Islands in Space and Time
by David Campbell
Islands in Space and Time
(Houghton Mifflin Company 1996).
Description (from the publisher): David G. Campbell turns an ecologist's keen eye on ten beautiful but endangered wilderness areas across the globe. He travels to the island of Moloka'i, where remnants of the true Hawaii can still be found; to Ecuador's remote, mountainous Cayambe Coca reserve; to a bay in Brazil that preserves a fragment of the once vast coastal forest; to the Flying D Ranch in Montana, where 3,300 bison roam the recovering grasslands; to the Everglades and tiny Lignumvitae Key in Florida; even to the coral reefs and secret lakes of the Rock Islands of Palau in Micronesia. Campbell brings back vivid portraits of places where the rich natural mosaic of species is being preserved against great odds. He accompanies Ache tribesmen in Paraguay on an armadillo hunt, observes flamingos mating in Yucatan, listens to the wild cries of howler monkeys in Belize, and everywhere finds a diversity of interconnected life forms. At the same time, he reminds us of the fragility of these refuges, their vulnerability to introduced plant and animal species and to modern practices of agriculture and industry.
Reviewers' Comments:
"Ecologist Campbell travelled the globe in search of wilderness areas, and he provides vivid portraits of ten such places he found in Islands in Space and Time." Nature.
"Campbell, a gifted ecologist and writer, has written a moving, thought-provoking description of some of the last remaining intact ecosystems on Earth. He describes in beautiful prose both the natural and actual history of ten "islands in space and time" spanning the Americas and the Pacific Islands. He traveled from the Florida Keys and Everglades to the Flying D Ranch in Montana to the San Pedro in Arizona. He then traversed the high Andes in Ecuador and pushed through the jungles of southern Brazil and Paraguay. In the Pacific, he visited the island paradises of Molokai and Palau. The result is both a portrait of these places and a plea to take stock now and preserve our planet while we can. Campbell points out again and again that it's up to the community surrounding these areas to preserve them now before they are lost forever." Sandra Knowles, Library Journal.
"For this tribute to the richness of the natural world, Grinnell College biologist Campbell traveled to 10 of the remarkable habitats protected by the Nature Conservancy's Last Great Places program. Campbell's...understanding of ecosystems is deep and conveyed clearly as he describes the geological and biological history of these preserves, as well as the influence that humans have had on the flora and fauna of each area...Unless great care is taken, he explains, all are ephemeral; but if they are lost, some small solace will be gained by knowing that they have been chronicled in this fine, well-organized book. The text is complemented by 100 striking color photographs." Publisher's Weekly.
"Campbell explores ten beautiful but endangered wilderness areas across the globe, from Moloka'i, where remnants of ancient Hawai'ian flora and fauna can still be found, to the secret lakes of the Rock Islands of Palau in Micronesia and the tiny Lignumvitae Key in Florida's Everglades. The photographs are superb and the author's narrative, treating both the natural beauty and the native inhabitants, is equally fine." Booknews.
