Grand Canyon for Sale - by Stephen Nash (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Saving Grand Canyon is a carefully researched investigation of the precarious future of America's public lands: our national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, monuments, and wildernesses. Taking the Grand Canyon as its key example, and using on-the-ground reporting as well as science research, the book makes plain that accelerating climate change will dislocate wildlife populations and vegetation across hundreds of thousands of square miles of the national landscape. So what's the plan, as the next phase of our political history begins? Consolidating protected areas and prioritizing natural systems over mining, grazing, drilling and logging will be essential. But a growing political movement, well financed and occasionally violent, is fighting to break up these federal lands and return them to state, local and private control. That scheme would foreclose the future for many wild species, part of our irreplaceable natural heritage, and it leads directly to the ruin of our national parks and forests. The author also documents the current federal mismanagement of public land, which often favors private interests over natural systems and endangered species"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Grand Canyon For Sale is a carefully researched investigation of the precarious future of America's public lands: our national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, monuments, and wildernesses. Taking the Grand Canyon as his key example, and using on-the-ground reporting as well as scientific research, Stephen Nash shows how accelerating climate change will dislocate wildlife populations and vegetation across hundreds of thousands of square miles of the national landscape.

In addition, a growing political movement, well financed and occasionally violent, is fighting to break up these federal lands and return them to state, local, and private control. That scheme would foreclose the future for many wild species, which are part of our irreplaceable natural heritage, and also would devastate our national parks, forests, and other public lands.

To safeguard wildlife and their habitats, it is essential to consolidate protected areas and prioritize natural systems over mining, grazing, drilling, and logging. Grand Canyon For Sale provides an excellent overview of the physical and biological challenges facing public lands. The book also exposes and shows how to combat the political activity that threatens these places in the U.S. today.

From the Back Cover

"The new Trump administration is proclaiming that not only the Grand Canyon but our entire public land heritage may soon be up for sale. I hope this excellent book will awaken all Americans to an unprecedented threat to our parks, national monuments, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, and ocean sanctuaries."--Bruce Babbitt, former United States Secretary of the Interior

"This is an outstanding book that every American ought to read. Nash manages to weave his way through an immensely concerning subject with irony, humor, and just enough hope so as to inspire readers to continue the fight against ongoing threats to public lands." --James L. Powell, author of Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West

"The lucid and vivid discussion in this book will be celebrated by everyone who is working to protect America's national parks and public lands. Stephen Nash uses the example of the Grand Canyon to detail the multiple threats that face our nation's parks, and follows with a positive strategy that can counter those threats. His book will serve as a solid foundation for the dialogue Americans must have if we hope to preserve the natural and cultural heritage preserved on our public lands."--James D. Nations, former Vice President for the Center for Park Research, National Parks Conservation Association, and editor of The State of America's National Parks

"Grand Canyon For Sale is a citizen's guide to understanding how our public lands are being pilfered for private profit. Corporations and politicians are turning federal lands--like the Grand Canyon--into cash cows while looting nature's estate for personal gain, fanning the flames of climate change, and railing against big government. It's a timely unveiling of the systemic theft of our nation's most treasured landscapes."--Roger Clark, Grand Canyon Trust

"This is an excellent yet sobering summary of the multiple ecological, environmental, and socio-political challenges to conserving biological diversity within national parks and on other public lands in the United Sates. This is essential reading for those concerned about conserving America's natural heritage."--William Newmark, University of Utah

Review Quotes

"...offers insight into how our public lands were created -- and what that means as we fight to protect them today and in the future."-- "The Revelator"

"A nuanced, comprehensive, surprisingly up-to-date review of the threats facing the United States' 2.5 million square kilometres of publicly owned land."
-- "Nature"

"A wake-up call for anyone who cares about public lands, especially the U.S. national parks."

-- "Science"

"Evocative and passionate, this examination of invasive species, climate change, and public land use will appeal to both politically minded outdoors enthusiasts and members of the ranching community."-- "Foreword Reviews"

"Like a Romantic poet of the fossil fuel era, Nash uses Canyon trail hikes as a way to frame the various destructive forces playing on the park. With elegant, readable prose, elegant, readable prose, Nash scales mountains of research to show how these concerns are not unique to the Grand Canyon."-- "SIERRA Magazine"

About the Author

Stephen Nash is the author of two award-winning books on science and the environment, and his reporting has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, BioScience, Archaeology, and the New Republic. He is Visiting Senior Research Scholar at the University of Richmond.