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Charles F. Wilkinson

Charles Wilkinson is Moses Lasky Professor of Law at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Among his books are Crossing the Next Meridian (Island Press, 1992) and The Eagle Bird (Pantheon, 1992).

 

The Western Confluence

A Guide To Governing Natural Resources

For 150 years, the American West has been shaped by persistent conflicts over natural resources. This has given rise to a succession of strategies for resolving disputes-prior appropriation, scientific management, public participation, citizen ballot initiatives, public interest litigation, devolution, and interest-based negotiation. All of these strategies are still in play, yet the West remains mired in gridlock.

Searching Out the Headwaters

Searching Out the Headwaters

Change And Rediscovery In Western Water Policy

To the uninitiated, water policy seems a complicated, hypertechnical, and incomprehensible subject: a tangle of engineering jargon and legalese surrounding a complex, delicate, and interrelated structure. Decisions concerning the public's waters involve scant public participation, and in such a context, reform seems risky at best.

Searching Out the Headwaters addresses that precarious situation by providing a thorough and straightforward analysis of western water use and the outmoded rules that govern it.

Crossing the Next Meridian

Crossing the Next Meridian

Land, Water, and the Future of the West

In Crossing the Next Meridian, Charles F. Wilkinson, an expert on federal public lands, Native American issues, and the West's arcane water laws explains some of the core problems facing the American West now and in the years to come. He examines the outmoded ideas that pervade land use and resource allocation and argues that significant reform of Western law is needed to combat desertification and environmental decline, and to heal splintered communities.