A Watershed Moment The American West in the Age of Limits

About this book

The American West is often portrayed as a place of rugged, unending landscapes presenting humans with boundless opportunities. But the land is more fragile and resources more finite than popular perceptions acknowledge. This collection of essays, A Watershed Moment, reveals tensions between a culture of economic growth and personal freedom and the ecological, economic, and social constraints set by community values and the land itself. As Westerners and their communities come up against these limits, the volume editors highlight issues of sustainability endemic to the region and to the nation as a whole.

The volume presents practical approaches to land use, land management, and community planning that are motivated by philosophical views on justice, quality of life, and sustainability in the American West. The contributors are policymakers, government employees, land and water managers, urban planners, biologists, tribal members, writers, and academics from a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. The result is a compelling vision of place-based, policy-oriented sustainability across the West.

Contents

Foreword by Robert B. Keiter                                                                       
Preface by Robert Frodeman, Evelyn Brister, and Luther Propst               

- Introduction: Building Sustainable Communities in the Intermountain West / Evelyn Brister
- The West as Myth and Reality / Robert Frodeman

I. RESOURCE USE AND OVERUSE
- The Myth of Homeland: Bunkerville, Nevada / Betsy Gaines Quammen
- From Reclamation to Reckoning: A Phoenix Story / Grady Gammage Jr. and Wellington Reiter
- The Hidden Side of the West: The U.S.-Mexican Borderlands / Josiah Heyman
- Farmington, New Mexico, and America’s Energy Transition / Jonathan P. Thompson
- Booming and Busting in Salmon, Idaho: Cobalt and the New West / Jared L. Talley

II. EQUITABLE COMMUNITIES
- The New West Economy: A Recipe for Social Unraveling? / Shawn Hill
- Shelter for the People: In Telluride, Community Suffers without Adequate Housing / Joan May
- Exporting the Costs of Growth: Jackson Hole, Wyoming / Luther Propst
- Bozeman Is Booming for Some, but Is It Already a Bust for Others? / Kristal Jones
- Tourism and Turmoil Challenge Sedona’s Future / Jennifer Wesselhoff

III. PRESERVING PRIVATE AND PUBLIC LANDS
- Wallowa County and Oregon’s Half-Century Battle against Urban and Rural Sprawl / Robert Liberty
- Nihikéyah: Land Policy in the Navajo Nation / Crystal Carr and Andrea Christelle
- Tribal Governance of Traditional Lands: Bears Ears National Monument / Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk, interviewed by Evelyn Brister
- Innovation and Collaboration on Private Lands along Wyoming’s Absaroka Front / Drew E. Bennett, Travis Brammer, and Hilary Byerly Flint
- Beyond Current Boundaries: Disrupting Historical Legacies to Re-Indigenize the Crown of the Continent / Monte Mills and Kekek Jason Stark

IV. COEXISTING WITH WILDLIFE AND WILDFIRE
- Recreation as Wreckreation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem / Todd Wilkinson
- Heart of the West: Wyoming’s Commitment to Conserve Ungulate Migrations / Emily Reed and Matthew Kauffman
- Beyond the Science: Lessons in Human–Black Bear Coexistence / Stewart W. Breck
- At Home with Forest Fires in the West / Paul C. Rogers

V. RESTORING NATURE
- Human-Driven Changes and Solutions at the Great Salt Lake / Bonnie K. Baxter
- Beaver Rewilding: Ecological Processes in the Northern Rockies / Jodi Brandt, Jen Schneider, Nick Kolarik, Emily Iskin, Nawara J Shrestha, and Nancy Glenn
- Heading Downhill: Management Challenges on the Snake River / Carlin Girard
- A Renewed Glen Canyon Emerges / Seth Arens

Customer Reviews

Biography

Robert Frodeman writes on environmental philosophy, science and technology policy, and the future of the university.

Evelyn Brister is a professor of philosophy at Rochester Institute of Technology and works on environmental justice and conservation policy.

Luther Propst is an elected county commissioner in Teton County, Wyoming. He founded the Sonoran Institute in 1991 and served as executive director until 2012.