The Colorado River. Photo by Philipp Rümmele, used under Creative Commons licensing. The Colorado River. Photo by Philipp Rümmele, used under Creative Commons licensing.

 

What does it mean to be wild? Philip Shabecoff begins A Fierce Green Fire: The American Environmental Movement with an enchanting tour of the Americas before their discovery by the West and explores how the land, and our relationship with it, has changed in the past half millennium. It's a thoughtful counterpart to last week's feature from Protecting the Wild.