The Nature Pages

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~at OUTRIDER

	Worship and Wilderness   Culture, Religion, and Law in Public Lands Management  by Lloyd Burton   University of Wisconsin Press, 2002		Devils Tower National Monument
	"Nowhere is the power of language more evident than in our conversations about the environment," writes author Lloyd Burton in this study of the combined effect of culture, spirituality and law on America's public lands.		"The contrast between contemplative and calculating ways of knowing our environment is one of the principal delineating features between the sacred and the secular in conventional constructions of Western thought."
	The same forest that is "habitat" to a wildlife biologist and "timber" to a logger may be "sacred" to a Native American or just so much "overburden" to a mining contractor.
	Based on case studies of land use conflicts at Devils Tower National Monument, Yellowstone National Park, San Francisco Peaks in Arizona and elsewhere, Burton's survey and analysis of the religious and legal issues involved provides a context for understanding current environmental policies and preparing for the management issues on the horizon.		Yellowstone National Park
Search our selection of new, used and out-of-print books.	Burton weaves first-person accounts of his visits to sacred places into the legal and religious textual tapestry of this unique and important record, interlacing history with the present in a way that illuminates the need to find common ground on our commons.		"The news media seem to like nothing better than a good fight. In part for this reason, intercultural differences over public land and resource management that might have been peaceably and consensually resolved all too often get recharacterized and reframed in ways that make consensual outcomes more difficult, if not impossible, to achieve."
	"Peace is respect for the rights of others," observed Benito Juarez, the first Mexican Indian to become president of Mexico. Burton refers to this observation as an avenue to intercultural peace rather than continuous conflict over the use of our public lands.		Land Use History of the San Francisco Peaks