“I highly recommend this book for everyone who hunts, fishes, bird watches, hikes, rides an ORV, or is simply content to know that these lands are there for future generations of Americans to enjoy. I sincerely hope it will inspire many of you to get actively involved. They are after all your lands!” —Erick G. Campbell, Wildlife Biologist—retired, Bureau of Land Management

“There’s no other book like Western Turf Wars. What Hudak has done is to document, not just that public lands ranching is bad (we probably knew that already), but why it happens this way, what the forces of resistance are, and what happens when people with a conscience take action against the political corruption rampant throughout the West.” —Keith Akers, quoted from his review in the Southern Sierran (newsletter of the Angeles Chapter Sierra Club)

“The horrendous damage done to millions of acres of fragile public lands in the arid West by overgrazing livestock has been documented in a number of books, media articles, and scientific journals in recent years. Less often told is the real story about the ultimate cause of this devastation of our public heritage: the blatant and unconscionable wielding of political influence on the part of too many agency officials, politicians, and stockmen (and wom­en) to keep those numbers (and damage) at unsustainable levels. This cap­ti­vat­ing and absorbing book puts it all together—and in such a special, com­pel­ling manner, that it has become one of the best environmental books I have ever read. It is the tale of some of the brave men and women who worked, against great odds, to protect the vast publicly-owned rangelands of the West that they loved. And because it’s told in their own words, through a series of interviews, it adds a unique human immediacy, and dimension—and power, to an unhappily too-familiar scenario.
     “It’s a real page-turner; I literally could not put it down once I started reading. I kept on going, page after page, because I had to find out what was going to happen next—both to those courageous ones who dared to speak up against the abuses, and to the beautiful lands and native wildlife they strove to defend. I recommend it to anyone who cares about our public lands and who wants to understand better the forces and interests strug­gling over their ultimate fate.” —Brock Evans, president, Endangered Species Coalition; 1981 recipient, Sierra Club’s John Muir Award; vice president for national issues, National Audubon Society (1981–96); director, Sierra Club’s Washington, DC, office (1973–81), Northwest representative, Sierra Club (1967–73)

“Mike Hudak has performed a very valuable service documenting the com­ments of all these people, especially the older ones who have been in the trenches for all these years. I also believe the stories are more meaningful than data and that Hudak’s intuition to go that route is right on target. This is going to be a very important book in conservation history.” —George Wuerthner, ecological projects director, Foundation for Deep Ecology; photographer; author/editor of 33 books, including Welfare Ranching and Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy

“The tales of terror that Hudak has assembled run through the mind like a wilderness snuff film. The story is a familiar one. Resource extractors bully the land managers and buddy up with the legislators to acquire privileged access to public lands. They keep below cost fees so low they are in effect welfare for ranchers, and they feign bogus compliance with paltry en­vi­ron­men­tal regulations.” —Andy Caffrey, quoted from his review in Oregon Conifer (newsletter of the Oregon Chapter Sierra Club), spring 2008

“Interviews with 27 experts—all with extensive experience with or know­ledge of public lands ranching—provide us intimate, accurate perspectives on just what ranching does to our public lands as well as how it affects us economically, socially, and politically. Special attention is focused on the political forces that keep stockmen arguably the most influential special interest in the rural West. If the western wild means as much to you as the Wild West, if you’re concerned about environmental destruction, about waste and injustice, then read Mike Hudak’s Western Turf Wars.” —Lynn Jacobs, author Waste of the West

“Hudak’s contribution to the litany of arguments against public lands grazing is nearly 350 pages of transcribed interviews with fifteen public land man­ag­ers—everyone from former BLM state directors to Forest Service biologists—as well as twelve conservation activists. Their sober, detailed and nuanced recollections are every bit as damning as the arsenal of facts, figures, sci­en­ti­fic analysis and economic calculus with which other well-known anti-grazing books bombard the reader.” —James Johnston, quoted from his review in Forest Magazine, spring 2008

“If you care about our public lands, Western Turf Wars is a must read.”  —Howard Lyman, LLD, president and founder, Voice for a Viable Future; author Mad Cowboy: The Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won’t Eat Meat and NO MORE BULL! The Mad Cowboy Targets America’s Worst Enemy: Our Diet

“It’s a great book to browse. Opening it is like going to a public land man­age­ment fiesta, of the reformist variety to be sure, and finding everyone you had hoped to talk to all under one roof. The more I look through this book, the more I am grateful that someone took the time to collect this wealth of experience and make it available to all of us. Without Hudak’s efforts, the experience of all the individuals interviewed would surely have been lost.” —Jamie Newlin, quoted from his review in Counterpunch, Weekend Edition, August 23 / 4, 2008

“[Hudak] wisely allows the 27 individuals—long-term government em­ploy­ees, research scientists, academics, environmental activists—to speak in their own voices. Their narratives are fascinating and illuminating, providing diverse but convergent threads of what is ultimately a coherent story: the relationship between the deleterious ecological consequences of livestock on western landscapes, and the political power structures that have long en­a­bled this dubious land management practice. The book is well-organized, and makes for compelling reading.” —Thomas L. Fleischner, PhD, professor of environmental studies at Prescott College; author Singing Stone: A Natural History of the Escalante Canyons and Desert Wetlands