Reviews
"Both troubling and encouraging, a well-told tale of environmental activism and citizen action." --Kirkus Reviews about Recovering a Lost River, A teaching tool and a call to action, this well-researched and well-illustrated book should be required reading for any outdoorsman or woman who cares about rivers and watersheds: "Dam removal is not purely an engineering game, nor strictly an exercise in ecological improvement. It's a grassroots organizing project ... a revival of the practice of community-level democracy." -- Gray's Sporting Journal, In compelling detail and persuasive argument, Steven Hawley makes a case for the immeasurable environmental, economic, and social damage wrought by the damming of American waterways. Sold to an unwary public as a panacea, industrial dams have, according to Hawley's eloquent reporting, proved themselves in many cases to be exactly the opposite -- stunningly destructive, wasteful, and, in the end, beneficial to only a very few wealthy people and corporations. Hawley's message is driven home with page after page of vibrant and chilling photography that makes this book as beautiful as it is impelling. -- Big Sky Journal, "Hawley's thorough research makes a damning case for rethinking how to source water, and anecdotes about ecosystems that have flourished after dam removals strike an optimistic note about the road ahead. Environmentalists will be riveted." -- Publisher's Weekly, "Lavishly displayed color photographs help illustrate Hawley's narrative, which might motivate a nationwide rethinking of these extravagantly expensive, outdated systems." -- Alan Moores, Booklist Starred Review