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Islands under Siege: National Parks and the Politics of External Threats
Islands under Siege National Parks and the Politics of External Threats Author:John C. Freemuth Increasingly, national parks have come under environmental attack from sources outside the parks, beyond the jurisdiction of the Park Service. Smog from neighboring cities now obscures famous vistas. Noise and water pollution from nearby industries spills across park boundaries. Acid rain eats away at old-growth forests. John Freemuth sees thes... more »e new external assaults as political problems. In this volume he examines the questions they raise, traces the shifts in government action that have accompanied waves of citizen activism, and uncovers evidence of ineffective legislation, inept implementation, and the potent political power of pro-development forces. He finds the Park Service hamstrung by unclear, conflicting priorities and bureaucratic inertia imposed from above. Finally, he analyzes a diverse set of political strategies that have been and are being used to deal with the threats to our national parks, evaluating each in terms of environmental effectiveness and political feasibility. This book is part of the Development of Western Resources series.« less