The Influence of Culture on Wildfire Mitigation at Peavine Métis Settlement,Alberta, Canada

This article presents findings of a study that explored how culture influenced support for wildfire mitigation in Peavine Métis Settlement, an Aboriginal community located in Alberta, Canada. Community-based research was completed using interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. The results show that cultural factors appeared to influence wildfire mitigation preferences. Participants indicated the current state of the forest was not natural, and that mitigation activities would likely improve forest health. Participants supported Settlement Council-led wildfire mitigation activities at both the residential and community level due to a preference for communal action and collective problem solving. Participants also were found to distrust “outsiders” and preferred programs developed by members of their own community. The results of this study show that wildfire mitigation programs based on local culture can be well supported in an Aboriginal community.     

Soil fertility management strategies on the Jos Plateau: the need for integrating 'empirical' and 'scientific' knowledge in agricultural development

Tin mining carried out on the Jos Plateau since the beginning of the last century has disturbed some 320 km² of agricultural land. Formal attempts at reclamation of this land failed, but local farmers have developed a successful informal strategy for reclamation. This paper reports on a study undertaken to comprehend the farmers'informal' approach to soil fertility management. Their soil fertility management practices centre on the use of a complex combination of traditional organic manures and 'modern' inorganic fertilizers that they have developed entirely on the basis of experimentation. A central focus of this paper is therefore the empirical knowledge base of the farmers and an assessment of any underlying scientific explanations for their strategies, including an analysis of their assertion that different brands of NPK fertilizers differ in their nutrient value. This discussion is followed by a consideration of the difficulties in accessing and understanding empirical knowledge. It is concluded that farmers' knowledge and understanding of the values of different fertilizers and manures does have a scientific basis. It is argued that for further agricultural development to take place on the Jos Plateau, there must be synergy between farmers' empirical knowledge (which has led to the development of successful and effective soil fertility management strategies, unlike the attempts of the local 'scientific' communities) and scientific knowledge (which can identify health and environmental hazards which may not be immediately visible to farmers).     

THE MOST PERFECT EXAMPLE OF AN ALIEN ECOLOGY EVER CONSTRUCTED

Much science-fiction literature is based upon the creation and exploration of alternative environments. Stanley G. Weinbaum's short story, “Parasite Planet,”introduces an unusual environment that may be wrong in the light of recent evidence on Venus but still stimulates the geographical imagination.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Books reviewed in this article: USA, Eine Geographische Landeskunde , Vol. I, Der Grossraum in Strukturellem, Wandel, 3rd Ed. Helmut Blume . Introduction to Remote Sensing . James B. Campbell . The Sounds of People and Places: Readings in the Geography of American Folk and Popular Music . George O. Carney , ED. Development and Underdevelopment . John Cole . Mobility and Employment in Urban Southeast Asia: Example from Indonesia and the Philippines . Michael A. Costello , Thomas R. Leinbach , AND Richard Ulack . Soviet Asia: Economic Development and National Policy Choices . Leslie Dienes . The Third World City . David Drakakis -Smith . Scholars' Guide to Washington, DC for Cartography and Remote Sensing Imagery (maps, charts, aerial photographs, satellite images, cartographic literature and geographic information systems). Ralph E. Ehrenberg . Population and Development in the Third World . Allan AND Anne Findlay . The Early Mapping of Hawaii . Gary L. Fitzpatrick . Energetics of Physical Environment: Energetic Approaches to Physical Geography . K. J. Gregory , ED. Wildland Recreation: Ecology and Management . William E. Hammitt and David N. Cole . Agricultural Commercialization and Government Policy in Africa . J. Hinderink AND J. J. Sterkenburg . The Dynamics of American Housing . James W. Hughes AND George Sternlieb . Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation State . Charles F. Keyes . Resolving Locational Conflict . Robert W. Lake , ED. Lands at Risk in the Third World: Local-level Perspectives . Peter D. Little and Michael M. Horowitz , EDS. Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and the Culture of American Science . David N. Livingstone . Regions: The Economics and Politics of Territory . Ann R. Markusen . Wetlands . William J. Mitsch and James G. Gosselink . Historical Geography: Progress and Prospect . Michael Pacione , ED. Loess and Periglacial Phenomena . Marton P$eacsi and Hugh M. French , EDS. Regional Management of Metropolitan Floodplains, Experience in the United States and Abroad . Rutherford H. Platt , ED. Human Cartography: Mapping the World of Man . Janos Szegö . Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History . Helen H. Tanner , ED. The Botany of Mangroves . P. B. Tomlinson . Urban Spatial Traffic Patterns . Rodney Vaughan . The Night After … Climatic and Biological Consequences of a Nuclear War . Yevgeni Velikhov , ED. Industrial Geography . H. D. Watts . Dictionary of Quotations in Geography . James O. Wheeler and Francis M. Sibley . Vermont Townscape . Norman Wiliams , Jr. , Edmund K. Kellogg and Peter M. Lavigne .     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Portable Utopia: Glasgow and the United States 1820–1920. Bernard Aspinwall. Studies in Russian Historical Geography. James H. Bater and R. A. French, eds. Water and Sanitation: Economic and Sociological Perspectives. Peter G. Bourne, ed. Green Politics. Fritjof Capra and Charlene Spretnak. The Southern Cone: Realities of the Authoritarian State. César N. Caviedes. Women in Third World Development. Sue Ellen Charlton. Land Management: New Directions. David Chiddick and Alan Millington, eds. Geography and Ethnic Pluralism. Colin Clarke, David Ley, Ceri Peach, eds. Geomorphological Hazards in Los Angeles. R. U. Cooke. Regional Impacts of United States-Mexico Economic Relations. Alfonso Corona and Lay James Gibson. eds. Patterns of Jobs and Geographic Mobility. Torvald Gerger. Cities and Sickness: Health Care in Urban America. Ann Lennarson Greer and Scott Greer, eds. Neighborhoods: Their Place in Urban Life. Howard W. Hallman. Development and the Rural-Urban Divide. John Harriss and Mick Moore, eds. Patterns of Undocumented Migration: Mexico and the United States. Richard C. Jones, ed. Central Place Theory. Leslie J. King. The Geography of Western Europe: A Socio-economic Survey. Paul L. Knox. Regions and Resources: Strategies for Development. David T. Krisge, Daniel A. Seiver, Oliver S. Goldsmith and Michael J. Scott. Geography of Crowding and Human Response. A Study of Ahmedabad City. K. M. Kulkarni. Haciendo Pueblo. The Development of a Guadalajaran Suburb. Kathleen Logan. The Imperial Lion: Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management in Central Africa. Stewart A. Marks. Water in the Hispanic Southwest: A Social and Legal History, 1550–1850. Michael C. Meyer. Imlil: A Moroccan Mountain Community in Change. James A. Miller. Tourism in Canada: Selected Issues and Options. Peter E. Murphy, ed. David Harvey's Geography. John L. Paterson. Raster Scanning, Processing and Plotting of Cartographic Documents. Donna J. Peuquet and A. Raymond Boyle. The USSR and the Muslim World: Issues in Domestic and Foreign Policy. Yaacov Ro'i, ed. Environmental Perception and Behavior: An Inventory and Prospect. Thomas F. Saarinen, David Seamon, and James L. Sell. Incised channels, Morphology, Dynamics, and Control. Stanley A. Schumm, Michael D. Harvey, and Chester C. Watson. The Gap Between Rich and Poor: Contending Perspectives on the Political Economy of Development. Mitchell A. Seligson, ed. Twentieth-Century Richmond. Planning, Politics and Race. Christopher Silver. Land Conservation and Development: Examples of Land-Use Planning Projects and Programs. F. R. Steiner and H. N. van Lier, eds. Biogeography: Recent Advances and Future Directions. J. A. Taylor, ed. Late Quaternary Environments of the Soviet Union. A. A. Velichko, ed. H. E. Wright, Jr. and C. W. Barnosky, eds.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Geographical Aspects of Health and Disease in India . Rais Akhtar and A.T.A. Learmonth , eds . Antarctic Treaty System: An Assessment . Proceedings of a Workshop at Beardmore South Field Camp, Antarctica. American Electoral Mosaics . J. Clark Archer and Fred M. Shelley . Kompas op Suidwes-Afrika/Namibie . W.S. Barnard , ed . Jerusalem in the 19th Century: The Old City . Yehoshua Ben -Arieh . The World as a Total System . Kenneth E. Boulding . A Social History of Housing 1815–1985, Second Ed . John Burnett . Human Migration . W.A.V. Clark . Regional Population Projection Models . Andrei Rogers . The State of Population Theory: Forward from Malthus . David Coleman and Roger Schofield , eds . Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology and the American Future . Joseph C. Corn , ed. Swidden Agriculture in Indonesia: The Subsistence Strategies of the Kalimantan Kantú . Michael R. Dove . Glacial Geologic Processes . David Drewry . Physics of Desertification . Farouk El -Baz and M.H.A. Hassan , eds . Housing the Homeless . Jon Erickson and Charles Wilhelm , eds . Settlement Patterns in Missouri: A Study of Population Origins, with a Wall Map . Russel L. Gerlach . Desert Development: Man and Technology in Sparselands . Yehuda Gradus , ed . Nuclear Winter. The Evidence and Risks . Owen Greene , Ian Percival and Irene Ridge . The Take-off of Suburbia and the Crisis of the Central City . Günter Heinritz and Elisabeth Lichtenberger , eds . Regional Input-Output Analysis . Geoffrey J. D. Hewings . Spatial Transportation Modeling . Christian Werner . The Atlas of Georgia . Thomas W. Hodler and Howard A. Schretter , eds . Latin America. 5th ed . Preston E. James and C.W. Minkel . Applied Remote Sensing . C.P. Lo . Localities, Class, and Gender . The Lancaster Regionalism Group . Urban Social Movements: The City after Castells . Stuart Lowe . Politics and Method . Doreen Massey and Richard Meegan , eds . Land Use . A. S. Mather . The Kingdom of Coal . Donald L. Miller and Richard E. Sharpless . The Presidio and Militia on the Northern Frontier of New Spain, A Documentary History, Vol. 1: 1570–1700 . Thomas H. Naylor and Charles W. Polzer , S.J., comps . and eds . Nuclear Power: Siting and Safety . Stan Openshaw . The Central African Republic: The Continent's Hidden Heart . Thomas O'Toole . Environmental and Dynamic Geomorphology . Márton Pécsi , ed . Remote Sensing Principles and Interpretation . Floyd F. Sabins , Jr . Acid Rain and Friendly Neighbors: The Policy Dispute between Canada and the United States . Jurgen Schmandt and Hilliard Roderick , eds . Earth's Changing Surface: An Introduction to Geomorphology . M.J. Selby . International Migration: The Female Experience . Rita J. Simon and Caroline B. Brettell , eds . On Geography and Its History . D.R. Stoddart . Transportation Networks: A Quantitative Approach . D. Teodorovic . Processes in Physical Geography . R.D. Thompson , A.M. Mannion , C.W. Mitchell , M. Parry , J.R.G. Townshend . Imaging Radar for Resources Surveys . J.W. Trevett . Dominance and Affection: The Making of Pets . Yi -Fu Tuan . Capturing the Horizon. The Historical Geography of Transportation since the Transportation Revolution of the Sixteenth Century . James E. Vance , Jr . Nations at Risk: The Impact of the Computer Revolution . Edward Yourdon .     

Symposium On Sediment Storage In Rivers And Estuaries

Book Reviewed in this article:

Geographical Aspects of Health and Disease in India. Rais Akhtarand A.T.A. Learmonth, eds.

Antarctic Treaty System: An Assessment. Proceedings of a Workshop at Beardmore South Field Camp, Antarctica.

American Electoral Mosaics. J. Clark Archerand Fred M. Shelley.

Kompas op Suidwes-Afrika/Namibie. W.S. Barnard, ed.

Jerusalem in the 19th Century: The Old City. Yehoshua Ben-Arieh.

The World as a Total System. Kenneth E. Boulding.

A Social History of Housing 1815–1985, Second Ed. John Burnett.

Human Migration. W.A.V. Clark.

Regional Population Projection Models. Andrei Rogers.

The State of Population Theory: Forward from Malthus. David Colemanand Roger Schofield, eds.

Imagining Tomorrow: History, Technology and the American Future. Joseph C. Corn, ed.

Swidden Agriculture in Indonesia: The Subsistence Strategies of the Kalimantan Kantú. Michael R. Dove.

Glacial Geologic Processes. David Drewry.

Physics of Desertification. Farouk El-Bazand M.H.A. Hassan, eds.

Housing the Homeless. Jon Ericksonand Charles Wilhelm, eds.

Settlement Patterns in Missouri: A Study of Population Origins, with a Wall Map. Russel L. Gerlach.

Desert Development: Man and Technology in Sparselands. Yehuda Gradus, ed.

Nuclear Winter. The Evidence and Risks. Owen Greene, Ian Percivaland Irene Ridge.

The Take-off of Suburbia and the Crisis of the Central City. Günter Heinritzand Elisabeth Lichtenberger, eds.

Regional Input-Output Analysis. Geoffrey J. D. Hewings.

Spatial Transportation Modeling. Christian Werner.

The Atlas of Georgia. Thomas W. Hodlerand Howard A. Schretter, eds.

Latin America. 5th ed. Preston E. Jamesand C.W. Minkel.

Applied Remote Sensing. C.P. Lo.

Localities, Class, and Gender. The Lancaster Regionalism Group.

Urban Social Movements: The City after Castells. Stuart Lowe.

Politics and Method. Doreen Masseyand Richard Meegan, eds.

Land Use. A. S. Mather.

The Kingdom of Coal. Donald L. Millerand Richard E. Sharpless.

The Presidio and Militia on the Northern Frontier of New Spain, A Documentary History, Vol. 1: 1570–1700. Thomas H. Naylorand Charles W. Polzer, S.J., comps. andeds.

Nuclear Power: Siting and Safety. Stan Openshaw.

The Central African Republic: The Continent's Hidden Heart. Thomas O'Toole.

Environmental and Dynamic Geomorphology. Márton Pécsi, ed.

Remote Sensing Principles and Interpretation. Floyd F. Sabins, Jr.

Acid Rain and Friendly Neighbors: The Policy Dispute between Canada and the United States. Jurgen Schmandtand Hilliard Roderick, eds.

Earth's Changing Surface: An Introduction to Geomorphology. M.J. Selby.

International Migration: The Female Experience. Rita J. Simonand Caroline B. Brettell, eds.

On Geography and Its History. D.R. Stoddart.

Transportation Networks: A Quantitative Approach. D. Teodorovic.

Processes in Physical Geography. R.D. Thompson, A.M. Mannion, C.W. Mitchell, M. Parry, J.R.G. Townshend.

Imaging Radar for Resources Surveys. J.W. Trevett.

Dominance and Affection: The Making of Pets. Yi-Fu Tuan.

Capturing the Horizon. The Historical Geography of Transportation since the Transportation Revolution of the Sixteenth Century. James E. Vance, Jr.

Nations at Risk: The Impact of the Computer Revolution. Edward Yourdon.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Unfairly Structured Cities . Blair Badcock Religion and Rural Revolt . Janos M. Bak and Gerhard Benecke The Industrial Geography of Canada . Anthony Blackbourn and Robert G. Putnam The Cuban-American Experience, Culture, Images, and Perspectives. Thomas D. Boswell and James R. Curtis Quaternary Paleoclimatology . R. S. Bradley Development and Crisis in Brazil, 1930–1983 . Luiz Bresser Pereiras Centres of Origin in Biogeography . John C. Briggs Analytical Urban Geography . Martin Cadwallader Geomorphology . Richard J. Chorley , Stanley A. Schumm, and David E. Sugden South Africa: The Impact of Past Geographies . A. J. Christopher The Geography of Underdevelopment. A Critical Survey . D. K. Forbes Health Care in Developing Countries . Wilbert M. Gesler Place to Grow Old: The Meaning of Environment in Old Age . Stephen M. Golant The Emerging Marine Economy of the Pacific . Chennat Gopalakrishnan An Introduction to Agricultural Geography . David B. Grigg The Soviet Union: A Geographical Study . G. Melvyn Howe Geographical Aspects of Health: Essays in Honour of Andrew Learmonth . N. D. Mc Glashan and J. R. Blunden Physical Geography: A Landscape Appreciation . Tom L. Mc Knight Mountain Experience. The Psychology and Sociology of Adventure. Richard G. Mitchell Jr . Systematic and Regional Biogeography. Stanley A. Morain The Economic Transformation of American Cities. T. J. Noyelle and T. M. Stanback , Jr . Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies. Charles Perrow Vanishing Farmland: A Legal Solution for the States. Sarah E. Redfield Applied Methods of Regional Analysis: The Spatial Dimensions of Development Policy. Dennis A. Rondinelli Urbanization in Romania. A Geography of Social and Economic Change Since Independence. Per Ronnas Statistical Techniques in Geographical Analysis. Gareth Shaw and Dennis Wheeler The Granite Garden: Urban Nature and Human Design. Anne Whiston Spirn Political Geography: Recent Advances and Future Directions. Peter Taylor and John House Geographia y Medio Ambiente. Manuel Valenzuela -Rubío Nãgara and Commandery: Origins of the Southeast Asian Urban Traditions. Paul Wheatley The Common Fisheries Policy of the European Community. Mark Wise Geography and Gender. Women and Geography Study Group of the IBG Technological Hazards. D. J. Zeigler , J. H. Johnson , S. D. Brunn     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Reviewed in this article: Rabat: Urban Apartheid in Morocco . Janet Abu -Lughod . Marketplaces in a Developing Country: The Case of Western Nigeria . Isaac Ayinde Adalemo . Farming Development and Space: A World Agricultural Geography . Bernd Andreae . Section and Party: A Political Geography of American Presidential Elections, from Andrew Jackson to Ronald Reagan . J. Clark Archer and Peter J. Taylor . Women and Space: Ground Rules and Social Maps . Shirley Ardener , ed. European Progress in Spatial Analysis . R. J. Bennett , ed. The Origins of Academic Geography in the United States . Brian W. Blouet Geographic Perspectives on Global Problems . Ronald Reed Boyce . Seasonal Dimensions to Rural Poverty . Robert Chambers , Richard Longhurst and Arnold Pacey eds. The New Nationalism and the Use of Common Spaces: Issues in Marine Pollution and the Exploitation of Antarctica . Jonathan I. Charney , ed. Communications Tomorrow: The Coming of the Information Society . Edward Cornish , ed. The Design of Suburbia . Arthur Edwards . Explorer on the Northern Plains: Lieutenant Gouverneur K. Warren's Preliminary Report of Explorations in Nebraska and Dakota in the Years 1855–56–57. With an Introduction by Frank N. Schubert . The Changing Climate: Responses of the Natural Flora and Fauna . Michael J. Ford . Essentials of Physical Geography . Robert E. Gabler , Robert J. Sager , Sheila Brazier , and Daniel L. Wise. The Road to Jaramillo . William Glen . Valued Environments . John R. Gold and Jacquelin Burgess , eds. Proximity and Preference: Problems in the Multidimensional Analysis of Large Data Sets . Reginald G. Golledge and John N. Rayner , eds. A Search for Common Ground . Peter Gould and Gunnar Olsson , eds. Geography: Its History and Concepts . Arild Holt -Jensen . A Population Geography . Huw R. Jones . The Human Mosaic: A Thematic Introduction to Cultural Geography, 3rd ed. Terry G. Jordan and Lester Rowntree . Urban Social Geography: An Introduction . Paul Knox . The Anatomy of Job Loss: The How, Why and Where of Employment Decline . Doreen Massey and Richard Meegan . The Information Society as Post-Industial Society . Yoneji Masuda . Map Librarianship, 2nd ed. Harold Nichols . India: Cultural Patterns and Processes . Allen G. Noble and Ashok K. Dutt , eds. The God that Limps: Science and Technology in the Eighties . Colin Norman . Geography: An Introductory Perspective . Robert E. Norris , Keith D. Harries and John D. Vitek . The Politics of Technology Assessment . David M. O'Brien and Donald A. Marchand . Ethnic Segregation in Cities . Ceri Peach , Vaughan Robinson and Susan Smith , eds. Churches and Church Membership in the United States, 1980 . Bernard Quinn , Herman Anderson , Martin Bradley , Paul Goetting and Peggy Shriver . Energy in Australia: Politics and Economics . Hugh Saddler . Development from Above or Below? The Dialectics of Regional Planning in Developing Countries . Walter B. Stóuhr and D. R. Fraser Taylor , eds. Human Impact on the Ecosystem . Joy Tivy and Greg O'Hare . Plants and People: Vegetation Change in North America . Thomas R. Vale . The Mapmakers: The Story of the Great Pioneers in Cartography from Antiquity to the Space Age . John Noble Wilford .