Keeping Faith With Nature: Ecosystems, Democracy, and America's Public Lands
Posted on: Tuesday, 20 July 2004, 06:00 CDT
KEEPING FAITH WITH NATURE: ECOSYSTEMS, DEMOCRACY, AND AMERICA'S PUBLIC LANDS by Robert B. Keiter; Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2003; 434 pp., $45.00 cloth (ISBN 0-300-09273-3)
While contemporary news highlights the Bush Administration's efforts to weaken environmental initiatives of the Clinton era, Keeping Faith with Nature argues that such setbacks are temporary detours on the road toward public land management based on ecosystem principles and more democratic participation. The basic premise is that a fundamental shift in natural resource policies is taking place-a "new commitment to keeping faith with nature"-and as a result, public land administrators are placing increasing importance on biodiversity. To support this, author Robert B. Keiter carefully documents the evolution of policies related to environmental controversies of the 1980s and 1990s, such as the spotted owl, wolf and grizzly reintroductions, fire management, salmon aquaculture, designated wilderness, the wise-use movement, and off-road vehicles.
Keeping Faith with Nature provides comprehensive, textbook discussions of the mandates, laws, and land-use management traditions of key government agencies; policy issues such as land ownership and rights and jurisdiction among federal, state, and local organizations; and the roles of constituencies and the courts. However, the book's primary focus is on federal lands in the western United States, where an expanding set of stakeholders has had significant influence on land-use decisions. Of special note, Keiter thoughtfully analyzes the role of civil society in case studies of participatory ecosystem planning, such as an initiative to manage 2.5 million acres of forest in California's northern Sierra Nevada Mountains.
This is a valuable, well-referenced study of the evolution of western public land-use policy emphasizing ecosystem restoration and management. The author contributes to "keeping the faith" by documenting progress to date and the importance of science in illuminating the path.
Keith L. Kline
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, TN
Copyright HELDREF PUBLICATIONS Jul/Aug 2004
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