These American Lands: Parks, Wilderness, and the Public Lands

Over 634 million acres of the United States -- nearly a million square miles -- are federally owned. These American Lands is both a history and a celebration of that inheritance. First published in 1986, the book was hailed by Wallace Stegner as “the only indispensable narrative history of the public lands.” This completely revised and updated edition is an unsurpassed resource for everyone who cares about, visits, or works with public land in the United States. With over 75 pages of new material, the volume covers:

national parks
national forests
national resource lands
wildlife refuges
designated wildernesses
wild and scenic rivers
Alaska lands
national trails

Each chapter outlines the history of the unit of public lands under discussion, clarifies the resource use and policy conflicts that are currently besetting it, and provides a detailed agenda of management, expansion, and preservation goals.