Daniel Kemmis is director of the Center for the Rocky Mountain West at The University of Montana in Missoula, Montana. He formerly served as minority leader and speaker of the Montana House of Representatives, and as mayor of Missoula. His books include Community and the Politics of Place (University of Oklahoma Press, 1990) and The Good City and the Good Life (Houghton Mifflin, 1995).
In the eight states of the interior West (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming), 260 million acres -- more than 48 percent of the land base -- are owned by the federal government and managed by its Washington, D.C.-based agencies. Like many other peoples throughout history who have bristled under the controlling hand of a remote government, westerners have long nursed a deep resentment toward our nation's capital.
Amid the policy gridlock that characterizes most environmental debates, a new conservation movement has emerged. Known as “collaborative conservation,” it emphasizes local participation, sustainability, and inclusion of the disempowered, and focuses on voluntary compliance and consent rather than legal and regulatory enforcement.