Conservation

Introduction

Conservation refers to actions that aim to protect natural environments from present and future change. For example, nature conservancies purchase land that is deemed to be at risk in order to prevent exploitation of the area for residential, industrial, or agricultural development.

Plants and animals that reside in the conserved land are also protected. In regions such as the Amazonian rain forest, conservation even involves the preservation of insect species.

This form of conservation seeks to preserve areas for their inherent value, not necessarily because of any value they have for people. However, conserved lands can directly benefit people by helping maintain necessary quantity and quality of drinking water, and, if carefully managed, even supporting hunting and commercial activities such as fishing and logging.

Forested areas may be set aside for preservation, with some regions being free of activities such as logging, while logging is permitted in a controlled and sustainable manner in other regions. This type of conservation effort requires negotiations between both parties.

This process can be contentious. An example in the United States is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area of over 30,500 square mi (79,000 square km) that was established in 1973 by President Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994). The refuge is near Prudhoe Bay, a substantial oil field. Studies done in the late 1980s and 1990s estimated that large reserves of oil lie beneath the region. Beginning in the 1970s, proponents of oil drilling have argued that a portion of the conserved lands be made available to commercial oil production. Opposition has been vigorous and vocal.

Historical Background and Scientific Foundations

Conservation dates back to the seventeenth century, when forestry preservation began in Germany, France, and India. In the United States, conservation dates to the nineteenth century and coincided with the westward exploration of the country. Photographs taken during an expedition in 1871 into what today is the state of Wyoming spurred the creation of Yellowstone National Park, the world’s first national park, in 1872. A large section of the neighboring forest was protected from indiscriminate logging by President Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) in 1891.

By the end of the nineteenth century, the American conservation movement was divided into two philosophical views. One view advocated preservation of the land or water, irrespective of any commercial interest. This course was described at the time as “for the greater good for the greatest length.” A well-known preservationist of that era was John Muir (1838–1914), who established the Sierra Club.

The other camp viewed conservation as being consistent with both preservation and commercial interests. In this view, a conserved region could be set aside into commercial-free areas and areas where commercial activities such as fishing and logging would be allowed.

These two views of conservation continue. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one example. As well, agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service attempt to reconcile both views into a single conservation strategy, with logging permitted in some federally protected forests. Conservation by individuals or private organizations can also be motivated by the need to preserve populations of animals, birds, or fish to maintain the various species, either for their long-term recreational value or simply to preserve biodiversity.

A number of major conservation organizations exist. The earliest example is The Sierra Club, formed over a century ago by naturalist John Muir. As of 2008, the group’s membership in the United States was about 730,000 and exceeded 10,000 in Canada. The organization is dedicated to protecting both wild and developed regions, and aiding in the restoration of regions that have been environmentally degraded. In contrast to some other conservation efforts, these objectives are always undertaken legally and nonviolently.

By virtue of its large membership, the Sierra Club has become an influential voice in federal politics. The organization’s Washington, D.C. office is the center of the lobbying efforts. As well, the Sierra Club publishes a magazine and has a weekly radio show. At the local level, each chapter of the organization publishes a newsletter of conservation-related issues that the Sierra Club addresses as part of its lobbying. Topics include agriculture; biotechnology (mainly the environmental release of genetically modified organisms); energy generation;wildlife; forest management; land management; and water use, quality, availability, and management. One water management issue that the Sierra Club has long been active in is opposing dams that are considered a threat to environments above and below the dam. An example is the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona along a portion of the Colorado River. The organization has long advocated dismantling the dam to restore the Glen Canyon.

WORDS TO KNOW

DUCKS UNLIMITED: An international non-profit organization founded in Canada in the 1940s to preserve and protect wetlands.

ECOTERRORISM: Terrorism conducted to halt activities that are regarded by those taking part as being intolerably environmentally destructive.

HABITAT: The natural location of an organism or a population.

SIERRA CLUB: Environmental organization founded in 1892 by American naturalist John Muir (1838–1914), whose mandate includes the protection and, when needed, restoration, of natural environments.

A long-time member of the Sierra Club was the late American photographer and conservationist Ansel Adams (1902–1984). His striking black and white photographs of places such as Yosemite and Glacier National Parks and the Tetons brought a sense of the beauty and majesty of the environment to many people, and his work helped popularize conservation efforts.

Another conservation organization is Ducks Unlimited. In the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean, and, more recently, Australia, Ducks Unlimited works to preserve and restore wetlands, which are important habitats for ducks and other waterfowl, and as a place of rest during migration. The organization also recognizes that the preservation of wetlands helps maintain waterfowl species that are popular for hunting.

One conservation priority of Ducks Unlimited is the Western Boreal Forest, which stretches diagonally from Alaska to Lake Superior. Some 20% of this region consists of wetlands, which are important for the survival of about 40% of the duck population of North America. Human-related impacts are threatening the Western Boreal Forest.

A cornerstone of Ducks Unlimited’s conservation efforts is scientific research. The organization has directly conducted or funded hundreds of studies that have clarified the importance of wetlands as an ecosystem and in the lives of ducks and other waterfowl. Initiatives to restore watersheds or surrounding grassland are done in ways that are scientifically sound and have been proven to be the best environmental approach.

Conservation science is also important in other organizations. One example is the Nature Conservancy, an organization that purchases land to set aside from development, either directly or through partnerships set up with other organizations, private interests, and individuals. A staff of over 700 scientists works to identify

IN CONTEXT: CHARLES RICHARD VAN HISE, AN EARLY VOICE FOR CONSERVATION

American geologist, educator, and conservationist, Charles Richard Van Hise (1857–1918) was dedicated throughout his career to preserving and creating environmental resources and guaranteeing their accessibility.

As president of the University of Wisconsin from 1903 until his death, Van Hise, convinced that the boundaries of the campus ought to extend beyond the campus to the entire state, built a network of university educational and conservation services in Wisconsin. His network—called “The Wisconsin Idea”—became a model for university extension programs throughout the United States.

Van Hise served as an advisor on matters of conservation to President Theodore Roosevelt, who, from 1903 until he left office in 1909, created 42 million acres (about 17 million hectares) of national forests, 53 national wildlife refuges, and 18 areas of natural and national interest including the Grand Canyon.

Van Hise’s book The Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States was the first American textbook written about America’s natural resources and advocating conservation.

freshwater and marine ecosystems that are at risk, to better understand the influences of climate change on ecosystems, and to learn more about the threat posed to an ecosystem by the invasion of a species that is not native to the region.

Conservation is an important facet of the work done by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Through the group’s Conservation Science Program, the WWF seeks to maintain the diversity of life globally in general and in selected regions in particular. Examples of WWF conservation campaigns include gorilla preservation in Virunga National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo; popularizing commercial fishing gear that will not entrap sea turtles; and preservation of natural populations of the Giant panda.

These and other organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution’s Conservation and Research Center, as well as private initiatives and the grassroots efforts of individuals, contribute to a conservation resolve that is global.

Impacts and Issues

In the twenty-first century, the need for conservation has become more important. More than half of the land on Earth’s surface has been altered by human activity. Some alterations, such as strip mining and clear-cutting, are especially destructive. Soil erosion, increased runoff of oxygen-depleting sediment into streams and rivers, and loss of habitat can threaten animal, bird, fish, and insect species or cause their extinction. The adverse impact on human health and economic prosperity can be considerable as well.

Increasingly, conservation is focusing on Earth’s oceans, whose character is being altered by pollution and the warming of the atmosphere. The seemingly infinite volume of the global ocean was long regarded as being unchangeable. However, changes that have been documented since the 1950s include increasing acidification, presence of regions almost lacking in oxygen (“dead zones”), and altered current flow. Indeed, as reported in a March 2008 issue of Science, a global map of human-related ocean change has revealed that more than 40% of the ocean is threatened, and that almost no region of the ocean has remained unchanged by human activity.

Marine conservation efforts include voluntary agreements among nations to minimize commercial activities and pollution in certain regions of the ocean, formal establishment of marine protected areas (an example is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park), and legislated protection of coastal regions from overfishing.

A much more radical approach to conservation is practiced by Earth First!, a movement that uses legal means and civil disobedience as well as the notorious and sometime dangerous practice of “monkeywrenching” (sabotage of machines or activities considered to be environmentally destructive) to protect natural regions.

The zeal of those involved in Earth First! is an example of the depth of feeling and commitment that conservation efforts can invoke.

Primary Source Connection

The Alaskan National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) was enacted in 1980 to strike a balance between many conflicting interests, like the need for conservation of public lands in Alaska, traditional needs like hunting and fishing, and development needs as well.

ANILCA also attempted to resolve some of the long-standing issues pertaining to land use by native Alaskans, use of lands for traditional activity, and classification of the region into parklands, native corporations, and wilderness areas.

The passing of the act is considered to be an enormous attempt at land conservation in the history of the United States. Soon after, nearly 100 million acres (40 million hectares) of land was brought under conservation. It also doubled the area of the country’s refuge system and increased the areas earmarked as wilderness nearly threefold.

THE ALASKA NATIONAL INTEREST LANDS CONSERVATION ACT

Purposes

(a) In order to preserve for the benefit, use, education and inspiration of present and future generations certain lands and waters in the State of Alaska that contain nationally significant natural, scenic, historic, archeological, geological, scientific, wilderness, cultural, recreational, and wildlife values, and units described in the following titles are hereby established.

(b) It is the intent of Congress in this Act to preserve unrivaled scenic and geological values associated with natural landscapes; to provide for the maintenance of sound populations of, and habitat for, wildlife species of inestimable value to the citizens of Alaska and the Nation, including those species dependent on vast relatively undeveloped areas; to preserve in their natural state extensive unaltered arctic tundra, boreal forest, and coastal rainforest ecosystems, to protect the resources related to subsistence needs; to protect and preserve historic and archeological sites, rivers, and lands, and to preserve wilderness resource values and related recreational opportunities including but not limited to hiking, canoeing, fishing, and sport hunting, within large arctic and subarctic wildlands and on freeflowing rivers; and to maintain opportunities for scientific research and undisturbed ecosystems.

(c) It is further the intent and purpose of this Act consistent with management of fish and wildlife in accordance with recognized scientific principles and the purposes for which each conservation system unit is established, designated, or expanded by or pursuant to this Act, to provide the opportunity for rural residents engaged in a subsistence way of life to continue to do so.

(d) This Act provides sufficient protection for the national interest in the scenic, natural, cultural and environmental values on the public lands in Alaska, and at the same time provides adequate opportunity for satisfaction of the economic and social needs of the State of Alaska and its people; accordingly, the designation and disposition of the public lands in Alaska pursuant to this Act are found to represent a proper balance between the reservation of national conservation system units and those public lands necessary and appropriate for more intensive use and disposition, and thus Congress believes that the need for future legislation designating new conservation system units, new national conservation areas, or new national recreation areas, has been obviated thereby.

U.S. Congress

U.S. CONGRESS. “ALASKA NATIONAL INTEREST LANDS CONSERVATION ACT.” DECEMBER 2, 1980. HTTP://WWW.R7.FWS.GOV/ASM/ANILCA/TITLE01.HTML#101 (ACCESSED APRIL 20, 2008).

See Also Biodiversity; Coastal Ecosystems; Corporate Green Movement; Ecosystem Diversity; Green Movement; Sustainable Development

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Chiras, Daniel D., John P. Reganold, and Oliver S. Owen. Natural Resource Conservation: Management for a Sustainable Future. New York: Prentice-Hall, 2004.

Freyfogle, Eric T. Why Conservation Is Failing and How It Can Regain Ground. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

Maher, Neil M. Nature’s New Deal: The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Roots of the American Environmental Movement. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Periodicals

Halpern, Benjamin S., et al. “A Global Map of Human Impact on Marine Ecosystems.” Science 319 (2008): 948-952.

Brian D. Hoyle