River of Renewal: Myth and History in the Klamath Basin

River of Renewal: Myth and History in the Klamath Basin
ISBN-10
0295986220
ISBN-13
9780295986227
Category
History / United States / General
Pages
292
Language
English
Published
2006
Publisher
Oregon Historical Society Press
Author
Stephen Most

Description

"Most tells these stories in the voices of the protagonists, who give the basin's complex history an illuminating immediacy that infuses the entire book. It is a mark of his achievement that he has been able to make these historical, cultural, and environmental pieces into a comprehensive whole.River of Renewalis the best source available for those wishing to think clearly about this cumulative tragedy, as well as a first-rate model for regional land use anywhere in the American West." -Orion Magazine

A land of mountains, forests, wetlands, lakes, and rivers, the Klamath Basin spans the Oregon-California state line. Farms and ranches, logging towns, and back-to-the-land communities are scattered over this 10-million-acre bioregion. There are Indian reservations at the headwaters, at the estuary, and across the major tributary of the Klamath River. In this place that has witnessed, ever since the Gold Rush, a succession of wars and resource conflicts, myths of the West loom large, amplifying differences among its inhabitants.

At the core of the contemporary controversy is overallocation of the waters of the Klamath Basin. This dispute has pitted farmers and ranchers against those whose cultures and livelihoods depend upon fishing and others who would forestall the extinction of wild salmon. Yet it has also revealed the unity of the Klamath Basin, the interdependence of economic recovery with ecological restoration, and the urgency for all the communities within the Basin to find common ground.

Stephen Mostis a playwright and documentary storyteller. He has contributed to numerous documentary films, including Emmy Award winnersWonders of Nature and Promisesand the Academy Award-nominatedBerkeley in the Sixties. His playsMedicine Show, Watershed, andA Free Countrydramatize events in Pacific Northwest history.

To listen to an interview with Stephen Most entitled "Fished Out: Draining the Seas of Their Bounty," please visit: http://www.aworldofpossibilities.com/

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