After the Grizzly: Endangered Species and the Politics of Place in California

by Peter S. Alagona

Thoroughly researched and finely crafted, After the Grizzly traces the history of endangered species and habitat in California, from the time of the Gold Rush to the present. Peter S. Alagona shows how scientists and conservationists came to view the fates of endangered species as inextricable from ecological conditions and human activities in the places where those species lived.

Focusing on the stories of four high-profile endangered species―the California condor, desert tortoise, Delta smelt, and San Joaquin kit fox―Alagona offers an absorbing account of how Americans developed a political system capable of producing and sustaining debates in which imperiled species serve as proxies for broader conflicts about the politics of place. The challenge for conservationists in the twenty-first century, this book claims, will be to redefine habitat conservation beyond protected wildlands to build more diverse and sustainable landscapes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History

332 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2013

About the author

I’M AN ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORIAN, historian of science, conservation scientist, and nature-culture geographer. My work explores what happens when humans share space and resources (their habitats) with other species: how we interact with non-human creatures, how we make sense of these interactions, why we fight so much about them, what we can learn from them, and how we might use these lessons to foster a more just, peaceful, humane, and sustainable society. Most of my research has focused on human interactions with wildlife in North America. A second area of interest involves developing creative interdisciplinary, collaborative, and mixed methods for studying ecological change over multiple time periods and scales.

DURING THE FIRST PHASE OF MY CAREER, in the 2000s, I focused on the history, science, law, and politics of endangered species conservation. After completing my first book in 2013, I shifted to focusing on human interactions with more common species, as well as the challenges of living with large carnivores and reintroducing lost species.

IN EARLY 2022, the University of California Press will publish my next book, The Accidental Ecosystem: People and Wildlife in American Cities. For more on this project, click on the link in the menu above. For the past 5 years, I have served as the founder and facilitator of the California Grizzly Research Network, which is conducting a series of research and outreach projects designed to promote a more informed scholarly and public conversation about the past and potential future of grizzly bears in California. Over the past many years, I have been involved in several other interdisciplinary environmental research groups, including the Mellon-Sawyer Seminar on Marine Environmental History, Environmental History Graduate Workshop, UC Natural Reserve System History & Archive Project, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer School on City/Nature, the Convivial Conservation (CONVIVA) Network, a National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) working group on Historical Ecology, the Institute for the Study of Ecological and Evolutionary Climate Impacts (ISEECI), the Paleoecology in Novel Ecosystems group based at the La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, and more.

I TEACH SEVERAL CLASSES at UCSB, including the Introduction to Environmental Studies course (ES 1), a course on human-wildlife interactions called Wildlife in America (108W), and seminars on topics from Storytelling and the Environment to Lions, Tigers, and Bears: Coexisting with Large Carnivores in the 21st Century. I am currently serving as the director of the Interdepartmental Ph.D. Emphasis in Environment & Society.

IN ADDITION TO MY RESEARCH AND TEACHING, I am active in public service and other professional activities. I have served on the faculty editorial committee of the University of California Press, I am an associate editor of the MIT Press book series History for a Sustainable Future, I am the Secretary of the American Society for Environmental History, I serve on several committees for the University of California’s Natural Reserve System, and I am the Faculty Advisor for the wonderful Valentine Eastern Sierra Reserves. I serve on several other boards and steering committees, I give frequent public lectures, and I do occasional interviews with newspapers, public radio stations, and other media outlets.

THROUGHOUT MY CAREER, I have been fortunate to work with wonderful mentors, colleagues, and students at institutions that value interdisciplinary and humanistic environmental scholarship. The first stage of this journey ended when I completed my undergraduate degree in history at Northwestern University in 1995. I later received a master's degree in geography from UC Santa Barbara, and master's and doctoral degrees in history from UCLA. Before joining the UCSB faculty in 2008, I was a Beagle Environmental Fellow in the Center for the Environment and Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and a p

Reviews

[Scott Guy]

somewhat helpful for my project from a historical lens!

[Chloe]

Such a great analysis of the complexity of the relationship between law and science in the wildlife conservation realm. The review of past conservation debates demonstrated how far we have come yet the book also drove home how far we have to go. I really enjoyed it

[Amy]

This book was recommended to me for an interesting read about ecology so I went into it with that expectation. Unfortunately there was more politics than ecology and I found it dreadfully boring and tedious. I did enjoy the part about history of the environmental movement on the west coast.

[Brooks]

An informative and timely read about a subject that effects us all in one way or another. Highly recommended.

[Mills College Library]

591.68 A3169 2013

[Dan]

Only read this if you're interested in California's environmental laws. Otherwise, skip it.