Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History by Richard West Sellers looks at the evolution of what exactly was the purpose of the National Park Service. Was it designed for the enjoyment of the General Public? Or was it created to preserve the natural surroundings that made each park worthy of being preserved? Were these mutually exclusive of each other or were they in fact the same goal? In the end, Sellers believes that the National Park Service should be a better advocate for conservation in the Parks. However, he does acknowledge the success of the Service in promoting the natural environments they were placed in charge of to the larger public.
The text offers interesting insight into how natural National Parks really are. Sellers seems to take the viewpoint a park is more of a planned landscape than a natural one ,"carefully preserved and developed" (page 89). He portrays the early planners as more promoters than actual conservationists, more interested in the commercial development of the Park Service than conservation methods.
One of the big issues that was addressed in the text was the struggle between scientists and . Looking at the text from one perspective, it would seem as though Sellers was more inclined to be on the side of the scientists, who . However, there are a few places in the text where Sellers does acknowledge the influence such factors as promotion had in the formation of the park. The most apparent .
Does this highlight a larger topic of the difference in preserving something vs. keeping something pristine? By making something accessible to a larger audience, are you destroying part of the inherent nature that made it so appealing to begin with? I think Sellers would argue that careful conservation does not equal pristine environments. Rather, parks are constructs created for the enjoyment of the larger public and therefore have to be modified in some manner.
However, he would most assuredly advocate smarter preservation methods, that is employing a variety of experts (historians, scientists, etc.) and maintain a high level of conservation education among all members of the National Park Service. This way, preservation is not just something that a gathering of politicians lays down on paper, but it becomes a real example set by those who feel strongly about it. Also, he would probably advise against promoting a park to host the Winter Olympics.
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2 comments:
I was wondering about one aspect of your review: Do you think Sellars considers that National Parks should be a planned landscape? Because the quotation you give from p. 89 is clearly related to what Mather had in mind. But do you think that Sellars actually adheres to that point of view?
Moreover, when reading further into your review, I wondered about the actual goals State Parks should have. You ask about the difference between preserving something and keeping it pristine; and you also say that parks have to be modified in some manners because they must be created for the enjoyment of larger publics. Should National Parks be a purely recreational area, or should they mostly be educational, offering an opportunity to visitors to discover wildlife a little bit closer? Should they be a preserved area, or “just” a protected one?
I think that the main idea was the marriage of two points - expansion of parks for public enjoyment and to preserve it from the ecological point of view. Purpose and approaches to maintain the parks has varied since the establishment of the Yellowstone, but were always - as Sellers points it out – a subject to a bureaucratization. You have mentioned correctly that the preservation of parks was - and still is, - a concern of various groups of experts. At the end, the author speaks the necessity of ethical considerations on every level, including legal, which might help us to secure nature and enjoyment for more generations to come. But would not this again bring us to an endless discussion and paper battles? Or, perhaps, today's world just seems impossible without it?
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