If you are looking for an up-to-date vision of environmental restoration that is both principled and pragmatic, read this book. Higgs's interweave of case studies and thoughtfully informed, multidisciplinary argument is all the stronger for its avoidance of easy answers.
Lawrence Buell, Harvard University, author of The Environmental Imagination and Writing for an Endangered World
Nature by Design is a wonderful book—an eloquent, wise, and useful guide to the potentials and ambiguities of ecological restoration. By connecting nature, community, memory, and intention so artfully, Eric Higgs has redefined the field.
David W. Orr, Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College
Nicholsen gives us an honest and creative account of the challenges we face as members of an ecologically dysfunctional society and the opportunities to heal ourselves and the world. Especially useful for instructors who've learned that ecological realism too often disempowers students instead of building capacities for personal and societal transformation.
Max Oelschlaeger, F.B. McAllister Endowed Chair in Community, Culture, and Environment, Northern Arizona University, author of The Idea of Wilderness
Nature by Design is a figurative compass indicating a direction that leads towards altered, healing relations between humankind and the larger, older, and increasingly fragile natural world. As Higgs notes, to dare set out on that course is as much a calling as a profession.
Max Oelschlaeger, F.B. McAllister Endowed Chair in Community, Culture, and Environment, Northern Arizona University, author of The Idea of Wilderness
