This novel was great. It was innovative and original. Unlike a lot of environmental books, this one wasn't dull or scientific. Instead, it reached out at you with it's practicality and simplicity. Brower uses real life examples to make his ideas tangible to the reader. This book was well written and is a modern Must Read. Get Inspired!... Read this book.

The Late David Brower takes us through the journey that was his life. With explicit detail, david brower shows us the world in his eyes. His deep passion to inspire everyone with CPR ( conservation preservation restoration) and respect for the environment in which we live in is truly written with heartfelt words, and continues to move me. Founder of Friends of the Earth and Earth Island Insitute, Browers Legacy will indeed never be forgotten. Being so involved in some of the most important national monuments to be made such as dinosaur national park, his spirit and love will forever shine through in his life work to both serve and protect mother nature in all of her natural glory. Told by Brower he takes you on the path of his life, both past and to the present, giving such details of an exciting and meaningful life, such as his times with the wonderfully talented photographer the late ansel adams, work with JFK, and much more! From start to finish this book is indeed a classic, and a wonderful tribute to the late archdruid himself.

I'm about 180 pages through the book and have been marking it up extensively for future reference. Brower does an excellent job of summarizing a lot of current and older but useful thinking on environmentalism. Each time I go back to my reading, I keep wanting to refer to earlier passages, so I look for an index. In fact that's why I'm writing this brief review. I hope that the publisher sees it and actually produces one for a future edition or printing. It would be very helpful, since I'm sure I'll want to come back to the book.

Over the last several months, I've hit upon the topic of saving the earth from another author, Daniel Quinn, the author of Ishmael. The goal is the same, but Quinn offers an alternative way of thinking that I find quite interesting. I'd like to ask both Brower and Quinn what they think of one anothers approaches, but, of course, that is now impossible in the case of Brower. If anyone knows whether they have ever met or read about one another, I'd be interested in knowing their reactions to the other's work. Since Quinn's approach is not an environmentalist's approach, I doubt that they have knowledge of one another. However, Quinn is pretty savy on all aspects of saving the earth.

I don't know if I specified it was OK to show my e-mail address, but here it is if someone wants to respond: mtn_view@sirius.com.

I got a copy of Eliot Porter's Glen Canyon book after reading Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire," a chapter of which is devoted to a downriver rafting trip along this stretch of the Colorado River just before the dam was built. While Abbey's descriptions are vivid, I wanted to see with my own eyes what he was describing. And Porter's camera is the closest you can get to doing that today.

His pictures are, of course, not the real thing, but they are about as breathtaking as photography can be. The colors, textures, reflections, and the play of light and shadow are wonderful, and each photograph is distinctly different. His own description of the canyon's display of color and light in the introductory essay "The Living Canyon" give an instructive insight into the eye of the photographer. His awareness of what he is looking at and his ways of choosing to look help the reader to see even more in the 80 photographs that follow.

While some of the photographs capture the monumental scale of the canyon walls and formations, many focus on the myriad surfaces that are revealed to the eye: erosion patterns, lichen, rippling water flow, the dark streaking mineral stains extending from seeps, the rough texture of weathered sandstone in glancing sunlight, smooth river stones, the layered stripes of exposed sediment, the trickling spread of water falling from overhead springs, the hanging tapestry coloration of the walls, whorled and striated rock, dry sand. There are also photographs of plants: moonflower, maidenhair fern, willow, tamarisk, redbud, columbine, cane. Above all, there is the rich array of colors, capturing a great variety of moods and attitudes.

Porter was recognized for his photography of birds, and while there are no birds visible in these photographs, his introductory essay makes mention of them, and when looked at with that awareness, many of the pictures also seem to capture a sense of "air space" for flight. Before turning to photography, Porter was a Harvard professor of biochemistry and bacteriology, and it's interesting to see the somewhat dispassionate eye of the scientist in the way he uses the camera. While the story of Glen Canyon may induce sorrow or anger, the photographs are strong for their lack of sentimentality.

The pictures also excite a curiosity about the geology of the river, and the book concludes with a short essay describing how the canyon walls reveal the geological ages that have gone into forming this part of the earth, going back millions of years. The book also includes a catalog of all the plants and animals that inhabited Glen Canyon before its inundation. Altogether, with its quotes from other writers, including Loren Eiseley, Joseph Wood Krutch, Wallace Stegner, and members of John Wesley Powell's expedition in the 19th century, this book is a fitting record of a great lost national treasure.

These photographs are just about all that is left of Glen Canyon. After the Sierra Club and other environmentalists had lost the battle to prevent the Glen Canyon River Dam from being built, Eliot Porter took this extraordinary series of photographs to memorialize the gorgeous area that has been lost forever. Few people at the time knew much about the Canyon. It was too remote, too difficult to get to. Although it was one of the areas that John Wesley Powell found most beautiful in his first expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers, no access roads or paths were ever built to make it possible for many people to view the areas firsthand. As a result, very few people knew precisely what we were about to lose.

The tragedy is that these areas are really, truly are gone. Even if the Glen Canyon River Dam were magically removed, many of the areas viewed in these gorgeous photographs have already been silted up. The Green and Colorado Rivers carry extreme quantities of minerals, and when the dam stops the flow to form a reservoir, they tend to drop to the bottom. All dams have a limited life. They don't last for as long as one might imagine. Basically, they create a new landmass behind them over the course of a century or so. Many of the spots photographed in these pictures are now solid earth.

One would hope that such beautiful photographs as these, photos that create tremendous longing for what we have already lost, would make us more concerned to preserve what is left. But with the current presidency even today as I write this review opening the national parks to snowmobiles and with people speculating that there will be new attempts to open arctic areas in Alaska to oil exploration, we can't assume that in the least. These photographs may end up being emblematic of all endangered areas, of the ongoing fragility of all of nature.

I was expecting a reprint similar to the small-sized Ballantine issue of the late 1960s. I was surprised to receive a book almost as large as the original Sierra Club hardback! The color in several of the photographs is even better than in the original (and difficult to find/very expensive) book, thanks in part to the cooperation of the museum which received Porter's works as a bequest.

I've long admired David Brower. And Aleks Petrovitch has done a great job illustrating this book and bringing David's thoughts to our next generation of environmentalists.

This is a good way to educate a child you know about the environment and why it is important.

I highly recommend it.

Harry S. Pariser Publisher, Manatee Press

This book gives children who are beginning to understand minutes, hours and days a good idea of the enormity of time. The drama of the story is captured in drawings of intense colors and engaging images. Each page allows focus on one idea, which is clearer, for younger children. The interactions between David and the kids, and the kid's reactions, are good. The main idea -wildness has wisdom- is well emphasized: even the mysteries e.g. how life began. The additional information at the end is a good reference for older children. Also, places to help the planet is useful.

Aleks Petrovitch has done a wonderful job depicting early earth and portraying the evolution of life in a context easily understood by kids. By using an imaginitive story line with beautifull illustrations, this book is a must for parents wishing to provide initial insight into conservation, protecting our beaches and general history of our earth! Aleks has also provided a more in depth analysis to each page of his book which help refresh our sciences allowing each story reader to emphasize particular points and aide in explanation! Well Done!

Green Plans are comprehensive, integrated and large-scale national environmental strategies. H. J. Johnson shows us what Green Plans are and what they are not. His examples of pioneering countries, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Canada are very convincing. He shows how those very different countries have developed innovative Green Plans, how they translated the concept of sustainability in practical strategies and action plans. His personal experience, as head of California's Resources Agency, from 1977 to 1982, in developing a comprehensive resource strategy, called Investing For Prosperity (IFP) gave him a basic understanding of Green Plans. He gives us a very good overall view of Green Plans, their ingredients for success, their principles and techniques and the new relationship needed between government and business. His clear vision for the United States should be read by all politicians and concerned citizens. It is still very actual. Of the many books published in environmental protection and sustainable development, this book should be on all bookshelves. And it is a real pleasure to read.

Green Plans is not a book about how bad things are today; it is a book about how good things can be tomorrow. It lays out the global environmental problems (and there are a lot of them) in a brutally honest manner,but it does not dwell on them. Instead, it focuses on what is being done, and what must be done on a global and national scale to alleviate our ecological dilemmas. Green Plans is about solutions, and although these solutions are at a national scale, the implementation must be done on an individual level. Herein lies the strength of Green Plans. Johnson writes with a contagious enthusiasm which leaves the reader with the knowledge and desire to help make a difference. Green Plans is a must read not only for planners and government officials but also for business leaders, environmentalists, and concerned citizens alike.

Eco-Warriors was written by Rik Scarce, a journalist who lives in Washington. This book attempts (and succeeds) to help readers understand why such grups as Earth First! and such "radical" environmental groups take the actions that they do. Scarce presents as much as an objective view as possible, he stresses his sympathy for the "front-line warriors" in the battle to save the earth. Well-told stories of activists doing the only effective thing to save the environment - get to the root of the problem and stop the individuals/governments/companies that are polluting the environment or needlessly killing endangered animals for profit or lack of responsibility. The people he describes are bypassing the ineffective routes of petitioning and organizing local recycling groups, and making major impacts on international policy.

The verse in this magnificent book is typical of Jeffers. I believe that they are most likely some of his best poems. His words will make you think about humanity's struggle to be free like the flowing sea that Jeffers so avidly describes. The metaphors and similes that he uses make me anxious to visit the Big Sur region, which is the topic of interest on the "California Poet's" mind.

This book was very interesting. Not only did it have plenty of photos, the text was actually useful and have a great message. Reading Galen's work is just as great as looking at it. I had never even heard of or seen most of the places in the book until I got the book. Now, I'm walking some of the same trails I discovered in the book.

An incredible photographic argument that nature is ever-present, fecund, and indomitable! Rowell and Sewell capture the majesty of one the world's most beautiful urban areas to describe nature's ability to adapt and thrive next to mankind. A surprising array of wild animals are photographed within the ex-urban landscape and combine with dramatic Bay Area landscapes to make a compelling story of the beauty that surrounds us--if only we can take time out from our busy lives to see it! This is a great gift to bring back East for the holidays.

Galen Rowell is showing here surely the nicest landscape shots I have ever seen. The Bay Area, that I didn't know, is here in spades, and if you know a little bit of tech, you see several uses of Galen special shooting way (flash, A2 Nikon filtering, s.o.)

Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and the Truth. By Todd Wilkinson. Johnson Press, Boulder, CO. 343 pp.

Reviewed by Pete Geddes, Program Director, Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment

From the Civil War until roughly Earth Day, commodity production dominated federal land management. This was often at the expense of ecological integrity, economic efficiency, and social sustainability. Todd Wilkinson's new book Science Under Siege: The Politicians' War on Nature and the Truth adds personal ethics to this list. He demonstrates how bureaucratic and political pressures sacrifice both environment quality and careers to political expediency.

Wilkinson, a western correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor has been following western environmental issues for the last ten years. Science Under Siege reaffirms that bureaucracies function ultimately as machines to protect and perpetuate their budgets and co-dependent political interests. Wilkinson tells the stories of eight well intentioned and hardworking "whistleblowers" and the personal and professional price they pay when their convictions confront the leviathan. The stories of political manipulation and agency retaliation are depressing but important reading for those seriously interested in federal land management reform or bureaucratic pathologies more generally.

For readers east of the Mississippi River, it's important to understand west of the 100th Meridian, the federal government controls of half the Western lands. At the turn of the century, the West was the staging ground for experiments in Progressive Era conservation. Through "scientific management" benevolent, centralized bureaucracies (e.g., the Forest Service) were to stop the abuses of the nation's natural resources. This was a well intentioned, but naive idea. Instead an "iron triangle" emerged among Congress, federal agencies, and clientele (chamber of commerce/stock grower/mining alliances). As this alliance hardened, the federal agencies, dependent upon the political process for budgetary survival, bowed to political pressures. This may come as a surprise to those who believe it's the mission of the Forest Service to preserve 191 million acres of national forests for "future generations". But as Wilkison documents, the interest of these agencies comes at the expense of national taxpayers, sustainable ecosystems, and agency employees.

The danger in a book like this is that Wilkinson opens himself to charges of being a pawn for disgruntled employees. For most of the book Wilkison avoids this trap. He insulates himself in two important ways: First, Wilkinson chooses carefully. He selected eight subjects from a field of 110. To each profile Wilkinson brings in a range of supporting characters. This adds both substance and a soothing tone. Second, by profiling scientists who publish in professional journals, Wilkinson avoids "he-said, she-said" mud-slinging.

His profile of David Mattson is illustrative. A former Yellowstone National Park grizzly bear researcher, Mattson is an internationally respected as a leading authority on grizzly bear populations dynamics. He arrived at his office one morning to find it ransacked; data gone, computer confiscated, and personal files locked away. Mattson's offense? His research was leading him to conclude that grizzly bear populations in and around Yellowstone may be declining over the long-term. This was counter to the official line preached by bear recovery coordinator Chris Servheen. Servheen maintains that grizzlies in Yellowstone have multiplied since the species was listed as endangered in 1975. Mattson recently opened his data to criticisms of the entire scientific community by publishing his results in the journal Ecology. Servheen has the same opportunity.

The ultimate vindication for Wilinkson's whistleblowers may be found on the land itself. Readers can judge the veracity of former Forest Service fisheries "combat" biologist Al Espinoza by visiting the Clearwater National Forest in central Idaho. They can see the steep slopes, denuded of trees from top to bottom, and the miles of logging roads responsible for spilling sediment into fragile salmon streams. (I spent a summer reviewing appeals of Forest Service decisions on the Clearwater and provided Wilkinson information.)

In the patchwork pattern of clearcuts on the national forest of Oregon and Washington, whistelblower Jeff DeBonis made his mark. DeBonis, an up and coming Forest Service timber sale planer, was responsible for "getting the cut out" in the region's old-growth forests. The Pacific Northwest is the "Big League" of professional forestry. Here both the trees and the stakes for meeting timber quotas are big. Sometimes the results are disastrous. For example, the Forest Service recently "accepted blame" for trashing the entire Fish Creek watershed on Oregon's Mount Hood National Forest. It will cost taxpayers $5.4 million to restore areas where logging caused some of the "worst landslides in the region" and runs of wild salmon have "been nearly wiped out".

After a crisis of conscience DeBonis left the Forest Service and founded the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics (AFSEEE). He notes, "For many people who wear the green (Forest Service) uniform, the working environment is like living in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell". This is a predictable consequence when decisions are made in the political arena. Here, political considerations trump ecological, ethical, and economic factors.

Without explicit reference, Science Under Siege reaffirms the thirty year-old message of public choice economists Noble Laureate James Buchanan, Mancur Olson, Gordon Tullock, and others. They described how concentrated, motivated interest groups forming around economic benefits, have significant advantages in political struggles against more disorganized groups. The powerful analytical tools of economics can help explain the causes of maladies environmentalist condemn: money-losing clearcuts on the national forests; federal dams that don't begin to cover operation costs (let alone the amortized costs of construction); federal agents killing predators such as mountain lions and bears on federal lands grazed by livestock at a huge ecological and economic expense, and a gaggle of other environmentally costly practices. The poignant stories in Science Under Siege, provide further motivation for removing resource management from the political process.

His subject is the fate of scientists whose research brings them into conflict with the policies of the agencies they work for, especially the Forest Service, The Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Wilkinson's profiles of responsible scientists dislodged because of political pressure create a portrait of environmental irresponsibility-comtempt, even-within the bureaucracies whose ostensible mission is to serve the public interest on federally owned lands.

From a review that appeared in Bear News, the journal of the Great Bear Foundation: Calling science "a moral compass for making the right decisions," Science Under Siege argues convincingly thatpublic agencies have lost sight of true north. This book is very hard on bureaucrats--many of them professional scientists who have lost their way--and on political manipulations by elected officials and corporate lobbyists who care not one whit for the bears or habitat! This is an extremely good book; it hits hard but it cleverly lets the bad guys hang themselves with their own words while promoting the good science, the good scientists and government officials. It also makes one sad to realize how the concepts of civil service and specialized agencies have been so destroyed by politicians and Big Money. President Nixon started the trend of replacing professional agency heads with politicial cronies--a problem that is still growing today. Dave Mattson, "the hero of the bears," who studied grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park and others deserve all the credit this book gives them.

As prior reviews state, the text is well-selected from Powell's journal, and the photographs are superb. But how can the author publish the journal of an explorer without a map keyed to the dates of journal entries? The photographs are superb, but again, not keyed to a map, or even associated with the text. The identifying data for each photo is listed in the front of the book, but is not given on, or near the photograph. A potentially superb book, but, because of these defects and faults, one that is maddening to read.