The Foundation for Deep Ecology has released a new book, Thrillcraft: The Environmental Consequences of Motorized Recreation. Edited by George Wuerthner, this shocking book is packed with more than 100 powerful, color photographs and two dozen insightful essays. Wildlands CPR Executive Director Bethanie Walder and Board member David Havlick both contributed essays to the book. The book covers off-road vehicle culture, environmental impacts caused by off-road vehicles, policy decisions that have led to such rampant abuse, suggestions for reform, and inspiring success stories.

George Wuerthner also worked tirelessly behind the lens to provide most of the photographs, illustrating the intense environmental destruction caused by off-road vehicles of all types. These high quality images cover regions and landscapes from across the United States. From jet skis on crowded beaches in the southeast, to ATVs tearing up arid lands in the Colorado Plateau, to two-wheeled tracks criss-crossing fragile tundra ecosystems in Alaska, the photographs in this volume clearly expose the damage off-road-vehicles wreak on our natural areas.

Wildlands CPR has partnered with the Foundation for Deep Ecology to distribute the book through our large network of grassroots activists. They will, in turn, hand-deliver the book to local policy makers, law enforcement officials, and concerned citizens.

Other essays in the book include: Tom Butler’s “Mind and Machine: A Brief History of Human Domestication,” Rick Bass’s “Fourteen Gardens: Reflections of an Activist,” D.J. Schubert’s “Snowmobiles and Public Lands: Unacceptable Impacts on a Winter Landscape,” Barrie Gilbert’s “No Wild, No Wildlife: The Threat from Motorized Recreation” and others by wildlife scientists and activists. In his foreword, founder and president of the Foundation for Deep Ecology, Douglas Tompkins writes:

“Every American who values clean air and water, healthy wildlife populations, and the opportunity to find some peace and quiet while enjoying public lands has a stake in this fight…This book seeks to alert all Americans to this crisis of motorized wreckreation…Take it as a challenge to read this book, to look carefully at the damage being done to your land. Become enraged, and engaged. Ultimately, only citizen action can counter the elitist minority that wants to use the commons as outdoor NASCAR-style abusement parks. As owners and trustees of America’s public lands, will we fight for the freedom of wild places to stay wild, or allow the damage to continue? Will we be true patriots, or cowards, who turn away from the looting of our natural heritage?”