A Road Runs Through It: Reviving Wild Places

By Thomas Reed Petersen

This book explores what many consider to be the most important issue in the re-wilding of America today-roads. Not highways, but the 500,000 miles of roads built on federal forest lands to access... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555663710
• ISBN13: 9781555663711
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Johnson Books
• Length: 227 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

A mixed bag but generally a good one

Like many others, I'm increasingly disgusted by roads and the way they grow like weeds around our country. This book was collected by Thomas Reed Petersen on behalf of Wildlands CPR, a group that seeks wildlife restoration and road removal. All royalties go to Wildlands CPR, if that influences your buying decision. The book collects about two dozen essays, of average to high quality, on the subject of roads on public lands. The styles and purposes are varied indeed, including polemics, public policy papers, meditations, and journalism. There are several classic authors such as Edward Abbey, Barry Lopez, Peter Matthiessen - - and an introduction by Annie Proulx. Many essays discuss the problems of roads on national forest lands, which were built to serve a clearcut and then abandoned. However, the more striking group of essays discusses the problems of off-highway vehicles (mostly all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles), which have become a bane for those who love nature. Not everything in here is a winner. Depending on your interests, however, you'll likely to find a half-dozen or more essays that you particularly enjoy.

A new and provocative nature read . . .

A Road Runs Through It: Reviving Wild Places is a powerful set of essays revolving around the unfortunate overabundance of roads on America's public lands -- many of which are unnecessary and ecologically damaging: fouling streams, dirtying our drinking water, fragmenting habitat, posing safety hazards, and eroding the wild character of some of our most precious landscapes. Roads, while they have their place in servicing our towns and cities and in providing entryways to beautiful and soul-rejuvenating places, are also a bane. As we learn from the text only 6% of our National Forest lands (not to mention other agency lands) are paved and maintained, leaving 94% as "roads to nowhere". With the U.S. Forest Service reporting a $10 billion backlog in road maintenance, it's high time to remove these unneeded, costly, and damaging roads . . . for the good of local communities, the U.S. economy, and, of course, for wildlife and overall ecological integrity. With a lineup of authors including Annie Proulx ("Brokeback Mountain"), Barry Lopez (Arctic Dreams), and the late polemicist Edward Abbey among others, this is a sure fire winner of a nature book. Brilliantly edited and with an introduction by environmental writer Thomas Reed Petersen, this book will educate, motivate, and move the reader to action. A highly recommend read for anyone who loves and wants to protect America's wild places. Kiffin Hope, Missoula, Montana