NATURE / Ecology
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Between Two Rivers
The Atrisco Land Grant in Albuquerque
Located in Albuquerque’s south valley, Atrisco is a vibrant community that predates the city, harking back to a land grant awarded in 1692. Joseph P. Sánchez explores the evolution of this parcel...
Our Better Nature
Environment and the Making of San Francisco
In Our Better Nature, Philip J. Dreyfus recounts the history of San Francisco from Indian village to world-class metropolis, focusing on the interactions between the city and the land and on the generations of people who have transformed them both. Dreyfus examines the ways that San Franciscans remade the landscape to fit their needs, and how their actions reflected and affected their ideas about nature, from the destruction of wetlands and forests to the creation of Golden Gate and Yosemite parks, the Sierra Club, and later, the birth of the modern environmental movement.
The Size of the Risk
Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin
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.
Cow Talk
Work, Ecology, and Range Cattle Ranchers in the Postwar Mountain West
A multifaceted analysis of ranch life, labor, and culture between 1945 and 1965, this innovative work offers unprecedented insight into the sources and shaping of the cohesive political and cultural power of western ranchers in our day.
Disappearing Desert
The Growth of Phoenix and the Culture of Sprawl
Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States. The city’s expansion—at the rate of one acre per hour—comes at the expense of its Sonoran Desert environment. For some residents, the American Dream has become a nightmare.In this provocative book, Janine Schipper examines the cultural forces that contribute to suburban sprawl in the United States. Focusing on the Phoenix area, she examines sustainable development in Cave Creek, various master-planned suburbs, and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation to explore suburbanization and ecological destruction.
Silver Fox of the Rockies
Delphus E. Carpenter and Western Water Compacts
In Silver Fox of the Rockies, Daniel Tyler tells Carpenter’s story and that of the great interstate water compacts he helped create. Those compacts, produced in the early twentieth century, have guided not only agricultural use but urban growth and development throughout much of the American West to this day.
Big Dams of the New Deal Era
A Confluence of Engineering and Politics
Richly illustrated, Big Dams of the New Deal Era offers a compelling account of how major dams in the New Deal era restructured the landscape—both politically and physically—and why American society in the 1930s embraced them wholeheartedly.
Murder of a Landscape
The California Farmer-Smelter War, 1897–1916
Between 1896 and 1919, air pollution from large-scale copper smelting in northern California’s Shasta County severely damaged crops and timber in a 1,000-square-mile region, completely devastating a core area of 200 square miles. The poisons from these smelters created the nation’s largest man-made desert—a shocking contrast to the beauty of the surrounding Cascades and Trinity Alps. Offering the drama and pathos of a David-and-Goliath tale in which Goliath wins and strides on, Murder of a Landscape makes compelling reading for anyone interested in the industrial, political, and environmental history of the American West.
Going Green
True Tales from Gleaners, Scavengers, and Dumpster Divers
Never mind the Ph.D. and middle-class trappings—Laura Pritchett is a Dumpster diver and proud of it. Ever since she was old enough to navigate the contents of a metal bin, she has reveled in the treasures found in other people’s cast-offs. Brimming with practical and creative new ways to think about recycling, this collection invites you to dive in and find your own way of going green.
Amber Waves and Undertow
Peril, Hope, Sweat, and Downright Nonchalance in Dry Wheat Country
Adams County, Washington, is home to farmlands on the Columbia Plateau that produce more crops than might be expected of its semiarid soils. But while unique in its geography and history, it also faces many of the problems confronting farmers throughout rural America. Seasoned journalist Steve Turner, having spent time in Adams County as a young harvest hand, returned to the region to portray farm life and history in a land where change is a subtle but powerful constant.
Between Two Rivers
The Atrisco Land Grant in Albuquerque
Located in Albuquerque’s south valley, Atrisco is a vibrant community that predates the city, harking back to a land grant awarded in 1692. Joseph P. Sánchez explores the evolution of this parcel...
Our Better Nature
Environment and the Making of San Francisco
In Our Better Nature, Philip J. Dreyfus recounts the history of San Francisco from Indian village to world-class metropolis, focusing on the interactions between the city and the land and on the generations of people who have transformed them both. Dreyfus examines the ways that San Franciscans remade the landscape to fit their needs, and how their actions reflected and affected their ideas about nature, from the destruction of wetlands and forests to the creation of Golden Gate and Yosemite parks, the Sierra Club, and later, the birth of the modern environmental movement.
The Size of the Risk
Histories of Multiple Use in the Great Basin
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.
Cow Talk
Work, Ecology, and Range Cattle Ranchers in the Postwar Mountain West
A multifaceted analysis of ranch life, labor, and culture between 1945 and 1965, this innovative work offers unprecedented insight into the sources and shaping of the cohesive political and cultural power of western ranchers in our day.
Disappearing Desert
The Growth of Phoenix and the Culture of Sprawl
Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States. The city’s expansion—at the rate of one acre per hour—comes at the expense of its Sonoran Desert environment. For some residents, the American Dream has become a nightmare.In this provocative book, Janine Schipper examines the cultural forces that contribute to suburban sprawl in the United States. Focusing on the Phoenix area, she examines sustainable development in Cave Creek, various master-planned suburbs, and the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Reservation to explore suburbanization and ecological destruction.
Silver Fox of the Rockies
Delphus E. Carpenter and Western Water Compacts
In Silver Fox of the Rockies, Daniel Tyler tells Carpenter’s story and that of the great interstate water compacts he helped create. Those compacts, produced in the early twentieth century, have guided not only agricultural use but urban growth and development throughout much of the American West to this day.
Big Dams of the New Deal Era
A Confluence of Engineering and Politics
Richly illustrated, Big Dams of the New Deal Era offers a compelling account of how major dams in the New Deal era restructured the landscape—both politically and physically—and why American society in the 1930s embraced them wholeheartedly.
Murder of a Landscape
The California Farmer-Smelter War, 1897–1916
Between 1896 and 1919, air pollution from large-scale copper smelting in northern California’s Shasta County severely damaged crops and timber in a 1,000-square-mile region, completely devastating a core area of 200 square miles. The poisons from these smelters created the nation’s largest man-made desert—a shocking contrast to the beauty of the surrounding Cascades and Trinity Alps. Offering the drama and pathos of a David-and-Goliath tale in which Goliath wins and strides on, Murder of a Landscape makes compelling reading for anyone interested in the industrial, political, and environmental history of the American West.
Going Green
True Tales from Gleaners, Scavengers, and Dumpster Divers
Never mind the Ph.D. and middle-class trappings—Laura Pritchett is a Dumpster diver and proud of it. Ever since she was old enough to navigate the contents of a metal bin, she has reveled in the treasures found in other people’s cast-offs. Brimming with practical and creative new ways to think about recycling, this collection invites you to dive in and find your own way of going green.
Amber Waves and Undertow
Peril, Hope, Sweat, and Downright Nonchalance in Dry Wheat Country
Adams County, Washington, is home to farmlands on the Columbia Plateau that produce more crops than might be expected of its semiarid soils. But while unique in its geography and history, it also faces many of the problems confronting farmers throughout rural America. Seasoned journalist Steve Turner, having spent time in Adams County as a young harvest hand, returned to the region to portray farm life and history in a land where change is a subtle but powerful constant.