Article 1
More Than just a Beautiful Bird

Article 2
A Foul Wind Blowing

Article 3
News From the Golden State;
The California Report

Article 4
The Environment Loses a Valuable Friend and Ally

Article 5
WWP expands into Arizona

Article 6
Old Bill’s Fun Run a Great Success

Article 7
Sage Observations; Ecological Conscience and Public Lands Ranching

Article 8
Global Warming, Western Ranching, and the Bovine Curtain

Article 9
Proving that BLM does not follow Science in its Grazing Management

Book Review:
Western Turf Wars:The Politics of Public Lands Ranching (2007) by Mike Hudak




Watersheds Messenger     Fall 2007     Vol. XIV, No. 2      PDF ISSUE

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Book Review:
Western Turf Wars: The Politics of Public Lands Ranching
(2007) by Mike Hudak
Reviewed by Todd Shuman, WWP Advisory Board member

Western Turf Wars

This book, which is based upon video-taped interviews of retired agency scientists, land managers, non-government scientists, and conservationists, presents a wealth of valuable historical information through the stories of 27 people who have been resisting abusive livestock grazing management practices on public lands. Four of the people interviewed in the book are currently associated with WWP (Ralph Maughan, Julian Hatch, Larry Walker, and Todd Shuman).

The range of issues, regions, concerns, and historical periods addressed in the book is immense. From Martha Hahn, we hear about the battles to transform BLM grazing management in Idaho in the 1990s. From Douglas Barber, Leon Fager, and Renee Galeano-Popp, we receive blow-by-blow accounts of reform and counter-reform within the Apache-Sitgreaves and Lincoln National Forests while Mike Sauber lays out the campaign to stop the construction of massive stock tanks in the Aldo Leopold Wilderness of the Gila National Forest. Julian Hatch and Patrick Diehl lay out the political economy of livestock grazing in the Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monument while also reminding us of the chilling consequences rural grazing reform activists face when challenging the status quo. Ralph Maughan then presents us with a most concise, informative overview of issues and facts concerning bison and wolf "control" in the Northern Rockies.

When we get a hankering for some hard-core science, we can turn to Clait Braun for the lowdown on the history and science behind efforts to protect the Gunnison sage grouse, as well as for a detailed critique of a western states conservation assessment of "Greater Sage-grouse and Sagebrush Habitats" that needed "holes . . . to be shot in it." Different interviews address livestock-related issues concerning Hart Mountain NAR, the grasslands of the Black Hills, Malheur NWR, pygmy rabbit habitat in Washington, the Golden Trout Wilderness, among many others.

Hudak gently "prodded" his subjects to recount the events, conflicts, and perceptions that prompted them to address livestock-on-public-land issues in the first place. Buy it and start "mining" it for the unusual history and accumulated wisdom that it contains.

Western Turf Wars can be purchased over the Internet at http://westernturfwars.com or by contacting Mike Hudak directly at Biome Books, 38 Oliver Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1516. You can also call 607.330.0351.

 

 



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