Conservation Confidential - by Lorne Fitch (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A powerful call to rethink how we value natural resources--not as commodities to exploit, but as gifts to protect for future generations.

Conservation Confidential is a compelling exploration of the clash between environmental stewardship and human ambition. Drawing on decades as a biologist, Lorne Fitch reflects on the complex dynamics between science, industry, and development. With wit, sharp critique, and heartfelt storytelling, he contrasts the priorities of industries like forestry, mining, and agriculture with the values of conservationists, asking: just because something can be done, should it?

Through personal insights and vivid anecdotes, Fitch examines the moral and ecological consequences of unchecked industrial growth while championing the urgent need for balance and foresight. His essays challenge readers to reconsider what progress truly means in a world where ecological boundaries are rapidly being surpassed.

A call to action and a celebration of nature, Conservation Confidential inspires change by raising awareness, nurturing empathy, and encouraging responsibility toward imperilled species and ecosystems--reminding us to treasure and protect the places we call home.

Review Quotes

"There is no one in the Canadian West who knows or cares more about sustainability for all than Lorne Fitch. Read this book!" --Robert William Sandford, author of Our Vanishing Glaciers: The Snows of Yesteryear and the Future Climate of the Mountain West and numerous other books

"This is a thoughtful, beautifully written book that deserves to be kept on the top shelf, whether at home or in a cabin, to be read again. It reflects a deep, lifelong knowledge of Alberta's wildlife and landscapes, why they are as they are today, and how to constructively right many wrongs. I always learn something from reading Lorne Fitch, and am left determined never to capitulate to inaction." --Monte Hummel, president emeritus, World Wildlife Fund Canada

"Fitch is that rare writer with knowledge and experience to fully understand environmental problems. 'Engagement' is an often-hijacked word, but in Conservation Confidentialhe engages the reader's intelligence and affection for all that live in nature. When he lampoons government and industry languages of obfuscation, it's as if Henry Thoreau had returned and found Walden Pond full of sediment, fished out, and deforested to within an inch of its survival. And, like Thoreau would, Fitch calmly explains why it happened and how we can make it stop." --Fred Stenson, award-winning Canadian author of The Great Karoo, Lightning, and The Trade

"Like his previous two books, Lorne Fitch's Conservation Confidential draws from his experience as a biologist and wildlife advocate to provide a primer on conservation. Like alchemy, Fitch's storytelling turns the simplest walk in the woods into an adventure and life lesson, revealing the interconnected web that binds our quality of life to maintaining the integrity of all that nature provides." --Cheryl Croucher, journalist and broadcaster specializing in environment and innovation

"In Alberta, the younger generation may start to think clear-cut forests, open-pit mines, and ploughed-under prairie are all the inevitable costs of doing business. But biologist Lorne Fitch is a passionate defender of the province's magnificent wildlands and also an elder with a long memory. He's here to tell you wilderness annihilation is not inevitable, and that there are still wild critters and landscapes crying out for our attention and protection. To read this book is to be educated, and to be educated is to be activated." --Sid Marty, author of Oldman's River: New and Collected Poems, The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek, and Men for the Mountains

"Lorne Fitch is a fine storyteller and a determined advocate, and he's as Albertan as the Okotoks 'Big Rock.' He writes to change the future, but he also leaves a legacy, documenting environmental concerns at a tricky time in our collective history. From masterful nature writing to clear, confident biological science, Fitch is at once folksy, embattled, sensitive, and optimistic. He's a good read, folks." --John Acorn, author, educator at the University of Alberta, and host of Acorn the Nature Nut

"Lorne Fitch writes from a lifetime of observing flowing water, whether it be barnyard runoff as a boy or free-running prairie rivers as a biologist. He describes the nature of a river and the landscape it creates in careful detail, sometimes technical, sometimes lyrical. Then he goes deeper to examine the effect human interference has on that flow and the creatures that live there. Given we humans are mostly composed of water, a better association with water and its stewardship seems logical. Fitch makes the case, and we would be wise to commit to it." --Valerie Haig-Brown, Canadian activist, author, and conservationist

"Reading Conservation Confidential is like taking a trip through Alberta's wilderness from the comfort of your living room. He describes the land and waterscapes with such intimacy that you feel as though you are there alongside him in the canoe or walking the trail. You'll leave this book wanting to get outside and appreciate it in any way you can, because you'll understand more of what is at stake in the constant battle to protect Alberta's water and wild places." --Sarah Elmeligi, carnivore biologist, wilderness advocate, and author of What Bears Teach Us