Choice Review

Gruell, a retired US Forest Service wildlife biologist well known for his repeat photographs of vegetation change, and Swanson, a range ecologist (Univ. of Nevada, Reno) chronicle vegetation and wildlife changes in the cold desert of northern Nevada from the Pleistocene to modern times. Northern Nevada is part of the Great Basin, a physiographic region of arid valleys and moist mountains that lies roughly between the Sierra Nevada of California and the Wasatch Mountains of Utah. Although dominated by sagebrush, the region originally supported a diversity of vegetation--shaped by fire--from native grasses to pinyon-juniper and aspen woodlands as well as wildlife. European settlement brought about the most significant changes through livestock overgrazing and fire suppression. Both allowed woody vegetation to expand and cheat grass to invade at the expense of native herbaceous vegetation and wildlife dependent on specific plant communities. The authors discuss current management practices and options for sustaining and improving vegetation diversity critical to wildlife. Because the ecological history of the rest of the Great Basin parallels that of Nevada, this well-annotated book will have wide interest beyond Nevada. Summing Up: Recommended. Academic, professional, and general readers, all levels. R. L. Smith emeritus, West Virginia University