EUGENE, Ore. -- (May 27, 2009) - Carol Ann Bassett will have scars from ticks on her legs forever, but she's proud of them. The overgrown brush on the Galápagos Island of Isabela is the result of eradication work to restore the island after 100,000 feral goats took over and threatened the giant land tortoises who call it home.
The University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication professor earned the scars by blazing her own trail on the island while writing the newly released book "Galápagos at the Crossroads: Pirates, Biologists, Tourists, and Creationists Battle for Darwin's Cradle of Evolution" (National Geographic Books).
A province of Ecuador located on the equator, the Galápagos are an archipelago of volcanic islands known for their unusual flora and fauna. The islands have become a popular ecotourist destination (174,000 people visited in 2007), and are home to more than 30,000 colonists. The number of residents and tourists can have staggering impacts on the animal and plant life.
Since her first trip in 1990 as a writer on a magazine assignment, Bassett has returned to the Galápagos Islands seven times and lived in the town of Puerto Ayora for eight months. Watching the number of residents increase and tour boat businesses expand over the past three decades has made her realize that she, too, is an invasive species and that life in the place called Charles Darwin's "cradle of evolution" is complex.
Bassett writes in the book's introduction: "The issue from early on has been a difference in values over what the Galápagos Islands represent to the people with interests there. A scientific laboratory? A place to exploit the natural resources? A major destination for international tourism? Often the three activities are at odds, and consensus among competing interests is hard to achieve."
As an environmental writing and literary non-fiction professor, Bassett chose to organize the book as a narrative with each chapter focused on a specific person or group, such as creationists, pirates and naturalists involved in the current struggles to find balance between tourism, scientific research, preservation of resources and local rights.
Bassett approached the subject as a cultural anthropologist and received special permission to visit sites not open to the public, such as Volcan Alcedo on Isabela Island, and Punta Cevallos on Española Island, the site of the world's largest colony of waved albatross.
"There were moments filled with awe and gratitude, to snorkel with penguins in the morning and watch flamingos in the afternoon, to watch the graceful mating rituals of the albatross in this last Eden," said Bassett. But, she says, tourism runs everything; it's the root cause of why the Galápagos are now endangered.
"I wanted the whole picture. I wanted to immerse myself in the field and understand on a deeper level how disparate elements can bring an eco-region down. My goal from the start was to help others think deeply about why the Galápagos Islands are endangered and what's being done to preserve them before it's too late."
In 1978, Galápagos Islands National Park was one of the first sites on earth to be designated as a United Nations World Heritage site and a natural Patrimony of Humanity. In June 2007, UNESCO listed the Galápagos Islands as "in danger."
Bassett dedicated the book to the children of Galápagos because she believes education --especially about science, natural history and evolution -- is the key to the future of the islands. "I wrote the book because I want to make a difference in some small way," she said.
Bassett is also the author of "A Gathering of Stones: Journeys to the Edges of a Changing World," which was a finalist for the 2002 Oregon Book Award in creative nonfiction, and "Organ Pipe: Life on the Edge" (Desert Places series).
Bassett will read from the book at 7 p.m., Tuesday, June 2, UO Knight Library, Browsing Room, 1501 Kincaid St. The event is sponsored by the UO Duck Store and will include a book signing. UO's Steven Shankman will introduce Bassett at the reading. Shankman holds the UNESCO Chair for Transcultural Studies, Interreligious Dialogue, and Peace and is the founding director of the new Center for Intercultural Dialogue.
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is a world-class teaching and research institution and Oregon's flagship public university. The UO is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU), an organization made up of the 62 leading public and private research institutions in the United States and Canada. The University of Oregon is one of only two AAU members in the Pacific Northwest.
Contact: Julie Brown, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu
Source: Carol Ann Bassett, 541-346-2033, cbassett@uoregon.edu
Links: http://jcomm.uoregon.edu/faculty-staff/cbassett; www.carolannbassett.com
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