Treesearch

When beauty and utility are divorced in the loss of wonder, beauty begins to perish. Salmon go extinct. The fragility of beauty is the fragility of wilderness. It does not perish due to weakness but from the generosity and vulnerability that are bound up with its usefulness.

The leatherback sea turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) is the largest marine reptile with one of the longest known ocean migrations in the world and an important part of marine biodiversity. It is also important to the economies of coastal communities in developing countries, especially in areas where eco-tourism has replaced unsustainable harvest and consumption of turtles and eggs. However, despite increased protection of nesting females, eggs, and hatchlings, Pacific populations have declined 95 percent during the last 20 years due to high adult mortality, caused by coastal gillnetting in...

The Global White Lion Protection Trust is committed to establishing the White Lions both as South Africa’s national treasure and as a global heritage. All conservation issues today are global issues. With many species, including many of the big cats, on the brink of extinction, urgent conservation measures need to be implemented to ensure their survival. The White Lions were born in one place only—the Timbavati region—but were artificially removed because of their beauty and rarity. After 13 years of extinction in the wild, the Trust has initiated a world-first reintroduction of the White...

The Bitterroot Valley is located in western Montana, U.S.A. Most of the Bitterroot Range above the Bitterroot Valley is protected as wilderness, and is a source of much of the water that flows down and through the valley floor. With an annual precipitation of only 12.3 inches, the Bitterroot Valley is classified as a high desert environment. Today the quality of life in the Bitterroot Valley is high, and it is deeply connected to the water resources and naturalness of the mountain landscape. To provide water for orchards, food crops, and hay, farmers constructed dams in the Bitterroot...

Wilderness, whether designated as such or not, is often portrayed as the embodiment of freedom. The type of freedom to be enjoyed, though, is not clear. Freedom in wilderness may be constructed negatively—individuals freely experience wilderness without societal constraints; or, freedom may be constructed positively— individuals freely experience the fundamental purposes of wilderness as defined by society. The latter construction of freedom inevitably results in a “wilderness morality” that defines—often in a hierarchical manner—the acceptable purposes and uses of wilderness. Philosophers,...

People may well be attracted to wild places in pursuit of deeper meanings. There is an increasing body of western literature emphasizing people’s loss of spiritual relationship with the Earth, and an emerging body of literature on the importance and role of spirituality in protected area management. However, little work has been done linking the two, particularly work utilizing empirical methodology. There is a challenge for wilderness managers; the integration of spiritual values into wilderness planning and management processes. Filling a knowledge gap in Australia, this exploratory...

Trail construction and reconstruction utilizing stock is rare in the eastern United States. The Hoosier National Forest is the only forest in the Eastern Region of the Forest Service with its own pack string. The Hoosier is also the only forest in the eastern United States to utilize pack strings from western forests to complete trail work within wilderness. For the past 4 years, the Hoosier National Forest has taken great strides to improve trail and resource conditions in the Charles C. Deam Wilderness and to provide opportunities for solitude and an overall quality recreation experience...

Geodiversity values involve aspects of the abiotic environment that are sometimes the dominant element that imparts scenic and wilderness value, are scientifically important in their own right, and almost invariably form the essential habitat for the biodiversity that is often the main target of modern conservation policies. Given this dominance of the physical landscape over other aspects of wilderness character, the potential for restoration of degraded wilderness depends foremost on the significance and resilience of the landforms and the capacity for them to recover over an acceptable...

The South Australian Government has recognized that, despite an extensive protected area system (26 percent of the State), Statewide ecological goals will not be achieved on protected areas alone. The NatureLinks model promotes protected areas acting as “ecological cores” in landscapes managed with conservation objectives. To implement this model, partnerships with other landholders to develop goals and implement actions are essential. This paper discusses the setting of protected area goals and actions that are nested in broader landscape goals, using areas of high wilderness quality as...

The protection of relatively pristine areas in Brazil provides a great opportunity to recognize the values of natural ecosystems. At the same time, it provides opportunities for economic development. The growing interest in these areas in Brazil has stimulated techniques for management and research to study the consequences of human activities on the natural environment and the experience of visitors. Protection of the values received from these areas in relation to ecological and social conditions and threats to those values and conditions are priority research topics in Brazil. In the...