Two years ago, I embarked on a journey of visiting and researching national monuments. National monuments are like the scrappy younger siblings of national parks. With a well-established management philosophy and emphasis on tourism, national parks are sleek, alluring, and beloved. Many parks have glamorous marketing campaigns and host huge numbers of people. Popular parks like Yosemite in California and Zion in Utah see an average of 4 million visitors each year. By contrast, Grand Staircase-Escalante, one of the most popular national monuments and a neighbor to Zion, sees only around 900,000 visitors per year. Many people just don’t know about monuments, and if they do, they often confuse them with parks. 

Now I am overjoyed to announce I have signed a book contract with University of Minnesota Press! Forthcoming Spring 2022, my book examines some of the most controversial national monuments and their political and environmental challenges from a personal lens. While visiting and learning about these places, I have formed a richer relationship to the world around me and developed a more nuanced understanding of land management issues. I hope you will be as interested in this story as I am.

If you need me, I will be furiously writing.