Bringing Sustainability to the Ground Level: Competing Demands in the Yellowstone River Valley

“Sustainability only makes real sense, for students, researchers, decision-makers and communities, if it is grounded in place. By exploring the complex, iconic, and critically important Yellowstone River through the lens of thick sustainability, Bringing Sustainability to the Ground Level brings the precepts of sustainability alive. Gilbertz and Hall listen to both the land and its people and do what other more abstract treatments of sustainability cannot; they show how sustainability matters for local communities and environments.”–Paul Robbins, PhD, Dean, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Gilbertz and Hall bring a powerfully interdisciplinary perspective to the persistently thorny issue of sustainability. This action-oriented primer offers practical wisdom for anyone seeking to both understand and facilitate sustainability. It challenges taken-for-granted assumptions by providing a fresh and accessible overview of crucial sustainability research. The approachable writing style ensures a book that will immediately reward its readers, while also beckoning them to probe particular segments more deeply for insights into challenges they face.” –Tarla Rai Peterson, PhD, Author of Sharing the Earth: The Rhetoric of Sustainable Development

Sustainability offers a vision for business and society that benefits Earth. Yet sustainability is often taught in abstract and disconnected ways.

With the Yellowstone River Valley of Montana as its setting, this book introduces readers to sustainability issues, theory, and science. It addresses business profitability, physical environment processes, wildlife, public policies, and American Indian rights. It stresses practical understandings of sustainability via detailed attention to the people of the valley.

The case sets the stage for data gathering, analyses, and decision making. Readers will recognize similar concerns in other watersheds and understand sustainability anew.

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