Anthropogenic Landscapes: The Idea of PLACES
September 30, 2015
To provide observations and information on the emerging fields of landscape scale conservation, heritage preservation, and sustainable community development.
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For this month’s Featured Voice interview, we talk with Don Hellmann, the former Assistant Director for Legislative and Congressional Affairs for the National Park Service. Hellmann ended his 40-year career working with Congress at the beginning of 2017. He spent the last 22 years with the NPS. In the interview, Hellmann provides insight into how the NPS legislative agenda changed over time as well as background on especially memorable bills, including Public Law 104-333, which addressed the future of the Presidio of San Francisco.
Re-reading Edward Abbey’s 1968 classic Desert Solitaire, brought some new revelations beyond his lyric descriptions of the desert landscape and sketches of its memorable characters. The book offers some predictions and recommendations for the future of western rivers, National Parks and wilderness. So what were three of his most compelling observations?
National Monuments were once an obscure protected area designation. Today they are the big story in major news outlets. Reporters are struggling with names likes Bears Ears, Grand Staircase – Escalante, and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. What put these places in the headlines was the new administration’s signature on an Executive Order authorizing a review all National Monuments designated since January 1, 1996 and specifically those over 100,000 acres. The rush is on to learn more about national monuments.
Detroit is a place indelibly marked by the highest highs and the lowest lows of American history. Its crumbling buildings and forgotten factories are the tangible evidence of economic booms and busts, the rise and decline of American manufacturing, and the after-effects of WWII, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, racism and classism, as well as decades of local mismanagement and corruption. It also has a rich urban cultural heritage that is still visible on the landscape, if you look closely enough. Read about one student’s experience seeking this heritage as part of the George Wright Society’s Park Break program, which in 2016 focused on implemtning the National Park Services Urban Agenda.
Every two years protected area managers, scientists, and every kind of experts on cultural and natural heritage gather at the George Wright Conference to present papers, engage in lively discussions and swap professional gossip at the bar. I always find these meetings to be the place to spot emerging ideas in the field. The 2017 meeting in Norfolk VA was no exception. So what is trending for large landscapes?
For this month’s Featured Voice interview, we talk with Don Hellmann, the former Assistant Director for Legislative and Congressional Affairs for the National Park Service. Hellmann ended his 40-year career working with Congress at the beginning of 2017. He spent the last 22 years with the NPS. In the interview, Hellmann provides insight into how the NPS legislative agenda changed over time as well as background on especially memorable bills, including Public Law 104-333, which addressed the future of the Presidio of San Francisco.
Re-reading Edward Abbey’s 1968 classic Desert Solitaire, brought some new revelations beyond his lyric descriptions of the desert landscape and sketches of its memorable characters. The book offers some predictions and recommendations for the future of western rivers, National Parks and wilderness. So what were three of his most compelling observations?
National Monuments were once an obscure protected area designation. Today they are the big story in major news outlets. Reporters are struggling with names likes Bears Ears, Grand Staircase – Escalante, and Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. What put these places in the headlines was the new administration’s signature on an Executive Order authorizing a review all National Monuments designated since January 1, 1996 and specifically those over 100,000 acres. The rush is on to learn more about national monuments.
Detroit is a place indelibly marked by the highest highs and the lowest lows of American history. Its crumbling buildings and forgotten factories are the tangible evidence of economic booms and busts, the rise and decline of American manufacturing, and the after-effects of WWII, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, racism and classism, as well as decades of local mismanagement and corruption. It also has a rich urban cultural heritage that is still visible on the landscape, if you look closely enough. Read about one student’s experience seeking this heritage as part of the George Wright Society’s Park Break program, which in 2016 focused on implemtning the National Park Services Urban Agenda.
Every two years protected area managers, scientists, and every kind of experts on cultural and natural heritage gather at the George Wright Conference to present papers, engage in lively discussions and swap professional gossip at the bar. I always find these meetings to be the place to spot emerging ideas in the field. The 2017 meeting in Norfolk VA was no exception. So what is trending for large landscapes?