Survival inside the park service
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A Woman in the Great Outdoors
Melody Webb
University of New Mexico Press, $39.95
Historian and outdoors aficionada Melody Webb was on the wilderness hot seat for 22 years as a midlevel bureaucrat in the National Park Service. Her reminiscence of that period smolders and bursts into flames as she recounts the trials of preserving the nation’s most beautiful and historic places.
Pole-axed by politicians, bushwhacked by obstructive congressmen and ground down by lobbyists of every stripe -- from snowmobilers to environmentalists -- the NPS battles for its life in behind-the-scenes maneuverings.
Paradise is nowhere less peaceful than on her home turf, Grand Teton and neighboring Yellowstone. Webb pulls no punches. Having to contain rogue grizzlies and nomadic bison, and control wildfires, airports, urban sprawl and sagging employee morale make for management hell. But nothing less than the preservation of our national parks is at stake.
-- Susan Dworski
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