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Book Review
| Texas Natural History: A Century of Change. By David J. Schmidly. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2002. xiv + 534 pp. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. $39.95.
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| Texas Natural History: A Century of Change examines changes in the natural history of Texas over the twentieth century by comparing changes in the distribution and abundance of mammals in the state. The centerpiece of the book is a reprint of a 1905 report on the mammals of Texas by Vernon Bailey of the USDA Bureau of Biological Survey (pp. 51–266). David Schmidly—a professor and field zoologist—provides the historical context for the survey in a chapter that briefly traces the history of the Biological Survey and the biologists that did the Texas field work, and provides the biological context in a chapter that annotates the 1905 report. |
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Schmidly, co-author of the standard work on the mammals of Texas, has the expertise to provide informative discussions of population trends. He discusses six significant trends: (1) proliferation of extinctions, (2) declines in the geographic distribution and population abundance, (3) range expansions and regional faunal changes, (4) documentation of additional species and the discovery of "cryptic" species, (5) the growth in the number of threatened, endangered, and rare species, and (6) the introduction of nonindigenous species. But Texas Natural History does far more than compare changes in mammalian populations. Drawing upon the field notes of the biologists who traversed the state between 1889 and 1905 and did the work that underpinned the final report, Schmidly is able to provide an extended then-and-now comparison of the state's landscapes. Given the breadth of the coverage, the book's descriptions of the changes in the landscape are brief and generalized. This is not a detailed environmental history of Texas. For example, the treatment of the Texas Gulf coast region includes descriptions of the prominent topographic features, human-induced impacts, and present condition of wildlife habitat, all in a column and half of text. The chapter on the historic landscapes in particular benefits from a large number of photographs taken by the field biologists to document their findings. The book would have benefited from a similar set of photographs of modern Texas landscapes. |
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Texas Natural History is a unique work: a primary text (with detailed annotations) that is packaged with detailed comparative descriptions of how the state's ten ecological regions have been transformed by human action during the past century. It will be of use to anyone who is interested in the environmental history of Texas and the adjoining states. One hopes that it also will inspire other zoologists to delve into the historical record to provide similar comparisons. |
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Reviewed by Dale Goble, a professor of law at the University of Idaho. He has recently co-authored Wildlife Law (Foundation Press, 2002) and Federal Wildlife Statutes (Foundation Press, 2002), and is currently at work on a history of wildlife law in the United States. |
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