Conservation at a Crossroads Lecture slides Thursday January 4, 2013

"Wilderness is a dark and dismal place where all manner of wild beasts dash about uncooked."

Development of the Conservation Movement 1872: World’s First National Park- Yellowstone Late 1800’s: increased interest in wilderness recreation Debate between conservationists and preservationists Conservationists – Proper use of nature Preservationists – Protection of nature from use

Conservation vs. Preservation 1838 –

Conservationist: Roosevelt Avid outdoorsman Set aside 194 million acres of national parks and nature preserves 1906 Antiquities Act: a tool for creating national monuments Goal was efficient use and management with a long- term perspective

Preservationist: John Muir Founder of the Sierra Club 1892 Encouraged recreation as path to appreciation and protection Deeply opposed to commercializing nature Actively campaigned for Yosemite and Sequoia Parks in CA

Hetch Hetchy Valley Valley in Yosemite NP 1906: Dam proposed to provide water to growing SF Bay area 7 yr battle- opposed by John Muir and the Sierra Club 1913: Raker Act allowed for dam construction “Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.” – John Muir

Rachel Carson Silent Spring published 1962

Cuyahoga River, near Cleveland, Ohio 1969

Golden Era of EV Legislation Wilderness Act National Environmental Policy Act- NEPA 1969 Clean Air Act Clean Water Act Endangered Species Act

Wilderness Act 1964 The United States was the first country to officially designate land as "wilderness" Federal land can be designated as wilderness if it retains a "primeval character" and has no human habitation or development. Once a wilderness area has been created, its protection and boundary can only be altered by another act of Congress. “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Untrammeled = unconfined, uncontrolled, and unrestrained.

1990: Owls vs. Jobs

2000: The Anthropocene

MA: 2005

2005: Death of Environmentalism “Modern environmentalism is no longer capable of dealing with the world’s most serious ecological crisis.”

What are the objectives of conservation?

Where do we target future investments?

“We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.” E.O. Wilson

“New conservation should seek to enhance those natural systems that benefit the widest number of people, especially the poor. Instead of trying to restore remote iconic landscapes to pre-European conditions, conservation will measure its achievement in large part by its relevance to people, including city dwellers. Nature could be a garden — not a carefully manicured and rigid one, but a tangle of species and wildness amidst lands used for food production, mineral extraction, and urban life.” Peter Kareiva

First order vs. Second order environmental problems

Questions of Conservation Today What is “nature”? How should it be valued or protected? How do we balance needs of humans and the natural world? What metrics do we use to guide decision- making? How do we allocate limited resources and address tradeoffs? What does success look like?

Defining Goals: Protect the rights of other species Protect charismatic megafauna Slow the rate of extinctions Protect genetic diversity Define and defend biodiversity Maximize ecosystem services Protect the spiritual and aesthetic experience of nature – From Rambunctious Garden, Emma Marris

Counter arguments: Nature is not always benevolent: what is best for people may not be what is most natural Technology will inevitably find substitutes for nature Goals of promoting conservation and human well-being are often mutually exclusive If everything is resilient than why not develop everywhere? We need to protect intact ecosystems for… –Scientific value –Practical reasons (conservation with basis in reality) –Public relations –Ethical reasons

Rockstrom et al Nature