In the endless arguments over public
land, it’s healthy to seek the boggy middle ground. But
it’s also worthwhile to stroll out to the edge, out where the
arguments define right and wrong. For readers ready for such a
stroll, Richard W. Behan has written a provocative travel guide,
Plundered Promise: Capitalism, Politics, and the Fate of the
Federal Lands. Published in 2001, this book gets more timely every
day, as the Bush administration finds new methods to expose public
land to capitalism.
Behan, the dean emeritus of the School
of Forestry at Northern Arizona University, points out that
one-third of the nation’s total land area, ranging from
national forests to military bases, is federal land held as
“common property.” But the land has been attacked by
corporations, which began by taking over the Bureau of Reclamation,
so the irrigation water flowed to them instead of to the
small-scale farmers. Then corporations extended their influence
with campaign contributions, political manipulations and marketing
to stimulate “hyperconsumption” of natural
resources.
Now Behan sees an unelected government of
immense corporations and stockholder ideology running the federal
estate. Corporations control Congress, the White House, and thus
agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service. As a result, he writes,
“The lands are in dismal condition — timberlands are
overcut, rangelands are overgrazed, fisheries are depleted, rivers
are overdammed, parks are overused, and subsidized mining ravages
landscapes.” The message is not entirely one of despair;
Behan pins a shred of hope on local consensus efforts that attempt
to restore the public’s influence.
Plundered Promise: Capitalism, Politics, and the Fate of
the Federal Lands
by Richard W. Behan
240 pages, hardcover $30.
Island Press,
2001.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A peek over the edge.
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