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Crossing the Next Meridian: Land, Water, and the Future of the West
In Crossing the Next Meridian , Charles F. Wilkinson, an expert on federal public lands, Native American issues, and the West's arcane water laws explains some of the core problems facing the American West now and in the years to come. He examines the outmoded ideas that pervade land use and resource allocation and argues that significant reform of Western law is needed to combat desertification and environmental decline, and to heal splintered communities. Interweaving legal history with examples of present-day consequences of the laws, both intended and unintended, Wilkinson traces the origins and development of the laws and regulations that govern mining, ranching, forestry, and water use. He relates stories of Westerners who face these issues on a day-to-day basis, and discusses what can and should be done to bring government policies in line with the reality of twentieth-century American life.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 27, 2008
Charles Wilkinson is a professor of Law at the University of Colorado. I got this book from the clearance table at my law school. How shameful! Every law student should read this book.
Professor Wilkinson, a splendid writer, tells the story of how the laws governing land and water use in the West have given rise to poor policies and poor outcomes for the health and survival of the region.
After reading it, I felt that I had a beginner's grasp of the problems created by current laws. I also felt that the laws on the books will not be favorably altered in my lifetime. Our solution to that problem? Start relocalizing all of the resources we can relocalize, especially in view of the increasingly intolerable costs for energy.
The serious problems for the West in terms of pollution, conservation, and poor water policy can be managed, but the solutions will come from the grassroots, not Congress or the Executive Branch.
Professor Wilkinson, a splendid writer, tells the story of how the laws governing land and water use in the West have given rise to poor policies and poor outcomes for the health and survival of the region.
After reading it, I felt that I had a beginner's grasp of the problems created by current laws. I also felt that the laws on the books will not be favorably altered in my lifetime. Our solution to that problem? Start relocalizing all of the resources we can relocalize, especially in view of the increasingly intolerable costs for energy.
The serious problems for the West in terms of pollution, conservation, and poor water policy can be managed, but the solutions will come from the grassroots, not Congress or the Executive Branch.
May 29, 2012
This book, written by an acquaintance of mine, stands as one of the two iconic works that examine the nexus of politics and the natural environment. Anyone who cares about the landscape of the west and its flora and fauna should have it in their library. The other indispensable work is Roderick Nash's WILDERNESS AND THE AMERICAN MIND, which traces the roots of our "Manifest Destiny" to subjugate the land.
April 28, 2023
Fundamentally, this is a book about the history more than the future, as it focuses on the historical legal and policy regimes that still govern mining, forestry, ranching, river management, and water in the American West, and how these outdated regimes remain in place and are doing significant damage. The one thing that made me downgrade the book from five to four stars isn't really the author's fault: it's that the book is from 1992 and so is now thirty years out-of-date, making it hard to be certain what things have or haven't changed since it was written.
May 25, 2017
This book was authored by my friend and former law professor, Charles Wilkinson. Prof. Wilkinson draws a dichotomy between the traditional users of public lands, such as miners, grazers, timbermen, and others, on one hand, and recreationists and Indian tribes, on the other. The laws governing traditional uses are dubbed the "Lords of Yesterday." Prof. Wilkinson advocates that these "Lords of Yesterday" be deposed in favor of a new legal regime favoring the latter group.
Although the conflict is not framed in terms of socioeconomic class and background, that is where the true conflict lies. The "Lords of Yesterday" were drafted to provide access to public lands for working people, and most people who make use of these laws today remain mostly blue collar and live in the rural west. In contrast, those who place the highest value on recreation and environmental preservation typically are college educated, upper income, and live in cities, only occasionally visiting the back country.
Indian tribes occupy an unusual niche in this conflict. On one hand, Indians typically want to engage in timber cutting, mineral development, commercial fishing, and other economically valuable activities. After all, they are human beings like the rest of us, and need to make a living. On the other hand, the "virtue signaling" many people learn in college or graduate school require them to support tribes, even if they would vehemently oppose the same activities if undertaken by anyone else. As a result, they are lumped on the "new" side, even though most of their activities belong with the "lords of yesterday."
The solution advocated by Prof. Wilkinson is to impose new restrictions on traditional economic activities on public lands and to impose new layers of review before any such activity may be approved. No such restrictions are suggested for the favored "new" uses.
In my view, no new layers of review are called for. In the 1970s, Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), which requires that an environmental impact statement be completed before any "major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment" may be carried out. In practice, this process often requires years of litigation and many millions of dollars to complete. Congress also has mandated comprehensive land use planning for public lands, most prominently through the National Forest Management Act.
I also am skeptical of imposing new substantive restrictions on traditional uses of public lands. Most such uses impact relatively little land and provide valuable benefits for local communities and the nation as a whole. (Public land grazing, which requires very large amounts of land to produce very little beef, may be an exception.) The real threat to the environment in the rural west is resort and second home development and the like. The epitome of the "new" West advocated by this book are the thirty-five acre ranchettes which sprawl across the scenic parts of the West, impacting far more ground than mineral development ever has or will. In other words, as the wag once said, we have met the enemy, and he is us (i.e. upper middle-class urban dwellers who want to be able to escape to the back country for weekends or vacations.
A more rational policy might be to require every user to pay his or her own way. This policy would eliminate the below-cost timber sales and grazing leases which are , or at least formerly were, so controversial. High-value uses would remain in place, and the taxpayers would benefit by limiting raids on the public till. Heavy government restrictions then could be limited to areas that are most valuable for scenic preservation or wildlife habitat.
The relevance of this book is limited by the fact that it originally was published in 1992, and much has changed since then. When Prof. Wilkinson put pen to paper (he writes at a stand-up desk like that used by former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and although I don't know it for a fact, I suspect he still dictates his first drafts or writes them out longhand, as it probably would not work to place a word processor on such a desk), the era of high timber cuts on western lands, especially those in the moist areas west of the Cascade Mountains, still was in place. Since then, for better or worse, timber cuts on public lands have plunged to a small fraction of their former level. (It is questionable whether this decline actually has helped the environment on a worldwide level, as timber from third world countries with weak laws no doubt has filled most or all of the loss.) Salmon runs have continued to decline despite enormous efforts to revive them, and, of course, subdivision of ranches into ranchettes has continued apace. In a way, then, this book has joined the so-called "Lords of Yesterday" in being overtaken by the times.
It should be obvious from this review that I do not always agree with Charles. One of the things I enjoyed about his class is that he did not hold disagreement against his students, or at least not against me. The honest exchange of ideas is vitally important to the formulation of good public land policy, as it is to democracy in general, and I hope this review has contributed to that process, if only in a very small way.
Although the conflict is not framed in terms of socioeconomic class and background, that is where the true conflict lies. The "Lords of Yesterday" were drafted to provide access to public lands for working people, and most people who make use of these laws today remain mostly blue collar and live in the rural west. In contrast, those who place the highest value on recreation and environmental preservation typically are college educated, upper income, and live in cities, only occasionally visiting the back country.
Indian tribes occupy an unusual niche in this conflict. On one hand, Indians typically want to engage in timber cutting, mineral development, commercial fishing, and other economically valuable activities. After all, they are human beings like the rest of us, and need to make a living. On the other hand, the "virtue signaling" many people learn in college or graduate school require them to support tribes, even if they would vehemently oppose the same activities if undertaken by anyone else. As a result, they are lumped on the "new" side, even though most of their activities belong with the "lords of yesterday."
The solution advocated by Prof. Wilkinson is to impose new restrictions on traditional economic activities on public lands and to impose new layers of review before any such activity may be approved. No such restrictions are suggested for the favored "new" uses.
In my view, no new layers of review are called for. In the 1970s, Congress enacted the National Environmental Policy Act ("NEPA"), which requires that an environmental impact statement be completed before any "major federal action significantly affecting the quality of the human environment" may be carried out. In practice, this process often requires years of litigation and many millions of dollars to complete. Congress also has mandated comprehensive land use planning for public lands, most prominently through the National Forest Management Act.
I also am skeptical of imposing new substantive restrictions on traditional uses of public lands. Most such uses impact relatively little land and provide valuable benefits for local communities and the nation as a whole. (Public land grazing, which requires very large amounts of land to produce very little beef, may be an exception.) The real threat to the environment in the rural west is resort and second home development and the like. The epitome of the "new" West advocated by this book are the thirty-five acre ranchettes which sprawl across the scenic parts of the West, impacting far more ground than mineral development ever has or will. In other words, as the wag once said, we have met the enemy, and he is us (i.e. upper middle-class urban dwellers who want to be able to escape to the back country for weekends or vacations.
A more rational policy might be to require every user to pay his or her own way. This policy would eliminate the below-cost timber sales and grazing leases which are , or at least formerly were, so controversial. High-value uses would remain in place, and the taxpayers would benefit by limiting raids on the public till. Heavy government restrictions then could be limited to areas that are most valuable for scenic preservation or wildlife habitat.
The relevance of this book is limited by the fact that it originally was published in 1992, and much has changed since then. When Prof. Wilkinson put pen to paper (he writes at a stand-up desk like that used by former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and although I don't know it for a fact, I suspect he still dictates his first drafts or writes them out longhand, as it probably would not work to place a word processor on such a desk), the era of high timber cuts on western lands, especially those in the moist areas west of the Cascade Mountains, still was in place. Since then, for better or worse, timber cuts on public lands have plunged to a small fraction of their former level. (It is questionable whether this decline actually has helped the environment on a worldwide level, as timber from third world countries with weak laws no doubt has filled most or all of the loss.) Salmon runs have continued to decline despite enormous efforts to revive them, and, of course, subdivision of ranches into ranchettes has continued apace. In a way, then, this book has joined the so-called "Lords of Yesterday" in being overtaken by the times.
It should be obvious from this review that I do not always agree with Charles. One of the things I enjoyed about his class is that he did not hold disagreement against his students, or at least not against me. The honest exchange of ideas is vitally important to the formulation of good public land policy, as it is to democracy in general, and I hope this review has contributed to that process, if only in a very small way.
April 25, 2021
Not an easy book to read; filled with facts, figures and history. Written in 1992, I wonder just how much progress has been made in preserving the West's environment.
January 25, 2024
This book may have been published in the early 90's... but wow is this still a 'goldmine' of understanding history and environmental issues in the American West.
January 29, 2012
Would love to see an update to this book someday, too much of these stories still hold sway, many of the laws that have been mentioned that have affected the West are still in power; but many other things have changed in the last 20 years and I would like to see this kind of overview on all of those changes.
October 27, 2008
This book is a great introduction to a variety of natural resources in the west, and why we are where we are in that regard. Unfortunately, as someone who has been studying the field, I didn't learn anything new. I would recommend for someone who is interested but a little less familiar.
January 28, 2010
Wow. I didn't expect to enjoy this material as much as I did. Even after I finished what was assigned, I kept reading on in disbelief at the antiquated, unfair resource use and extraction laws that still govern western land management.
February 1, 2008
very good environmental book
July 9, 2008
Ok, I read it for class, but still found it interesting. I am officially a Charles groupie at this point. I go up to his office and try to run into him "by accident."
August 10, 2011
Although I was forced to read this for a class, I found it an interesting examination of how the legal and governmental framework surrounding environmental issues in the west formed.
February 12, 2014
This is such an excellent introduction to the issues faced in the West, particularly in regards to public resources. It's over twenty years old but is still incredibly relevant.
October 25, 2007
and amazing overview of the issues the western US faces. great reference.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews