The book consists of an editorial overview, followed by 21 chapters arranged in five sections, and six, quite comprehensive, appendices. Two introductory chapters nicely set the scene, both above- and below ground. Kline's opening chapter, in particular, eloquently introduces the reader to the major elements of this ecosystem complex: the tallgrass prairie and its plant and animal constituents, fire, succession, and human settlement effects; and the oak-savanna and its plants and animals. The second section, on Goals and Plans, addresses systematically such considerations as size of the natural area and other physical factors, and problems associated with selecting particular target areas for restoration. These are followed by a series of "options" for restoration, with appropriate management activities prescribed. Many practical issues are addressed (to burn or not to burn; to plow or not to plow; when and how to seed, etc.). Reinartz's chapter attends to some of the particular problems associated with restoring populations of rare plants. He has followed a risk/benefit approach to generate several useful rules for restoring with rare species. Part 3, on Seeds and Planting, is decidedly practical, with details about how, when and where to get and process seed; how to design seed mixes; individual seed treatments to break dormancy or inoculate with nitrogen fixing bacteria; how to interseed; (and, indeed, how to seed). Part 4, on Management and Monitoring, covers fires and controlled burns, as well as invasive weeds; and Part 5 on animals, rounds out the text.
Overall, the book is nicely written and well-organized, showing evidence of having been very carefully developed and edited -some of the individual tables are very specific and potentially very useful, full of hard-to find data. There has been of late a veritable plethora of publications concerning natural communities of the tallgrass region of North America (well, at least some 48 books and related volumes, usefully classified and commented upon here in an annotated appendix, arranged as general references and by state and province.) The volume also includes five other carefully compiled, useful and informative appendices (this handbook is a true handbuch, in the best of senses). One extensive appendix lists and analyses the 988 taxa of native vascular plants occurring in the American Midwestern tallgrass prairie, plus the Ontario tallgrass prairie 'peninsula', including an index or coefficient representing the rarity/ distribution status, separately for each taxon, across each of the fifteen relevant U.S. states or Canadian provinces. While I was particularly pleased, as a researcher in Canada, to find that the maps and lists didn't all stop at the border, I should emphasize here the nature of the book's focus: tallgrass. There is nothing, for example, on the interesting intermountain grasslands of interior British Columbia, or the rough fescue and mixed grass prairies of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and southwestern Manitoba. Of these, the intermountain grasslands are the best-represented of the Canadian native prairies (with 30-50% remaining - not a vast amount but far more than, say, the <1% remaining of southern Ontario and southeastern Manitoba tallgrass prairies.) This informative appendix includes a summary of the distribution of ,wetness ratings" among the species, plus a summary of the physiognomic classes found among the tallgrass flora'. Terrestrial vertebrates are dealt with in another detailed appendix; sources of seeds and specialized equipment in another; and a compilation of restoration related organizations, journals, and World Wide Web sites in yet another.
To carp, if only about the book not intended by the editors - but important and needed nonetheless - I would have wished to see more (some?) on the connections and developments within the theoretical bases of academic restoration science. More on the ways in which fundamental elements of conservation biology, community ecology and even biogeography impinge upon these matters of tallgrass prairie ecological restoration.
The editors have produced an engagingly-illustrated, informative and interesting book - a solid description of the state-of-the-art of prairie restoration. I shall turn to my already well-thumbed copy many times in future. I recommend it to all restorationists, interested conservation biologists, plus plant ecologists and botanists who are inclined toward these matters. - Jon Lovett-Doust, Department of Biology, University of Windsor.