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Ernest Callenbach

Bring Back the Buffalo!

A Sustainable Future for America's Great Plains

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$21.95, £12.95 paperback
978-0-520-22407-0
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303 pages, 6-7/8 x 9 inches, 41 b/w photographs, 23 line illustrations, 4 maps, 2 tables
October 2000, Available worldwide
Categories: Ecology, Evolution, Environment; Ecology; American Studies; Conservation; Animals; Mammalogy

"Callenbach (Ecotopia) envisions two fundamental changes for the Great Plains: restoration of great herds of buffalo (bison) with accompanying pronghorn, deer and elk, and widespread development of wind power. He makes a cogent case."—Publishers Weekly

"Mr. Callenbach offers persuasive financial and environmental reasons for returning the Great Plains, the high, dry grassland region extending through ten states, to the bison that once flourished there, where European animals and farming methods have not. He offers practical methods for making such a change."—Phoebe-Lou Adams, Atlantic Monthly
With a new epilogue

Though the Plains have been in economic and population decline since the twenties, they are actually within closer reach of vibrant ecological sustainability than any other region of the country. This visionary book offers a constructive alternative to the decline of cattle ranching, depletion of underground water, and dependency on outside energy sources. It shows how bringing back the hardy, majestic bison and using the region's winds to generate power are keys to renewed economic and social health for Plains communities.
Part I: BISON PAST
The Bison Heartland
The Managed Land

Part II: BISON PRESENT
Bison on Indian reservations
Bison on Public Lands
Bison on Ranches

Part III: BISON FUTURE
Bison Country
Real Productivity
Bison as a Food Source
A Buffalo Commons
Bison and Wind Power
Bison Politics and Cowboy Culture

Concusion: They Will Come
Epilogue: for the New Century
Ernest Callenbach is the author of Ecology: A Pocket Guide (California, 1998), Ecotopia (1975), and Ecotopia Emerging (1981).