Outside/Underground Book Club is a bi-monthly reading group for those who want to learn more about the fascinating world around us . O/U explores topics around science and nature through memoir, poetry, non-fiction & more. We meet every other LAST Thursday of the month.
Sign up for book clubs at Glendora Bookshop by email, call/text, or just stop in and inquire.
This month’s O/U Book Club selection is Return of the Bison: A Story of Survival, Restoration, and a Wilder World by Roger Di Silvestro. Be sure to snag your copy at Glendora Bookshop (book club members take 10% off book club reads!) and join us in July to discuss.
*****
"With fervor and meticulous research--and with implications for the future of megafauna around the world--Roger L. Di Silvestro recounts the complex and difficult ongoing struggle for bison recovery." - Shelf Awareness
Offers a hopeful view of threatened species, grounded in history and science
Addresses current conservation trends: wildlife corridors, prairie restoration, cultural restoration for the American Indian community
Return of the Bison is the story of how this symbol of the American West was once almost lost to history and of the continuing journey to bring bison back from the brink. Author and naturalist Roger Di Silvestro explores the complex history of the bison's decimation and how a rising awareness of their possible extinction formed the roots of many modern wildlife conservation approaches. Weaving in natural history and fascinating historical context featuring personalities such as Teddy Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, and William T. Hornaday, Di Silvestro traces the decades it took to begin to save the bison, often with little hope and plagued by discouraging setbacks. Di Silvestro explores the key role in the story of America's Indigenous people, whose fate was intertwined with the bison's and whose conservation work is important not only for the animal's recovery but also for their own cultural renewal.
Di Silvestro also examines the plight of European bison and the latest challenges facing the species in the US: Are the bison doomed to be treated like cattle, fenced and contained? Or will they be listed as an endangered species, requiring us to treat them like the wild animals they are?