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| The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature | 
| Author: David Baron
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $2.24
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Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 396036
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0393058077
Dewey Decimal Number: 599.75240978863
EAN: 9780393058079
ASIN: 0393058077
Publication Date: November 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Beast is Brilliant January 9, 2007
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a simply brilliant exposition of the Boulder that I grew up in. Baron examines the situation well and pays attention to the wildlife issues that were relevant at the time and are still relevant now. A few historical problems do come up, but they are merely anecdotal and hardly detract from the story.
Two things really make this a great book:
-if you're from Boulder or the Front Range, you'll be saying "Oh, I've been there" or "Hey, I know that guy" throughout the whole book.
-this book is action-packed. If they could make a movie out of it, they should.
Most of all, Baron pays attention to the characters and really goes in depth with who they are. I'm mostly interested in wildlife, however I found his portrayal of the people the most exciting.
A Cautionary Tale for Garden Dwellers November 2, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
A fitness freak teenager, Scott Lancaster, skips his lunch period to run - his track a mountain trail just upslope from his Idaho Springs, Colorado, high school. The track lies within a few hundred yards of I-70, not far from Colorado's gambling towns, Central City and Black Hawk, about 40 miles west of Denver. Not unusual behavior for a youngster who often cut classes to go running.
But Scott Lancaster did not come back to school or to home. Two days later, a search team including many of Scott's fellow students, about ready to give up looking, found his brutally assaulted body in heavy underbrush, just off his trail.
A Beast in the Garden killed Scott.
The book tells the tale in a readable way. How the Garden came to be. How the wilderness areas at the edge of human development along the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains were set aside as nature preserves in which the Beasts could live undisturbed. How the Beasts' natural predators were driven off. How the Beasts adapted to co-existence with the humans at the edges of the Garden. How the Beasts were seen moving further and further into developed areas like Boulder and Idaho Springs. How the Beasts showed their killer instinct with dogs and cats and sheep and other smaller animals. How the Beasts changed their ways, hunting in broad daylight, killing animals people said it feared. How the Beasts repeatedly attacked humans, even though it was said they would not. How a Beast treed Lynda Walters. How Andy Peterson saved himself by gouging out another Beast's eye. How a Beast killed Scott.
The Beasts in the Garden were mountain lions.
The book is the story of a killing and the hunt for the killer. It is also a story of a young naturalist, Michael Sanders, then of the Boulder County Parks and Open Space District, helping humans learn to live with the raccoons and other small invaders from the Garden. Mountain lion sightings piqued Sanders' fascination for big animals. Sanders and others began to build a systematic knowledge base of verified mountain lion sightings. They showed how the population of mountain lions appeared to be growing. How the sightings were of behaviors that proved more and more dangerous to domestic animals, even to humans. How Sanders warned that mountain lions posed significant danger - and was often ignored.
Finally, the book is a study in eco-sociology. Of the forces that created and still maintain the Garden as a preserve for wilderness creatures. Of the conflicting values of those living on the edge of the Garden, those who would remove mountain lions from the Garden, those whose saw humans as the intruders onto the mountain lions' natural home. It is a story that pits neighbor against neighbor. More instructively, it pits Sanders and his friends against the State and Federal park and wilderness managers. It pits emerging reality against common wisdom.
David Baron is a reporter on science and the environment for National Public Radio who first became interested in the behavior of mountain lions in developed areas while doing a 1996 story on a hiker who was killed by a mountain lion near Auburn, CA. His interest took him to the Garden that is the wilderness near Boulder and to Scott Lancaster's and Michael Sanders' stories. Beast in the Garden is a very good read, a well-written mystery that would be thoroughly satisfying were it not for the macabre reality.
The reality is not unique to Colorado's Front Range. My local newspaper has reported many sightings in the town north of my community, sightings and attacks on sheep, goats, and other small animals. A cashier at the local supermarket lost her dog to a mountain lion that is a frequent visitor in the community 15 miles south of mine. A nearby vineyard owner reports a female that has given birth to twin kits annually for several years. The regional paper has reported mountain lion sightings in urban areas, one just a few blocks from the county's community college. On a recent ten-day swing through the Pacific Northwest, there were reports of mountain lion sightings in developed areas in the Tacoma News Tribune, the Vancouver Sun, the Lewiston, Idaho, Tribune, and the Portland Oregonian.
So reality reminds us that my community, a former sheep ranch of about 3000 acres that has been developed with 2300 properties and more than 1500 acres of common land - forests and meadows - is a Garden, too. We, too, are seeing mountain lions. Not just in the forests, but in our meadows, close to the trails along the ocean bluff. Deer kills are reported routinely. We, too, have lost some of the sheep we keep to reduce fire risk, and there are musings about pets that have gone missing. No attacks on humans - yet.
The lessons in Beast in the Garden do not stop at the Front Range; they are applicable in my community - and maybe yours.
When wildlife and humans overlap, conflicts occur. What should we do? April 6, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
When I was younger, I loved the ocean. After I viewed the movie Jaws, I became fearful. This can happen to folk who read David Baron's book, The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature. It is not the intent of Baron to make anyone fearful... this is not of the "when wild animals attack partying coeds" genre. Rather, Baron attempts to answer a question: why was Scott Lancaster killed and eaten by a mountain lion? Was this one of those random, piano falling, lightning striking, lottery winning events that demonstrates no rhyme or reason but, as Forrest Gump says, "It happens." Or was this event predictable, nonrandom, and, perhaps, preventable?
Baron allows readers to reach their own conclusion, but certainly he favors the latter. His rationale is the subject of this book, and it is presented in a clear, lucid, and engaging style.
I've used this book for two years as a text in a course I teach, and the college students find it interesting and thought-provoking. I've had both a general class discussion, and a "mock trial." The trial works as follows:
We have an initial discussion of the book... thoughts, likes, dislikes, ...what is it about predation on people that attracts our interest?
I set the stage for a trial. The issue is who, if anybody, is criminally or civilly liable for this attack? The class gets broken into these groups: Colorado Division of Wildlife, City of Boulder, Boulder and Clear Creek County Sheriff's Offices, judges, and the family of Scott Lancaster. They all get 15 minutes to discuss the case, and then the fireworks begin! Lancaster's family gets to make their initial case, plea for justice, compensation, etc. Then DOW, Boulder, and Sheriff's offices get to defend themselves. Lancaster's family is allowed to cross-examine, as are the judges. At the end, the judges reach a verdict, and explain their decision. We have an additional discussion of all issues raised, including the resolution of actual lawsuits in California. Students seem to like this style of discussion.
Great book! It is weak on any solutions, but if you ask 10 people, they'll give you 10 potential solutions. The real solution is... well, I guess I'll let that be the subject of MY book!
 Very fair assessment of problem January 20, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
This book was very informative. My youngest sister lives in Colorado Springs, so I paid very close attention to how Baron handled the writing of the events that took place and the many sided argument of how to solve it. He did a fantastic job of digging in and showing how complicated this problem is, given the laws, emotions of people living in these areas, and some of the reasons things got to where they are. In all, I believe he did a very fair assessment. Though I still haven't battled through my own thoughts on how this may be solved, Baron did pull back some more layers for me.
Chrissy K. McVay - author of 'Souls of the North Wind'
COMPASSIONATE, COMPELLING AND CAUTIONARY January 6, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
If you're looking for a sensational account of animal attacks, this is not your kind of book. The Beast in the Garden does center on a young man's death by cougar, but the focus is much wider. It's the story of what happens when we build homes and suburbs in, or on the fringes of, cougar habitat and when we are naively (and understandably) charmed by the presence of wild animals in our midst, without considering the very real risks involved. The author is not a hunting advocate in any way, but he does point out that an unexpected consequence of the halt to cougar hunting years ago is that generations of cougars have since grown up who do not fear people- not good for the cougars or the people.
The Beast in the Garden is well written, balanced, thoughtful and respectful of the people involved in the central tragedy, and the author also shows compassion and respect for the animals. The progression of events that led up to the death of Scott Lancaster is so relentless and clearly set out that you wonder how most naturalists in the area never sounded an alarm. And how the love of nature can sometimes blind us to the realities of it.
The writer provides no easy answers, but the questions he raises are fascinating.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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