cover image A Stillness in the Pines: The Ecology of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

A Stillness in the Pines: The Ecology of the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker

Robert W. McFarlane. W. W. Norton & Company, $22.95 (270pp) ISBN 978-0-393-03066-2

With this carefully reasoned brief for the protection of the red-cockaded woodpecker, an endangered bird native to the pinewoods of the Southeastern U.S., biologist McFarlane combines ecology and activism. His approach makes the book a pleasing contrast to those technical treatments of the ecology of animals and plants that ignore human encroachment, as well as those picture books and essays long on sentiment but short on information about the reasons behind the conflicting needs of foresters and birds. Science, however, is difficult to present, and lay readers will have to wade through unfamiliar terminology (``desiccation-resistant,'' ``tarsi,'' ``homologous'') and research reports. Yet the rewards are ample, for the author brings us closer to ``viewinging the world from the perspective of a woodpecker'' and successfully documents that the plight of the red-cockaded woodpecker is attributable to the Forest Service's failure to follow the mandates of the Endangered Species Act. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)