CHIP WARD was born in New Jersey but forty-three years ago moved to Utah, where he is an obsessive hiker. His past careers have included manager at a fishing lodge and bookmobile driver and deputy director of the Salt Lake Public Library. Though his careers and the places he has called home have varied throughout his life, writing and discussing the conflicts of our time have been mainstays. His two most recent book publications include Canaries on the Rim: Living Downwind in the West (1999) from Verso and Hope’s Horizon: Three Visions for Healing the American Land (2004) from Island Press–Shearwater Books. Other work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Catalyst Magazine, TomDispatch, and the Boston Globe.