Fire on the Plateau: Conflict and Endurance in the American Southwest

Island Press, 1999. Hardcover. Like New/Fine. 6x1x9. Signed by Author. Signed by author on title page. Also bears a gift inscription by and signed by author on the reverse of dedication page, and a gift inscription by previous owner. The Colorado Plateau of southern Utah, southwestern Colorado, and northern Arizona and New Mexico is the site of some of America's most prized national parks, among them Zion and Grand Canyon. It is also the center of ongoing conflict about the best use of natural resources, as the federal government, Indian nations, and ever-growing municipalities struggle to obtain control of water, minerals, and rangeland. As a former natural-resources attorney and now professor of law at the University of Colorado, Charles Wilkinson knows that struggle well, and his new book provides an on-the-ground overview of some of the most pressing conflicts. Some of his fieldnotes will come as no surprise to Westerners and students of the environment; others come as eye-opening news, whether the fact that Navajo Indian children are regularly bused to schools far away from home, traveling as much as 150 miles a day, or that radioactive waste and fallout from cold-war mining and testing remains a critical danger to public health across the plateau. Wilkinson's findings are often depressing; as he writes, "Thirty-five years ago I saw the West as clean and fresh, open and uncluttered. I no longer see it that way. I love it still, with all my heart, but I fear for it. For it is aging rapidly." Even so, he offers a few success stories to temper the bad news, notably the hard-won designation of large sections of the plateau as protected wilderness, with the promise of more extensive protection to come. Charles Wilkinson, Moses Lasky Professor of Law and Distinguished Professor at the University of Colorado, has written 14 books on law, history and society in the American West. Co-Founder of the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, he has served on several boards, including the Northern Lights Institute, the Wilderness Society and the Grand Canyon Trust. Over the years, he has taken on many special assignments for Indian Tribes, States and the U.S. Departments of the Interior, Agriculture and Justice including service as special counsel to Interior Secretary, Bruce Babbitt, for the drafting of the Presidential Proclamation, signed by President Clinton in September 1996, establishing the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah.Wilkinson has received teaching awards from his students at all three law schools where he has taught, and the Universities of Colorado and Oregon have given him their highest awards for leadership, scholarship and teaching. In its 10-year anniversary issue, Outside Magazine named him one of 15 “People to Watch,” calling him “the West’s leading authority on natural resources law.” His awards include the National Wildlife Federation’s National Conservation Award; the Twanat Award, from the Warm Springs Tribal Museum, for dedication to Indian tribes and people; the Grand Canyon Trust’s John Wesley Powell Award for extraordinary vision, passion and commitment to the Colorado Plateau; and the Federal Bar Association’s Lawrence R. Baca Award for Lifetime Achievement in Indian Law.