Reviews of Web Sites, CD ROMs, Books Author(s): Fani Kakridi Enz Source: Mountain Research and Development, 21(1):94-95. Published By: International Mountain Society DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1659/0276-4741(2001)021[0094:]2.0.CO;2 URL: http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.1659/0276-4741%282001%29021%5B0094%3A%5D2.0.CO %3B2
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Energy-related web sites phu, Bhutan. The online article Fraunhofer Institute for Solar argues the “resettlement and reha- Energy Systems. The following web sites were chosen bilitation of population affected by to illustrate some of the issues associ- water projects has been generally Alternative approaches ated with energy in mountain regions unsatisfactory the world over” and as well as certain types of energy pro- that “reforms in planning and man- Energia duction, with a primary focus on solar agement of programs to resettle www.energia.org/ energy and hydropower. Searching and rehabilitate the displaced popu- Web site of an international net- for hydropower sites on the web lation are essential to avoid conflict work on women and sustainable reveals how controversial the topic of and consequential high social energy that links individuals and hydropower is and how intensively it stress.” groups concerned with energy, the is being discussed. Several sites that environment, and women. Energia deal with alternative approaches to Homepage of the Snowy aims to strengthen the role of energy have also been included here, Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme women in sustainable energy devel- although they do not always focus www.snowyhydro.com.au/main.cfm opment through information specifically on mountain regions. Web site of the Snowy Mountains exchange, training, research, advo- Scheme, supported by the Snowy cacy, and action. This site contains Energy issues in mountains Mountains Hydroelectric Authority. two interesting articles: “‘Energiz- The Scheme lies mostly within ing’ Rural Areas of Peru,” which ICIMOD: Energy use Kosciuszko National Park in Aus- describes an alternative demand- in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya tralia’s Southern Alps. While most led way of introducing energy www.icimod.org.sg/focus/ of the Scheme’s engineering fea- applied in Peru and Bolivia that the energy/energy-toc.htm tures are located underground, the author calls ‘energization,’ and List of interesting documents con- construction and operation of such “The Success of Biogas Plants in cerning energy use in the Hindu a large-scale project in a unique Nepal: A Note on Gender,” which Kush-Himalaya, some with special Australian environment has signifi- describes a successful program for reference to hydropower aspects. cant potential environmental impli- disseminating biogas plants in cations. The Scheme provides 2360 Nepal and summarizes the findings ICIMOD: Mountain risks and hazards gigaliters of water west of the Great of various studies on the impact of www.icimod.org.sg/focus/risks_ Dividing Range for irrigation and biogas technology on the quality of hazards/inamflod.html river management and produces women’s lives. An online article by Kunda Dixit 5100 gigawatt hours of renewable and Inam Ahmed in which informa- electricity annually. The project FAO, SD Dimensions, tion is presented to support the attempts to reconcile power genera- Energy for Development argument that a paradigm shift is tion, environmental benefits, and www.fao.org/sd/EGdirect/ needed in making plans for long- recreational challenges. Egan0007.htm term flood mitigation, in the way we Online article “Stoves Used for think about floods, and in relation Solar energy Space Heating and Cooking in to what is and is not possible in this Mountainous Areas of Asia,” context. American Solar Energy Society extracted from an FAO/RWEDP www.solartoday.org/1999/ report on a workshop dealing with Nepal Ghatta Project nov-dec/feature2.html stoves used at different altitudes www.nathaneagle.com/ghatta “Peruvian Villages Go Solar,” by and by different ethnic groups. It Web site of a project aiming to mod- John Duffy, is an abstract from an discusses the various merits of stove ify traditional water mill (ghatta) article in Solar Today, programs. technology to transform ghattas into November–December 1999. Solar community battery charging sta- Today is the journal of the American Green-e: Renewable Electricity Program tions. Solar Energy Society. www.green-e.org/ Web site supported by the nonprofit Water projects in Nepal: Lessons Fraunhofer Institute for organization Center for Resource from displacement rehabilitation Solar Energy Systems Solutions, which has established the www.rim.edu.bt/manual/ www.ise.fhg.de/www-links/ Green-e Renewable Electricity Certi- icimod/sites/nepalnet/water/ Other_Solar.html fication Program to promote inter- water_projects.htm Contains a list of web sites on solar est and consumer confidence in the Web site provided by the Royal energy and other renewable purchase of renewable green power Institute of Management in Thim- sources of energy. Prepared by the from credible companies.
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Hydropower Books As a transition to the section dedicated to particular applications World Commission on Dams of mountain meteorology, Part III www.dams.org/ Mountain Meteorology: deals with mountain winds. A dis- The site is devoted to the major tinction is made between terrain- landmark final report of the World Fundamentals and forced flows and mountain-and-val- Commission on Dams, which con- Applications. ley breezes. In the former case, tains a thorough discussion of the processes are highlighted that pros and cons of dams and dam By C. David Whiteman. Oxford Uni- determine the manner through construction. The entire report can versity Press, New York and Oxford, which large-scale flows interact with be downloaded at www.damsreport. 2000. xiii + 355 pp, hardback. topographic obstacles, that is, by org/. An overview of the report can UK£29.50; US$39.95. ISBN 0-19- flowing over or around mountains be found at www.damsreport.org/ 513271-8. or by being blocked as a result of docs/overview/wcd_overview.pdf. cold-air damming. The chapter This book explores a wide range of related to mountain winds address- International Centre issues relevant to climatology and es aspects such as the mechanisms for Hydropower (ICH) meteorology as applied to mountain responsible for up-slope and valley www.ntnu.no/ich/ regions. It would appear to be typi- winds, disturbances of local breezes The International Centre for cally aimed at an audience of through large-scale flows, and par- Hydropower (ICH) is an association advanced undergraduate students ticularities of diurnal winds in of companies and organizations and those doing graduate research. basins and over plateaus. Here active in all aspects of hydropower The book has a very pleasant for- again, the author relates many qual- generation and supply. Membership mat, the text is nicely laid out, and itative and theoretical concepts to is open to all parties involved in the the figures are, on the whole, concrete examples selected mostly development, implementation, and superb, making use of excellent, from the various mountain zones of operation of hydropower. didactic graphics and sketches. North America. The volume is divided into four The three chapters of Part IV International Commission major sections, the shortest of which build on the preceding chapters to on Large Dams (ICOLD) is devoted to an introduction to enter into substantial detail on genepi.louis-jean.com/ mountain climates, with a particular weather-related problem areas spe- cigb/index.html focus on the mountains of North cific to mountains. The latter two of Contains ICOLD’s view of the America. This introduces the reader these chapters have been con- report of the World Commission on to some of the themes that are dealt tributed by other authors. In Chap- Dams as well as other views. A relat- with in other chapters. The principal ter 12, the concepts of diurnal ed site, www.hydro2001.com/, con- factors governing mountain climates breezes or synoptically driven block- tains information about two confer- are clearly set out: latitude, altitude, ing episodes are applied to air qual- ences: The Fourth International the degree of continentality, and the ity problems in valleys or at the Conference Hydropower ’01, importance of regional circulation interface between plains and moun- Bergen, 20–22 June 2001, and the patterns in forging regional climates tain areas. Interesting examples of ICOLD European Symposium, in complex terrain. smog formation under particular Dams in a European Context, Part II provides a descriptive meteorological conditions are given Geiranger, 25–27 June 2001. overview of the essentials of atmos- for readily identifiable regions such Hydropower ’01 will focus on pri- pheric dynamics and thermodynam- as the valley resort of Vail (Col- vate sector development, hydropow- ics. This section addresses in a clas- orado) or the city of Boulder at the er as environmentally sustainable sical manner the scales of atmos- foot of the Colorado Front Range. power generation, recent trends in pheric motion, stability and other A second major area of preoc- plant operation, and innovative aspects related to the planetary cupation, namely forest and brush technology and design. boundary layer, pressure as a driv- fires in remote mountain regions or ing force behind winds and midlati- those with limited access for preven- Fani Kakridi Enz Centre for Development and Environment, Uni- tude frontal systems, cloud and pre- tion and control, is addressed in versity of Berne, with the help of MRD Assistant cipitation processes, and techniques Chapter 13. The issues raised in this Editors Susanne Wymann von Dach and Anne for analyzing and forecasting weath- chapter are multidisciplinary and Zimmermann. er. Whenever possible, Whiteman range from the beneficial effects of [email protected] attempts to apply the more general fire as a regeneration mechanism aspects of atmospheric physics to for many ecosystems to the danger mountain regions. fire can represent in terms of loss of 96
life and damage to infrastructure. especially in extratropical regions. tudes generate the demand for a The indirect effects of fire, such as But it might have been valuable to significant part of the year, while the enhanced risk of slope instabili- have a chapter devoted to specific the solar supply is capable of meet- ty following the destruction of vege- aspects of mountain meteorology in ing most, if not all, of it. However, it tation in complex terrain, are also the tropics, such as the disturbances is not as simple as all that. The ratio discussed. This chapter brings a induced by monsoon circulations to of demand to supply depends not number of interesting and original normal weather patterns in the only on particular mesoclimatic and side issues to light, in particular the Himalayas or the particularities of microclimatic characteristics but is feedbacks of changed surface con- the tropical cloud forests. This also reliant on a multitude of vari- ditions onto local or regional cli- would have helped the reader iden- ables in terms of the design of the mate. Previously forested mountain tify key differences in terms of buildings. These variables are nor- slopes that undergo extensive meteorology that inevitably exist mally controlled or specified by the denudation by fire, for example, between the tropics and the midlati- architect. will significantly change the ambi- tudes. Even comparisons of certain Thus, the scene is set for the ent air temperatures as a result of climate–orography interactions kind of useful information one shifts in the surface energy budget; within different midlatitude regions might reasonably anticipate from moisture will also be affected might have provided a further, use- such a title. However, expectation through the land-cover change. ful dimension. and fulfillment are unfortunately Although many of the topics dis- These comments should not not too well matched. Papers from cussed in this chapter are far from overshadow the fact that this new four workshops organized by ICI- being specific to mountains, the reference work represents a most MOD in each of the four countries manner in which fire is triggered useful contribution to our under- do not appear to have been well and the factors that propagate for- standing of weather and climate edited. For instance, there is a con- est fires make for interesting read- processes in complex terrain. It is siderable amount of overlap ing. The chapter ends with a num- indeed rare to encounter such a between the six main chapter ber of guidelines for fire monitor- wealth of different topics, particu- themes, which makes for a general ing, control, and prevention. larly those that are dealt with in the lack of cohesion. Papers from any Another chapter that is not nec- final section of the book. of the regular solar conferences essarily specific to mountains is the inevitably reflect the varying disci- Martin Beniston final one, devoted to aerial spray- Department of Geography, University of Fribourg, plines of the authors. Typically engi- ing. The micrometeorological Perolles, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland. neers and physicists dominate, with aspects of chemical spray deposition [email protected] the contributions of architects very are addressed in terms of both per- much in the minority. This then turbations induced by the turbu- raises the issue of where the market lence generated by the aircraft Profiting From Sunshine: for such a publication lies. If it aims themselves and atmospheric disper- Passive Solar Building in primarily at the scientific communi- sion of the chemicals as they fall ty, the architectural one remains in earthward. In mountain regions, the Mountains. the dark or perhaps, at best, in twi- the rate of deposition of products Edited by N. K. Bansai and Kamal light. To illuminate architects so sprayed from aircraft is modulated Rijal. ICIMOD, Kathmandu, 2000. they are enthused enough to design by local and regional factors such as 284 pp. US$15.00 (developed solar buildings, scientific data must valley breezes or reduced flow pat- countries, agencies); US$10.00 be translated. This then is the terns resulting from blocking situa- (developing countries). ISBN 92- dilemma for the editorial team. Of tions. 9115-099-1. course, one might rely on the con- The concepts and issues sultants of the architects to assimi- addressed throughout the manu- late such knowledge, and then it is script are upheld by a substantial This publication from the Interna- they who have the responsibility of bibliography, including the author’s tional Center for Integrated Moun- translated dissemination. But for all own original research over a num- tain Development (ICIMOD) prom- the glib talk of holistic multidiscipli- ber of years. It would have been of ises much. The mountain areas of nary teams, real cross-disciplinary interest perhaps to have a broader the countries in question—China, understanding remains poor. outlook in terms of mountains than India, Nepal, and Pakistan—each Even accepting the unedited just those of the United States. contain regions where the thermal scientific bias of the papers, there There are, of course, similarities in demand for space heating and the are other frustrations. For example, weather and climate patterns in dif- free thermal supply of the sun are the relationship between the moun- ferent mountains of the world, reasonably in phase. The high alti- tainous regions, their climates, and
Mountain Research and Development Vol 21 No 1 Feb 2001 MountainMedia
97 the distribution of population is not climatic regions are cited, there is nical variations, with a great degree given. Thus, the architectural mar- very little information with respect of detail. However, there is a ques- ket remains undefined. Also, to the specific relevance and capa- tion whether all technical consider- although the essential domestic bility of the techniques for the ations and recommendations are problem of aligning the thermal mountain climates under examina- relevant and manageable by farm- profile of cooking to that of space tion. ers, particularly in marginal areas. heating is quite well summarized at This commentary may seem In those areas, we must assume, for the outset, its resolution is not sys- overly negative. The document does example, that many farmers do not tematically addressed. This may contain much valuable information, have optimal economic precondi- reflect how the workshops were which in turn represents much use- tions to establish and maintain cost- organized in the first place, but it is ful work, both in the field and from ly conservation measures such as frustrating. The challenge is to use predictive simulations. However, the terraces and that their fields can affordable materials in suitable bottom line is that, in its present vary considerably with respect to areas and quantities to achieve an form, this remains a book that slope and soil. How can they main- appropriate level of thermal resist- points to the need for at least one tain terrace grades of precisely 0.4, ance, capacitance, and radiant other book, more coherently struc- 0.6, and 0.8%, depending on the transmission in order to enable tured and digestible for both archi- soil type? Although all technical fuel-efficient cookers to meet the tectural students and practitioners, instructions are well intended, residual space-heating load togeth- and perhaps another appraisal many of them, such as the use of er with passive solar gain and other specifically for scientists and engi- Caterpillars, would place too heavy incidental gains. This challenge neers. a demand on both farmers and clearly brings in the geometry of technicians. Colin D. A. Porteous plan and section and relative posi- Mackintosh Environmental Architecture The author rightly indicates tions of materials, in relation to free Research Unit (MEARU), Mackintosh School of that it is impossible to solve such thermal gains, in such a way that Architecture, 167 Renfrew Street, Glasgow G3 problems only within the agricultur- captured solar energy is not dis- 6RQ, UK. al sector and only by the efforts of [email protected] placed in terms of its usefulness by farmers and other land users. He the other thermal inputs. In order stresses the need for external assis- to try to get some sense of how the Agricultural Terracing: tance and incentives, and he pre- workshop dealt with these funda- sents some case studies on pro- mental issues, it is necessary to go Development Perspec- grams for enhancing terracing and from one paper to another to find tives. public awareness. In the reviewer’s out small parts of the puzzle; the opinion, however, the author hope is always to get a more com- By Ek Raj Ojha. Ratna Pustak Bhan- should have been more critical in plete picture. This is where a dar, Kathmandu, 1997. xviii + 77 presenting the advantages and dis- stronger editorial hand could and pp + 32 photos. (No price provid- advantages of terracing. Compared should have come much more ed.) with the benefits of terracing, which strongly into play. are explained at length, their costs, There are also irritating lapses The book presents convincing argu- problems, and constraints are men- of accuracy, for example, with ments for the promotion of terrac- tioned only briefly. Statements such names and dates, as well as lack of ing, that is, the need to develop sus- as one about an increase in farm consistency with units. Conversion tainable land management not only productivity of 20–30% due to ter- to SI units throughout would have in high-potential areas. The prob- racing should not be generalized, as been welcome. The contact details lems of terracing are introduced in they may invite unwarranted enthu- for individual authors would also relation to both biophysical and siasm on the part of the reader. have been very useful. Then any socioeconomic factors. The author This form of argumentation may queries could be readily resolved provides a brief but interesting harbor unfortunate surprises for and more detailed information, par- assessment of how historical terrace land users and terracing programs. ticularly with respect to systems and systems were introduced, where To avoid detrimental side effects, performance, obtained. Although some of them are still maintained both the use and the positive and some authors do provide informa- today, and why others have disap- negative impacts of incentives tive drawings and summaries of peared. This perspective offers should be assessed more critically data, others do not, and access to some important lessons. prior to implementation. One further information over and above The central part of the book should not forget that positive case the bibliographies becomes vital. contains a good overview of differ- studies and results cannot be Further, where examples from other ent types of terraces and their tech- extrapolated to other areas and 98
populations without verification (sometimes sports playground, sizes the role that a local communi- and that negative experience pro- sometimes cultural receptacle, ty can have in setting appropriate vides many lessons. sometimes pilgrimage center) are limits for tourism and in develop- Unfortunately, a lot of recent well illustrated by the 16 chapters of ing appropriate mechanisms for experience with indigenous knowl- this book, which include a diverse tourism development. Later chap- edge about soil and water conserva- set of case studies at different scales ters look at economic and policy- tion and participatory technology and from different regions. Not all making issues, especially in the development has not been consid- are well known; while there are sev- implementation of so-called soft ered in this book. But overall, it is eral from the Himalayas and Alps, tourism policies, and there is a fas- encouraging that a scientist the book also includes far less well cinating case study by Barkin on attempts to make his research documented areas such as the Gur- ecotourism in the Monarch butter- results accessible and understand- vansaikhan National Park in Mon- fly reserve in the highlands of west- able to a larger and perhaps not golia and the eastern highlands central Mexico–a highly topical exclusively scientific audience. bioregion of Zimbabwe. The work issue in view of recently publicized starts with a scene-setting chapter threats to the area and a possible Karl Herweg Centre for Development and Environment, Uni- and closes with a paper postulating extension of the Reserve. Several versity of Berne, Hallerstrasse 12, 3012 Berne, strategies for future mountain papers deal with Nepal, lamenting Switzerland. tourism. In between, contributions the failure of the Nepalese govern- [email protected] are varied in content and complexi- ment to develop a manageable ty, but unity has been provided by tourism strategy for its mountain the evidently tight editorial guide- areas. Wendy Brewer Lama looks at Tourism and Development lines given to each contributor. This Nepalese issues from the point of in Mountain Regions. gives the book a pleasing consisten- view of the role of women in com- cy, with chapters structured in the munity projects, and Gurung and Edited by P. M. Godde, M. F. Price, same way, and it has clearly been DeCoursey examine the case of and F. M. Zimmerman. CABI Pub- subjected to a high level of editorial Upper Mustang, one of the fragile lishing, Wallingford and New York, control. peripheral Nepalese Buddhist king- 2000. xiii + 357 pp. £45.00. ISBN Several chapters emphasize the doms opened to tourism in 1992 0-85199-391-5. perils of unplanned tourism devel- with grossly inadequate forward opment in mountains and many planning. The consequences of this The impact of increased levels of detail the disastrous environmental decision, despite much investment tourism activity in upland areas is a and cultural consequences that can in control strategies, have been highly topical issue, particularly result from such activities and from very severe for the inhabitants of with greater awareness that many which it is almost impossible for the this remote and beautiful desert so-called soft tourism activities such area to recover. Nor has the intro- country. as ecotourism and wildlife tourism duction of restrictive policies on The book has considerable may be far from impact-free. tourism access necessarily been integrity, with some more solid Indeed, the expansion of such activ- effective in anything but the broad- chapters balanced by more free- ities is having a seriously deleterious est environmental terms since, even ranging contributions, notably a effect on many fragile mountain in areas such as Bhutan (widely lively, if slightly peripheral, account ecosystems. This problem was high- regarded as the leader in the of the role of storytelling in main- lighted in Chapter 13 of Agenda 21, planned mountain tourism stakes), taining the integrity of indigenous derived from the UNCED (United tourism development has had con- aboriginal Canadian communities Nations Conference on Environ- siderable cultural, if not environ- in British Columbia, Canada. Each ment and Development) held in mental, impact. chapter finishes with a good bibli- Rio in 1992. Chapter 13 stresses the Early chapters look at the ography, though it would have been vital importance of mountain impact of tourism on biophysical nice if these could have been collat- ecosystems to the global communi- environments and the human ed into a single large bibliography ty. The agenda put forward at Rio inhabitants of mountain areas. at the end of the book, purely for has since been developed in many Some fascinating cases are quoted, convenience. The work has been areas and by many organizations, notably the work of Buckley, Picker- produced to a high standard and varying in scale from international ing, and Warnken on alpine illustrations have been reproduced organizations through national gov- tourism resorts in Australia. Anoth- well, although there are occasional ernments to local NGOs. er excellent chapter has been con- errors of referencing and a few The many, complex roles tributed by Valaoras on the Prespa typos. At £45, it would certainly be played by mountains in tourism region of Greece, which empha- out of the range of student purchas-
Mountain Research and Development Vol 21 No 1 Feb 2001 MountainMedia
99 es, except by a few postgraduates, ing, for example, focuses on the but certainly constitutes a must-have Creating Colorado: The spatial systems of roads, rails, and for all academic libraries in institu- Making of a Western capital flows. The reader is subject- tions that deal with tourism, plan- ed to a myriad of geographies, ning, development studies, regional American Landscape, including investment geography, studies, or the management of envi- 1860–1940. railroad geography, population ronmental change. geography, settlement geography, It is interesting that, at the time By William Wyckoff. Yale University mountain geography, and even the this review was written (November Press, New Haven and London, geography of “conquerable curiosi- 2000), many scientists are predict- 1999. xiv + 336 pp. US$30.00. ties.” Overall, though, a great deal ing decreased levels of sports ISBN 0-300-07118-3. is said with little wasted ink in the tourism in many mountain areas author’s evocative and clean style. (especially in Europe) over future William Wyckoff has produced a Leadville, for example, “suffered decades as a result of global warm- detailed and finely crafted tribute mightily amid the carnage of silver’s ing. However, this decreased utiliza- to his long love affair with Col- lost glitter,” and “once a locale tion level is likely to be matched by orado’s people and landscape. Cre- yielded its best color, population increasing utilization of other areas, ating Colorado is an unabashedly drained faster than spring runoff consequent upon the proliferation geographical treatment of times from an alpine snowfield.” Over 100 of potential special-interest moun- past, organized by places, regions, illustrations add to the interpretive tain tourism activities, the greater and themes rather than by histori- skill and appeal of the volume, experience of the traveling public cal eras. In the tradition of sweep- mostly in the form of well-chosen (both domestic and international), ing syntheses produced by Donald archival photographs, drawings, and easier access to information, and a W. Meinig (1972, 1998), this is a maps, interspersed with other maps reduction in the real costs of air human geography of Colorado and drafted for this volume and a few fares. This will increase, rather than how it changed as a result of nature contemporary photographs by the decrease, the importance of system- and the impress of national cultur- author. The role of historic photos atically planning tourism activities al, economic, and political systems. as “visual parables” is rivaled by the in mountain areas and setting in A brief introduction to “pre-1860 bird’s-eye views of several towns. place appropriate procedures to geographies,” such as the physical Thirty-four pages of footnotes monitor the effectiveness of regula- environment and Native Americans, round out the scholarly tone of the tory mechanisms, without which it is precedes five regional chapters cov- lengthy tome. very easy to let degradation contin- ering the years from 1860 to 1920 Five themes guide the reader’s ue past the point of no return. Visi- that are central to establishing the understanding of settlement pat- tor education programs are also a bedrock of Colorado’s human geog- terns, ethnic geographies, and cul- vital tool, and virtually each case raphy. Reflecting the state’s mostly tural landscapes: the doctrine of study included here emphasizes inside-out settlement pattern, the first effective settlement and the that local communities hold the key organization of the five regional self-attraction of growth, the meet- to success in sustainable tourism chapters sequentially proceeds ing of many cultures, the ideologi- projects. Mountain environments through the mountains, Piedmont, cal dominance of capitalism and lib- must be viewed as a total ecosystem, eastern plains, southern periphery, eral individualism, the indelible where culture and environment are and western slope, with the most stamp of political institutions, and inextricably related and need to be material appropriately devoted to the immediacy of nature and envi- integrated in successful develop- the mountains and Piedmont. The ronmental resource issues in every- ment planning. This interesting concluding chapter explores the day life. The author has previously book, which not only reviews case years between 1920 and 1940 by employed a five-theme scheme to studies in past mountain tourism placing the state within larger good effect in writing about the but suggests a strategic approach to national and regional contexts. Mountainous West (Wyckoff and developing sustainable mountain Building upon the ideas of cul- Dilsaver 1995). Resource extraction, tourism in the future, undoubtedly tural geographers, environmental sustainable and nonsustainable makes a major contribution to the historians, and physical geogra- developments, federal government literature of the subject. phers, Wyckoff uses the concepts of largesse, and the marrying of urban location, place, and landscape to areas to mountain environments are Myra Shackley Centre for Tourism and Visitor Management, Not- aptly demonstrate the breadth, just a few of the topics employed to tingham Business School, Nottingham Trent Uni- depth, and vibrancy of his historical illuminate the growth and change versity, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK. geography. The tone is stridently over time in the five Colorado [email protected] geographical; the summary of min- regions. 100
Wyckoff achieves an accurate landforms less well than would a nificant Colorado town or land- feel for each region. Nature and the 1:24,000-scale map. The signifi- form. Cripple Creek, for example, land are never far from the fore- cance of including trapper Ezekiel receives light treatment. But the front of this tale, most obviously in Williams on Figure 15, a map of ear- book excels at providing a broad the dramatic humans–environment ly Colorado expeditions, is unclear, synthesis of Colorado geographic interactions in the mountain zone as is the reason for the omission of interpretations backed up with involving metals mining, forestry, Juan Bautista de Anza’s 1779 innumerable details. Creating Col- and tourism but also in the other Comanche campaign. Although the orado has vaulted to the forefront of regions that delve into coal mining, footnoting is extensive, no leads are scholarship on Colorado’s land and irrigated agriculture, water manage- provided to explain the exodus of people. ment, mountain parks, grazing, and the Anasazi (p. 25), the name Illuminating how the modern the Dust Bowl. The thorough treat- change of the Grand River to Col- scene is tied to the past is a hall- ment of the five regions is also orado River (p. 226) and Snowy mark of good historical geography, achieved through Wyckoff’s fre- Range (on Figure 18) to Front and Wyckoff keeps the focus on quent and helpful tendency to sum- Range, or why the proposal to estab- what has led to what we see today. marize phenomena into a few cate- lish Mount Evans National Park His penchant for capturing the gories. For example, the Piedmont failed (p. 85). Additionally, it is essence of pertinent details pro- Heartland region is broken into implied on p. 21 that the Green Riv- vokes a hunger for what he would four distinctive subregions (Den- er and Yampa River join in Utah say about the recent Colorado ver–Golden–Boulder, Fort rather than Colorado, and the Sand scene. Colorado is one of the places Collins–Greeley, Colorado Springs, Creek Massacre is referred to as I know best, but like Wyckoff, I have and Pueblo), and within Denver, “east of Denver” (p. 109) when had the outsider perspective. This four fundamental changes in urban southeast is a better choice. apparent paradox—intimate famil- geography are identified. Denver’s While examining the origins of iarity without longtime residence— rise to power is fascinating reading, a Colorado landscape that is still in is testament to the value of repeat- as the author is on familiar ground, the making, Wyckoff strives to ed journeys to a place and the joy of revisiting an urban landscape he remind the reader of how the state new discoveries of mountain has elsewhere explored (Wyckoff is representative of the West, but delights. 1992). the connections between Colorado This is a tightly edited book, and national forces are highlighted REFERENCES free from typographical errors and much more than those between Meinig DW. 1972. American Wests: preface to a gross misstatements, and shortcom- Colorado and the region. Mountain geographical introduction. Annals of the Associa- ings in any form are rare. The scholars would likely prefer more tion of American Geographers 62:159–184. Meinig DW. 1998. The Shaping of America: A major fault is in the tiny reproduc- discussion on the human geogra- Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of tion of the maps drafted for the phies of significant mountain land- History. Volume 3, Transcontinental America, book. A great deal of work clearly marks, such as Mount of the Holy 1850–1915. New Haven: Yale University Press. Wyckoff W. 1992. Denver’s aging commercial went into making these maps to Cross, Grays Peak, or Longs Peak, strip. Geographical Review 82:282–294. illustrate the author’s points, but but in this synthesis of changing Wyckoff W, Dilsaver LM, editors. 1995. The many garner less than a half page of Colorado landscapes, case studies Mountainous West: Explorations in Historical Geography. Lincoln: University of Nebraska space. Grab your magnifying glass; are not used. The focus is on how Press. this reduction results in 18 maps places contribute to the bigger pic- displaying a font size between 4 and ture rather than on how broad Kevin S. Blake Department of Geography, Kansas State Univer- 7 points. Other quibbles include forces play out in small ways. This sity, Manhattan, KS, USA. Figure 9, a 1:62,500-scale topo- book is not a comprehensive [email protected] graphic map that illustrates glacial resource for the history of each sig-
Mountain Research and Development Vol 21 No 1 Feb 2001