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| Where the Buffalo Roam: Restoring America's Great Plains | 
| Author: Anne Matthews
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
Buy New: $11.08
You Save: $3.92 (26%)
New (16) from $11.08
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 874731
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2 Sub
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 242
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0226510964
Dewey Decimal Number: 333.959
EAN: 9780226510965
ASIN: 0226510964
Publication Date: November 15, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
In 1987 Frank and Deborah Popper proposed a bold solution to the decline of America's Great Plains: create a vast nature preserve by returning 139,000 square miles in ten states to prairie and reintroducing the buffalo that once roamed there. In Where the Buffalo Roam, Anne Matthews follows the Poppers from Montana to Texas as they try to sell their idea called the Buffalo Commons; in the process, she introduces us to the people who love these arid windswept lands.
This edition includes a new foreword by environmental historian Donald Worster. Matthews's new afterword describes how with growing support from Native Americans and private groups like the Nature Conservancy, the Poppers' dream of a Buffalo Commons is becoming a reality.
"An admirably crafted book, as poignant and entertaining as it is informative."—Seattle Times
"A priceless piece of Americana."—The Boston Globe
"Matthew's delightful account of the Poppers, their proposal and the controversy surrounding it does focus new attention on the region and its problems."—The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Bright, active, effective journalism. . . . An extremely savvy overlook of the dilemmas of the Great Plains."—Wallace Stegner
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| Customer Reviews:
 Raises some good points but rambles, not enough information June 9, 2005
Originally written by the author in 1992, She spent a year following the Poppers and their efforts to get people to see how the Great Plains states are dying. They are actually running out of water and losing population.
There are a lot of pages about their travels, speaking engagements with often hostile crowds,hostile press (not all western) and some sections dealing with the science of what is happening to the land out there. You also get a fair amount of history, some people always saw the Plains as land that shouldn't be developed as eastern land had been (it wasn't suitable for such useage).
I'd have liked more science and more detail on the Buffalo commons concept, it's an interesting idea but I don't see it becoming a national policy. The new forward and afterword deal with changes in the situation since the original publication but don't convince me that it has much chance of really happening.
An interesting view of the West December 9, 2003
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book is typical of a piece that evolves from a New York Times Magazine article: full of narrative, a bit rammbling at times and a bit on the lite side. Matthews gives some snippets of ecological and historical analysis, but ultimately this is not an analytical book. It is very readable, however, and raises awareness to the ecologic and economic crises of the Great Plains. The piece details two Rutgers academics, the Poppers, who are promoting the notion of a "Buffalo Commons," a plan that involves the federal government buying out the most marginal of Great Plains land to turn into a giant reserve for bison, shortgrass and Indians. The book details much of the angry Western reaction to the plan. It also shows large sections of the West in near ruin, in desperate need of a new, sustainable solution, as current attempts to exploit the arid West by argiculture is producing only dust storms, a depleted aquifier and busted-out farm communities.
 The Dilemma on the Great Plains June 25, 2000
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This book held my constant attention from the first time I picked it up. Ms. Matthews gives a very even-handed account of what I call "The Dilemma on the Great Plains." She thoughtfully explains the Buffalo Commons plan for the restoration of the plains. She introduces Frank and Deborah Popper, New Jersey academics from Rutgers University, who came up with the Buffalo Commons plan. I was riveted because I once lived in South Dakota, near the Montana and Wyoming borders and could empathize with the issue. The Poppers came up with the Buffalo Commons idea in the late 1980s as a way to "save" the plains. It has been very controversial, to say the least. The plains way of life and the emotions of the issue are handled brilliantly by Ms. Matthews. I was able to see both sides throughout the book. This issue has an importance to our nation. Read this book to know the issues about the decline in our Great Plains.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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