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The vast public lands of the American West are being transformed today, not geologically but conceptually. A century ago, visitors to western public lands were likely to be ranchers or miners. Today, the lands are popular destinations for campers, hikers, rock climbers, river runners, artists, and off-road-vehicle enthusiasts. These new visitors have proved to be a challenge for managers of public lands, in particular the federal Bureau of Land Management. Perhaps no area has been more affected by changing users and shifting policies than the San Rafael Swell, a million-acre expanse in southeastern Utah. In this insightful and useful book, Jeffrey Durrant follows the trail of decisions and events that have had—and continue to have—a transformative impact on this ancient land. In detailing political and environmental squabbles over the San Rafael Swell, Durrant illuminates issues that confront land managers, bureaucrats, and elected officials throughout the country. He describes struggles between county commissioners and environmental activists, conflicts over water rights, proposals that repeatedly fail to gain government approval, and political posturings. Caught in the crossfire, and often overwhelmed, the Bureau of Land Management has seen its long-time mission—once centered on grazing and mining rights—transmogrify into a new and, to some, unsettling responsibility for recreation and preservation. The sandstone crags and twisting valleys of the San Rafael Swell present a formidable landscape, but as this book clearly shows, the political landscape may be even more daunting, strewn with bureaucratic boulders and embedded with fixed positions on the functions and values of public land.
This full-color guide covers 90 trails in southern Utah's spectacular canyon country that epitomize the "wonder of wilderness." The authors hiked more than 1600 miles through Zion, Bryce, Escalante-Grand Staircase, Glen Canyon, Grand Gulch, Cedar Mesa, Canyonlands, Moab, Arches, Capitol Reef, and the San Rafael Swell in order to compile their list of 90 WOW hikes. Coverage ranges from short dayhikes to multi-day backpacking adventures. The book describes precisely where to find the redrock cliffs, slick-rock domes, soaring arches, and ancient ruins that make southern Utah unique. And it does so in a refreshing style--honest, literate, entertaining, and inspiring.
Packed with useful facts and advice, Utah's Wilderness Areas: The Complete Guide is the most comprehensive guidebook covering the state's wilderness lands, both designated and proposed. A mix of practical information and pure inspiration, this guide combines author Lynna Howard's detailed and cleverly crafted text with breathtaking images by her brother, photographer Leland Howard. Together, the Howards reveal the best outdoor experiences Utah's vast and diverse wildlands have to offer, from the alpine peaks of the High Uintas Wilderness to the shadowy slot canyons of the Colorado Plateau. Backcountry adventurers, particularly hikers and backpackers, will find this guide an invaluable tool for discovering Utah's spectacular wilderness and other wild areas. Book jacket.
As the twenty-first century dawns, public land policy is entering a new era. This timely book examines the historical, scientific, political, legal, and institutional developments that are changing management priorities and policies—developments that compel us to view the public lands as an integrated ecological entity and a key biodiversity stronghold. Once the background is set, each chapter opens with a specific natural resource controversy, ranging from the Pacific Northwest’s spotted owl imbroglio to the struggle over southern Utah’s Colorado Plateau country. Robert Keiter uses these case histories to analyze the ideas, forces, and institutions that are both fomenting and retarding change. Although Congress has the final say in how the public domain is managed, the public land agencies, federal courts, and western communities are each playing important roles in the transformation to an ecological management regime. At the same time, a newly emergent and homegrown collaborative process movement has given the public land constituencies a greater role in administering these lands. Arguing that we must integrate the new imperatives of ecosystem science with our devolutionary political tendencies, Keiter outlines a coherent new approach to natural resources policy.