New York State Conservationist

This is the first guide yet produced to the amphibians and reptiles of New York State, a large and heavily populated state that hosts a surprisingly diverse and interesting community of amphibians and reptiles. This much needed guide to the identification, distribution, natural history and conservation of the amphibians and reptiles of New York State fill a long-empty niche. The book is the first comprehensive presentation of the distributional data gathered for the New York State Amphibian and Reptile Atlas project. With more than 60,000 records compiled from 1990-1999, this extraordinary and up-to-date database provides a rich foundation for the book. This volume provides detailed narratives on the 69 species native to New York State. With a heavy emphasis on conservation biology, the book also includes chapters on threats, legal protections, habitat conservation guidelines, and conservation case studies. Also included are 67 distribution maps and 62 pages of color photographs contributed by more than 30 photographers. As a field guide or a desk reference, The Amphibians and Reptiles of New York State is indispensable for anyone interested in the vertebrate animals of the Northeast, as well as students, field researchers and natural resource professionals.

Explores the evolving role of botanic gardens from products and enablers of modernity and the nation-state, to their recent reinvention as institutions of environmental governance. Since their inception in the sixteenth century, botanic gardens have been embroiled with matters of governance. In Postnormal Conservation, Katja Grötzner Neves reveals that, throughout its long history, the botanical garden institution has been both a product and an enabler of modernity and the Westphalian nation-state. Initially intertwined with projects of colonialism and empire building, contemporary botanic gardens have reinvented themselves as environmental governance actors. They are now at the forefront of emerging forms of networked transnational governance. Building on social studies of science that reveal the politicization of science as the producer of contingent, high-stakes, and uncertain knowledge, and the concomitant politicization of previously taken-for-granted science-policy interfaces, Neves contends that institutions like botanic gardens have discursively deployed postnormal science and posthuman precepts to justify their growing involvement with biodiversity conservation governance within the Anthropocene. “This is a unique contribution to the study of ‘green’ neoliberalism. I do not know of another scholarly book that undertakes an analysis of the global history of botanical gardens in relation to political/economic formations and transformations. This is an outstanding and deeply significant work.” — Tracey Heatherington, author of Wild Sardinia: Indigeneity and the Global Dreamtimes of Environmentalism “Neves has undertaken a comprehensive review of pertinent literature to create an argument that traditional approaches to conservation no longer apply and that we need to adopt a holistic approach that considers both species and cultural preservation. The future of our planet depends on it. This is an important book that points to a central role for botanic gardens in preserving and celebrating the biological and cultural diversity of this planet.” — Donald A. Rakow, Cornell University