The Next West: Public Lands, Community, and Economy in the American West - Softcover

9781559634601: The Next West: Public Lands, Community, and Economy in the American West

Softcover

ISBN 10: 155963460X ISBN 13: 9781559634601

Publisher: Island Press, 1997

In The Next West, nearly a dozen leading thinkers and writers including Karl Hess Jr., Mark Sagoff, Ed Marston, Thomas Michael Power, and Stephen Bodio, offer an insightful vision of the future of the American West. Their essays comprise a cogent matrix of reflections on what has gone wrong in the region, and, as Donald Snow explains in his lively introduction, point the way not to a "New West" of cappuccino cowboys, fiber optics, and some ambient, simpering sense of "the public's willingness to embrace environmental issues", but to a Next West based on the renewal of Jeffersonian democracy, experiments in local and supra-local control of public lands, and the use of markets to replace the political allocation of natural resources.The first half of the book presents an enlightening view of what it is to live in the West and practice environmental awareness. From the Sangre de Cristo Range, to the forests of the Pacific Northwest, to a single valley in Wyoming, the contributors describe their experiences with environmental endeavors ranging from the birth of the recycling industry on the streets of Seattle to the leasing of federal coal. In the second half of the book, contributors address the mythologies that have set the tone for life in the West for more than a century, challenging "the demons that command center stage in the politics and economy of the region." They dissect and debunk much of the West's gospel: that environmentally damaging extractive industries are essential for economic survival; that conservation is best handled by the government; that some day soon a great leader will arrive to once and for all solve their most pressing problems.The Next West is a spirited and compelling work that presents a fresh and thought-provoking approach to Western issues. It is essential reading for anyone who lives in or cares about the vast and complex region known as the West.

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About the Author:

Donald Snow is former executive director of the Northern Lights Research & Education Institute and founder and editor of Northern Lights Magazine in Missoula, Montana. Since 1976 he has worked as a volunteer and staff member of several environmental organizations in the American West. He completed the Conservation Leadership Project as a staff associate to The Conservation Fund, based in Arlington, Virginia.

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