The Other Public Lands: Preservation, Extraction, and Politics on the Fifty States' Natural Resource Lands [Paperback]

For most Americans, state lands are the most readily accessible type of public land; however, despite their ubiquity, they remain largely terra incognita.TheOtherPublic Landsis a primer on state public lands and the political dynamics that underlie their management. Offering a wide-angle overview, Steven Davis focuses on how states prioritize competing claims related to conservation, resource development, tourism, recreation, and finances.

TheOtherPublic Landslooks at both differences and common patterns in state land management, including the structure of natural resource agencies. Davis examines the privatization and commercialization of state parks, and the tensions between recreation, revenue and the preservation of biodiversity and natural landscapes. He also raises issues about equity, access, appropriate development, and ecological health. Chapters review state forests, state wildlife management areas, and school trust lands. In addition, the roles of interest groups, the courts, and agency culture and behavior are compared and analyzed both between states and the federal government and between states with differing approaches to specific issues.

As there has been a demand to transfer at least some federal lands to the states,TheOtherPublic Landsconcludes with an appraisal of whether states could handle this transfer and goes on to suggest ways to ensure adequate access in an era of increased demand.

TheOtherPublic Landsis most timely because it reveals the limits of state public land management by marshaling extensive history and documentation of the current status of state lands.... Steven Davis has done a great service at this fraught moment in public land history. He has given those of us who use and love public land much to think about and arguments to make against those bent on dismantling the federal public estate.National Parks Traveler

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