Preserving Nature In The National Parks

This book traces the epic clash of values between traditional scenery-and-tourism management and emerging ecological concepts in the national parks, America’s most treasured landscapes. It spans the period from the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 to near the present, analyzing the management of fires, predators, elk, bear, and other natural phenomena in parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Great Smoky Mountains.

The national parks of North America are great public treasures, visited by 300 million people each year. Set aside to be kept in relatively natural condition, these remarkable places of forests, rivers, mountains, and wildlife still inspire our "capacity for wonder." Today, however, the parks are threatened by increasingly difficult problems from both inside and outside their borders. This book, enriched with personal anecdotes of the author's trips throughout the parks of North America, examines changes in the park services of the United States and Canada over the past fifteen years. William Lowry describes the many challenges facing the parks—such as rising crime, tourism, and overcrowding, pollution, eroding funding for environmental research, and the contentious debate over preservation versus use—and the abilities of the agencies to deal with them. The Capacity for Wonder provides a revealing comparison of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and the Canadian Parks Service (CPS). The author explains that, while the services are similar in many ways, the priorities of these two agencies have changed dramatically in recent years. Lowry shows how increasing conflicts over agency goals and decreasing institutional support have make the NPS vulnerable to interagency disputes, reluctant to take any risks in its operations, and extremely responsive to political pressures. As a result, U.S. national parks are now managed mainly to serve political purposes. Lowry illustrates how in the 1980s politicians pushed the NPS to expand private uses of national parks through development, timber harvesting, grazing, and mining, while environmental groups push the NPS in the other direction. Over the same period, the CPS enjoyed a clarification of goals and increased institutional supports. As a result, the CPS has been able to decentralize its structure, empower its employees, and renew its commitment to preservation. Lowry considers several proposals to change the institutions governing the parks. His own recommendations are more in line with proposals to revitalize public agencies than with those that suggest replacing them with private enterprise, state agencies, or endowment boards. Lowry concludes that preserving nature should be the primary, explicit goal of the park services, and he calls for a stronger commitment to that goal in the United States.

This book traces the epic clash of values between traditional scenery-and-tourism management and emerging ecological concepts in the national parks, America's most treasured landscapes. It spans the period from the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 to near the present, analyzing the management of fires, predators, elk, bear, and other natural phenomena in parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, and Great Smoky Mountains. Based largely on original documents never before researched, this is the most thorough history of the national parks ever written. Focusing on the decades after the National Park Service was established in 1916, the author reveals the dynamics of policy formulation and change, as landscape architects, foresters, wildlife biologists, and other Park Service professionals contended for dominance and shaped the attitudes and culture of the Service. The book provides a fresh look at the national parks and an analysis of why the Service has not responded in full faith to the environmental concerns of recent times. Richard West Sellars, a historian with the National Park Service, has become uniquely familiar with the history, culture, and dynamics of the Service?including its biases, internal alliances and rivalries, self-image, folklore, and rhetoric. The book will prove indispensable for environmental and governmental specialists and for general readers seeking an in-depth analysis of one of America's most admired federal bureaus.

"National Parks (NPs) are mainly designed to protect the remaining 'wilderness' of a given country and have primarily focused on the conservation of extraordinary areas or emblematic species. National parks have many roles among which 'preserving nature' has become a matter of considerable social, political, economical and scientific concern. One of the major problems concerning National Parks is how to preserve their landscapes and biodiversity. While the diversity of plants and animals can be experimentally assessed, their protection involves the maintenance of their ecosystems and periodic monitoring. Any change in an environment can certainly have some effect on the plants and animals living there and so, the consequences of changes at a variety of scales is hard to predict although variations often lead to a reduction or homogenization of animal and plant diversity. In the long run, the positive role played by National Parks for nature conservation and tourism will be maintained if we ensure that social, economic and environmental goals are closely aligned. This new important book gathers the latest research in this field."--Publisher's description.

IUCN's Protected Areas Management Categories, which classify protected areas according to their management objectives, are today accepted as the benchmark for defining, recording, and classifying protected areas. They are recognized by international bodies such as the United Nations as well as many national governments. As a result, they are increasingly being incorporated into government legislation. These guidelines provide as much clarity as possible regarding the meaning and application of the Categories. They describe the definition of the Categories and discuss application in particular biomes and management approaches.

One of the major problems concerning National Parks is how to preserve their landscapes and biodiversity.

"National Parks (NPs) are mainly designed to protect the remaining 'wilderness' of a given country and have primarily focused on the conservation of extraordinary areas or emblematic species. National parks have many roles among which 'preserving nature' has become a matter of considerable social, political, economical and scientific concern. One of the major problems concerning National Parks is how to preserve their landscapes and biodiversity. While the diversity of plants and animals can be experimentally assessed, their protection involves the maintenance of their ecosystems and periodic monitoring. Any change in an environment can certainly have some effect on the plants and animals living there and so, the consequences of changes at a variety of scales is hard to predict although variations often lead to a reduction or homogenization of animal and plant diversity. In the long run, the positive role played by National Parks for nature conservation and tourism will be maintained if we ensure that social, economic and environmental goals are closely aligned. This new important book gathers the latest research in this field."--Publisher's description.