Guest Editors' Introduction: Protected Areas of the American Southeast

Abstract

Guest Editors' Introduction:Protected Areas of the American Southeast Joe Weber and John A. Kupfer Protected areas (PAs) in the United States are lands and waters that are: 1) dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity and other natural, recreational, and cultural uses, and 2) managed for these purposes through legal or other effective means (U.S. Geological Survey Gap Analysis Project 2022). Such areas are overseen by a suite of federal, state, tribal, and local authorities and encompass everything from national and state parks and forests to wildlife refuges, tribal lands, military bases, regional land and water management areas, county and local parks, and privately owned lands protected through conservation easements. Because of the diverse nature of PAs and the organizations charged with managing them, their goals, missions, and permissible activities are highly varied, ranging from conservation of biodiversity, recreation, farming and forestry, protection of water supply and quality, hazard prevention, scenic protection, and much more. Protected areas are also places that connect Americans to their history and heritage and that provide sources of inspiration and personal renewal (Kupfer et al. 2021). The southeastern United States contains an array of endemic species and unique ecosystems that occupy habitats from the highest peaks of the Appalachian Mountains to marine environments along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, making it one of the world's thirty-six biodiversity hotspots (Noss et al. 2015). The region is also home to a range of cultures, fascinating urban and rural landscapes, scenes of conflict, and artistic triumphs. The rich biological, cultural, social, and historical heritage of the region is reflected in the important role that it has played in the genesis, growth, and diversification of PAs nationally. The first national wildlife refuge was created in Florida in 1903 to protect brown pelicans and other birds from slaughter by market and plume hunters; and national wildlife refuges throughout the region continue to provide habitat for threatened and endangered species such as the American crocodile, gopher tortoise, and Mississippi sandhill crane as well as critical stopover points along the Atlantic and Mississippi flyways. Following passage of the Weeks Act in 1911, Pisgah National Forest in western North Carolina was the first national forest created from private lands when it was established in 1916. It is now considered to be part of the Cradle of American Forestry. Everglades National Park was the first National Park System unit created primarily to protect an [End Page 6] ecosystem, and it remains the largest tropical wilderness in the US and the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River (Lodge 2016). Military installations protect numerous imperiled species and ecosystems (Stein et al. 2008) and provide valuable examples of approaches for balancing conflicting uses as part of ecosystem-based management (Christensen et al. 2021). And, while the majority of US protected lands are in the American West, more vulnerable species are found in the Southeast, emphasizing the importance of protecting private lands in the region (Jenkins et al. 2015). The Nature Conservancy's first large protection project was on the Pascagoula River in Mississippi in the 1970s (Schueler 2002), and more than 1 million hectares throughout the region are protected under conservation easements (National Conservation Easement Database 2022). These examples, and numerous others not mentioned here, underscore the important role of PAs in the protection and management of biodiversity in the Southeast. The Southeast is also home to the first federal attempts at protecting cultural and historical sites. These efforts began in the 1890s when five Civil War battlefields (Chickamauga and Chattanooga, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Antietam, and Gettysburg) were purchased by the U.S. Army (using the powers of eminent domain, when needed) and preserved as national military parks (Lee 1973, Smith 2008). The Army restored these battlefields to their wartime appearance, established roads, put up interpretive and commemorative markers, and hired staff to protect and maintain the parks. These sites were joined by many others in the Southeast before eventually being transferred to the National Park Service (NPS) in 1933. The transfer of these sites was part of a larger effort by the NPS to expand into units focused more on history and recreation and represented a geographic strategy to...