Lakeshore Living: Designing Lake Places and Communities in the Footprints of Environmental Writers

Foreword

vii Foreword RANDALL ARENDT Once in a great while a book is written that captures the essence of its subject in a captivating and informative manner, and this is one of those rare volumes. Readers will not only learn much from the well-researched text, but will enjoy the prose, which is fluid and retains one’s interest, page after page. To discuss complex topics, and complex contributors to the field over the past seventy-five years, and render them readily understandable is a gift, not generally seen in books in the scientific or planning literature. One of the aspects that makes Lakeshore Living such a pleasure to read is the way that the fascinating stories of Aldo Leopold, Sigurd Olson, and William Whyte have been related and intertwined with the technical themes eloquently discussed in detail in subsequent chapters. If this were not enough, readers will also find practical solutions to many problems that have vexed and challenged lakeshore communities for decades, with pointers to specific techniques that have proven to be effective in other places where vision has combined with political will to overcome the unacceptable and unsustainable status quo. As the principal purpose of a foreword is to describe what follows and to whet one’s appetite, brevity is a virtue, and I do not desire to detain the reader from delving into this exceptional book, for which your hours of perusal will be well rewarded. ...