Based on the fascinating true story of a trial that opened a window onto the century-long battle to control nature in the national parks, Engineering Eden won the silver medal in nonfiction in Commonwealth Club’s 86th Annual California Book Awards for books published by California authors in 2016.

When 25-year-old Harry Walker was killed by a bear in Yellowstone Park in 1972, the civil trial prompted by his death became a proxy for bigger questions about American wilderness management that had been boiling for a century. At immediate issue was whether the National Park Service should have done more to keep bears away from humans, but what was revealed as the trial unfolded was just how fruitless our efforts to regulate nature in the parks had always been.

Jordan Fisher Smith has produced a powerful work of popular science and environmental history, grappling with critical issues that we have even now yet to resolve.