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A review by m_chisholm
The Beast in the Garden: The True Story of a Predator's Deadly Return to Suburban America by David Baron
5.0
I assigned this book for my advisees to read for summer reading at the school I work at (yes I know I ended this sentence on a preposition, get over it). Given that my school is all boys I figured a narrative about marauding cats would at least stand a chance against Pokemon GO for attention. I have yet to figure out how they have responded, but I have been overwhelmed at the quality of this book both from a research and craft standpoint. To be honest, I read some of this when I lived near Boulder in 2010-11 after seeing my first (and only) mountain lion jump across my car in the winter in Boulder Canyon while driving back to Nederland. The cat continued downriver on a snow and ice covered Boulder Creek padding softly away from me in the snow.
Baron's thoroughly researched monograph on the resurgence of cats in "suburban wilderness" is actually a small story with a broader comment on the field of environmental history (the subtopic of my Master's degree), specifically how wilderness relates to today's world of suburban sprawl. He cites William Cronon as an appropriate prophet foretelling the creation of wilderness in areas we least expect to find it, like the backyards of Boulder's modern monster mansions. He also criticizes (passively) the myth that untamed nature can live in seamless harmony with consumer driven human culture; both are forces at odds with each other butting heads in the foothills of the Front Range.
I've always quietly cheered when I heard somewhere in the news that an animal had attacked or eaten an otherwise unsuspecting or interfering homo sapiens. I suppose that I felt that these animals could be vindicated for a few human snacks after over a century of wholesale and mostly meaningless slaughter (66,665 puma deaths vs. 15 human ones in the last century (239)). I've even told others that I wouldn't mind "going that way" (being devoured by a wild animal, of course in the wild). That perspective has been tempered somewhat as I've gotten older, which is evident from the fact that I've come to agree with David Baron that nature needs to be managed in order to leave it alone (238). As a new father, I certainly don't want my daughter being devoured on a hike when she's five, but I also don't think the answer is to open up bounties on mountain lions anymore. Baron takes a middle road, and though I haven't done any recent research, his suggestions seem the wisest for harmony between the two species going forward.
Baron's thoroughly researched monograph on the resurgence of cats in "suburban wilderness" is actually a small story with a broader comment on the field of environmental history (the subtopic of my Master's degree), specifically how wilderness relates to today's world of suburban sprawl. He cites William Cronon as an appropriate prophet foretelling the creation of wilderness in areas we least expect to find it, like the backyards of Boulder's modern monster mansions. He also criticizes (passively) the myth that untamed nature can live in seamless harmony with consumer driven human culture; both are forces at odds with each other butting heads in the foothills of the Front Range.
I've always quietly cheered when I heard somewhere in the news that an animal had attacked or eaten an otherwise unsuspecting or interfering homo sapiens. I suppose that I felt that these animals could be vindicated for a few human snacks after over a century of wholesale and mostly meaningless slaughter (66,665 puma deaths vs. 15 human ones in the last century (239)). I've even told others that I wouldn't mind "going that way" (being devoured by a wild animal, of course in the wild). That perspective has been tempered somewhat as I've gotten older, which is evident from the fact that I've come to agree with David Baron that nature needs to be managed in order to leave it alone (238). As a new father, I certainly don't want my daughter being devoured on a hike when she's five, but I also don't think the answer is to open up bounties on mountain lions anymore. Baron takes a middle road, and though I haven't done any recent research, his suggestions seem the wisest for harmony between the two species going forward.