Rocky Mountain Divide: Selling and Saving the West

By John B. Wright and John B. Wright

Book Overview

The opposing forces of conservation and development have shaped and will continue to shape the natural environment and scenic beauty of the American West. Perhaps nowhere are their opposite effects more visible than in the neighboring states of Colorado and Utah, so alike in their spectacular mountain environments, yet so different in their approaches to land conservation. This study explores why Colorado has over twenty-five land trusts, while Utah has only one.

John Wright traces the success of voluntary land conservation in Colorado to the state's history as a region of secular commerce. As environmental consciousness has grown in Colorado, people there have embraced the businesslike approach of land trusts as simply a new, more responsible way of conducting the real estate business.

In Utah, by contrast, Wright finds that Mormon millennialism and the belief that growth equals success have created a public climate opposed to the formation of land trusts. As Wright puts it, "environmentalism seems to thrive in the Centennial state within the spiritual vacuum which is filled by Mormonism in Utah." These findings remind conservationists of the power of underlying cultural values that affect their efforts to preserve private lands.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0292728670
• ISBN13: 9780292728677
• Release Date: February 2011
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 293 Pages
• Weight: 0.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

One of the greatest books written on geography in the Rocky Mountain west

I'm a bit biased as Jack Wright was a professor of mine at New Mexico State University. I am further biased as a property owner in Colorado. However, this is the best book written on the topic of the geography of the central portion of the inner mountain west. What you will find in the easy to read pages is a detailed yet easily readable geographic history of the States of Colorado and Utah. Jack is highly thoughtful yet does not pull punches in his assessments of the historical and structural under pinnings of grave issues that impact these two glorious and iconic western states. Both states have long suffered from rapid population growth, status as amenity and resource rich lands of opportunity that have for ever been viewed as never ending, and habit, water, and air quality degridation and depletion. Some may see this as another environmentalist rant and others may see it is a labor of love by lover of the land. Either just read it. It may change your mind on something, engage your mind about things you have not thought of, or just help you gain a better understanding and appreciation of two awesome states of place and mind.