The Spine of the Continent; The Most Ambitious Wildlife Conservation Project Ever Undertaken

Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2012. First Edition. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/very good. xv, [1], 272 pages. Maps, Endnotes. Bibliography. Index. Mary Ellen Hannibal is a Bay Area writer and editor focusing on science and culture. Hannibal's book The Spine of the Continent is about a social, geographical, and scientific effort to save nature along the Rocky Mountains. The Spine of the Continent chronicles landscapes, people, critters, and issues along the Spine. Hannibal's other books include Evidence of Evolution, Leaves & Pods, and Good Parenting Through Your Divorce. Hannibal is Chair of the California Book Awards. She was a 2011 Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellow. She is a recipient of the National Society of Science Writer's Science and Society Award 2012 and Stanford University's Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism. She additionally has long experience in corporate communications and has written extensively for environmental nonprofits, including Friends of the Urban Forest, the San Francisco Botanical Garden and the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation. She is the founder and producer of Evolve2009, a San Francisco city-wide celebration of Darwin and evolution. Evolve2009 won the California Library Association's 2009 award for advocacy and communications. As climate change encroaches, natural habitats are shifting while human development makes islands of even the largest nature reserves, stranding the biodiversity within them. The Spine of the Continent profiles the most ambitious conservation effort ever made: to create linked protected areas from the Yukon to Mexico. Backed by blue-ribbon scientific foundations, the Spine is a grassroots, cooperative effort among NGOs large and small and everyday citizens. It aims not only to make physical connections so nature will persist but also to make connections between people and the land. In this fascinating and important account, Mary Ellen Hannibal travels the length of the Spine and shares stories of the impassioned activists she meets and the critters they love.