The Great Basin, a stark and beautiful desert filled with sagebrush
deserts and mountain ranges, is the epicenter for public lands
conflicts. Arising out of the multiple, often incompatible uses
created throughout the twentieth century, these struggles reveal
the tension inherent within the multiple use concept, a management
philosophy that promises equitable access to the region's resources
and economic gain to those who live there. Multiple use was
originally conceived as a way to legitimize the historical use of
public lands for grazing without precluding future uses, such as
outdoor recreation, weapons development, and wildlife management.
It was applied to the Great Basin to bring the region, once seen as
worthless, into the national economic fold. Land managers,
ranchers, mining interests, wilderness and wildlife advocates,
outdoor recreationists, and even the military adopted this ideology
to accommodate, promote, and sanction a multitude of activities on
public lands, particularly those overseen by the Bureau of Land
Management. Some of these uses are locally driven and others are
nationally mandated, but all have exacted a cost from the region's
human and natural environment. In The Size of the Risk, Leisl Carr
Childers shows how different constituencies worked to fill the
presumed ""empty space"" of the Great Basin with a variety of
land-use regimes that overlapped, conflicted, and ultimately harmed
the environment and the people who depended on the region for their
livelihoods. She looks at the conflicts that arose from the
intersection of an ever-increasing number of activities, such as
nuclear testing and wild horse preservation, and how Great Basin
residents have navigated these conflicts. Carr Childers's study of
multiple use in the Great Basin highlights the complex interplay
between the state, society, and the environment, allowing us to
better understand the ongoing reality of living in the American
West.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!