Blue Ridge 2020: An Owner's Manual
by Steve Nash
March 1999

232 pp., 61/8 x 91/4, 8 color illus., 22 b&w illus., 2 tables, notes, bibl., index

$19.95 (Paperback); ISBN: 0-8078-4759-3

   



2020 VISION: Book Helps Readers Clearly See the Future of the Blue Ridge

Chapel Hill, N.C.-- As Earth Day (April 22) 1999 approaches, journalist Steve Nash encourages us to look forward into the next millenium and not to forget the Blue Ridge. The natural systems of these mountains, Nash writes in his new book Blue Ridge 2020: An Owner's Manual, are of critical importance to everyone. "We can afford to sustain them; Nash writes, "we can't afford not to."

The mountain chain known as the Blue Ridge traces a 550-mile arc through Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia. Along the way, it encompasses Shenandoah National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, seven national forests, numerous federal wilderness areas and state parks, and parts of the Appalachian Trail.

The Blue Ridge is the largest concentration of public lands east of the Mississippi and home to an astonishing diversity of plant and animal life. Blue Ridge 2020: An Owner's Manual, to be published in March by the University of North Carolina Press ($19.95 paperback), explains that the most extensive natural area in the increasingly populous Southeast faces unique challenges in the next decades.

Nash writes that the Blue Ridge holds for many an illusion of changelessness, which is one reason why so many travel there yearly. He calls the Blue Ridge a "big natural backyard for the East and Midwest," pointing out that it draws at least 30 million tourists each year and is inhabited by almost three million more.

Nash's message in Blue Ridge 2020 is that, despite the facade of stillness, the Blue Ridge region is undergoing profound changes--some natural and slow moving, others brought on by human forces that are more dangerous and frequent. Nash poses the question, "How will these mountains be changed then--in, say, the year 2020 and after?"

Drawing on scientific research in a variety of disciplines, Nash provides a clear and evenhanded introduction to some of the most hotly disputed environmental issues facing the Blue Ridge, including the invasion of exotic plants and insects, the explosive growth of suburban-style communities in natural areas, worsening air and water pollution, and the erratic management of national forests.

Nash also explains that the changes predicted in the ecosystem of the Blue Ridge are not "givens." His message is that those interested in the future of the Blue Ridge can still change the patterns laid out in the book if action is taken quickly.

Little of the research that has previously documented the accelerating rate of degradation of the Blue Ridge has been accessible to the general reading public. Blue Ridge 2020 synthesizes the most current science on the ecology of the region with an optimistic blueprint for action. The succinct summary of the perils facing the country's public lands will also interest environmentalists wherever they live.

In Blue Ridge 2020 Nash invites the reader to take a hard look at what is at risk in these mountains and what the "owners" of the public lands must do if we intend to preserve their future.

Steve Nash teaches journalism at the University of Richmond. His reporting on environmental issues has appeared in many newspapers and magazines, including The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, BioScience, The Scientist, and National Parks.

For more information about the book, the author, and the Blue Ridge, go to the author's website at http://blueridge2020.com

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