Denver, CO – The Orton Family Foundation is pleased to announce that William Travis, Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado-Boulder, has been named the first Orton Family Foundation Fellow. Travis will author the first book in the new Orton Innovation in Place Series with Island Press, the environmental publisher based in Washington, DC. The Fellowship and book series are part of the Foundation’s new Planning Vision program, which seeks to share knowledge and stimulate innovation in the land use planning field through publications, convenings, learning networks and other communications activities.
The Orton Family Foundation Fellows program supports land use innovators engaged in cutting-edge research, writing and practice and encourages new approaches to the land use planning challenges facing America’s cities, towns and countryside. The Orton Innovation in Place Series with Island Press explores the complex land use issues underlying many of the nation’s most pressing social problems while highlighting new models and visions for vibrant and sustainable communities.
William Travis directs the Western Lands Program at the University of Colorado’s Center of the American West and is a leading scholar on regional trends and land use in the American West. He is editor-in-chief of the Atlas of the New West (W.W. Norton and Company, 1997) and has authored several studies on rural and suburban land use change, resort growth and ranching, often using maps to help people better understand the patterns and implications of land use change. As an Orton Family Foundation Fellow for 2005-2006, Travis is writing a sweeping diagnosis of land use trends in the West and a prescription for better planning and policy decisions. The book, tentatively titled Patterns of Place: Changing Geographies of the American West, will be published by Island Press in the fall of 2006 as the first Orton Innovation in Place Book.
"Bill Travis combines intellectual rigor with a deep passion for the West – its people and landscapes – in offering a provocative view of development patterns in the West, replacing speculation and wishful thinking with hard data, solid analysis and a knack for good storytelling," says William Shutkin, President and CEO of the Orton Family Foundation. "The Foundation is eager to learn from Travis’s work, to apply that learning to our activities and to share it with others through our new book series."
About the Orton Family Foundation
The Orton Family Foundation seeks to transform the land use planning system as a pathway to vibrant and sustainable communities. In partnership with non-profit organizations, local and regional planning agencies and others, the Foundation helps engage and empower people to make land use decisions inspired by their community’s heart and soul. The Foundation embraces the poet Gary Snyder's belief that "People who can agree they share a commitment to the landscape — even if they are otherwise locked in struggle with each other — have at least one deep thing to share."
To learn more about the Foundation, our programs and activities, visit www.orton.org.
About Island Press
Island Press is the only nonprofit organization in the United States whose principal purpose is the publication of books on environmental issues and natural resource management. They provide solutions-oriented information to professionals, public officials, business and community leaders, and concerned citizens who are shaping responses to our environmental problems.
To learn more, visit www.islandpress.com.