This book highlights the difficulties in making practical decisions regarding conservation when the habitat has been highly fragmented. It takes as its test case the chronically fragmented landscape of the Illinois forest-prairie border. The book's three major sections define the context for the case study, describe general problems using specific examples, and show how these problems have resulted in specific conservation activities. The entire book, especially the third part, uses Illinois as its case study, since Illinois was settled heavily and early and had lost most of its natural habitats before the conservation movement had begun. This book should be of interest to anyone working in areas where development has been extensive and where, consequently, pristine habitats have vanished.