In 2000 President Clinton signed into law the Valles Caldera Preservation Act, a visionary piece of legislation that transferred to the public domain a privately owned ranch in northern New Mexico. This book tells the natural and human history of the preserve, presents photographs of its splendor, and outlines the unique administrative experiment now underway to manage its public lands.
William deBuys is the author of seven books, including River of Traps: A New Mexico Mountain Life, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction in 1991; Enchantment and Exploitation: The Life and Hard Times of a New Mexico Mountain Range; The Walk (an excerpt of which won a Pushcart Prize in 2008), and Salt Dreams: Land and Water in Low-Down California. An active conservationist, deBuys has helped protect more than 150,000 acres in New Mexico, Arizona, and North Carolina. He lives and writes on a small farm in northern New Mexico.