"Public lands show us who we are. They are such a gift, and how we treat them tells us what we think is important. When we sell public lands, it tells us where our values are---whether we value timber over recreation, mineral development over wildlife corridors, and water development over riparian habitat."
- Joan Degiorgio, Public Lands instructor, University of Utah
It is happening to us all, the place we call home or the place we grew up is changing. Progress and development, have replaced neighborhoods and communities.
Stephen Trimble explores the power that drives these changes in Bargaining for Eden.
Two stories evolve, one of the billionaire who worked relentlessly to acquire public land for his ski resort and to host the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. The other, Trimble's own story of how he, a lifelong environmentalist, ironically became a landowner and developer himself. Earl Holding, the owner of Little America hotels, Sinclair Oil and Sun Valley , wanted to develop Snowbasin into a world-class ski resort. Holding owns all his businesses outright, and he is known to turn around distressed properties. He is rich and powerful, and used to getting his way. From 1997 to 2002, Trimble followed the transformation of Snowbasin, including the controversial land-exchange that gave Earl Holding what he wanted. With the Olympics as an excuse, the United States Congress passed a bill to privatize public lands in Utah ’s Wasatch-Cache National Forest . Orrin Hatch, Dale Bosworth, Jack Ward Thomas, all had a role in the exchange as well as Stan Tixier and Gary Reynolds. In the middle of tracking this story, Trimble and his wife purchased land in Torrey, Utah, near Capitol Reef National Park. But in order to build their dream house, they needed to split the land, sell an existing house--they had to become developers. Albeit on a much smaller scale than Holding, but with the same business values in practice. With this experience Trimble sees the need for old-timers and newcomers to communicate, to live ethically on the land, to think of sustainable land use--"we desperately need conversation, reciprocity---and a sense of humor."
Barbara Theroux is the manager of Fact & Fiction, now part of the Bookstore at the University of Montana.
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