About this item
How it is that the United States - the country that cherishes the ideal of private property more than any other in the world - has chosen to set aside nearly one-third of its land area as public lands? Now in a fully revised and updated edition covering the first years of the Trump administration, Randall Wilson considers this intriguing question, tracing the often-forgotten ideas of nature that have shaped the evolution of America's public land system. The result is a fresh and probing account of the most pressing policy and management challenges facing national parks, forests, rangelands, and wildlife refuges today.The author explores the dramatic story of the origins of the public domain, including the century-long effort to sell off land and the subsequent emergence of a national conservation ideal.
About the Author
Randall K. Wilson is a professor of Environmental Studies at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania where he teaches courses on environmental policy, natural resource management, sustainable communities, and the geography of the American West.
