This new edition provides a current and comprehensive analysis of some key federal agencies that manage natural resources: the Army Corps of Engineers, the U. S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly the Soil Conservation Service), the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Bureau of Land Management. Although the book's framework remains unchanged, the chapters have been revised and updated with over 50 percent new material, and more emphasis has been placed on the centrality of the budget process for policymaking.

Staking Out the Terrain offers a wealth of historical detail as well as an analysis of current policy conflicts over natural resource management. In addition to examining current trends in water and land management, Clarke and McCool put forward an innovative proposal to reshape federal natural resource administration for the twenty-first century.