B OOK R EVIEW

A New Century for Natural Resources Management Edited by Richard L. Knight and Sarah F. Bates

A BOOK REVIEW BY CRAIG L. SHAFER ANY BOOKS ON CONSERVATION TOP- Chapter 2 by Robert H. Nelson is a ics have poorly integrated chap- longer analysis of the creation, early ac- Mters, are hard to read, are often tivities, and responsibilities of Forest Ser- dull, and end up serving primarily as refer- vice, Bureau of Land Management, ences for a narrow, technical audience. The National Park Service, and U.S. Fish and 1995 Island Press book A New Century for Wildlife Service. Nelson believes the Natural Resources Management, edited by Ri- agencies started out with the progres- chard L. Knight and Sarah F. Bates, suffers sive era ideal of “scientific” manage- from none of this. Good planning and me- ment, and even though their actions ticulous editing resulted in a logical pro- quickly became politicized, the ideal gression of short, interesting, easy-to-read still shapes thinking today. The au- reviews and essays by diverse topic authori- thor argues that the outdated belief that ties. This book ought to attract a very wide economic progress is inevitable with sci- grees in natural readership that includes researchers, natu- ence guiding resource management should resources are awarded annually, ral resource management specialists, land be replaced by a more “values-oriented” the author implies that many students will managers and planners, policy makers, leg- model. not be prepared for the next century, espe- islators, environmentalists, and students. Stan H. Anderson’s Chapter 3 focuses cially as leaders in policy development. The book’s theme—that the way agen- on the concept of “sustained yield” as prac- Chapter 5 by Gloria E. Helfand and Pe- cies view natural resource management ticed in forestry, range, wildlife, and fisher- ter Berck reviews “traditional” concepts in must continue to diverge from the utilitar- ies management. Perhaps deliberately, the natural resource economics. Non-econo- ian tradition of the 19th century—is timely. author avoids dealing with the controver- mists will find it uncommonly user-friendly. The twenty-one chapter volume illustrates sial concept of “sustainability.” They argue that environmental degradation that views and practices in natural resource In Chapter 4, Dale Heine analyzes the results when policies violate basic economic management are always changing; for these history of American natural resources edu- principles like when the Forest Service sells authors, change is too slow because of the cation. He observes that both the western timber on public land below cost. challenges natural resource agencies will “ranger factories” and the midwestern and Next, in Chapter 6, Eric Katz traces the face after the millennium. Organized in eastern schools prepared students for jobs evolution of natural resource ethics. The three sections, the book traces the history with other professionals, all with similar author examines in detail the highly influ- and conflicts related to natural resource backgrounds and speaking the same jargon. ential views of John Locke, the famous 17th management before emphasizing new ap- This type of education, perhaps indoctri- century philosopher, who thought that proaches for the future. nation, he argues, was found at universities nature had value only when used as “prop- The first six chapters focus on U.S. his- claiming to be sanctuaries for independent erty.” Locke’s views have been used to un- tory. Chapter 1 by Curt Meine is a well- thinking. Government employment stan- dermine environmental legislation (Duncan documented account that intermeshes the dards, professional association certification 1996). The author might have given more emergence of forestry, agriculture, range- requirements, and special interest groups emphasis to how Locke’s work has been wildlife-fisheries management, recreation shaped these academic requirements. The interpreted to support conservation. Some and wilderness with the establishment of traditional B.S.-B.A. requirements of the claim it argues for restrictions on private the early federal agencies and the influence 1960s represent the formal educational land use if counter to the public good of Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and Aldo background of many of today’s senior land (Shrader-Frechette and McCoy 1993). Leopold. Meine demonstrates that the re- managers. But today, “many new students Locke influenced thinking of that age. source concept (e.g., forests, wildlife) arose soon foresee their education as too pre- The second section of the book focuses first; agencies then formed around such scribed, management-production focused, on conflicts. Relying on his uncommon in- concepts, and the academic natural re- too narrow, and impersonal,” causing them sight, David W. Orr’s essay in Chapter 7 is source disciplines came later. to drop out. Although 4,000 university de- about a “sense of place.” Orr begins by giv-

10 • P ARK S CIENCE B OOK R EVIEW ing a personal account of grow- and a vehicle to lobby for their est Service land, the conflict finally ended ing up in small-town western points of view. Today, PEER when Congress added Mineral King to Se- Pennsylvania. He explains, “we has 10,000 paying members and quoia National Park in 1978. no longer have a deep sense of Jeff has moved on. In Chapter 13, John B. Loomis docu- place.” His honesty in writing about Next, in Chapter 10, Winifred B. ments that government cost-benefit analy- the economics of place is persuasive. Kessler and Hal Salwasser describe the ses taking into account more than just “The disorder of ecosystems reflects a prior creation of the 1990 Forest Service “New “marketable goods” was not prominent un- disorder of mind, values, and thought Perspectives” initiative, which they say led til the 1960s and reviews techniques to that…put humanity outside its ecological to the June 1992 adoption of an “ecologi- value such “externalities.” context…. People need healthy food, shel- cal approach” in Forest Service manage- Thomas Michael Powers’ Chapter 14 ter, clothing…a vital civic culture…and ment, a step towards “ecosystem was very enlightening, though heavy in wildness. But they are increasingly offered management.” However, all agencies have places for non-economists. The old “extrac- fantasy for reality, junk for quality, conve- a long way to go before qualifying as ac- tive” economic model may indeed be nience for self-reliance, consumption for knowledged ecosystem management prac- flawed, and Powers provides some easy-to- community, and stuff rather than spirit. titioners, at least based on some definitions understand supportive examples. Relying Business spends $120 billion a year to con- (Grumbine 1994). The December 1995 on graphics, Powers illustrates that the old vince us that this is good…. Our economy Ecological Stewardship Workshop in Tuc- model predicted the economic demise of has not…fostered largeness of heart or son, Arizona (Park Science, some small west- spirit…. And it is not ecologically sustain- 16(2):13-15) was former For- ern communities able.” Orr’s basic message is profound: est Service Chief Jack Ward A New Century for after their resource people will take more responsibility for Thomas’ pet initiative. Natural Resources extraction industries their environment when they sense being Chapter 11 provides Management were curtailed. But part of a human community, a feeling be- Rupert Culter’s thorough this prediction never ing rapidly lost in the United States. account of the role of en- 1995 Island Press happened; some Chapter 8, by Mark W. Brunson and vironmental NGOs (non- 432 pages towns even became James J. Kennedy, discusses dominant use governmental organiza- more prosperous than practiced by the Forest Service, National tions). Quoting John Tables, figures, index before! Powers lists eco- Park Service, the Bureau of Land Manage- Rousch, we learn that Hardcover: nomic trends that may ment, and the Fish and Wildlife Service, only about 50 have ISBN 1-55963-261-5 account for this surpris- why social values changed, and how land budgets in the tens of ing result and then pro- management agencies responded. In later million of dollars. The $55.00 poses an updated decades, our technically trained land man- undisputed giant is Paperback: economic model—one agers found themselves unprepared for the the National Wildlife placing far more emphasis jobs they landed and were surprised at the Federation, whose ISBN 1-55963-262-3 on the degree people value skills required. Examples include public re- 5.3 million support- $32.00 environmental quality in lations, negotiating, writing for the public, ers allowed them their community and sur- skills usually advocated for lawyers, legis- to spend $97 mil- rounding region. Threatened lators, or journalists. In addition, land man- lion in just 1993. The author acknowledges western rural communities reared on this agers after mid-century encountered new tension between NGO amateurism and old model could gain insight here or in the stresses: living with locals in rural western agency-industry professionalism but thinks author’s 1996 book. small towns, new laws giving one agency the gap is closing rapidly. Recent analyses The book’s third and final section em- power over another’s actions, and employ- produced two primary NGO criticisms— phasizes new approaches. Chapter 15 by ees calling for new paradigms. lack of collaboration and little attention to S.T.A. Pickett and R.S. Ostfeld is timely and The latter meshes with Jeff DeBonis’ the economic well-being of local people— analyzes a topic Pickett has addressed be- Chapter 9, which shares his experience as but we learn nothing else about what fore (Pickett et al. 1992). The authors ar- a new Forest Service employee and his sub- NGOs are doing wrong. Since the book gue that the “classical” (or equilibrium) sequent disillusionment with their practice provides a large dose of agency criticism, ecological paradigm has failed and should of overcutting timber. While there, he such treatment is unbalanced. be replaced with their “flux of nature” para- formed the Association for Forest Service In Chapter 12, Vawter Parker reviews the digm. The authors say their flux model Employees for Environmental Responsibil- history of public interest lawyers taking nullified the long-held “balance of nature” ity (AFSEEE). In 1993, he left that organi- agencies to court. For example, the Sierra metaphor. As they point out, this reexami- zation to form Public Employees for Club instigated the famous 1969 “Mineral nation has been ongoing for a long time. Environmental Responsibility (PEER). King” case. Although the Disney Corpora- Scientists working for the Park Service in There, disillusioned public employees tion planned massive development on For- the 1970s questioned the notion of “steady found a sanctuary of like-minded people continued on page 12

V OLUME 18–NO.1 • 11 B OOK R EVIEW continued from page 11 cate a “consumer-is-always-right code.” A New Century for Natural Resources Man- They do advocate honoring diverse values agement is refreshing for a multiauthored states.” Botkin dealt the “balance” idea its and participating in value evolution. Many volume. Most chapters are very good and biggest blow in 1990. Pickett and Ostfeld agencies already do this through interpre- each should teach most readers something perceive some management strategies are tation, public hearings and Congressional new. Unfortunately, those who most need driven by the classical model, including testimony, publications, videos, TV and its insights are unlikely to read it, e.g., “nature knows best” hands-off manage- radio interviews, etc. agency heads, second-or third-level Wash- ment. Vestiges of such thinking can be seen Robert Costanza uses Chapter 19 to re- ington or regional office agency lieutenants, at Yellowstone and elsewhere. view the new transdisciplinary, problem- some oversight-providing political appoin- Next, R.L. Knight and T.L. George, in focused field of “ecological economics,” tees, the Congress, natural resource extrac- Chapter 16, contrast traditional biotic “re- which he was instrumental in developing. tion industry officials, western small-town sources management” disciplines with ideas He highlights some key ideas in his previ- communities, land-rights activists, and subsumed under the new field of conserva- ous papers. The presentation is easy to fol- some field managers with formal academic tion biology, providing a brief sketch for low. training from the 1960s or earlier who have those unfamiliar with its emergence. The In Chapter 20, Holmes Rolston offers his been able to keep up. They should. P S authors do not recommend abandoning views on a global economic ethic. How- traditional natural resource management ever, it is difficult to understand the real, approaches but supplementing them with tangible benefits of continual articulation Craig L. Shafer ([email protected]) is conservation biology’s more holistic, land- of slightly improved versions of a nature an Ecologist with the NPS Natural Resource scape-process awareness. ethic, at least for the book’s intended audi- Stewardship and Science Directorate in In Chapter 17, Susan Jacobson provides ence. If most land managers understand Washington, D.C. her thoughts about producing better trained Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” in the 1949 natural resource managers. Predictably, she book A Sand County Almanac, they will not References believes a conservation biology or sustain- be far off course. Botkin, D. 1990. Discordant harmonies: A new able development perspective provides a Edward Grumbine in Chapter 21 begins ecology for the twenty-first century. Oxford University Press, New York. better academic focus than the traditional with a Cascades backcountry bear story to resource disciplines. She recommends more highlight his disappointment that some Duncan, M. L. 1996. Property as a public conversation, not a Lockean soliloquy: A role for disciplinary breadth, training in econom- critical population viability factors were not intellectual and legal history in takings analysis. ics and social skills, etc., and legitimately addressed by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Environmental Law 26:1095-1160. questions whether universities can handle Study Committee in 1990, or fixed in a 1992 Grumbine, R. E. 1992. Ghost bears: Exploring the this need. This point is key. For future con- document revision. The author says the biodiversity crisis. Island Press, Washington, D.C. servation biologists, Noss (1997) gave uni- private Greater Ecosystem Alliance did a Grumbine, R. E. 1994. What is ecosystem versities a scathing assessment, with some much better job using similar data. This management? Conservation Biology 8:27-38. notable exceptions. Readers with land man- could be, because the viability determinants Jacobson, S., and M. D. McDuff. 1998. Training idiot agement experience may laugh at any sug- he highlights were highly significant. How- savants: The lack of human dimensions in gestion that new resource managers can ever, to attribute the two results to differ- conservation biology. Conservation Biology leave a university with all the knowledge ent organizational value systems (private 12:263-267. and skills they will ever need. Only in this sector versus government) is speculation. Noss, R. F. 1997. The failure of universities to century, have universities tried to fill a need Grumbine has provided valuable technical produce conservation biologists. Conservation once reserved for practical experience, ap- guidance and insight in previous work Biology 11:1267-1269. prenticeships, and continued personal (Grumbine 1992), but it unfortunately again Pickett, S. T. A., V. T. Parker, and P. L. Fielder. 1992. study. Jacobson’s recommendations are gets intermixed with black-and-white es- The new paradigm in ecology: Implications for conservation biology above the species level. sound, she is well acquainted with the lit- say generalizations driven by his frustration Pages 65-88 in P. L. Fielder and S. K. Jain, erature (Jacobsen and McDuff 1998), but with agencies. The author repeats his five editors. Conservation Biology: The theory and they lack some insight derived from per- primary “ecosystem management” prin- practice of nature preservation and management. sonal work experience. ciples from his significant 1994 paper. Chapman and Hall, New York. In Chapter 18, James J. Kennedy and Jack The book ends abruptly with a one-page Power, T. M. 1996. Lost Landscapes and Failed Ward Thomas propose a new model for synopsis. Although each section of the book Economies. Island Press, Washington, D.C. managing natural resources—manage for begins with a useful synthesis, top officials Shrader-Frechette, K. S. and E. D. McCoy. 1993. social value instead of things! Readers might in agencies and elsewhere are conditioned Method in ecology. Cambridge University Press, not reach this awareness on their own. The to look for “strategies.” Because of this ex- England. authors believe their model reflects what pectation, however difficult or even scien- students actually encounter on the job, of- tifically naive, the book should have ended ten to their great surprise. For NPS read- by bringing more detailed focus to more of ers, “social conflict management” may the dominant ideas presented in its many sound familiar. The authors do not advo- chapters.

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