Landscape of Desire : Identity and Nature in Utah's Canyon Country

Landscape of Desire powerfully documents and celebrates aplace and the evolutions that occur when human beings are intimatelyconnected to their surroundings. Greg Gordon accomplishes this with atapestry of writing that interweaves land use history, natural history,experiential education, and personal reflection. He tracks thegeomorphology of southern Utah as well as the creatures and plants hisstudent group encounters, the history lessons (planned and unplanned),the trials and joys of gathering so many individuals into a cohesivewill, and his own personal epiphanies, restraints, insights, anddisillusionments.Landscape of Desire examines the plight of the westernlandscape. It discusses a wide range of issues, including mining,grazing, dams, recreation, wilderness, and land management. Sincerecreation has replaced extraction industries as the primary use ofwilderness, especially in southern Utah, Gordon addresses its impactfulqualities. He overviews the history of the conflict between preservationand development and places these issues in a cultural context. The textis presented in a narrative format, following the individuals of onefield course Gordon lead that explored Muddy Creek and the Dirty DevilRiver from Interstate 70 to Lake Powell. Though each chapter focuses onthe geologic formation the group is traveling through, the plants,animals, ecology, and human impacts are all tightly woven into thenarrative. Not only does the land affect the members of the fieldcourse, but their attitudes and insights affect the land.In Landscape of Desire Gordon achieves a vision of wholenessof this popular and contested region of Utah that centers around theimplications of being human and also stewards of the wild.