Contested Landscape: The Politics of Wilderness in Utah and the West.

CONTESTED LANDSCAPE: THE POLITICS OF WILDERNESS IN UTAH AND THE WEST

Edited by Doug Goodman and Daniel McCool. Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press, 1999. [phone]. 320 pp. $19.95 Paperbound.

Contested Landscape: The Politics of Wilderness in Utah and the West addresses the controversy of whether or not the vast amount of Bureau of Land Management acreage in Utah is more than enough or too little. It is a collection of essays that frame the national controversy about this western issue which has continued virtually unabated for over twenty. years, involving local, state, tribal, and national politics and revealing a diverse national opinion on the value of wilderness. The book provides a useful background, examining the evolution of the wilderness concept, the United States Constitution and wilderness designation, and the BLM wilderness inventory. It also addresses several hot political issues such as mining, grazing, roadless areas, and the "cost" of solitude.

Daniel McCool is an associate professor of political science at the University of Utah. He has written or edited several books on water policy issues including The Waters of Zion: The Politics of Water in Utah and Command for the Waters: Iron Triangles, Federal Water Development, and Indian Water. Doug Goodman is a graduate student in political science at the University of Utah.