Saving Open Space: The Politics of Local Preservation in California. By Daniel Press. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. 197p. $49.95 cloth, $18.95 paper.

This book poses two questions: “Why do some communities preserve more open space than others? More specifically, what are the conditions for creating innovative, effective land preservation institutions at the local level?” (p. 1). Daniel Press systematically answers these questions with respect to a single state, California, arguing that its experience offers lessons for all states, inasmuch as “California's experience with rapid growth and land preservation resembles that of the rest of the nation” (p. 50).