Overview

This is the story of how the Endangered Species Act failed a small songbird, the dusky seaside sparrow. The sparrows only habitat lay in the path of the Kennedy Space Center, not far from Disney World. Mark Walters moving narrative describes how the social and political forces of an era forced irrevocable and profound changes in the environment of Brevard County, Florida, and brought about the extinction of a small bird. Walters begins his story in the late 1950s, before Cape Canaveral was renamed the Kennedy Space Center. Against the backdrop of Merritt Island and the marshlands along the Indian, Banana, and St. Johns riversthe only places on the planet where the sparrow thrivedhe chronicles the struggles of many different personalities, strong-minded individuals whose lives and personal fates become inextricably entwined with those of the dusky. The cast of characters includes the head of Brevard County Mosquito Control, bureaucrats and rangers with U.S. Fish & Wildlife, NASA administrators, real estate developers, ranchers, highway engineers, egg collectors, conservationists, and finally, Disney World itself, home of the last duskies and their hybrid offspring. The sparrow, like the spotted owl of the Pacific Northwest, was the victimthe innocent bystanderof an intense human struggle between those who advocate growth and jobs at any cost and those who insist that each life form that is endangered be protected at any cost, and few, if any, winners in the end.

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9781933392561

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This wise and careful book is about two things. First, one small and engaging part of Gods creation, the dusky seaside sparrow. Second, our desire for development, for vacation homes without mosquitoes, for ducks to hunt, and even for a trip to the moon. The bird is no more, but thanks to Mark Walters it leaves behind a powerful testimony. Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

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