To provide observations and information on the emerging fields of landscape scale conservation, heritage preservation, and sustainable community development.
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For years I have told my family and friends that I am one issue voter and my one issue is the United States National Park Service. Which political candidate is most committed to America’s best idea? Who embraces the vision that our parks and protected areas are part of the nation’s common wealth and should reflect the complex stories that make up our country? What party recognizes that government service has value and that protecting public lands is a collective enterprise? While it is a bit early to predict exactly how landscape scale conservation will fare in the next four years under President-elect Trump, review of his proposed agenda is instructive.
“Oh Give me a home where the buffalo roam” goes the old cowboy song, but the fact that 21st century citizens can still enjoy the star of this song was a very close call. While estimates of the North American bison population at the time of European contact range from 30-75 million animals, by 1900 intensive hunting and a purposeful program of eradication to deprive American Indians of their livelihood had reduced the population to near extinction. The Lamar Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone National Park was ground zero for a successful reintroduction effort. And bison are only part of this remarkable story of human intervention in this landscape.
The Hawaiian Islands were created by a chain of volcanic hot spots in the Pacific and long settled by voyageurs who travelled thousands of miles across open water. The impacts and adaptation on both the nature and culture of the islands present lessons for future of resource conservation. So it was fitting that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) held its first ever World Conservation Congress on the islands.
How will the next election impact the idea of large landscape conservation? This topic is not the stuff of campaign speeches or sadly even photo ops.
The Appalachian Trail Museum in Pennsylvania’s Pine Grove Furnace State Park serves as a great introduction to the people who made the trail a reality. For insight into the intersection of the trail with the growth of the environmental movement and the need to secure permanent protection for the trail during the rise of the property rights movement, read Sarah Mittlefehldt’s book Tangled Roots: The Appalachian Trail and American Environmental Politics (2013). In it, she offers some valuable insights on forming conservation partnerships in a challenging world.
For years I have told my family and friends that I am one issue voter and my one issue is the United States National Park Service. Which political candidate is most committed to America’s best idea? Who embraces the vision that our parks and protected areas are part of the nation’s common wealth and should reflect the complex stories that make up our country? What party recognizes that government service has value and that protecting public lands is a collective enterprise? While it is a bit early to predict exactly how landscape scale conservation will fare in the next four years under President-elect Trump, review of his proposed agenda is instructive.
“Oh Give me a home where the buffalo roam” goes the old cowboy song, but the fact that 21st century citizens can still enjoy the star of this song was a very close call. While estimates of the North American bison population at the time of European contact range from 30-75 million animals, by 1900 intensive hunting and a purposeful program of eradication to deprive American Indians of their livelihood had reduced the population to near extinction. The Lamar Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone National Park was ground zero for a successful reintroduction effort. And bison are only part of this remarkable story of human intervention in this landscape.
The Hawaiian Islands were created by a chain of volcanic hot spots in the Pacific and long settled by voyageurs who travelled thousands of miles across open water. The impacts and adaptation on both the nature and culture of the islands present lessons for future of resource conservation. So it was fitting that the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) held its first ever World Conservation Congress on the islands.
How will the next election impact the idea of large landscape conservation? This topic is not the stuff of campaign speeches or sadly even photo ops.
The Appalachian Trail Museum in Pennsylvania’s Pine Grove Furnace State Park serves as a great introduction to the people who made the trail a reality. For insight into the intersection of the trail with the growth of the environmental movement and the need to secure permanent protection for the trail during the rise of the property rights movement, read Sarah Mittlefehldt’s book Tangled Roots: The Appalachian Trail and American Environmental Politics (2013). In it, she offers some valuable insights on forming conservation partnerships in a challenging world.