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Viewpoint

Rough Waters

12/19/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
Photo by Tom Earnhardt
This year, with clear evidence that the Trump Administration is jeopardizing many U.S. environmental conservation and protection programs and policies, with hugely damaging consequences, Gary E. Machlis, former National Park Service science advisor (and Clemson University professor of environmental sustainability), and Jonathan B. Jarvis, retired NPS career professional and national director from 2009 to 2017, co-authored an important and inspirational book. The Future of Conservation in America: a Chart for Rough Water (University of Chicago Press) asserts that we are in a period of “rough water,” affecting many environmental assets and conservation programs. The authors identify three major environmental and social threats (and the dangerous irresponsibility of denying them) confronting America: climate change, species extinction, and economic inequality. Actions are required to navigate through the very rough waters facing us. It is essential to assure that the conservation movement is understood by Americans (and especially by young people) as critically relevant to public health and interest. A general re-commitment to environmental conservation and protection is necessary.  <<continued>>
     The authors say their “chart for the future of conservation” is based on strategic intention. Emphasizing that there should be no boundaries between conservation management of natural and of cultural resources (which are inextricably linked), they call for a new and unified vision of conservation.
     Here are strategies presented by Machlis and Jarvis to guide the future of conservation in the U.S.:
  • Monitor, record, and expose the retreat and retrenchment of environmental protection and conservation
  • Organize and act to provide science in the public interest
  • Base communication of conservation on deeper understandings and broader coalitions of interest
  • Incorporate strategic intent and the long view into every action, conflict, or crisis
  • Connect all citizens to American nature, history, and culture through first-hand experience
  • Expand recognition and sharing of the full American story
  • Extend the healthy parks, healthy people strategy to more Americans
  • Protect, connect, and grow the network of protected areas across the American land- and sea-scape
  • Invest time, effort, and resources in local engagement with respect for local values
  • Increase investment in science and better integrate scientific information and insights into decision making
  • Integrate climate change into all conservation decisions and actions
  • Improve the training of future conservation professionals
  • Encourage and support conservationists to run for elected office at local, state, and national levels
  • Execute an inter-generational transfer of power
   Advancing a unified vision of conservation will lead to meaningful common cause and help us navigate the rough waters we face. Together, we can respond to the many threats and, with the creativity of the next generation of America’s youth, and the resilience and restorative powers of nature, we can succeed in conserving America’s natural and cultural resources.                          --Chuck Roe, SCP president
1 Comment
John E Cotterman
3/28/2019 12:17:32 pm

Hey folks. What's happening around here?

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    Conservation, viewed in its entirety, is the slow and laborious unfolding of a new relationship between people and land.
    --Aldo Leopold
    ​There is in fact no distinction between the fate of the land and the fate of the people.  When one is abused, the other suffers.
    --Wendell Berry

    From the President

    SCP President Chuck Roe looked at land conservation along the route of John Muir's "Southern Trek."​
    ​READ ABOUT IT


    About Viewpoint

    This blog offers views of our Board and partners. We invite  your viewpoint on the following questions:
      --How can we work together to overcome isolation among groups working to protect and conserve land, water, wildlife, biodiversity, urban green spaces, productive farms and forests, and communities?
      --How can we devise means to conserve more natural and rural land resources in corporate ownership (even in "syndicated" partnership ownership)? Can that be done ethically, responsibly, effectively?
      --Is there substantive interest in creating a new regional association of nonprofit groups engaged in land conservation and environmental protection in the southern U.S.--for mutual support and exchange ?
      --Is there a need for a regional approach to promote, assess, recognize, and certify operational standards and practices, and performance excellence for nonprofit environmental resource conservation groups?

        Your thoughts on other topics are welcome as well. Email us to submit a "Viewpoint" essay.

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​P.O. Box 33222,  Raleigh N.C. 27636-3222
    Phone: 919-500-6598
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