Outposts of Eden

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Writing primarily about wilderness and public lands, Stegner, author of Islands of the West and coauthor (with his father Wallace) of American Places , introduces us in sprightly, forceful style to remote places in the basin, range and plateau country where the roads are vestigial and tourists rarely go. He takes us to Mono Lake, the Mojave Desert, Humboldt National Forest, all deserted--and to Grand Canyon with 10,000 tourists on a Memorial Day weekend. Stegner is sharply critical of our public lands caretakers, the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, for inept management and foot-dragging in regard to wilderness preservation. As he canoes on the only remaining segment of the once free-flowing Missouri River (208 miles out of 2700), he testily notes that the Bureau of Reclamation finished its job 30 years ago. On the lighter side, there is a hilarious account of guiding a group of college students, ecology majors, on a field trip through the canyon of the San Juan River. The last essays describe Stegner's bumbling attempts at self-sufficiency. Many of these pieces have appeared previously in Atlantic Monthly , Wilderness , California Magazine. (Apr.)