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Photo Harry Teng / Wikimedia Common

Corporate Role in Parks Recalls Earlier Era, Presents New Challenges

This summer saw a flurry of critical articles centered on a proposed change in how the National Park Service solicits and recognizes private donations, including from corporate entities. But is the link between conservation and corporations actually new? And what does it reveal about deeper connections between economic change in the United States and the manner in which the country manages its public lands and historic sites?

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Lessons in Partnerships along the Appalachian Trail

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.

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Bridging the Nature/Culture Divide with Ecological Restoration

How we resolve the dissonance in our thinking between the goals of conserving ‘nature’ and ‘culture’. One area where this question is being dealt with in an engaging way is within the field of ecological restoration. Off the west coast of Canada, on a small island in the Gulf Islands archipelago, The Galiano Conservancy Association offers an exciting model of how to transform traditional nature conservation.

Read More »
Photo Harry Teng / Wikimedia Common

Corporate Role in Parks Recalls Earlier Era, Presents New Challenges

This summer saw a flurry of critical articles centered on a proposed change in how the National Park Service solicits and recognizes private donations, including from corporate entities. But is the link between conservation and corporations actually new? And what does it reveal about deeper connections between economic change in the United States and the manner in which the country manages its public lands and historic sites?

Read More »

Lessons in Partnerships along the Appalachian Trail

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.

Read More »

Bridging the Nature/Culture Divide with Ecological Restoration

How we resolve the dissonance in our thinking between the goals of conserving ‘nature’ and ‘culture’. One area where this question is being dealt with in an engaging way is within the field of ecological restoration. Off the west coast of Canada, on a small island in the Gulf Islands archipelago, The Galiano Conservancy Association offers an exciting model of how to transform traditional nature conservation.

Read More »