Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America [Hardcover]

Stephen Trimble (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0520251113 | ISBN-13: 978-0520251113 | Publication Date: July 28, 2008 | Edition: 1

Beginning with an Olympic ski race in northern Utah, this heartfelt book from award-winning writer and photographer Stephen Trimble takes a penetrating look at the battles raging over the land--and the soul--of the American West. Bargaining for Eden investigates the high-profile story of a reclusive billionaire who worked relentlessly to acquire public land for his ski resort and to host the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. In a gripping, character-driven narrative, based on extensive interviews, Trimble tells of the land exchange deal that ensued, one of the largest and most controversial in U.S. history, as he deftly explores the inner conflicts, paradoxes, and greed at the heart of land-use disputes from the back rooms of Washington to the grassroots efforts of passionate citizens. Into this mix, Trimble weaves the personal story of how he, a lifelong environmentalist, ironically became a landowner and developer himself, and began to explore the ethics of ownership anew. We travel with Trimble in a fascinating journey that becomes, in the end, a hopeful credo to guide citizens and communities seeking to reinvent their relationship with the beloved American landscape.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A compelling read."--American Scientist

"The case Trimble makes is well illustrated, and also troubling testimony to the speed with which a birthright is now slipping away."--Boston Globe Book Section

"Bargaining for Eden often reads like a novel."--Earth Island Journal

"A compelling and important book for all of us who are concerned about the future of our remaining open spaces."--High Uintas Preservation Council

From the Inside Flap

"While open spaces in America are rapidly being destroyed as a result of greed, hubris, and neglect, Stephen Trimble's Bargaining for Eden is a powerful call for us to more earnestly consider our solemn obligations as stewards of the Earth. Combining remarkable investigative research with his skills as a poignant essayist, Trimble has favored us with an extraordinary account that inspires as it challenges our values, our commitment to action, and our sense of connection with place, community, and the essence of who we are as inhabitants of this wondrous planet."--Rocky Anderson, Former Mayor of Salt Lake City

"From Hetch Hetchy to Glen Canyon, we mourn the sacred places in the west that have been bargained away for the American dream. Stephen Trimble eloquently shows that these are not just conflicts over land, but choices over which American dream we pursue as a nation. What moves us to act? What do we really value? How shall we live together? In this mature and poignant book, Trimble urges passion and self-awareness and reminds us that no conflict arises totally outside of oneself; all of the things we fear in others may be possible in ourselves."--Peter Forbes, Director, Center for Whole Communities

"With this masterwork, Stephen Trimble has given us the most reasoned and moving account of how and why the West becomes developed and its lands fragmented. Rather than merely pointing the finger at developers or passive staffers in federal agencies, he places the development issue in a larger cultural context, asking us all to be full participants in the choices about how our lands and waters are ultimately managed. As wise as it is heartbreaking, Trimble's story challenges us to sign on to supporting a new ethics of land use in the West that will keep such tragedies from occurring so frequently in the future."--Gary Nabhan, author of Renewing America's Food Traditions and Cultures of Habitat

"With Bargaining for Eden, Stephen Trimble has given us both a piece of dogged investigative journalism and a soul-searching confessional. The shocking, largely unreported story of Earl Holding and the Snowbasin land swap becomes, in Trimble's heartfelt prose, a metaphor for the way land is used and abused in the West. But Stephen doesn't stop with the exposé. He weaves it into a thoughtful and thought-provoking reverie on man's place in an increasingly threatened landscape. We are all part of the problem. And, he writes hopefully, we can, with honest effort, become part of the solution."--Peter Shelton, author of Climb to Conquer: The Untold Story of WWII's 10th Mountain Division Ski Troops

"Make no mistake: Bargaining for Eden is a brave and important book. It's a page-turner of a story about powerful men, unspeakable wealth, and Olympic gold-medal mountains. But it's also a Jungle--in the tradition of Upton Sinclair, a disturbing story of how politics and capitalism worked hand-in-hand against the common good and our commonweal of wildlands. If we are ever to learn how to live on the land and at the same time protect its heart, maybe we can start here, in Trimble's beloved Utah mountains."--Kathleen Dean Moore, author of The Pine Island Paradox

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (July 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520251113
• ISBN-13: 978-0520251113
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,373,576 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Trimble has received a broad range of awards for his photography, his non-fiction, and his fiction, including: The Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for photography and conservation; The National Cowboy Museum's Western Heritage "Wrangler" Award; and a Doctor of Humane Letters from his alma mater, Colorado College, honoring his efforts to increase our understanding of Western landscapes and peoples and his choice to remain a stubborn generalist. As writer, editor, and photographer Trimble has published twenty-two books, including: Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America * Lasting Light: 125 Years of Grand Canyon Photography * The Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places (with Gary Paul Nabhan) * The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin * The People: Indians of the American Southwest * and * Talking With the Clay: the Art of Pueblo Pottery in the 21st Century. Trimble makes his home in Salt Lake City and in the redrock country of Torrey, Utah. Trimble's website is www.stephentrimble.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, July 11, 2008

By 

Thomas M. Melton (Utah, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America (Hardcover)

Stephen Trimble tackles the paradox of the modern west: how do people inhabit and develop a rapidly vanishing landscape? Trimble weaves the important tale of public land transformed into a commercial ski resort with his own construction of a second home near a national park. This juxtaposition elevates the book from polemic to a serious discussion of the many facets of land development. Trimble recognizes that there are no easy answers, but argues convincingly that wise land use policy requires the contribution of all of the stakeholders in the landscape: developers, environmentalists, long-time residents and the public in general.

What sets Trimble's book apart is his obvious affection not just for the land, but for the people who have lived on the land for many years. His interviews with men and women whose families have lived on the land for generations provides the reader with an often neglected perspective on the west. Trimble has an ear for the ironic poignancy of how development displaces those families who have lived and loved a particular place for generations, even as that landscape is changed by their own decisions regarding its value and use.

Highly readable, Trimble's natural storytelling ability comes through to illuminate a transformative moment in western history. As a native Montanan and long-time resident of Utah, I recommend it to all those who seek to understand a sense of place.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wise, honest, compelling, July 11, 2008

By 

Everett Ward (Torrey, Utah) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America (Hardcover)

Trimble tells the story of reclusive oil executive Earl Holding and his struggle to develop a wild mountainside into a an elite ski resort, using the Olympics as a cudgel to overcome passionate local resistance. This is a compelling story that has not been covered outside of Utah. It is a shocking example of how the powers-that-be facilitate destructive and one-sided land use and how common citizens who personally know thew land and love it resist. The book then takes an unexpected twist: Trimble builds a second-home in a wild canyon in southern Utah and realizes he is becoming like his nemesis, Holding, just on a different scale. This confessional realization makes him dig deeper. Ultimately it is our own human nature he uncovers.

Why do we violate the integrity of ecosystems and habitat and how can we stop ourselves? these central questions are not resolved here. Trimble's book is both a heartfelt and intelligent invitation to public discourse on these critical questions. The reader could not get a more honest or wise guide than Trimble.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, readable, important, July 16, 2008

By 

Christopher Cokinos (Nibley, Utah United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America (Hardcover)

Steve Trimble's latest book is a compelling look at the tensions between private mega-enterprise and public interests. If you care about the future of open spaces (and not just in the American West), if you care about the future of community, if you care about how to tend to democracy in an age of fracture and fracas, this is a sobering look at a battle in Utah that can stand in for many such battles across the country. Refusing to give into cynical preaching, Trimble offers a nuanced look at his own complicity in questions of ownership and activism, which makes this book even more important. It ends with a hopeful, necessary "Credo," which also was recently published in High Country News. A fine naturalist, photographer and writer, Steve Trimble is a treasure. This book demands to be read, understood--and its lessons put into action by thoughtful citizens everywhere.