Wilderness Preservation Research Articles

Framing Wilderness: Populism and Cultural Heritage as Organizing Principles

ABSTRACT We examine efforts to broaden support for wilderness preservation in the southeastern United States. Three closely linked Alabama organizations—Wild Alabama, WildLaw, and the Alabama Wilderness Alliance—have adopted a way of framing wilderness issues in Alabama that draws on a deeply rooted populist distrust of corporate and governmental elites as well as a sense of cultural connection to the land. Framing wilderness in this emotionally resonating manner, they have attracted public support for wilderness protection and fostered the emergence of new social movement organizations in this arena. We discuss the impact of this alternative wilderness frame for shaping policy in the southeastern United States and how it relates to similar wilderness frames applied in nonindustrialized nations.

Biography of a "Feathered Pig": The California Condor Conservation Controversy

In the early 20th century, after hundreds of years of gradual decline, the California condor emerged as an object of intensive scientific study, an important conservation target, and a cultural icon of the American wilderness preservation movement. Early condor researchers generally believed that the species' survival depended upon the preservation of its wilderness habitat. However, beginning in the 1970s, a new generation of scientists argued that no amount of wilderness could prevent the condor's decline and that only intensive scientific management - including captive breeding - could save the species from certain extinction. A bitter and highly politicized battle soon developed over how to best preserve the condor. For 5 years the condor was extinct in the wild; however, by the time that officials released the first captive-bred birds the condor recovery program had garnered widespread public support, even among its former critics. Today, condor advocates from the scientific and activist communities work together to manage the species and protect its habitat. The condor's story illustrates some of the tensions, problems, and successes that have accompanied the rise of conservation biology as a scientific field and environmental movement in the United States.

Wilderness Values in America: Does Immigrant Status or Ethnicity Matter?

Little is known about the values immigrant groups or U.S.-born racial and ethnic minorities attribute to wilderness. However, the views of these groups are important to wilderness preservation because of increasing diversity along ethnic, cultural, and racial lines in the United States. We examine the proposition that wilderness is a social construction (valued primarily by U.S.-born Whites) by comparing wilderness values for immigrants and U.S.-born minority respondents to Whites. Results from 10 wilderness value items show immigrants are significantly less likely to indicate on-site use value. Among U.S.-born racial/ethnic groups, Black respondents were least likely to indicate values associated with visitation and off-site use but as likely as Whites to indicate a value for continued existence of wilderness. U.S.-born Asians and Latinos were also less likely than Whites to indicate values relating to wilderness on-site use. Implications of findings for wilderness as social construction are discussed.

Social Movement Participation over Time: An Ego-Network Approach to Micro-Mobilization

This study focuses upon the relationship between personal networks and the participation of individuals in a social movement over time, a rarity in the social movement literature, which has mostly used cross-sectional designs to explore this topic. Objectives of the research include empirically documenting some of the mechanisms that underlie the effects of network ties on social movement participation, examining the explanatory power of an ego-network model of individual participation in social movements over time, and examining whether network effects on activism are spurious, once past activism is controlled. Data were collected through two waves of a panel survey administered to members of three formal environmental organizations in Victoria, British Columbia in 1992 and 1998. These organizations were central to the British Columbia wilderness preservation movement. Multiple regression and path analysis are utilized to examine the relative importance of network degree versus network range, as well as frequency of communication and level of movement identification, for explaining level of social movement participation. Results show distinct effects of network degree, network range, communication, and identification on level of activism. An additional finding is that network (and network process) variables have effects on new activism that are independent of the effects of past activism. A theoretical discussion considers the implications of the stage of the cycle of protest and biographical availability in influencing these processes.

Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southwest Asia

Review: Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southwest Asia By Paul Greenough and Ann Lowenhaupt Tsing (Eds.) Paul Greenough and Ann Lowenhaupt Tsing (Eds.). Nature in the Global South: Environmental Projects in South and Southwest Asia. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003. 428 pp. ISBN 0-8223-3150-0 (cloth); 0-8223- 3149-7 (paper). US$89.95 cloth; US$24.95 paper. Acid-free paper. In this eclectic and surprisingly cohesive anthology, the editors and authors invite the reader to explore the complexities within Asia's perspectives on the very concepts of nature, environment, and man. The papers published here were first delivered at a 1995 conference on Environmental Discourses and Human Welfare in South and Southeast Asia, and they have now been made available in this beautifully produced volume from Duke University Press. The essays might have traveled more easily under a simpler title, such as Nature in South and Southeast Asia, because only scant reference is made to the global studies paradigm that apparently inspired the more cumbersome title. Further, the contributors are not concerned so much with assessing specific projects as with introducing and exploring a broad range of Asians' ideas and discourses about the natural world. That said, the essays here are, without exception, well presented and fully documented. Historians and environmentalists with regional interests will find this book a useful guide to both the sources and contours of contemporary environmental debates and developments in South Asia, particularly in and Indonesia. For example, the foundations of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's compelling policy interest in wilderness preservation is explained in terms of her childhood attachments to animals and birds, including her experiences as a youthful political prisoner of the British during the 1942 Quit India campaign. The cultivation system of agrarian development introduced by Dutch administrators in 19th century Java is examined as a system that first penalized peasant relocation and later, in the early 20th century, produced officially sponsored internal peasant migrations to the outer islands of the Dutch Indies archipelago, with attendant cultural and environmental consequences. Vivid writing and creative styling, including case studies, an imaginary visit to a future museum, and a dialogue between an Author and a Critic, set a fast pace, and fascinating discussions abound. Three essays merit special mention. Historical, religious, and linguistic cues to the cultural locus of forests in the South and Southeast Asian mind is treated in a learned piece by Michael R. …

Contested Lands and Incompatible Images: The Political Ecology of Struggles Over Resources in Nicaragua's Indio-Maíz Reserve

This article analyzes the contested struggles over protection and production in the Nicaraguan biological reserve of Indio-Maíz as a local example of broader conflicts over wilderness preservation and local livelihoods in the developing world. The main focus is on conflicting views of different stakeholders concerning the access to and control over natural resources. Special attention is given to the local inhabitants’ struggles for everyday survival and social justice on the fringe of the restricted-use reserve. The study emphasizes that in densely populated rural areas, such as Central America, inclusionary conservation represents the politically most feasible and socially most just form of conservation possible.

Bushwalking in Kakadu: a study of cultural borderlands

This paper examines the relationship between the contested domains of Aboriginal traditional owners and non‐Aboriginal Park users, specifically bushwalkers, in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia. It argues that Kakadu remains a cultural borderland where a negotiated relationship between local Aboriginal traditional owners and non‐Aboriginal Park users is struggling to emerge. It finds that the rhetoric of Aboriginal/non‐Aboriginal co‐existence, which pervades the Park, is infused by the legacy of a colonial settler state, which has presumed access to territory, marginalized Indigenous people and obviated their social and cultural landscape in favour of an expansionist aesthetic of wilderness preservation and appreciation. This paper finds that the activities of bushwalkers and the concerns that these activities generate in the local Aboriginal domain produce a novel space where place is contested and transformed, a space of negotiation and resistance where people's cherished values both compete with and influence one another.

THE LIMITS TO PARTICIPATION IN DIS‐EQUILIBRIUM ECOLOGY: Maori involvement in habitat restoration within Te Urewera National Park

The focus of conservation has shifted from wilderness preservation to ‘an intense concern for conserving biodiversity in all its facets’ (Sanderson et al., 2002, p. 59). This change is sometimes pr...

Driven Wild: How the Fight Against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement

Review: Driven Wild: How the Fight Against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement By Paul S. Sutter Reviewed by Adam M. Sowards University of Idaho, USA Paul S. Sutter. Driven Wild: How the Fight Against Automobiles Launched the Modern Wilderness Movement. Foreword by William Cronon. Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books series. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002. 343 pp. ISBN 0-295-98219-5 (cloth). US$35.00. Recycled, acid-free paper. Wilderness politics form a centerpiece in American environmental history. Despite all the attention, caricatures and simplifications cloud much of our understanding of this vital issue. Often portrayed as part of the conflict over preservation or use of resources emerging in the Progressive-era conservation movement or as an elitist movement of those interested only in aesthetic nature, wilderness as a movement is misunderstood, and Paul S. Sutter does much to rectify these misinterpretations and misperceptions. By studying four of the founders of the Wilderness Society-Aldo Leopold, Robert Sterling Yard, Benton MacKaye, and Bob Marshall-Driven Wild presents a complex and persuasive argument that the wilderness movement emerged from concerns about automobiles specifically and commercialization of outdoor recreation generally. This book deserves to be read by a wide audience; there is no doubt that its conclusions are important and will frame further discussions about this aspect of American environmental history and policy. Sutter, a professor of history at the University of Georgia, begins his study contextualizing the idea of wilderness and its recent critics. Past scholars have argued that wilderness preservation arose as a specific environmental cause because wilderness was becoming scarce, because some individuals began to appreciate the ethical components of nature, or because a growing urban and suburban white middle class wanted it for recreational and aesthetic reasons. Sutter concludes that these arguments are sound but limited (p. 8). Critics of the wilderness idea have identified problems with its simplified ecology, ethnocentrism, class bias, and cultural constructiveness. Here, too, Sutter concludes critics have missed the complexity, contingency, and context of the movement (p. 13). The specific context out of which the wilderness movement emerged-namely interwar commercialization of outdoor recreation-is more important than previous assessments have recognized. The Wilderness Society founders

Fear Assessment: Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Pricing of Fear and Anxiety

Fear Assessment: Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Pricing of Fear and Anxiety

Trust Theory of Environmental Protection, and Some Dark Thoughts on the Possibility of Law Reform

When Professor Joseph Sax wrote his famous Public Trust article in 1970, the environmental movement was in a state of agitation and flux. The status of the public trust theory today seems secure; it has been incorporated into legislation, case law, and, indeed, our basic thinking about the environment. But in wilderness preservation, the trust approach is unlikely to succeed, because the trustee will share the same values we hold. Sax's public trust theory won rapid and widespread acceptance during a time of considerable agitation when new theories and approaches to environmental protection were being explored. Each of these approaches to environmental protection was put on the back burner when Sax's public trust theory was adopted. I believe it is possible to generalize from society's experience with Sax's public trust theory of environmental protection. This Essay describes and analyzes the role of Joseph Sax's landmark article on the public trust model of natural resource law in both advancing and retarding the movement for environmental reform. Part II showed the defects of the trust approach, as well as why it proved attractive to national consciousness in the early and mid-1970s (and, indeed, remains so today). The public trust theory, although deeply compromised, solidified the partial revolution in social thought on the issue of environmental protection.

Indigenous Peoples and Protected Areas: Rights, Principles and Practice

Resume Populations indigenes et zones protegees: droits, principes et pratiques Les populations indigenes, bannies de force, des zones protegees par La 'conservation Coloniale', ont cause des problemes sociaux graves tout en provoquant une reponse vigoureuse. Maintenant, les partisans de la conservation de l'environnement acceptent les progres de la loi internationale qui reconnaissent les droits des indigenes et ont fait changer la categorisation de zone protegee; ceci afin de permettre aux indigenes d'etre proprietaires et d'avoir un pouvoir de controle. Les principes qui reconnaissent ces droits et les Directives qui permettent de les appliquer ont ete adoptes. Des obstacles de taille sont toujours en pratique. Cependant, des exemples positifs laissent voir des solutions. Resumen Gentes indigenas y zonas protegidas: derechos, principios y practica Las poblaciones indigenas excluidas pot la fuerza de las zonas protegidas por la 'conservacion Colonial' causaron problemas sociales serios pero tambien provocaron una reaccion energica. Ahora, los conservacionistas aceptan los cambios progresistas de la ley internacional. Estos cambios reconocen los derechos indigenas y han cambiado la categorizacion de zona protegida. De este modo, se les permite a los indigenas ser propietarios y controlar estas zonas. Se han adoptado principios que reconocen estos derechos y las Lineas Directrices que los aplican. Obstaculos enormes siguen en practica mas ejemplos positivos van sugeriendo soluciones. Colonial Conservation It is easy to forget, now that conservation has become a mainstream concern of the global community and the subject of international treaties, that the idea of conserving nature through the creation of protected areas is a relatively recent invention. The idea was born in the tumultuous rush of land grabbing during the American conquest of the West, when settler families, the US cavalry, gold miners, cowboys and Indians struggled to impose their different visions of life and land use on the continent. One of the first to conceive of the idea of a 'national park' was the artist George Catlin, who ventured into the Wild West in the 1830s to capture through his oil paintings the dignified visages of the 'Plains Indians'. Musing on what he felt would be the inevitable disappearance of the their way of life he wrote: And in future what a splendid contemplation ... when one ... imagines them as they might be seen, by some great protecting policy of government preserved in their pristine beauty and wildness, in a magnificent park, where the world could see for ages to come, the native Indian in his classic attire, galloping his wild horse, with sinewy bow, and shield and lance, amid the fleeting herds of elks and buffaloes ... A nation's Park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature's beauty! (Catlin 1841: vii, emphasis in original). However, when the first such park was actually created thirty years later, it was during the disruptions of the American Civil War at a time when a devastating series of 'Indian Wars' was being waged to subdue Indian autonomy and realise the country's 'manifest destiny' (Colchester 1994: 2-6). It was this dominant vision of conquest, combined with 'wilderness preservation' (Ibid.), which defined the way the first parks were created in the USA at Yosemite in 1864 and Yellowstone in 1872. As Keller and Turek (1998: 20-22) relate, the startling landscapes of Yosemite, substantially an outcome of Native American land use systems, were proposed for conservation by the very same settlers who, twelve years previously, had waged the 'Mariposa Indian War' against the area's indigenous people--the Miwok. In this one-sided struggle, forces sanctioned by the US Government made repeated attacks on Indian settlements. Villages were burned to the ground to force the Indians out of the area and to starve or freeze them into submission. …

Social Networks, Identification and Participation in an Environmental Movement: Low‐medium Cost Activism within the British Columbia Wilderness Preservation Movement*

Cet article examine comment la structure des réseaux personnels (ou égocentriques) est liée à la participation continue des individus dans un mouvement social (le British Columbia Wilderness Preservation Movement). Les résultats présentés dans ce texte suggèrent que la communication, le recrutement continu et l'identification influent sur le rapport entre la structure des réseaux et le niveau de participation dans le mouvement. Différents aspects de la structure du réseau personnel ont différents effets sur ces processus de médiation. Finalement, dans le contexte d'un activisme comportant des risques/coûts faibles ou moyens, les liens faibles sont plus importants pour faciliter la participation que ne le sont les liens forts.This article examines how the structure of egocentric (or personal) networks is related to the ongoing participation of individuals in a social movement (the British Columbia Wilderness Preservation Movement). The results presented in this paper suggest that: communication, ongoing recruitment, and identification mediate the relationship between ego‐network structure and level of movement participation. Different aspects of personal network structure have differential effects on these intervening processes. Finally, under conditions of low‐medium risk/cost activism, weak ties are more important to facilitating participation than are strong ties.

Thoreau's country: a historical–ecological perspective on conservation in the New England landscape

Abstract Our wood‐lots, of course, have a history, and we may often recover it for a hundred years back, though we do not...Yet if we attended more to the history of our lots we should manage them more wisely. H.D. Thoreau. 16 October 1860. Henry Thoreau, the great New England writer, thinker and naturalist, devoted his ‘career’ to observing, describing and interpreting (in some 2 million words in more than three dozen journal volumes) the natural and cultural characteristics of his nineteenth century landscape. Through these writings we not only learn a great deal about our land and its ancestry but we receive an impassioned, although balanced reverence for both the wild and cultural sides of nature. Thoreau also presents a means of interpreting landscapes based on keen observation, a strong awareness of natural history, and a recognition that insights to modern nature often lie in its past [Foster, D.R. (1999) Thoreau's country. Journey through a transformed landscape. Harvard University Press, Cambridge].This paper argues that we take Thoreau's words and approach to conservation to heart and admonishes that we appreciate the historical processes driving long‐term ecological changes as we attempt to conserve and restore the vegetation, wildlife and landscape of regions including New England. Over the past four centuries much of the eastern USA has been transformed by human activity as the heavily forested area was settled, cut, cleared and farmed through the mid‐nineteenth century and then largely abandoned in haphazard fashion from active use and allowed to reforest naturally [Cronon, W. (1983) Changes in the land Indians, colonists and the ecology of New England. Hill and Wang, New York; Whitney, G.G. (1994) From coastal wilderness to fruited plain. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; Foster, D.R. & O'Keefe, J.F. (2000) New England forests through time: insights from the Harvard forest dioramas. Harvard Forest and Harvard University Press, Petersham and Cambridge; Hall, B. et al. (2002) Journal of Biogeography, 29, 1319–1335]. Rather remarkably, the present landscape of New England supports many more natural attributes and processes than at any time since before the American Revolution. As a consequence of its history the region's considerable variation in vegetation, wildlife and appearance is largely explained by the history of human use [Bellemare, J. et al. (2002) Journal of Biogeography, 29, 1401–1420; Gerhardt, F. & Foster, D.R. (2002) Journal of Biogeography, 29, 1421–1437; Hall, B. et al. (2002) Journal of Biogeography, 29, 1319–1335; Eberhardt, R. et al. (2003) Ecological Applications (in press)]. Thus, although the region supports a diverse range of species, plant and animal assemblages, and landscapes, successful conservation strategies need to be based on a broad‐scale approach that appreciates regional variation in natural and cultural history as well as current conditions [Foster, D.R. & Motzkin, G. (1998) Northeastern Naturalist, 5, 111; Motzkin, G. & Foster, D.R. (2002) Journal of Biogeography, 29, 1569–1589]. This approach must also work effectively with the general lack of regional planning and regulation and the predominant role of private ownership and control in New England [Berlik, M.M. et al. (2002) Journal of Biogeography, 29, 1557–1568].When a geographical–historical perspective is adopted for this region, three major, and in many ways quite dissimilar, directions for conservation emerge that are consistent with the region's history and environmental variation, are being actively pursued by conservation organizations and agencies, and might be effectively coordinated on a broad scale today. These directions, as articulated by diverse organizations include: (1) wilderness preservation and the restoration and the conservation of wide‐ranging species and broad‐scale ecological processes; (2) maintenance of cultural, predominantly agriculturally derived, landscapes; and (3) increased, environmentally sound harvesting and utilization of local forest resources. Individually, when applied in appropriate landscape contexts, each of these approaches can exert positive benefits on biodiversity, environmental processes and quality of life. When applied collectively in a coordinated geographical fashion that acknowledges and accommodates regional variation resulting from physical, biological, cultural and historical factors, these three directions in land management may provide a broad template for proactive conservation that generates local to global benefits.This paper examines each of these three conservation directions in relation to the region's history and current ecological condition, attempts to articulate the environmental rationale that supports these activities, and then presents an initial approach at positioning each across this varied region.

Wilderness and Cultural Landscapes: Shifting management emphases in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area

A major 5 year review of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area management plan 1992 by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service resulted in a new plan in 1999. As part of the process, a 1997 draft circulated for comment had flagged significant changes in management prescriptions: these changes represented responses from the planners to protests from communities who argued that the 1992 document, in the name of wilderness preservation, had ignored their long-standing involvement with land inside World Heritage boundaries. Using a cultural heritage perspective, this paper analyses the 1999 plan (which was virtually unchanged from the 1997 draft), and contrasts it with the 1992 management assumptions. Specific provisions designed to address aspects of community concern are explained. The shift in management emphasis is interpreted as a reflection of recent debates about relationships between wilderness and cultural landscapes, and about community roles in conservation. This change in Tasmania also points to possibilities for gaining support for a broader conservation perspective through a new, different kind of community involvement in the management of national parks.

The World and the Wild

Review: The World and the Wild By David Rothenberg and Marta Ulvaeus (Eds.) Reviewed by Rosemary A. Streatfeild Washington State University, USA David Rothenberg & Marta Ulvaeus (Eds.). The World and the Wild. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2001. 232 pp. ISBN 0-8165-2063-1 (paper). US$19.95. Acid-free, archival quality paper. Normally viewed as a western concept, books on wilderness are more often focused on those countries that can afford to preserve their wild areas. The World and the Wild moves the philosophical discussion of wilderness to non- western countries. Edited by David Rothenburg and Marta Ulvaeus, and with a foreword by Vance G. Martin, Director of the WILD Foundation, this book brings together a collection of papers previously published in a variety of sources in anticipation of the Sixth World Wilderness Congress held in Bangalore, India, in October 1998. Professor Rothenburg introduces the book by asking how much the concept of wilderness preservation is an extension of colonialism, and how much is a true desire to protect landscapes and resources in ways that will benefit those peoples who rely on them to the value of all. He argues that wilderness protection should not be a substitute for basic human values and fairness, that it is a concept of concern for all nations worldwide. He expresses a need to bring all voices together to share unique experiences and ideas, and, together with his co-editor Martha Ulvaeus, has achieved a solid beginning in producing this anthology. The chapters that follow Rothernburg's introduction express visions of what wildness means to other cultures. Sixteen contributors from a variety of backgrounds and countries share ideas and experiences from their familiar locales, from places as diverse as Nepal and Kenya, Borneo and Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Chile, and the United States and South Africa. Because of this, writing styles and substance differ significantly, adding to the flavor and character of the volume. Throughout the book, the theme of observing local expertise when constructing plans for wildland conservation is present. It can be enlightening reading to those of us living in the more privileged environments to learn that other countries do not share our righteous views on conservation. We listen to stories that express wisdom brought about by local experience, such as the dialog between Tularam and Pramod in How Can Four Trees

The World and the Wild

Can nature be restored to a pristine state through deliberate action? Must the preservation of wilderness always subordinate the interests of humans to those of other species? Can indigenous peoples be entrusted with the guardianship of their own wild resources? This collection of international writings tackles tough questions like these as it expands wilderness conservation beyond its American roots. One of the first anthologies to consider wilderness as a global issue, it takes a stand against the notion that wilderness is a northern colonialist conceit and is irrelevant to the plans of third world countries. Contributions from all over the planet Nepal, Borneo, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Papua New Guinea, Kenya, South Africa, India, and the United States show instead that wilderness has an important place in the environmental thought and policy of any nation, industrial or developing. The World and the Wild boldly advances the idea that our concept of wilderness must expand to take in new vistas. It breaks fresh ground in global environmentalism and is essential reading for anyone concerned with development issues related to conservation. ContentsForeword: Whither World Wilderness? / Vance G. MartinIntroduction: Wilderness in the Rest of the World / David RothenbergHow Can Four Trees Make a Jungle? / Pramod ParajuliThe Unpaintable West / Zeese PapanikolasRestoring Wilderness or Reclaiming Forests? / Sahotra SarkarFor Indian Wilderness / Philip Cafaro and Monish VermaIn the Dust of Kilimanjaro / David WesternWhy Conservation in the Tropics Is Failing / John Terborgh"Trouble in Paradise": An Exchange / David Western and John TerborghZulu History / Ian PlayerBruno Manser and the Penan / William W. BevisRoads Where There Have Long Been Trails / Kathleen HarrisonVolcano Dreams / Tom VanderbiltRecycled Rain Forest Myths / Antonio Carlos DieguesThe Park of Ten Thousand Waterfalls / Dan ImhoffMapping the Wild / Edward A. WhitesellEarth Jazz / Evan EisenbergThey Trampled on Our Taboos / Damien Arabagali

Simulating vertical and horizontal multifractal patterns of a longleaf pine savanna

Many ecological processes (e.g., individual growth, competition, and mortality) are dictated by existing spatial patterns and lead to the generation of new spatial conditions. Spatial patterns are the result of a spectrum of ecological processes operating at widely different time scales. In this study, a cellular automata model that incorporated autecological information for longleaf pine (LLP) and fire effects was used to simulate one- and two-dimensional spatial canopy/gap properties (i.e., the distribution of crown heights and widths) over a savanna landscape. These were quantified using multifractal analysis and were compared to remotely-sensed data from LLP stands from the Disney Wilderness Preserve located near Kissimmee, Florida. Lidar-derived transect information provided canopy height patterns and aerial photography provided crown width and horizontal distribution patterns. Multifractal spectra and size class distributions were found to be sensitive to spatially interactive parameters (i.e., competition, fire ignition and spread probabilities). Simulations with moderate levels of competition coupled with a relatively high fire frequency (once every 4 years) and a relatively high likelihood of fire spread across five-meter grid cells (dependent on litter fuel loads) were shown to create patterns that closely mimic the quasi three-dimensional remotely-sensed measures of this open canopy system.

Comparison of Marine and Terrestrial Protected Areas under Federal Jurisdiction in the United States

Abstract: There is a significant disparity in the protection of terrestrial and marine environments in the United States. Despite the considerable literature dedicated to the subject of protected areas, both terrestrial and marine, in the United States, we are not aware of work explicitly describing this dichotomy. We compared marine and terrestrial areas under federal jurisdiction to provide a quantitative assessment of the differences between the conservation of land and sea in the United States. Specifically, we compared national marine sanctuaries (including sanctuary preservation areas and ecological reserves) with national parks, national forests, and national wildlife refuges (including national wilderness preservation areas). Our results suggest that marine sanctuaries are fewer in number, smaller in total area, and smaller in percentage of area covered than are terrestrial protected areas.

FOR A GROUNDED CONCEPTION OF WILDERNESS AND MORE WILDERNESS ON THE GROUND

Recently a number of influential academic environmentalists have spoken out against wilderness, most prominently William Cronon and J. Baird Callicott. This is odd, given that these writers seem to support two cornerstone positions of environmentalism as it has developed over the past twenty years: first, the view articulated within environmental ethics that wild, nonhuman nature, or at least some parts of it, has intrinsic or inherent value; second, the understanding developed within conservation biology that we have entered a period of massive anthropogenic biodiversity loss and that landscape-level habitat preservation is essential for combating this. I argue here that Cronon and Callicott are wrong. In fact, an ethics of respect for nonhuman nature and an informed, scientific understanding of what is necessary to preserve it do strongly support increased wilderness preservation.