Allies of the Earth: Railroads And the Soul of Preservation

Although few Americans use passenger trains today, we still love railroads. We say we want to preserve our national parks, countryside, and urban landscapes, yet we keep tearing into the best of them every day. Once abandoning railroads would have been unthinkable, but we have forgotten the importance of trains for our earth and for ourselves. Alfred Runte challenges our notion that adding highways and airports will help us reach our destinations more quickly, or meet our transportation and environmental goals. He dares us to care about what we see as we travel and to believe railroads hold a key to preserving our national landscapes. As a true visionary with a deep respect for the land and its people, Runte gives us hope that by restoring our trains, we can save our nation's imperilled natural beauty.

An internationally acclaimed environmentalist and environmental historian, Alfred Runte came to the subject of railroads while exploring the American land. Born and raised in Binghamton, New York, he began his travels aboard the legendary Phoebe Snow, viewing the beautiful and varied American landscape from his window seat. In 1959, following the death of his father, his mother took the family west on a 10,000-mile camping trip, visiting the national parks. Years later, pursing his PhD at the University of California, Santa Barbara, he realized that the parks had been formed by railroads. America's identity is the land, and our love for the land was first made possible by the railroads. Truly, Allies of the Earth has been a book in the making for more than 50 years.

Now an independent scholar and consultant, Runte still travels widely on behalf of railroads and the environment, most recently to Brazil, where he gave the keynote address at the Fourth Brazilian Congress on Parks and Protected Areas in October 2004. He is also on the editorial board of Natureza & Conservação, the environmental journal of Brazil's Fundação O Boticário de Proteção à Natureza. He remains a board member of the Center for the Study of the Environment in Santa Barbara, California, and has served on the boards of the National Parks Conservation Association, National Association of Railroad Passengers, University of Alaska Press, and Susquehanna Conservation Council.

Runte has taught at five different colleges and universities and worked on the staff of the Smithsonian Insitution. He has consulted for the National Park Service and the U.S. Forest Service, and spent four summers as a seasonal ranger in Yosemite National Park. Currently, he is an advisor to Ken Burns for a forthcoming PBS series on the national parks, which will air in 2009. He has been a featured guest on Nightline (ABC), The Today Show (NBC), Forty-Eight Hours (CBS), The