Controversy inevitably accompanies attempts at land protection, even in cases of large, uninhabited, economically marginal locations. In 1994, for example, the California Desert Protection Act created the Mojave National Preserve, the third largest national park in the lower forty-eight states. The act transferred three million acres of southern California desert from the Bureau of Land Management to the National Park Service. As a result, explains Elisabeth M. Hamin, the National Park Service became a multiple-use manager, balancing its official mission of environmental protection with oversight of such activities as hunting, ranching, and mining.
In Mojave Lands: Interpretive Planning and the National Preserve, Hamin explains how this new role came about. Drawing on interviews with people on various sides of the issue -- from mining lobbyists to local ecotourism operators, legislators to gun advocates -- she shows how the differing parties argued and compromised over land protection. From their success, Hamin derives lessons for reimagining national parks to achieve broadly shared goals.
Introducing the concept of "interpretive planning" -- a method that takes into account conflicting views of all interested parties -- she offers explicit steps for the planner and policy analyst to use. This book will appeal to scholars and students in environmental studies, planning and landscape architecture and history, as well as professionals in planning, resource management, the National Park Service, and related conservation organizations, public and private.
