Editor's Note
"Recently, twenty ranchers, environmentalists, and scientists met at a "Retreat" for 48 hours to figure out a way to take back the American West from the decades of divisiveness and acrimony that now truly jeopardize much of what we all love and value. But they also met to take the West forward, to restore ecological, social and political health to a landscape that deserves it and so desperately needs it.

"Using the materials presented here as background, they set out to write a Declaration. But they ended up writing an Invitation. They wanted to declare an end to the hostilities that have consumed the issue of livestock grazing in the West, hostilities which have failed to protect endangered species and endangered rural communities alike.

"But, they came to the conclusion that peace isn't enough. To make progress and move forward, we need to mobilize what is being called The Radical Center and, by doing so, to give purpose, voice, and energy to an effort that has been growing slowly, by fits and starts, over the last decade or so. Only by working in the Radical Center will we make genuine progress.

"In the end these ranchers, environmentalists, and scientists decided to tender an Invitation to Join the Radical Center (p. 34), an invitation that is being widely circulated so that the list of signatories may grow long, varied, and undeniable. Eventually, this invitation will grow into a campaign and, ultimately, a movement.

"We hope you will join us, help us, and best of all, spread the news."

Contents:

• "Forging a West that Works: An Overview" -Ed Marston
• "How We Got Here" -Nathan F. Sayre
• "The Changing Ecology of the New-Old West" -Richard L. Knight
• "The Economics of Ranching in 2002" -Bill McDonald
• "Reflections on Environmentalism and the Future of the West" -William deBuys
• "An Invitation to Join the Radical Center"