Encounters with the Archdruid: Narratives about a Conservationist and Three of His Natural Enemies

As the other reviewers here have noted, this is John McPhee's superb recounting of three episodes in the life of famous environmental activist David Brower. The three people he encounters are a geologist, a land developer, and a dam builder. The structure of the book allows a revealing contrast between one of America's greatest environmental activists on three key issues. These are: 1) the desirability and advisability of exploring and mining for ore and minerals in protected wilderness areas, 2) whether it is preferable to develop land on the Atlantic Coast or allow it to be developed, and 3) the desirability of damming major rivers in the Southwest.My favorite portion of the book featured Brower's encounter with the fascinating Charles Fraser, one of America's greatest and most gifted land developers. At debate was whether to develop Cumberland Island as a recreational and residential area, or whether to leave it wild and protect it as a National Seashore. The editorial reviewer inaccurately stated that Fraser was successful in his goal to develop it. He was not. Today Cumberland Island is a designated National Seashore. Fraser had hoped to develop Cumberland much as he had Hilton Head. What is compelling about Fraser is his desire to develop land on the one hand, with an intent to respect the physical surroundings to the greatest possible degree. Brower himself says in the book that while he is opposed to developing Cumberland Island, if anyone were to develop it, he would want Fraser to be that person.The section of the book in which Brower and dam builder Floyd Dominy discuss a wide range of issues is fascinating not just in contrasting two fundamentally opposed viewpoints, but in bringing out both Brower's most conspicuous success and failure. The success was his leading the Sierra Club in opposing building a dam in the Grand Canyon. The tragedy was that in focusing on opposing the Grand Canyon, Brower and the Sierra Club were unable to fight the building of the Glen Canyon River Dam, for environmentalists and conservationists perhaps the single greatest tragedy since the building of the Hetch Hetchy Dam early in the 20th century. In building this dam, the ironically named Lake Powell was created. Many environmentalists refer to his as Lake Foul. The irony stems from the fact that it was named in "honor" of John Wesley Powell, who led the first expedition of Europeans to explore the entirety of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon. Powell was deeply opposed to the development of the American West beyond the ability of the water supply to support the local population. He would, therefore, have been horrified to find such an anti-monument as this lake bearing his name. Edward Abbey's books are filled with vituperative attacks on the devastation wrought by the building of the Glen Canyon River Dam. There are several organizations that continue calling for the draining of Lake Powell.Why is there so much outrage at this d

In chemistry, a catalyst is used to mix two substances unlikely to join in nature. John McPhee here acts as a catalyst in stimulating reactions between the Archdruid, David Brower, and three of his antagonists. As a catalyst, McPhee deals with each pairing in the most detached way possible. Even so long after its original publication, the attitudes expressed by the mineral engineer, the dam builder and resort developer through McPhee's superb journalism remain with us. He succeeds admirably at that in relating these confrontations, while his writing skills keep you aware of him at all times. Brower, a towering figure in several senses, is portrayed in an almost subdued manner. The strength of his message, however, so appropriate today, is conveyed by McPhee as a muffled riptide. Join McPhee as he struggles over copper-bearing mountains with Brower and geologist Charles Park. Park "would move the White House if there was copper under it." To Park, mineral extraction is mandated by the need of Americans to maintain the lifestyle they've achieved in the 20th Century. Brower argues that lifestyle growth must slow its pace to retain the remaining natural resources. Park counters Brower's desire to protect the wilderness with assertions that "managed mining" will achieve both aims. Park argues that mining need not destroy wilderness and that Glacier Peak's hiking trails will not be lost because copper is removed from its innards. Does this sound familiar?The Archdruid's second encounter is with the rather more flamboyant Charles Fraser. Fraser has a winning track record in development, particularly golf courses. He wants to "open" an island off the Carolina coast. The island, "a third larger than Manhattan, has a population of eleven people." Fraser sees that condition as disproportionate. When Brower disagrees, Fraser dubs him the Archdruid - contending that 'conservationists' are 'preservationists.' "Modern druids worship trees and sacrifice human beings to those trees," Fraser contends. The humans being sacrificed are golfers and others who can afford to visit the offshore island Fraser wants to "develop." Fraser, like Park, understands the need of Americans to return to a remembered uncongested frontier condition, if only temporarily.The western frontier becomes the site of McPhee's concluding essay. In the West, more than anywhere else in North America, water is life's blood. Whether water is better used in a free flowing or captive condition is the subject of Brower's dispute with Floyd E. Dominy, dam builder. McPhee follows the pair over reservoirs, deep into dams, along river courses, in his account of the "water wars." McPhee describes Dominy as "a child of the hundredth meridian," that boundary between wet and dry Mid-America. Dominy spent years capturing water for ranchers and farmers, later adding cities, casinos and boaters to his clientele. Along the Colorado River, deep in the Grand Canyon, McPhee records Browe

This was the book that introduced me to John McPhee (I grew up around the corner from Dave Brower)and it made me a lifelong fan of McPhees remarkable insights and abilities as a reporter. Here he takes Brower -probably the leading voice for landscape conservation in the second half of the 20th century- and puts him Up Close and Personal with three very remarkable antagonists: the greatest Dam builder in North America, the developer of Hilton Head, and with a mining engineer who has "an affinity for beds" -but has managed to spend nearly 8 years in total sleeping rough in search of minerals world-wide. What is most intriguing about this book is that one comes away with an appreciation of the complexities surrounding environmental issues. This is no polemic or one-sided rant, rather McPhee shows us the strengths and weaknesses of each of his characters, and by weaving the personal in with the political we are left to make up our own minds just who are the heroes and who the villains. Recently I used this book in an Environmental Lit. class & to my surprise about half of the students had never heard of Brower (hence the title of my review. In spite of this they were all captured by the artful transparency of McPhee's prose -they were on that raft with Dominy & Brower, they went up that mountain, they walked that beach, and most important, they had that conversation. Thirty years after its publication this book still has the zip to draw its reader in. Regardless of your position on Things Environmental, I encourage you to give this a good read.