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America's Public Lands: From Yellowstone to Smokey Bear and Beyond
How it is that the United States—the country that cherishes the ideal of private property more than any other in the world—has chosen to set aside nearly one-third of its land area as public lands? Now in a fully revised and updated edition covering the first years of the Trump administration, Randall Wilson considers this intriguing question, tracing the often-forgotten ideas of nature that have shaped the evolution of America’s public land system. The result is a fresh and probing account of the most pressing policy and management challenges facing national parks, forests, rangelands, and wildlife refuges today.
The author explores the dramatic story of the origins of the public domain, including the century-long effort to sell off land and the subsequent emergence of a national conservation ideal. Arguing that we cannot fully understand one type of public land without understanding its relation to the rest of the system, he provides in-depth accounts of the different types of public lands. With chapters on national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management lands, and wilderness areas, Wilson examines key turning points and major policy debates for each land type, including recent Trump Administration efforts to roll back environmental protections. He considers debates ranging from national monument designations and bison management to gas and oil drilling, wildfire policy, the bark beetle epidemic, and the future of roadless and wilderness conservation areas. His comprehensive overview offers a chance to rethink our relationship with America’s public lands, including what it says about the way we relate to, and value, nature in the United States.
The author explores the dramatic story of the origins of the public domain, including the century-long effort to sell off land and the subsequent emergence of a national conservation ideal. Arguing that we cannot fully understand one type of public land without understanding its relation to the rest of the system, he provides in-depth accounts of the different types of public lands. With chapters on national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management lands, and wilderness areas, Wilson examines key turning points and major policy debates for each land type, including recent Trump Administration efforts to roll back environmental protections. He considers debates ranging from national monument designations and bison management to gas and oil drilling, wildfire policy, the bark beetle epidemic, and the future of roadless and wilderness conservation areas. His comprehensive overview offers a chance to rethink our relationship with America’s public lands, including what it says about the way we relate to, and value, nature in the United States.
396 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 1, 2025
read for my public lands class
May 20, 2018
How can one country so value private landownership while simultaneously holding approximately one-third of all its territory in the public domain? Such a conundrum guides Randall (I may slip to call him Randy) Wilson’s seminal work on ¬America’s Public Lands. This work is essential to all Americans. Our public lands constitute the legacy of America’s natural, historical, and cultural greatness. As land-owners of extensive swathes of mountains, prairies, coastlines, forests, etc., each American has a vested interest in sustaining our public lands because of the legacy left by those past and for the benefit of those future.
Wilson ably tackles the question as expansive as Yellowstone (and beyond) in a multi-faceted approach. First, he starts with a philosophical and historical foundation to public land thought in the United States. Introducing a dichotomy of public land rationale, warring views on nature-as-commodity (to conserve) vs. having intrinsic value (to preserve) set the stage for how different public land agencies developed and evolved over time. Attempts to reconcile these two seemingly divergent aims find quarter in every chapter of the book. Each major public land agency (National Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Wilderness System) enjoys its own chapter in the work, written in similar frameworks for easy cross-comparison.
Next, Wilson seamlessly interweaves the actors, institutions, and igniting sparks for each of the major public land agencies. Noting difference in characteristics of founding players, agency proved essential to developing strong institutions with clear (though not identical) guiding philosophies and views on nature. Institutional strength (especially with high levels of political/social capital) aided in some public land agencies gaining a clearer vision for existence and greater abilities to achieve aims.
Wilson, then, details the political, social, and economic realities and limitations faced by public land agencies. Each agency harbored complex and, at times, conflict relationships with the each branch of the national government. All had to delicately balance relationships, uncertain resources, and shifting administration priorities. The role of collaborative conservation, often with local community involvement, plays heavily in the “trenches” where policy meets reality. Public lands often hold bi-partisan support though this support must often be earned from local stakeholders who fear public lands diminish economic capacity compared to areas with unfettered private ownership abilities.
Finally, Wilson offers succinct, yet far reaching concluding considerations for the entire United States public land system. Throughout the work, Wilson pulls case studies from across the country, though the lion-share of public lands lay in the Western United States. In particular, three common concerns must guide the future of our public lands. First, little to no capacity exists for large scale declarations of public land as in the past (i.e. Yellowstone, Grand Escalante, etc.). Large, continuous tracts of land in the public domain, viable as public lands, have largely been converted, leaving land fragmented as private property, state land etc. Second, conservation must extend beyond public lands to incorporate these fragmented lands in an effort to sustain large scale ecosystems, as nature exists in reality. Finally, climate change continues to alter public lands (no glaciers in Glacier National Park by 2030); public land agencies/agents must prepare for these changes and seek to mitigate.
These lands are OUR lands, owned by the people of the United States of America, for the people. We must work “to pass on this unique heritage to the next generation in a healthier, more robust, and diverse condition than we found it.”
Wilson ably tackles the question as expansive as Yellowstone (and beyond) in a multi-faceted approach. First, he starts with a philosophical and historical foundation to public land thought in the United States. Introducing a dichotomy of public land rationale, warring views on nature-as-commodity (to conserve) vs. having intrinsic value (to preserve) set the stage for how different public land agencies developed and evolved over time. Attempts to reconcile these two seemingly divergent aims find quarter in every chapter of the book. Each major public land agency (National Park Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Wilderness System) enjoys its own chapter in the work, written in similar frameworks for easy cross-comparison.
Next, Wilson seamlessly interweaves the actors, institutions, and igniting sparks for each of the major public land agencies. Noting difference in characteristics of founding players, agency proved essential to developing strong institutions with clear (though not identical) guiding philosophies and views on nature. Institutional strength (especially with high levels of political/social capital) aided in some public land agencies gaining a clearer vision for existence and greater abilities to achieve aims.
Wilson, then, details the political, social, and economic realities and limitations faced by public land agencies. Each agency harbored complex and, at times, conflict relationships with the each branch of the national government. All had to delicately balance relationships, uncertain resources, and shifting administration priorities. The role of collaborative conservation, often with local community involvement, plays heavily in the “trenches” where policy meets reality. Public lands often hold bi-partisan support though this support must often be earned from local stakeholders who fear public lands diminish economic capacity compared to areas with unfettered private ownership abilities.
Finally, Wilson offers succinct, yet far reaching concluding considerations for the entire United States public land system. Throughout the work, Wilson pulls case studies from across the country, though the lion-share of public lands lay in the Western United States. In particular, three common concerns must guide the future of our public lands. First, little to no capacity exists for large scale declarations of public land as in the past (i.e. Yellowstone, Grand Escalante, etc.). Large, continuous tracts of land in the public domain, viable as public lands, have largely been converted, leaving land fragmented as private property, state land etc. Second, conservation must extend beyond public lands to incorporate these fragmented lands in an effort to sustain large scale ecosystems, as nature exists in reality. Finally, climate change continues to alter public lands (no glaciers in Glacier National Park by 2030); public land agencies/agents must prepare for these changes and seek to mitigate.
These lands are OUR lands, owned by the people of the United States of America, for the people. We must work “to pass on this unique heritage to the next generation in a healthier, more robust, and diverse condition than we found it.”
July 14, 2021
If your looking for an in-depth history of public lands of the US that then this would be a great book to pick up. Wilson includes the nitty gritty lobby pushes that influenced legislations and acts that birthed land/resource management agencies.
I choose to read this book to unclutter the messy history of US land grabs, colonialism, and frontierism. Reading and learning about the politics behind the events has added to clutter though.
If you find yourself depressed halfway through keeping pushing til chapter 8, there Wilson highlights many of the people who paved the way for preservation (as apposed to conservation).
As a graduate of Biology/Environmental Sciences I've honed my passion and interest towards finding a career within natural resource management. I struggle with realizing how unstable the field is and how plastic these departments are.
When reading in-between the lines this book has helped me come to terms with the fact that we are still in an archaic stage when it comes "managing" land.
I choose to read this book to unclutter the messy history of US land grabs, colonialism, and frontierism. Reading and learning about the politics behind the events has added to clutter though.
If you find yourself depressed halfway through keeping pushing til chapter 8, there Wilson highlights many of the people who paved the way for preservation (as apposed to conservation).
As a graduate of Biology/Environmental Sciences I've honed my passion and interest towards finding a career within natural resource management. I struggle with realizing how unstable the field is and how plastic these departments are.
When reading in-between the lines this book has helped me come to terms with the fact that we are still in an archaic stage when it comes "managing" land.
November 18, 2019
Good book that gives a good overview of how our public lands came into existence and how we manage them. I learned a lot about why grazing and logging are allowed in certain areas like the national forests and where a lot of the conflict came from on BLM lands. I also find it interesting that the public lands with the highest amount of protection on them, Wilderness areas, still allow grazing! I recommend this book to anyone looking to find out more about our public lands!
February 4, 2021
Brilliant book that captures the history and challenges of public lands. Minor points, but a half-dozen or more errors appear in the book that should have been cleared up by the editor before publication. For example: page 66 references William Lewis and Meriwether Clark --- when their names were actually William Clark and Meriwether Lewis. Page 236 refers to Dinosaur National Monument being in northeastern Colorado when it is actually in northwestern Colorado.
February 25, 2021
Read this for my research gig.
Loved how the author told the story of public lands in the US.
Really started from the beginning and dove into many topics and issues facing public lands thru history and today.
Loved how the author told the story of public lands in the US.
Really started from the beginning and dove into many topics and issues facing public lands thru history and today.
October 1, 2022
Informative and well-researched. Very dense at times and the line “nature-as-commodity” is extremely overused to the point of lazily diverting the author from exploring the motives behind anti-environment interests.
January 4, 2026
Deborah Williams & ENVS 159 (Public Lands & Waters — Law & Policy) I’ll think about you forever!!!!!
March 4, 2016
An excellent piece of American Environmental History Scholarship. Clearly presents facts without being flowery.
November 16, 2016
I think this is a good book, it has has a lot of details regarding the America.
It has lots of details and has a lot about the history of these lands.
It has lots of details and has a lot about the history of these lands.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews