History of selection and system planning for US natural area national parks and monuments: beauty and biology

Abstract

The notion that most early national parks and monuments were selected without regard for biological or geological considerations is, with some justification, commonly perceived as the correct version of American history. At the same time, little detail has been provided for cases that do not fit this overall assessment. History suggests that such considerations did indeed play a part in the selection of some early sites and in the proposed boundary modifications of others. The perception of absent biological and geological considerations in the early days may in part be a reflection of an immature scientific vocabulary; both scientists and non-scientists often described nature with anthropocentric terms like scenery. In the US National Park Service, park selection which relied on biocentric and geocentric thinking was not uncommon by the 1930s. In addition, a look at the evolution of planning ideology for new parks reveals that some key concepts of modern conservation biology – such as gap identification – had precursors in the US national park system by the 1960s.