Subject: Land Stewardship in the Next Era of Conservation
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Comments:
Throughout the world we hear rumors of revolution and upheaval. In
our own realm we more frequently hear calls to unshackle ourselves
from our utilitarian conservation heritage and embrace Also Leopold's
vision--of ecology, of the need to develop a land ethic and a
conservation esthetic, of the need to understand natural history,
and so on.... Recently, the Pinchot Institute for Conservation
published V. Alaric Sample's LAND STEWARDSHIP IN THE NEXT ERA OF
CONSERVATION. It is a remarkable short history of the conservation
movement, heralding the achievements of Gifford Pinchot, George
Perkins Marsh and others involved in the revolution of the late
1800s. But most striking is the call for a revolution in our time: a
rethinking of land stewardship in terms of responsibilities to
ourselves and to the other species that inhabit the earth. I've
enclosed a book review. Two pages follow. Dve..
PS.. Watch for a wholesale distribution of the book through your
local Public Affairs shop...
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Eco-Watch
9/11/91
Land Stewardship in the Next Era of Conservation
Early last November a small group gathered together at Grey Towers, the
family home of Gifford Pinchot in Pennsylvania. They were philosophers and
writers, foresters and farm advocates, scientists and theologians, lobbyists,
engineers, and college professors. And they shared a common value--a deep and
abiding concern for the land. Amid gathering storm clouds of controversy
concerning public and private land management, they took a moment to "look over
the edge, into the distance to see if [they] could come up with some common
ideals about future stewardship of the land."
Four principles emerged from the two day symposium:
1. Management activities must be within the physical and biological
capabilities of the land, based upon comprehensive, up-to-date resource
information and a thorough scientific understanding of the ecosystem's
functioning and response.
2. The intent of management, as well as monitoring and reporting, should
be making progress toward desired future resource conditions, not on
achieving specific near-term resource output targets.
3. Stewardship means passing the land and resources--including intact,
functioning forest ecosystems--to the next generation in better
condition than they were found.
4. Land stewardship must be more than good 'scientific management'; it
must be a moral imperative.
As important as the principles, though, is a small book destined, I
believe, to be regarded as a milestone along a path carved-out by such works as
George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature and Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac.
The book, Land Stewardship in the Next Era of Conservation, by V. Alaric Sample,
is an important outcome of the symposium. It is a short work that traces the
evolution of conservation thought and the responsibilities of land stewardship
from the late 1800s to today, occasionally reaching much further back in history
where such reach is needed.
An important message leaps from the pages: while the utilitarian
conservation principles of Gifford Pinchot, George Perkins Marsh, and others
served the nation well during the period immediately following our frontier
development, they do not provide the vision that will carry us into the next
century. For that vision, the group leans on stewardship as defined by Aldo
Leopold--the stewardship embodied in Leopold's Land Ethic.
Renewable resource management is going through its greatest period of
change since the conservation movement at the turn of the century, symposium
members concluded, and added: Resource managers, policy makers, academicians,
legislators and others are searching for new concepts and principles to provide
context for their decisions and actions. While the idea of a land ethic has been
around for decades, it has not been integrated into day-to-day, on-the-ground
resource decisions. Resource managers are crying out for a new set of core
values to help managers distinguish right from wrong.
"Perhaps Leopold was just fifty years ahead of his time", they said, then
left us with one of his famous quotes: "[Q]uit thinking about decent land use
as solely an economic problem. Examine each question in terms of what is
ethically and aesthetically right, as well as what is economically expedient.
A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty
of the biotic community. It is wrong otherwise."
"Striving to maintain the integrity, stability, and beauty of the
ecosystems we are managing will inevitably mean working within limits that we
did not consider years ago," they admonished, continuing: "But managing forests
for sustained yield meant working within limits that were unimaginable when the
frontier was expanding and the nation's resources seemed limitless. This
restriction seemed economically costly at the time, but who among us is not
grateful that our forebears chose to impose these near-term costs upon
themselves so that this and future generations might benefit? Our generation was
the first to see the limitations of our world from the viewpoint of Apollo IX.
Our generation was the first to truly recognize and accept that it is fully
within the capacity of the human species to virtually end all life on Earth. But
our generation may also be the first to recognize that species and ecosystems
of no immediate utility to man also have a moral right to survival--and that
therein may lie the key to the future of humanity as well."
The crisis or our time--and the opportunity of our time--has been brought
about by changes in perception of the world at large and the systems that make
it up. Crises are seen in social systems, ecological systems, familial systems
and governmental systems. "Social needs and values will continue to evolve,
just as they have in the past," note the Grey Towers participants, adding:
"The concepts of what constitutes good land stewardship will also
continue to evolve, and society will look to its resource managers for
leadership as the definition of conservation continues to expand to meet
the needs of a changing world. To be truly responsive, however, resource
managers must remember to talk to more than just one another. It will be
increasingly important that people other than resource management
professionals--people with different perspectives that may not always be
consistent with those of resource managers--be explicitly brought into
the process and listened to.
So concludes Land Stewardship in the Next Era of Conservation, leaving
us to ponder the words of Lao-Tzu: "When the best leader's work is done, the
people will say, 'We did it ourselves.'"
Review by: Dave Iverson