SAVE DONNER SUMMIT NEW suggestion: read the definitive work on the West's water crisis: "CADILLAC DESERT - The American West and Its Disappearing Water" by Marc Reisner.

Suggested Reading/Viewing

	What should be mandatory reading for anybody who cares about mountain communities is "Downhill Slide, Why the Corporate Ski Industry is Bad for Skiing, Ski Towns, and the Environment", by Hal Clifford. This is a well written, well researched book on how publicly traded corporations gained control of America�s most popular winter sport during the 1990s, and how they are gutting ski towns, the natural environment, and skiing itself in a largely futile search for short-term profits in an industry (skiing) with flat or declining customer sales (skier days), and the disneyesque, fake, cookie-cutter villages that they think will lure the existing skiers from one resort to another while locking out the local resident and business base. It should be available at your favorite bookseller.
	A video called Resorting to Madness: Taking Back Our Mountain Communities has been produced by local Olympic Valley (Squaw Valley) CA Coldstream Creative which seems very much based on the Downhill Slide book and has commentary by Hal Clifford. Screenings are scheduled at various locations and more information or a copy of the DVD can be ordered from Coldstream Creative.
	At the beginning of the first Royal Gorge presentation in March, Todd Foster held up a book and declared it provided the philosophical justification for his development. The book made it clear, he said, that the children of the nation are being deprived of nature. This is, indeed, an important book, although it is absurd for Foster/Syme to use it for justification of destroying nature and creating fake 'nature centers'. For an excellent commentary on this see Bill McGuire's Last Child in the Woods vs Foster/Syme.
	Environmentally responsible real estate development makes dollars and sense. Green Development describes an exciting new field in which environmental considerations are viewed as opportunities to create fundamentally better buildings and communities-- more comfortable, more efficient, more appealing, and ultimately more profitable. Very much worth reading: "Green Development: Integrating Ecology and Real Estate" by Rocky Mountain Institute.
	The definitive work on the West's water crisis: "CADILLAC DESERT - The American West and Its Disappearing Water" by Marc Reisner. This book's subject matter is man's attempts to control water flow in the US west of the Appalachias. This includes dams, canals, reservoirs, river diversions, and numerous other public works projects related to water. Some mention is made of irrigation by Native Americans, but most of the text is on public works done in the 20th century by the US federal government, and occasionally some state governments. The book explores the politics (local and national) behind various dams and other projects, and shows how these human constructions affected local economies and ecologies. Names like Hoover Dam, Grand Teton Dam, Central Arizona Project, and San Joaquin Valley are covered here. The author also highlights key individuals involved in dams throughout US history; such as LBJ, Floyd Dominy, Carl Hayden, and John Powell.

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