Dolin, Eric Jay

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DOLIN, Eric Jay

PERSONAL:

Married, wife's name, Jennifer; children: Lily, Harrison. Education: Brown University, B.A., 1983; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D. Religion: Jewish. Hobbies and other interests: Stamp collecting.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Marblehead, MA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, University of Massachusetts Press, P.O. Box 429, Amherst, MA 01004.

CAREER:

Independent scholar and freelance writer. National Marine Fisheries Service, fishery-policy analyst. Also worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as environmental consultant and program manager.

AWARDS, HONORS:

American Association for the Advancement of Science Writing Fellow, Business Week; Pew Research Fellow, Harvard Law School; Knauss Sea Grant Fellow, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

WRITINGS:

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ("Know Your Government" series), Chelsea House Publishers (Langhorne, PA), 1989.

(Editor, with Lawrence E. Susskind and J. William Breslin) International Environmental Treaty Making, Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School (Cambridge, MA), 1992.

(With Bob Dumaine) The Duck Stamp Story: Art, Conservation, History, Krause Publications (Iola, WI), 2000.

(Author of text) Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges, photography by John Hollingsworth and Karen Hollingsworth, Smithsonian Institution Press (Washington, DC), 2003.

Snakehead: A Fish Out of Water, Smithsonian Books (Washington, DC), 2003.

Political Waters: The Long, Dirty, Contentious, Incredibly Expensive but Eventually Triumphant History of Boston Harbor; A Unique Environmental Success Story, University of Massachusetts Press (Amherst, MA), 2004.

Has published numerous articles on environmental topics in journals, magazines, and newspapers.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

A history of whaling in America, for Norton.

SIDELIGHTS:

Eric Jay Dolin is a writer with a passion for the conservation of wildlife. In 2003 Dolin authored a book about America's unique national wildlife refuge system. The Smithsonian Institute published the book on the occasion of the refuges' centennial celebration. Dolin has written other books and numerous articles on topics relating to nature and the environment, among them a book on the extensive environmental cleanup of Boston Harbor.

Dolin's book The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was published in 1989 as part of an extensive series of books called "Know Your Government." It explains about the Fish and Wildlife Service's history and its purpose as a federal agency. For instance, the agency has in the past launched a successful recovery program for the whooping crane.

The Duck Stamp Story: Art, Conservation, History, published in 2000, chronicles one of the most successful conservation programs in history. In the 1930s Congress adopted the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act. Since then the federal government has been able to add five million acres to the national wildlife refuge system by revenues from the sale of duck stamps. The book is also a reference source for readers interested in the value of their stamps.

The research and writing of The Duck Stamp Story launched Dolin's interest in the refuges and led to the creation of the Smithsonian Book of National WildlifeRefuges. The 258-page book, filled with pictures by National Geographic photographers John and Karen Hollingsworth, tells how Pelican Island Reserve was established in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt as the nation's first refuge, launching a system that today consists of 538 sanctuaries overseen by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Providing a detailed history of the system of national wildlife refuges, the book also chronicles the many challenges and struggles the system has had to face over the years. Robert Engel wrote in Environment that the Smithsonian Book of National Wildlife Refuges is not only "a handsome coffee table book" but also "an informative history" whose analysis is thorough. Nancy Moeckel, reviewing the book for Library Journal, called it "an outstanding book" that "undoubtedly will serve the purpose of educating the public and garnering more support from them."

In Snakehead: A Fish Out of Water, Dolin documents a near ecological disaster that took place in Maryland in 2002. A local resident dumped a couple of large northern Chinese snakehead fish into a backwash gravel pond in Crofton, Maryland. The fish is a carnivorous predator that not only eats every other fish in its area but is also capable of migrating over relatively long stretches of land. By the time the Maryland Department of Natural Resources poisoned the pond, the fish had already reproduced on a large scale. Apart from the snakehead's discovery and elimination, Dolin also looks at media reactions. Adrian Barnett, reviewing Snakehead in New Scientist, lauded the book's "fine combination of wildlife biology, interviews and news material."