forests or in paleobotany.

Geological Evolution of Tropical Rainforests
A truly triffic piece of academia, Dad! ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Futurist, published by World Future Society on November 1, 1990. The length of the article is 1194 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Saving Madagascar: bleak future is seen for ecological "jewel".
Publication: The Futurist (Magazine/Journal)
Date: November 1, 1990
Publisher: World Future Society
Volume: v24Issue: n6Page: p43(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

This digital document is an article from E, published by Earth Action Network, Inc. on August 1, 1994. The length of the article is 960 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: Texaco Inc. is being sued for $1.5 billion in damages by the Sekoya tribe of Ecuador's rain forest for destruction caused by oil drilling and distribution. The company is also the target of a boycott by the Rainforest Action Network for its polluting activities in Ecuador.

Citation Details
Title: Crude awakening in Ecuador. (oil pools created by Texaco Inc.)
Author: Robert Nixon
Publication: E (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 1994
Publisher: Earth Action Network, Inc.
Volume: v5Issue: n4Page: p12(2)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Book Description

Although biologists have directed much attention to estimating the extent and causes of species losses, the consequences for ecosystem functioning have been little studied. This book examines the impact of biodiversity on ecosystem processes in tropical forests - one of the most species-rich and at the same time most endangered ecosystems on earth. It covers the relationships between biodiversity and primary production, secondary production, biogeochemical cycles, soil processes, plant life forms, responses to disturbance, and resistance to invasion. The analyses focus on the key ecological interfaces where the loss of keystone species is most likely to influence the rate and stability of ecosystem processes. ... Read more