Book description
In the summer of 1969, a federal district court in Denver, Colorado,
heard arguments in one of the nation's first explicitly environmental
cases, in which the Defenders of Florissant, Inc. opposed real estate
interests intent on developing lands containing an extraordinary set
of ancient fossils. This book, the first account of the fight to
preserve the Florissant fossil beds, tells a story of environmental
activism that remains little known more than forty years after the
coalition's victory. The principal author, Estella Leopold, was a
major participant in the process.
Paleobotanist Estella B. Leopold is professor
emerita of biology at the University of Washington.
National Park Service paleontologist Herbert W.
Meyer is the author of Fossils of Florissant.
