The present rate of devastation of our natural world and of healthy lives is unprecedented, and accelerating. The work of conserving land, species, and ways of life is more urgent and vital than ever before. What does it mean to truly conserve land and community life in this era? And why is this so vitally important if we are to heal the divisions in our culture and ourselves, change our patterns of consumption, and reverse the fate of our earth?In three powerful essays, three influential writers and thinkers--Scott Russell Sanders, Peter Forbes and Kathleen Dean Moore--explore these questions, giving us new insights about the promise of land conservation in our present world. Through its deep examination of the value of land to our culture and our souls, this book becomes a meditation on reconciliation and restoration, love and loss, wholeness and innovation, fairness and community. It gives us new approaches and new hope to work to heal the great divisions and losses we see around us each day.The book also includes a Land and People Index which gives often startling statistics on the state of our world, such as the fact that America now has more malls than high schools. The index, a set of guidelines for setting ones highest values, and other tools give this reader an added dimension: as a practical and thought-provoking workbook for conservationists and social activists it offers ways to move forward with more power to effect change.