Gardeners of Eden ─ Rediscovering Our Importance to Nature

Dan Dagget believes that humanity can have a positive effect on the land. He demonstrates case after case of positive human engagement in the environment and of managed ecosystems and restored areas that are richer, more diverse, and healthier than unmanaged ones. Much of pre-Columbian America, he contends, was not a pristine wilderness but an ancient garden managed over millennia by native peoples who shaped the plant and animal communities around them to the mutual benefit of all.

Dagget recommends a new kind of environmentalism based on management, science, evolution, and holism, and served by humans who enrich the environment even as they benefit from it. His new environmentalism offers hopeful solutions to the current ecological crisis and a new purpose for our human energies and ideals. This book is essential reading for anyone concerned with the earth and anyone seeking a viable way for our burgeoning human population to continue to live upon it.

Dan Dagget is an author, public speaker, and a consultant on restorative land management. His first book, Beyond the Rangeland Conflict: Toward a West That Works was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and has been recognized as one of the most important books written about the American West. For more than 30 years he has been involved as an activist with a number of environmental groups from Earth First! to Audubon. He lives in Sedona, AZ with his wife Trish.

Tom Bean is a prolific and well-published photographer based in Flagstaff, AZ. His photographs have been featured in hundreds of publications including National Geographic and Arizona Highways. He has a particular interest in creating images that illustrate the positive interactions of culture and the natural world.