Keeping Faith with Nature

Abstract

This book, which analyzes the contemporary public land policy debates with a view to bringing some perspective and coherence to a newly emerging era, addresses public land policy in its entirety, focusing on the interconnections between the diverse lands, resources, agencies, and communities that occupy so much of the western landscape. The alarming rate of species decline has pushed biodiversity conservation into the limelight; and the amorphous concept of ecosystem management has taken hold within the federal bureaucracy. Long-standing preservation notions—whether of entire landscapes, river corridors, wetlands, or species—have assumed new urgency in the face of the growing extinction crisis, burgeoning urban sprawl, and widespread environmental deterioration. These developments have profoundly influenced public land policy and shifted its focus toward ecological management, preservation, and ecosystem restoration. This book chronicles the changes that forecast a new direction in public land policy, examines the institutional forces driving those changes, and offers tentative observations on what the future may hold. To do so, it highlights key examples of the new ecological management movement: the Pacific Northwest's spotted owl controversy; the Yellowstone wolf reintroduction; fire as an agent of ecological change; the new wilderness debates; the transformation of southern Utah's Colorado Plateau; and the Quincy Library Group's forest management initiative. Drawing upon these examples, the book focuses on the ideas, forces, and institutions that are effecting—or resisting—change on the public lands.