Across the country and around the world, species that once flourished are now seldom seen. The impact of humans on organisms, ecosystems, and the biosphere has reached crisis proportions, but often this crisis is viewed in terms of a single species - the spotted owl, the snail darter - that is being threatened by a specific human action - logging, building. Rarely are the essential links between human values, actions, and management goals that create this tragedy ever examined. In Ghost Bears, R. Edward Grumbine looks at the wide-ranging implications of this crisis and explains why our species-centered approach will ultimately fail to protect ecosystems and diversity. Using the fate of the endangered grizzly bear - the "ghost bear" - to explore the causes and effects of species loss and habitat destruction, Grumbine presents a clear assessment of the biodiversity crisis and introduces the new science of conservation biology. While conservation biology may eventually provide theories and tools forsolutions to this crisis, until now its philosophical and conceptual framework has remained inaccessible to the general public. Grumbine explains this science in understandable terms and in the process, describes the connections between conservation biology, environmental laws, land management practices, and environmental values that must be understood if the environmental destruction we are wreaking is to be brought under control.