Working for Wildlife: The Beginning of Preservation in Canada, Second Edition

Patrick Colgan is the former executive director of the Canadian Museum
of Nature.

This second edition of Foster’s valuable 1978 work on Canadian
environmental history covers the crucial period from the establishment
of Rocky Mountains Park in 1887 to the pivotal wildlife conference of
1919. The author sets the stage with discussions of vast natural
richness, the jurisdictional terms of the British North America Act, and
early lessons, especially those learned in Ontario. Readers will be
interested in the original commercial motivation for parks and in the
seminal role of the Conservation Commission. Important events included
the purchase of one of the last buffalo herds from an American,
expansion of parks and preserves, a shift from economic to biological
rationales, and enhanced administration and enforcement of wildlife
policies. Major contributions came from the efforts of park
superintendent Howard Douglas, commissioner James Harkin, Dominion
entomologist Gordon Hewitt, and ornithologist Percy Taverner.

Foster also discusses the Canadian Arctic Expedition, the force of
local politics, the fashionable demand for feathers, the impact of
developments south of the border, the role of the federal government
during this critical period in Canadian environmental history, and
subsequent wildlife issues and legislation. Her book includes valuable
black-and-white photographs, notes, a bibliography and index, and an
appendix in which the 1917 Migratory Birds Convention Act appears.

The foreword and afterword by Lorne Hammond of the Royal British
Columbia Museum reviews post–1978 events, and there is a new preface
by Foster. Highly recommended for those without the first edition.