Bestselling author David Gessnerâs wilderness road trip inspired by Americaâs greatest conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt, is âa rallying cry in the age of climate changeâ (Robert Redford).
âLeave it as it is,â Theodore Roosevelt announced while viewing the Grand Canyon for the first time. âThe ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it.â Rooseveltâs pronouncement signaled the beginning of an environmental fight that still wages today. To reconnect with the American wilderness and with the president who courageously protected it, acclaimed nature writer and New York Times bestselling author David Gessner embarks on a great American road trip guided by Rooseveltâs crusading environmental legacy.
Gessner travels to the Dakota badlands where Roosevelt awakened as a naturalist; to Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Grand Canyon where Roosevelt escaped during the grind of his reelection tour; and finally, to Bears Ears, Utah, a monument proposed by Native Tribes that is currently embroiled in a national conservation fight. Along the way, Gessner questions and reimagines Rooseveltâs vision for todayâs lands.
âInsightful, observant, and wry,â (BookPage) Leave It As It Is offers an arresting history of Rooseveltâs pioneering conservationism, a powerful call to arms, and a profound meditation on our environmental future.