Treesearch

This essay offers some loosely organized comments on the project of preserving wilderness on the scale of the big outside. These comments are arranged around a subject that has been the topic of quite a bit of debate over the past few years—the possibility that the nature in our discussions about federal land and the environment is an artifact of social construction. The essay seeks to suggest why the notion of social construction is important in the politics of the big outside.

The current effort to rethink public involvement in decision-making processes for federal lands is gaining momentum. Advocates of alternative decision-making processes seek to involve communities in more meaningful ways than traditional NEPA-style public participation. These new processes take the form of citizen monitoring, partnerships, and most often, collaboration, and focus on dialogue, mutual understanding, and common ground. The following dialogue session explores the potential benefits of more participatory approaches, the challenges of conducting such processes, and their possible...

Wilderness advocacy in Alabama is as unique as the cultural flavor of the South. This paper documents how the most recent wave of wilderness activism in Alabama, embodied in the Alabama Wilderness Alliance, Wild Alabama, and WildLaw, have sought to place themselves within the cultural roots and heritage of the American South. In this paper, the efforts and impacts of these organizations are examined. The author concludes that by separating themselves from the larger environmental movement, these groups have staked out their own course of action, with their own emphases, successfully...

Banff National Park, the flagship of the Canadian national park system, has become the focus of debate over park use versus protected area conservation. In response to the debate, the Minister of Canadian Heritage commissioned an independent review. The resulting Banff-Bow Valley Study report and Banff National Park Management Plan are landmark documents. The work was a blend of science and public policy review and an innovative approach to public involvement. This paper summarizes the Banff-Bow Valley Study, Parks Canada response and the influence of the overall process on Parks Canada...

Thirty-six papers related to the theme of wilderness as a place to conduct science are included. Five overview papers synthesize knowledge and research about basic work in the biophysical and social sciences that has been conducted in wilderness. Other papers present the results of focused basic research in wilderness, with one set of papers devoted to the conduct and management of science in wilderness.

Economic growth is a perennial national goal. Perpetual economic growth and wilderness preservation are mutually exclusive. Wilderness scholarship has not addressed this conflict. The economics profession is unlikely to contribute to resolution, because the neoclassical paradigm holds that there is no limit to economic growth. A corollary of the paradigm is that wilderness can be preserved in a perpetually growing economy. The alternative, ecological economics paradigm faces a formidable struggle for credibility in the policy arena. Wilderness scholars are encouraged to develop research...

Funding wilderness protection will continue to be a challenge for public land managers. With continuing competition for federal funds and balanced budget goals, other sources of funds may be necessary to supplement annual federal appropriations. This paper identifies and evaluates five potential funding strategies and provides examples of each that are currently in use (or could be used) in the US and other nations. The strategies are: federal funding reform, general public funding, public investment and donations, private initiatives, and capturing ecosystem service values. The paper...

This paper examines the arguments employed in the debate over reintroduction of wolves into Idaho, Montana, and the Yellowstone National Park Ecosystem; and in Arizona and New Mexico. The study reviews common rhetorical themes used by advocates and opponents of wolf reintroduction and identifies a significant rhetorical shift in the debate. Advocates opposed to wolf reintroduction have turned to scientific appeals in their efforts to shift public opinion; on the other hand, proponents of reintroduction increasingly use aesthetic arguments and personal narratives in their public discourse.

The National Wilderness Preservation System reflects the triumph of politics over science. The history of wilderness allocation has reflected political rather than scientific sensibilities. The preeminence of politics over science extends to wilderness management as well and is illustrated here by representative examples from the modern history of Yellowstone National Park. To Americans, who don’t think very highly of politics, the triumph of politics over science appears lamentable, but it is not so much lamentable as inevitable. As a discipline, science cannot address the fundamental...

Birds are indicators of vegetation structure and ecological conditions. The singing activity of birds declines during late-morning periods, which can affect estimates of abundance and conclusions regarding vegetative conditions indexed by birds. Therefore, it is important to quantify periods of bird activity so biologists can plan studies. We determined hourly detections from singing males of 22 n ongame bird species in ponderosa pine, quaking aspen, and grassland vegetation types in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Detections of 12 of 22 species differed among 1 -hr intervals after...