Introduction to Conservation: A Geographic Perspective

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Lecture 3
The Modern Environmental Movement
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Lecture 3 Outline

1. Species of the day
2. Beginnings of the Conservation Movement
3. The Green Decade
4. The Endangered Species Act (1973)
5. The 1980s and the Post 9/11 World
6. The Rise of New Conservation Strategies
   (Ecosystem Management)
7. The Conservation Movement Today (Our Next
   President?)

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Species of the Day
Bighorn Sheep (Ovis canadensis)
Conservation Status Endangered, USFWS, 1998

• Threats
• Habitat loss
• Habitat fragmentation
• Increased predation
• Exposure to disease
• Increased competition for resources

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Beginnings of the Conservation Movement
Forest Reserve Act (1891)
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Beginnings of the Conservation Movement
Late 19th Century

• Industrial Revolution
• Loss of the Western Frontier
• Over consumption of natural resources
• Rise of the Romantic Transcendental Conservation
  Ethic

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Beginnings of the Conservation Movement
Romantic Transcendentalism (early to mid-1800s)
Viewed the natural world as a source not simply
of material goods, but also of aesthetic
satisfaction, philosophical insight, and
spiritual solace.
A lake is the landscape's most beautiful and
expressive feature.It is Earth's eye looking
into which the beholder measuresthe depth of his
own nature. Thoreau
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Beginnings of the Conservation Movement
Forest Reserve Act (1891)
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Beginnings of the Conservation Movement
Preservationist Ethic

• Intrinsic value of nature and typified in the
  romantic-transcendental movement.
• Focused on the usefulness of resources as well.
• Embodied the idea of preservation.
• Established the Sierra Club.

John Muir (1838-1914)
"Why should man value himself as more than a
small part of the one great unit of creation? And
what creature of all that the Lord has taken the
pains to make is not essential to the
completeness of that unit - the cosmos? The
universe would be incomplete without man but it
would also be incomplete without the smallest
transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond our
conceitful eyes and knowledge." A Thousand Mile
Walk to the Gulf
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Beginning of the Conservation Movement
Forest Reserve Act (1891)
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Beginning of the Conservation Movement
Resource Conservation

• First American scientist trained in forest
  management.
• Emphasized utilitarian approach to management.
• Embodied the resource conservation ethic
• Was the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service
• Some terminology
• Sustained yield
• Conservation

Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946)
Pinchot quotes
The forest rightly handled given the chance
is, next to the earth itself, the most useful
servant of man.
There are just two things on this material earth
people and natural resources The great fact
of conservation is that it stands for
development.
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Beginning of the Conservation Movement
Evolutionary/Ecological Land Ethic

• Emphasized combining conservation and
  preservation.
• Must have a basic appreciation of the biotic
  community as a whole
• Protect at least samples of each different kind
  of community
• Use resources conservatively with high regard for
  native diversity and ecological functions
• Revise management based on new scientific
  knowledge
• Actively restore wherever feasible
• Identify and work to change the social and
  economic forces that constrain the above actions

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948)
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The Green Decade (1970-1980)

• 1960s Social unrest, end of this period
  results in a well defined environmental movement
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
• Period of alternative thought (art, music,
  science, etc.)
• Environmental movement becomes a political and
  public issue
• Numerous environmental groups are formed

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The Green Decade (1970-1980)
The Endangered Species Act (1973)
Provide a means by whereby the ecosystems upon
which endangered species and threatened species
depend may conserved and to provide a program for
the conservation of such endangered and
threatened species.
Endangered Species Any species threatened with
extinction throughout a significant portion of
its range Threatened Species Any species likely
to become endangered in the foreseeable future
throughout all or a significant portion of its
range.
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The 1980s and the Post 9/11 World

• From Carter to Reagan
• Reagan deregulation and the environment
• Bush as the environmental President
• Ozone layer
• Global warming
• Employment vs. the environment

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The 1980s and the Post 9/11 World

• From Clinton
• Increased funding for scientific research
• Developed new initiatives to improve energy
  efficiency
• Increased enforcement of environmental laws
• Preserved millions of acres in national parks and
  wilderness areas
• Instigated long term protection of wilderness in
  roadless areas.
• To Bush (again)
• Decreased federal govt. involvement in favor of
  local or state govt.
• Increased funding for nuclear power
• Wont ratify the Kyoto Protocol, has his own plan
• Healthy Forests Initiative
• Created wetland restoration programs
• Wants to simplify the ESA and reduce complexity
  of environmental legislation
• Believes in oversight of scientists that
  influence policy

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New Conservation Approaches
Ecosystem Management

• Land management approach that considers the
  biological needs of a large area of land.
• It is management for the health of the whole
  ecosystem by providing for the preservation and
  restoration of plants, animals, soil, and water
  while also providing for things important to
  people, such as food and recreation.
• Ecosystem management is the skillful, integrated
  use of ecological knowledge at various scales to
  produce desired resource values, products, and
  services in ways that also sustain the diversity
  and productivity of ecosystems.

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New Conservation Approaches
Ecosystem Management
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The Conservation Movement Today
Our Next President?
Obama\McCain Environmental Comparison
http//www.grist.org/candidate_chart_08.html