1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Reed Noss

Reed Noss Quotes

Reed F. Noss , a Conservation biologist since the beginning of the field in the early 1980s, is a writer, photographer, and speaker, retired in 2017 as Provost's Distinguished Research Professor, Pegasus Professor, and Davis-Shine Professor at the University of Central Florida. He is President and Chief Scientist for the Florida Institute for Conservation Science, Chief Science Advisor for the Southeastern Grasslands Initiative, and an editor for the Journal of Natural History Education and Experience. Noss' published work consists of over 315 published or in press scientific articles, and eight published books, with two more books in preparation. Wikipedia  

✵ 23. June 1952
Reed Noss: 9   quotes 0   likes

Famous Reed Noss Quotes

“Science, as traditionally defined, is fundamental to conservation biology but does no good if isolated from "softer" issues such as ethics, sociology, and political strategy. Indeed, there is nothing more dangerous than science in an ethical vacuum.”

Reed Noss

[Conservation Biology, Whither Conservation Biology?, June 1993, 7, 2, 215–217, 10.1046/j.1523-1739.1993.07020215.x, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1993.07020215.x] (quote from p. 215)

“A few human generations ago, grasslands were abundant across much of the South; today there are rare. Driving through the region today, one mostly sees agricultural fields, pine plantations, dense and mostly young hardwood forests and swamps, and, increasingly, urban sprawl.”

Reed Noss

p. 6 https://books.google.com/books/about/Forgotten_Grasslands_of_the_South.html?id=9ZOaZZbukBwC&pg=PA6
Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation (2012)

“Among the common changes in forests over the past two centuries are loss of old forests, simplification of forest structure, decreasing size of forest patches, increasing isolation of patches, disruption of natural fire regimes, and increased road building, all of which have had negative effects on native biodiversity.”

Reed Noss

[Assessing and monitoring forest biodiversity: a suggested framework and indicators, Forest Ecology and Management, 115, 2–3, 22 March 1999, 135–146, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112798003946] (quote from p. 135)

“Endless fascination with nature—nothing more and nothing less—is the key to enlisting people in the fight to save biodiversity.”

Reed Noss

p. xv https://books.google.com/books/about/Forgotten_Grasslands_of_the_South.html?id=9ZOaZZbukBwC&pg=PR15
Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation (2012)

“Many university departments—especially the traditional resource disciplines such as fisheries, wildlife, range management, and forestry—are closely tied to industry or hook‐and‐bullet recreation and treat conservation biology with anxiety or disdain.”

Reed Noss

[The failure of universities to produce conservation biologists, Conservation Biology, 11, 6, December 1997, 1267–1269, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1523-1739.1997.97ed05.x] (quote from p. 1267)

“Nature no longer entertains us when conserving it becomes inconvenient.”

Reed Noss

[Toward a Pro‐Life Politics, Conservation Biology, 15, 4, August 2001, 827–828, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1523-1739.2001.015004827.x]

“… We cannot get big grants to do field work anymore. … Will the next generation of conservation biologists be nothing but a bunch of computer nerds with no firsthand knowledge of natural history? … The naturalists are dying off and have few heirs.”

Reed Noss

[The naturalists are dying off, Conservation Biology, 10, 1, February 1996, 1–3, 10.1046/j.1523-1739.1996.10010001.x] (quote from p. 1)

“No thoughtful persons could stand beneath one of these immense trees, gaze up into its canopy, and help but think that here is a remarkable organism—so much more than all the board-feet of lumber that men might cleave from it.”

Reed Noss

2000)[More than big trees, The redwood forest: History, ecology, and conservation of the coast redwoods, 1–6, https://books.google.com/books?id=6T3PeH_EbbYC&pg=PA1] (quote from p. 1

“The main lesson that emerges from this volume is that sea level rise, combined with human population growth, urban development in coastal areas, and landscape fragmentation, poses an enormous threat to human and natural well-being in Florida. How Floridians respond to sea level rise will offer lessons, for better or worse, for other low-lying regions worldwide.”

Reed Noss

[Between the devil and the deep blue sea: Florida’s unenviable position with respect to sea level rise, Climatic Change, 107, 1–2, July 2011, 1–16, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-011-0109-6] (quote from p. 1)