Contested Landscape: The Politics of Wilderness in Utah and the West [Paperback]

Doug Goodman (Editor), Daniel McCool (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

CONTESTED LANDSCAPE is a collection of essays that frame the wide-ranging passions and details of the political debate over wilderness issues in Utah and the West. Utah contains more Bureau of Land Management acreage than any other state in the United States with the exception of Nevada and Alaska. To some this acreage is more than enough, to others too little, hence the debate. The national debate about this western issue has continued virtually unabated for over twenty years, involving local, state, tribal, and national politics and revealing a diverse national opinion on the value of wilderness. Contested Landscape addresses this heated debate in objective terms, avoiding pejorative labels while exploring the positions of both pro-wilderness and multiple-use advocates. CONTESTED LANDSCAPE clarifies relevant laws, policies, court cases, and political activity. This book provides useful background, examining the evolution of the wilderness concept, the U.S. Constitution and wilderness designation, and the BLM wilderness inventory. It also addresses "hotbutton" political issues: mining and other extractive uses of wilderness, state trust lands, grazing, roadless areas, archaeological resources, and the "cost" of solitude. In their conclusion the editors offer workable solutions including a community contextual approach to negotiation. The broad range of perspectives and issues assembled in CONTESTED LANDSCAPE, although framed by the Utah wilderness debate, is far-reaching enough to allow each reader to draw his or her own conclusions about wilderness issues in the New West. As the editors conclude, this "is not about right or wrong; it's about needs and values. When we begin to consider all of these needs and values, then we will find a solution."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Doug Goodman is a graduate student in the political science department at the University of Utah. Daniel McCool is associate professor of political science at the University of Utah. He has written or edited several books on water policy issues, including THE WATERS OF ZION: THE POLITICS OF WATER IN UTAH (Utah, 1995) and COMMAND OF THE WATERS:IRON TRIANGLES, FEDERAL WATER DEVELOPMENT, AND INDIAN WATR (1987).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From the preface: "Some people of the rural West want to continue the lifestyle that has contributed so much to the American image, while others want to protect the remnants of the wild land that is so important to us as a people. Note that both sides want to preserve something distinctly American."

Product Details

• Paperback: 266 pages
• Publisher: University of Utah Press (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874806046
• ISBN-13: 978-0874806045
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,394,233 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book! Read this Book!, July 8, 2009

By 

Meri "Lawmer" (Vancouver, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Contested Landscape: The Politics of Wilderness in Utah and the West (Paperback)

I am biased--I am a chapter author in the book. I have read the only other review of this book and it appears the author was looking for something that spoke to him regarding Washington State wilderness issues. The book is primarily about Utah and how Utah's wilderness issues impact the Western U.S. It is not about Washington, Oregon, Idaho, or other western states.
What the author of the review also does not realize is the class that was formed to study and then write this book was not composed of typical 18-22 year old college students. The class members' ages ranged from 18 to 72, the oldest being a retired Dean of Science with a 35 page Curriculum Vitae. I know this because this man was my father, Cyrus M. McKell. Class members's majors ranged from political science, ecology, business, law, public administration, to undeclared. Class members were undergraduates, graduate students working on masters degrees, law degrees, MBAs, MPAs, to the sole retired class member, whose credentials outranked the professor of the class. Class members's interests ranged from card-carrying Sierra Club members to off-road enthusiasts to ranchers' off-spring. Many came from native Utah families with a stake in the wilderness debate.
The class was an incredible opportunity to examine the issues from all sides. The point was to learn about the other points of view and to express the viewpoints in an even-handed presentation to enable all the interested parties to come back to the wilderness table. I believe it succeeded in that effort. The book was not intended to be diatribe for one side or another. It was not intended to be a poetic view of Utah or wilderness. We leave that to Terry Tempest Williams, Rick Bass, and other wonderful creative writers. If the language was technical, it is because it needed to be in order to adequately explain the problems that caused the "failure to communicate" (thank you, Cool Hand Luke!).
It was an honor to be part of this project with Dr. Dan McCool and my father and fellow classmate, Dr. Cyrus McKell.
Meredith McKell Graff, Esq.
Vancouver, WA

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Going Nowhere and Answering Nothing in Utah, February 16, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Contested Landscape: The Politics of Wilderness in Utah and the West (Paperback)

Before I talk about this book, I think everyone here should understand that the collective essays in Contested Landscape were written as part of a college class at the University of Utah by graduate and undergraduate students over a two quarter period in 1997. This book showcases a wonderful opportunity for students and for creating a piece of work which the wilderness and multiple use movement could utilize.

However, Contested Landscape does not quite capture the passion behind the debate of wilderness in the west, and it does not exactly examine wilderness issues from all ventures: there are three sides to the issue: those that are `pro' wilderness, those that are against wilderness, and the writers. (which seek a unified, balanced, and compromised approach) Within the wilderness movement in Washington state, there are so many multi-factions of each side that the result is that the movement and the debate is not a polarized black and white, but a collision of two shades of grey in the quest to tackle public lands issues. Subsequent research by others associated with the movement will show that this is true for many states dealing with public lands issues. In Contested Landscape however, the sides are painted to be such unified opposites, it hardly seems real.

Utah is the only other state in the West (besides Hawaii) that has less then 1.5 million acres of wilderness in the state. (it has only 750,000) It is because of the horrendous politics (both national and local) that the state has such a low acreage of wilderness compared with Utah's `western' neighbors: but this notion is not explored anywhere in the book. Contested Landscape paints a picture that the wilderness the state has is a reflection of the politics, of which every western state has. While there is growing difference between rural and urban cultures in western states, the politics of each western state are so uniquely different, Contested Landscape is not an appropriate reference to regional or local wilderness politics by any means: I could not hold Contested Landscape as a means of evidence in an argument if I wished to espouse on the issues of low lying old growth in roadless areas in Washington State.

The book also lacks a sense of place. Angry ranchers and wilderness advocates with no backdrop to put them against. Despite the beautiful picture on the cover, there is nothing else to describe in words or pictures the beauty and landscape of Utah. Thus, you would have no idea what these people are fighting over if you were to pick up the book knowing nothing about Utah. No mention of the shrub-steppe ecosystem, the Great Salt lake, The Rockies, or anything else distinctive. This is a critical failure of the book: to not showcase passion with a sense of place.

Also, because the majority of the federal land is BLM land, there is constant discussion about this agency and anything else regarding wilderness. This can make the book read like a BLM ranger's handbook, with so much technical and bureaucratic lingo regarding range management and what not, it can become dizzying (hat's off to the kid's that had to work on this stuff)

I must give credit to the students, though, they initiated and carried out a very difficult project, and the writing, while too rigid to be engaging and empowering, was of course required of them to I suppose, "make the grade." Out of this I hope some good experience came to each of them. As I understand it, the book did not go over well in Utah, as "both sides" (as the author's constantly refer to a loose confederation of people) opposed the compromise solutions advocated in the book. If you would like a truly interesting read with a good dose of wilderness politics, read Return of the Wild by Ted Kerasote.