It’s time for America to move beyond zoning, argues city planner M. Nolan Gray in Arbitrary Lines: How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It. With lively explanations, Gray shows why zoning abolition is a necessary—if not sufficient—condition for building more affordable, vibrant, equitable, and sustainable cities.

Gray lays the groundwork for this ambitious cause by clearing up common misconceptions about how American cities regulate growth and examining four contemporary critiques of zoning (its role in increasing housing costs, restricting growth in our most productive cities, institutionalizing racial and economic segregation, and mandating sprawl). He sets out some of the efforts currently underway to reform zoning and charts how land-use regulation might work in the post-zoning American city.

Arbitrary Lines is an invitation to rethink the rules that will continue to shape American life—where we may live or work, who we may encounter, how we may travel. If the task seems daunting, the good news is that we have nowhere to go but up.
 
 

"Engaging hybrid - part lyrical travelogue, part investigative journalism and part jeremiad, all shot through with droll humor." --The Atlanta Journal Constitution

In 1867, John Muir set out on foot to explore the botanical wonders of the South, from Kentucky to Florida. One hundred and fifty years later, veteran Atlanta reporter Dan Chapman recreated Muir’s journey to see for himself how nature has fared since Muir’s time. He uses humor, keen observation, and a deep love of place to celebrate the South’s natural riches. But he laments the long-simmering struggles over misused resources and seeks to discover how Southerners might balance surging population growth with protecting the natural beauty Muir found so special.

Did you know that mosquitoes’ mouthparts are helping to develop pain-free surgical needles? Who'd have thought that the humble mussel could inspire so many useful things, from plywood production to a “glue” that can cement the crowns on teeth? Or that the design of polar bear fur may one day help keep humans warm in space? In everything from fashion to architecture, medicine to transportation, it may surprise you how many extraordinary inventions have been inspired by the natural world. In 30 Animals That Made Us Smarter, join wildlife biologist, TV host, and BBC podcaster Patrick Aryee as he tells stories of biomimicry, or innovations inspired by the natural world, that enrich our lives every day—and in some cases, save them.

Since 1980, American Farmland Trust (AFT) has been bringing farmers and environmentalists together to work for healthy land and a healthy food system. No Farms, No Food traces the development of this powerful coalition, responsible for landmark achievements in farmland preservation and conservation practices.
 
With leadership from AFT, that constituency drove through Congress the first “Conservation Title” in the history of the U.S. Farm Bill; oversaw the development of agriculture conservation easement programs throughout the country; and continues to develop innovative approaches to sustainable agriculture.
 
No Farms, No Food is both an inspiring history of agricultural conservation and a practical guide to creating an effective advocacy organization. This is an essential read for everyone who cares about the future of our food, farms, and environment.
 

Today, a new generation of farmers are working to heal both the land and agriculture’s legacy of racism. In Healing Grounds, Liz Carlisle tells the stories of Indigenous, Black, Latinx, and Asian American farmers who are reviving their ancestors’ methods of growing food—techniques long suppressed by the industrial food system.

This, Carlisle shows, is the true regenerative agriculture: a holistic approach that values diversity in both plants and people. It has the power to combat climate change, but only if we reckon with agriculture’s history of oppression. Through rich storytelling, Carlisle lays bare that painful history, while lifting up the voices of farmers who are working to restore our soil, our climate, and our humanity.
 

 
 

American Urbanist shares the remarkable life and wisdom of William H. Whyte, whose advocacy reshaped many of the places we know and love today—from New York’s bustling Bryant Park to preserved forests and farmlands around the country. Over his five decades of research and writing, his wide-ranging work changed how people thought about careers and companies, cities and suburbs, urban planning, open space preservation, and more. In a time when most Americans were eager to fit in, he advocated for oddball ideas and unconformity. His ideas influenced everything from corporate hiring practices to designs of city plazas. “We need the kind of curiosity that blows the lid off everything,” he once said. This fascinating biography offers a rare glimpse into the mind of an iconoclast whose healthy skepticism of the status quo can help guide our efforts to create the kinds of places we want to live in today.

As environmental problems grow larger and more pressing, conservation work has increasingly emphasized broad approaches to combat global-scale crises of biodiversity loss, invasive species, and climate change. Pathways to Success is a modern guide to building large-scale transformative conservation programs capable of tackling the complex issues we now face.
 
In this strikingly illustrated volume, coauthors Nick Salafsky and Richard Margoluis walk readers through fundamental concepts of effective program-level design, helping them to think strategically about project coordination, funding, and stakeholder input. Pathways to Success is the definitive guide for conservation program managers and funders who want to increase the effectiveness of their work combating climate change, species extinctions, and the many challenges we face to keep our planet livable.