The Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges
Eric Jay Dolin
As Rachel Carson once urged in her "Conservation in Action" series for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, when you see a sign for a National Wildlife Refuge, "respect it. It means that the land behind the sign has been dedicated by the American people to preserving for themselves and their children as much of our native wildlife as can be retained along with our modern civilization." The Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges, by Eric Jay Dolin, with photographs by John and Karen Hollingsworth (Smithsonian Institution Press, $39.95), chronicles the 100 years since Theodore Roosevelt established the first national refuge, Pelican Island Reservation in Florida. Today 538 refuges total almost 100 million acres. With National Wildlife Refuges at the center of such national debates as oil drilling in Alaska, this richly illustrated retrospective could not be more timely.
— Lara Caldwell
