MICHAEL BLACK
756 - 20th Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94121
(415) 668-2370
michaelb@igc.org

Brief Biography:
Michael Black is currently a visiting Associate Professor of Political Science at the Harvey Mudd College in Claremont.

Public Lectures (Venues):

• "Searching for a Genius of Place: The Ambiguous Legacy of Golden Gate Park," The Environmental Spirit, Symposium and Conference, University of California, Berkeley, April 1996
• "Demilitarizing US Science and Technology Policy: The Case for Social Movements," John F. Kennedy Center for North American Studies, Free University, Berlin, Germany, May 1992

Public Lecture Topics:

• "California's Last Salmon: Fish Versus Fool's Gold," Gold and Green Conference, University of California, Santa Cruz and California Council for the Humanities, Santa Cruz, CA, July 1998 (see abstract below)
• "Fish hatcheries in California: An Historical Overview," Saving California's Salmon: Hatcheris Versus Wild Fish," U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (and multiple co-sponsors), Santa Rosa, CA, February 1998 (see abstract below)

Abstract: Pacific salmon may be one of our most powerful litmus tests for evaluating successful human co-evolution with nature. Western fish and fisheries were among the first victims of water mobilization in California and many of them remain endangered today. Today's salmon "salvage" efforts stem from the nation's first environmental crusade- a failed attempt at restoring anadromous shad and Atlantic salmon to Northeastern coastal rivers. During the 19th Century, humanity sought to compensate for declining fisheries by means of technological fixes (like hatcheries and fish ladders). The federal and state-level assumptions governing fisheries policies in 1890 remain virtually unchanged to this day. What we observe is a century of escalating conservation efforts measurable in declining numbers of fish.

Publications:

• Co-editor, Greening Environmental Policy: The Politics of a Sustainable Future, New York: St. Martin's Press, and London: Paul Chapman Press, 1995, an anthology on comparative national approaches to environmental policy
• California's Last Salmon: The Unnatural Policies of Natural Resource Agencies, Berkeley: University of California Press (forthcoming), a book exploring the history and policy responses to diminishing Western salmon runs on California's Sacramento River.

Public Projects:

• Centenary history of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the Kansas City-based American Public Works Association

Michael Black has been listed in the Directory of California Thinkers since 10-Feb-1999.