Nature Wars

A deeply researched, eloquently written, and often humorous look at the relationship between humans and nature and the deepening chasm between the two. Nature Wars will be the definitive book on how our efforts to protect the environment and wildlife have had unintended, even disastrous, results.

For 400 years, European settlers plundered the North American landscape of forests and wildlife so that by the late nineteenth century only remnants remained. Then, in the twentieth century, an incredible turnaround took place. Today, more people live in closer proximity to wild animals, birds, and trees in America than anywhere on the planet at any other time in history. This should be wonderful news. Unless, perhaps, you are one of four thousand drivers who will hit a deer today.

Nature Wars tells the story of how this happened: how children stopped turning over rocks in streams and got their ideas about nature and wildlife from anthropomorphized images served up in films and TV shows. These images sharpened their instincts to save deer, geese, and birds from human harm. They became species partisans and went to war to save their favorite critters. Award-winning journalist and reporter Jim Sterba pulls back the curtain on how well-meaning efforts to protect animals allowed wild populations to grow out of control, touching off disputes that divided neighborhoods, polarized communities, and wreaked havoc on local politics.