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Book Review
Canada and the United States
Timothy Rawson. Changing Tracks: Predators and Politics in Mt. McKinley National Park. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Press. 2001. Pp. xiv, 326. Cloth $39.95, paper $24.95.
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Timothy Rawson's book is a tightly written study of the controversy over wolf control in Mt. McKinley National Park (now Denali National Park) from 1917, when Congress established the park, to 1954, when National Park Service (NPS) director Conrad Wirth ordered wolf killing in the park to cease. Rawson sets the story in the context of changing, and conflicting, perceptions about wolves in the twentieth century, which accompanied the emergence of ecological science as well as the complex web of social values attending the shift from production to consumption in the American economy. Subthemes touch on the balance of nature vs. quality of habitat theories among ecologists and wildlife managers and the limits of scientific knowledge about species behavior. Set in this context, Rawson's study illuminates the importance of personal networks in shaping environmental policy in the twentieth century, with implications that extend beyond wolf management in Alaska. |
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