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Now Available Where Roads Will Never Reach:
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“Outside of Alaska, the Northern Rocky Mountains are the absolute heart and soul of what’s left of primitive America. We owe a great deal of thanks to the many ordinary citizens and small handful of legislators who saved these tracts from extensive fragmentation during the frenzy of postwar industrial overdevelopment. And we owe Swanson our gratitude for telling their story in clear, direct, and readable prose.” “Swanson has captured the importance of passion and commitment by individuals and groups to the wild lands of the Northern Rockies. The people portrayed in his book felt connected to the land and flora and fauna that make Montana the last best place.” “This reliable and very well written account of the forest history of the Northern Rockies, with a focus on the great Wilderness resource of this region, is based on an amazing and innovative use of primary sources, with no archival source being missed. Without doubt the definitive history of this important subject.” |
Read Doug Scott's review in High Country News Listen to an interview with Fred on Utah Public Radio about Where Roads Will Never Reach and wilderness preservation in the West. |
The Bitterroot and Mr. Brandborg Clearcutting and the Struggle for Sustainable Forestry in the Northern Rockies by Frederick H. Swanson University
of Utah Press In the late 1960s Montana’s Bitterroot National Forest was the epicenter of a nationwide conflict over the management of our forest lands. Citizens of the rural Bitterroot Valley protested the U.S. Forest Service’s program of clearcutting whole mountain-sides and bulldozing unsightly terraces to aid replanting. Soon the controversy reached the pages of national newspapers and members of Congress were calling for investigations. The Bitterroot and Mr. Brandborg explores the roots of this historic controversy, which was orchestrated by a crusty, outspoken former Forest Service officer named G. M. Brandborg. “Brandy,” as Montanans called him, was the supervisor of the Bitterroot National Forest from 1935-1955, during which time he implemented his vision of how public forest lands could be managed in harmony with the local economy and the natural environment. While Brandy believed that clearcutting had its place in forest management, he presciently understood that overcutting private and public forest lands would bring social and economic upheaval to western Montana. The issues that energized Guy Brandborg a half century ago are still with us today—and his vision of public forestry still has much to tell us about our relationship to the landscapes of the West. |
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Winner of four regional awards for history and biography, including the 2007 Utah Book Award for nonfiction.Dave
Rust: A Life in the Canyons by
Frederick H. Swanson
David
D. Rust (1874-1963), a backcountry guide and tourism visionary from
Journeys in the Canyon Lands of Utah and Arizona, 1914-1916
by George C. Fraser University
of Arizona Press George
Corning Fraser, a Wall Street attorney with an unusual thirst for adventure, traveled
extensively throughout the Southwest in the early 1900s to study its magnificently
exposed geology. He was a keen observer of landscapes and an interested and sympathetic
listener, and his journals convey an engaging picture of life in the remote corners
of the Colorado Plateau in the years before the automobile made its inroads. Traveling
mostly on horseback, he spoke at length with sheepherders and forest rangers,
townspeople and ranchers, community leaders and eccentric prospectors.His firsthand
accounts will transport you to a time when explorers relied on their horses and
their wits to take them into a fascinating and little-known backcountry.
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