For many people beyond Nevada’s borders, the state is no more than the nation’s desert dumping ground for dangerous waste. Others know it only for its hedonistic centers of gambling and entertainment. This scandal belies the extraordinary beauty and wonder of the state’s wilderness areas and the precious natural, aesthetic, and cultural resources to be found there. In Wild Nevada , editors Roberta Moore and Scott Slovic have assembled twenty-nine writers who know and love the Nevada wilderness to testify on its behalf. Contributors include literary artists and scholars, environmental and community activists, leading politicians, ranchers, scientists, and park rangers. Some essays offer observations on the political and philosophical discussions of wilderness that heat up the halls of academia and Congress; others recount moving personal encounters with wild places within Nevada; and still others comment on the ambiguities of preserving wild places through wilderness designation. But despite the eclectic backgrounds of the writers and their varied perspectives on public policy, they are all united in their devotion to the ecological and aesthetic values of Nevada’s threatened wilderness areas. Foreword by Michael Frome. "'We need revolutionaries--not to commit violent deeds, but to press society to reorder its priorities, with emphasis on stewardship of God's green earth (Pope John Paul II). The testimonies in this book remind me again and again that saving wilderness in Nevada preserves origins and diversity, for desert bighorn sheep, cougar, golden eagle, turkey vulture, redtailed hawk, horned lizard, cutthroat trout and pup-fish, and by so doing preserves origins, diversity, and destiny for humankind." "This diverse, and sometimes contradictory, assemblage of perspectives on wilderness in the contemporary American West is appropriate for a state like Nevada that prides itself as a haven for free-thinking and individuality, for urban revelry and utter wilderness solitude. The contributions to this collection were solicited as personal statements—precise viewpoints and topics were not dictated to authors. These lively statements offer readers a glimpse of how contemporary citizens of the American West feel about the idea of wilderness in one of the wildest regions of the lower forty-eight states. Wild Nevada is a significant contribution to public debates and discussions of such current issues of urban sprawl, biodiversity, the ecological impact of mining, the siting of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, multiple uses of natural resources, the ecological viability of ranching, and indigenous perspectives on wilderness. It is also a demonstration of how literary expression can contribute to public policy formation." Scott Slovic Roberta Moore is an interpretive park ranger at Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada. She sits on the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition Board of Trustees. Scott Slovic is a professor of Literature and Environment at the University of Nevada, Reno. The author, editor, or coeditor of many books, his research specialties include American environmental literature, the relation between narrative discourse and environmental values, autobiography and environmental experience, and environmental rhetoric. —From the foreword by Michael Frome:       “In the process of reviewing the written materials that make up this book, I found myself absorbed in discovering a part of America that I had never known before. I followed the words and the pages leading me through a large, wild, and wonderful outback rising up from broad dunes and desert to peaks above 10,000 feet. I made my reading journey in the company of guides who knew their terrain intimately, care about it, and want us all to understand it better. In prose and poetry, writers assembled by Roberta Moore and Scott Slovic for the Friends of Nevada Wilderness give their eloquent testimonies for a Nevada beyond the cities, casinos, suburban malls and sprawls.” Used Book in Good Condition