Preserving Nature in the National Parks

Preserving Nature in the National Parks PDF

Author: Richard West Sellars

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 0300154143

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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.

Science and the National Parks

Science and the National Parks PDF

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1992-02-01

Total Pages: 137

ISBN-13: 0309047811

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The U.S. National Park Service needs much better scientific information to protect the nation's parks for future generations, and research must be an essential element in its mandate. Science and the National Parks examines the reasons why science is important to the national parks, reviews previous evaluations of research in the parks, and recommends ways to improve the current science program. The book stresses the need for two distinct but related approaches to research, called "science for the parks" and "parks for science." Science for the parks includes research to gain understanding of park resources and develop effective management strategies. The parks for science concept recognizes that the national parks are potentially very important to scientific investigations of broad national and global environmental problems and invaluable for understanding the ecological response to anthropogenic change. Science and the National Parks is a critical assessment of the problems hampering the current Park Service science program, providing strong recommendations to help the agency establish a true mandate for science, create separate funding and autonomy for the program, and enhance its credibility and quality.

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