An SIU professor awaits the release of his new scientific textbook.

Donald Sparling, an associate professor in the Department of Cooperative Wildlife Research and Zoology, said the book is designed for the Zoology 464 Wildlife Administration course.

Sparling has taught the course for 10 years and never had a textbook specifically for the class.

“It filled in an empty niche… there is absolutely no book for this course or similar courses like it,” he said. “It needed to be done.”

The book is entitled “Natural Resource Administration: Wildlife, Fisheries, Forests and Parks.”

Academic Press will publish the book in early March. Sparling said there is not an exact date, but it should released in six weeks.

Sparling said the 325-page textbook focuses on various federal and state agencies involved in conservation and administration of resources.

“I wanted to focus in on renewable resources rather than non-renewable resources like oil and minerals because that gets to be very monetarily oriented and very international,” he said. “Whereas the renewable resources are not quite so complex.”

Sparling said the book discusses the history and legal aspects of natural resource administration.

He said it took Sparling a year to write the book. He decided write the book after three year of teaching the course.

“The course is particularly important because the wildlife society has a certification program for professional wildlife biologists, and part of the course work they need to take is some sort of course in natural resource administration,” he said.

Sparling said he is using one of the chapters in class and the students enjoy it. He said he has been senior editor for four previous publications, but this was the first work completely written alone.

Sparling said he worked for the federal government for 23 years before becoming a professor at the university.

“I worked with state agencies during my period of time and for the ten years that I’ve been here, I’ve been working with states and teaching the course,” he said. “In the cooperative wildlife research laboratory here, we have a very close working relationship with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.”

The paperback version is available for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble for roughly $60.

Sparling said he is will retire next year and hopes someone will take over teaching the course and use his book.

Luke Nozicka can be reached at [email protected], @lukenozicka, or 536-3311 ext. 282.