A couple of books to be found on our bookshelf which we feel you might appreciate are:
"The Enduring Wilderness: Protecting our National Heritage through the Wilderness Act"
by Doug Scott
Published by Fulcrum Publishing. 2004. 184 pages. ISBN: 1-55591-527-2
Written by the Campaign for America's Wilderness policy director and longtime wilderness activist Doug Scott this publication is an insightful, well-researched, compact digest of the history and philosophy of the American Wilderness movement paying homage to those heroes who championed and fought for and will continue to fight for the designation and permanent protection of our most special wild places.
Central to this document is a detailed account and analysis of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and its offspring the National Wilderness Preservation System. It discusses in detail how Americans of all persuasions have used this unique legislation to, amongst other things, "[enjoy] the peaceful timelessness of the wilderness where vast forests germinate and flourish and die and rot again without any relationship to the ambitions and interferences of man" - Robert Marshall (1936.)
Doug Scott also delves into the tough world of "wilderness politics" highlighting the opposition to further designation by determined recreational or economic special interest groups and their champions. To counterbalance their views he sheds a light on the optimistic desires of further wilderness protection as expressed by large sections of the American public through various public polls published throughout the nation. There is also a section that deals with realities of legislative politics and the trend of compromise that has been a feature of wilderness negotiations since the very beginning.
The book deals with further issues of wilderness including the challenges of administering wilderness areas, what more remains to be protected on federal lands, a full text of the Wilderness Act and a comprehensive bibliography of important wilderness readings and documents.
Available from all good literary emporiums and http://www.fulcrum-books.com. Royalties from the sale of the book will go to grassroots environmental organizations.
"Rewilding North America: A vision for Conservation in the 21st Century"
by Dave Foreman.
Published by Island Press. 2004. 298 pages. ISBN: 1-55963-061-2
From the director of The Rewilding Institute a non-profit environmental organization determined to promote the rehabilitation, revitalization and conservation of the North American Continent's wildest places and inhabitants is this publication's goal. And one of the biggest threats currently facing our planet is the global extinction of our wildest companions and their habitat.
Reconnect, Restore, Rewild is the rallying call of The Wildlands Project and the message of Dave Foreman as he sets out to point out and reform mankind's ongoing destructive influence on his wild neighbors. Identifying and analyzing how humans are ultimately responsible for this ecological threat, the author, and the organizations he represents, offer a practical, scientific and yet bold solution to the situation. This is done by reviewing the history of currently protected areas and then by showing how the latest trends in conservation call for a network of protected areas rather than isolated individual sanctuaries. The closing section of the book describes in detail how the strategy to heal the ecological wounds and establish these networks can be taken up by new activists and how this call to action has already been taken up by folks across the continent.
