Historical Case Studies of
Human Overexploitation of
Natural Resource Base
(Lessons Learned?)
Easter Island (400 AD-present)
Anasazi Indians, Chaco Canyon, NM
(900-1100 AD)
Petra, Jordan (7000 BC-1900 AD)
Dust Bowl (1930’s)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrPhFO00VQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=guTek7ipD4U
2013 Oklahoma
Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima Nuclear
Disasters (2011)
•radiation through the Northern Hemisphere.
Landscape-scale Modifications to Ecosystems
Cum berland Plateau M ix ed-M esophytic Forest,
Central Appalachia (W V, KY, VA, TN )
Deep Origins of Wildlife Management
Evolutionary Tendencies
• Instinctual reactions to non-humans: Fear, Aversion, Attraction, Love
• “Wilderness is where my genome lives.” – Paul Shepard
Religious and Philosophical Influences
• define the relationship between humans, their societies, and the
natural world
Sociological Inertia
• the weight and momentum (influence) of culture on human behavior;
behavioral norms
Science
• What we have learned in the past few centuries about other life on
Earth and sustainability of resources that we depend on?
Attitudes Towards
Wilderness (“Nature”)
Some evolutionary tendencies/attitudes we have include:
• we of course like to control our fates, and inability to control or
use nature can create uncertainty (e.g. accidents, getting eaten!)
• Deprivation/reduction of visual acuity; fear darkness and the
predation that so long characterized this time period
Art by Mauricion Anton
“Forest Creatures & the Wild Man Mythology”
Pan – origin of “panic”
“Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti”
Loss of visual acuity in dark, “forboding” places
PLEISTOCENE EXTINCTION,
North and South America
(10-15K years pre-Columbus)
Painting by Mauricio Anton, in The Big Cats and their Fossil Relatives, Columbia University Press. 1997.
Painting by Mauricio Anton, in The Big Cats and their Fossil Relatives, Columbia University Press. 1997.
Extinct
Extinct &
& living
living large
large (>45kg)
(>45kg) mammals
mammals of
of the
the late
late Quaternary
Quaternary (N.A.)
(N.A.)**
Glyptodont
American mastodon
Mountain deer
Big-tongued ground sloth
Columbian mammoth
Woodland caribou
Jefferson's ground sloth
Dwarf mammoth
Moose
Shasta ground sloth
Jefferson's mammoth
Wapiti
Dire wolf
Woolly mammoth
Pronghorn
Gray wolf
Mexican horse
Pleistocene mountain goat
Black Bear
Western horse
Mountain goat
Brown Bear
Pleistocene tapir
Bighorn
Giant short-faced bear
Western camel
Shrub ox
Saber-toothed cat
Long-legged llama
Bonnet-headed musk ox
American lion
Long-nosed peccary
Musk ox
Jaguar
Flat-headed peccary
Pleistocene bison
American cheetah
Mule deer
American bison
Mountain lion
White-tailed deer
* from Martin & Burney 1999
WildEarth
Wilderness
“Wilderness” – Norse-Teutonic origin
 Wild – “unruly, willed”
 doer – “animal, beast”
 ness – “state or condition
 Wil-doer-ness – the place of wild beasts
Wil-doer –appears in Beowulf (Anglo-Saxon epic of 8th century
14th century Bible translation; uninhabited land of the Middle East, a
treeless wasteland
1755 dictionary – a desert; a tract of solitude and savageness
Today – uncultivated or otherwise undeveloped land usually with the
absence of humans and presence of intact biota
Others, such as Paul Shepard, argued that even though we
have a deep-seated fear of nature given our sometimes role as
prey species, animals and plants provide context for our
existence and fostered the evolution of our development in
many ways; we became the thinking animals we are today.
Therefore, some postulate that humans have an innate
attraction, love of, and need for the companionship of other
life forms called biophilia, a term coined by renowned
sociobiologist E.O. Wilson.
A brief bio about E.O. Wilson and the newly created
“Biophilia Center” in Florida can be found at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLLRn49diy0
Judeo-Christian Influence
•Most practioners of early Christianity (in particular)
emphasized dominion and distinctiveness of humans
over nature; (Lynn White “exploitative philosophy” )
Book of Genesis (Old Testament, Bible)
“be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth and subdue it;
have dominion over every living thing that moves upon
the Earth.”
• JC philosophy and writings influenced wilderness
concepts and symbolism (n = 280 in Bible)
“The land is a Garden of Eden before them, and behind
them a desolate wilderness.” Joel 2:3
Noah’s Ark
Stewardship and
care of “God’s
creatures”
The Exodus
 Sanctuary from a sinful
persecuting society
 Place to draw close to God
Testing ground of faith
Supported the notion of
nature as escape for
purification, faith , and
renewal
Eastern Philosophies and Religion
Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Taoism, Shintoism
• Humans part of nature
• Wilderness place of refuge
• Natural settings important places of
worship or for religious context.
•Nature directly worshipped
• Nature prevalent theme in art –
humans depicted as secondary
subjects ; Kuo His “Why does a
virtuous man take delight in
landscapes?”
Natural
World
Spiritual
World
• But are these followers and their
cultures more likely to conserve
resources?
Kuo Hsi
Early Spring (~1000 A.D.)
Lang Shih-ning
Pair of Cranes in the Shadow
of Flowers (~1700 A.D.)
Chinese rank badges
(19th century)
More European Influence
Continent-wide resource depletion
Preserves for Nobility sometimes created
Awareness of the extinction of some species on continent
and European colonies
Auroch (Bos prim igenius)
Dodo (Raphus cucullatus )
Pre-Columbus America
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brSPQ7s
UE84 (7:30)
Exploration and Colonialism
• European population 27-73 million (700-1300 A.D)
• Crusades stimulated trade, demand for exotic
products and to exploit East to replenish bounty of
nation-states
• religious sanctuary and propagation
• Import of resources helped facilitate Renaissance
(rebirth) learning, exploration, scholarship, and later
the Enlightenment
“The land before is a hideous and desolate
w ilderness ” William Bradford (1600’s)
“Men dreamed of life without wilderness, for it had no place in the
paradise myth.” - Nash, W ilderness and the Am erican M ind
Questions
How has religion influenced human-nature
relations?
How has the predominant views of Western
monotheistic religions differed from Eastern
religions and hunter-gatherer societies?
What resource exploitation patterns in Europe
led to colonization of the western
hemisphere, and how did those attitudes to
resource use translate to these new
societies?
Early Conservation Measures
Kublai Khan
 Leader of the
Mongol Horde
 No killing of animals
between March and
October
 Established food
plots of wild animals
Bialowieza Forest (Poland-Belarus)
Established in 1561 by the Polish King largely to protect
wisent
Now one of the largest remaining woodland tracts in
Europe
Wisent (Bison bonasus )
Some Early Colonial Conservation
Measures
• 1626-1639 - NE regulation
timber cutting and sale, forest
fires, den hunting
• 1710 - Massachusetts coastal
waterfowl protection
• 1839 – Rhode Island closed
deer season from April-Nov.
William Penn (1644-1718)
• Founder
Woods)
• Wrote
of Pennsylvania (Penn’s
the first forest conservation
law in colonies: requiring the
preservation of one acre in five as
forest
New Ways of Thinking about Nature:
The Enlightenment and
Age of Reason
Romanticism
• World viewed as complex, harmonious
• Mysterious, strange, remote, solitary
experiences and ideas were sought by
romantics; Fear of wilderness was reinterpreted
as awe and astonishment
• Urban creation was man’s works
superimposed upon God
• Primitivism - romantic expression that
man’s happiness decreases in proportion to
civilization, primitive cultures admired, “noble
savage” concept
• People sought out primitive experiences to
yield strength, hardiness, and virility
America’s Identity Crisis
• Distinctive culture = True Nation
• What was uniquely American?
• Europe had scenery, but not wilderness !
• Europe deposited layer of artificiality on God’s masterpiece
= gave America a distinct moral advantage = destined for
literary/artistic excellence
Danube, birds, Nat. Bridge (Notes on VA)
• Cooper, Leatherstocking Tales and Irving firmly establish
nature writing as literary genre
Rise of Nature Appreciation
Birds of Am erica
(1827)
• Began in cities, removed from physical
hardships
• 1820-1840 rise in magazines and picturesque
books, 1850’s rise in popularity of travel
literature
John James Audubon
• Wilderness increasingly becoming a novelty;
pilgrimages; Appreciation of wilderness
becomes a gentlemanly virtue
Thomas Cole (1830s)
•Unique, nature-centric artistic perspective
•Adirondacks, Hudson Valley, Catskill Mts.
Frontier-Manifest Destiny
(1835-1885)
Manifest Destiny
1862- Homestead Act –
160 acres free if live 5 years
and improve it
30,000 miles by 1861
ERA OF EXPLOITATION (NORTH AMERICA)
1600-1900
• Fur Industry (Beaver, Bear, Deer/Elk, Wolves, Mink,
Otter, etc.); caused regional extinction of many species
Passenger Pigeon slaughter (1884)
Great Auk (RIP: 1844)
Carolina Parakeet (RIP: 1918)
Passenger Pigeon (RIP: 1914)
Native Kentucky Large Mammal
Extinctions (1800-1900)
Questions
Why and how did European attitudes towards
wilderness change during and after
colonization of other places?
What major movements and belief systems
arose and influenced your last answer?
In what way did answers A and B influence
early American conservation actions and
attitudes?
Thomas Moran (1870s)
William Jackson, photographer
Charles Darwin
Naturalist, traveled to Galapagos
Islands, other remote areas to study
flora and fauna
Origin of Species (1859) – challenged
anthropocentric view of life, explained
biological diversity and human existence
through evolution
Romantic-Transcendental Conservation Ethic
Emerson
Thoreau
Muir
Nature has uses other than economic gain
Nature is the temple of God in which to commune and appreciate Him
Minimalism over materialism
Nature is purifying of the corruption and sin of civilization
George Perkins Marsh
• Congressman from Vermont
• Man abused his power to alter nature,
which has serious implications
• Wilderness provided utility, and its
protection was compatible with progress and
economic welfare
•Great civilizations rise and fall
according to their stew ardship of
resources
 Explorer, world traveler, keen observer, prolific nature writer,
scientist, storyteller, and advocate of the gospel of
John Muir naturalist,
wilderness
(1838-1914)
 Leader of the preservationist movement, the management
philosophy of The National Park System
Explored the Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite, studied glaciers
and botany. Believed that trancendentalism is the central
philosophy for interpreting wilderness. One of the nation's most
eminent nature writers, his articles in Century magazine in the
late 1880s drew attention to the destruction of forestland by
grazing animals, the need to preserve wilderness, and eventually
led to the creation of Sequoia and Yosemite national parks in
1890
 A father of our national parks, a tireless naturalist and lobbyist
for protecting wildlands.
 Founded the Sierra Club in 1892.
 Persuaded Roosevelt to manage forest reserves using federal
control
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CDzhIvugw8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpgx-LkvHGE&feature=related
Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946)
Wanted to apply max. sust. yield and other principles to America’s
forest reserves. What is maximum sustainable yield?
Crusaded for preservation of our natural resources through managed
use (Resource Conservation Ethic; multi-use concept practiced by
USFS and BLM); apply max. sustained yield to forests.
“manage scientifically to obtain a steady supply of valuable timber
products”
 Founded and developed the U.S. Forest Service (1905) under TR,
changed name from forest reserves to “national forests”
“Conservation movement has development for its first principle”
“greatest good for greatest # for the longest time”
Throughout his life and career, held fast to his notion of the universal
interdependence of people and natural resources, and human
responsibility for maintaining those resources in good supply and
condition.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m-oFZMhJqc Part 1 of “The
Greatest Good” documentary, you’ll find more parts of this on the
same page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irGOngj8O88 (later part of his life)
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
 Avid outdoorsman, birder, and hunter
 Propelled conservation movement forward via
Progressive reform platform
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCxf9eYWiaM
 Established Boone & Crockett Club (1887) and U.S.
Forest Service (1905)
 Created the first national wildlife refuge (1903) at
Pelican Island, FL
 Greatly influenced by Muir and Pinchot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gJ43sReByo
 Established 51 NWRs, created 5 National Parks, and 16
National Monuments. National forest acreage increased
from 42 million acres in 1905 to 172 million when he left
office.
 Science should be the cornerstone of conservation!
 Elevated the Biological Survey to a strong bureau with
police powers
Roosevelt
“It is also vandalism wantonly to destroy or to permit
the destruction of what is beautiful in nature, whether
it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird.
Here in the United States we turn our rivers and
streams into sewers and dumping-grounds, we pollute
the air, we destroy forests, and exterminate fishes,
birds and mammals -- not to speak of vulgarizing
charming landscapes with hideous advertisements. But
at last it looks as if our people were awakening."
Theodore Roosevelt
• By 1916 – 13 National Parks existed; Congress created
National Park Service to oversee their use
• Preservationists rallied around the National Park concept and
embraced it as the mechanism to protect areas of interest
• Preservationists fought to prevent development and roads in
them
Questions
What technologies and sociological developments
occurred that influenced the American
conservation movement?
What important American figures emerged to
challenge some early/traditional Judeo-Christian
anthropocentric beliefs about nature?
How did the realization about the end of the
“frontier” coupled with your last 2 answers
influence early conservation actions in the U.S.?
Jay “Ding” Darling
• Cartoonist
• Conservation and
wilderness advocate
• 1st Chief of what is
now U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service
• Founded National
Wildlife Foundation
1910s -1950s (Global Strife and Game Management)
License sales, game wardens,
wildlife management areas
 Lacy Act of 1900 – outlawed interstate trade of
protected birds (later all protected wildlife), called on
the BBS to enforce laws; no foreign importation of
wildlife w/o permit.
1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act – treaty with Canada for
protection of migratory birds regulated the taking, selling,
transporting, and importing and determines penalties ($500 and 6
mo. jail!); 1934 – Duck Stamp Act - must buy waterfowl permit
to hunt them, funded wetland restoration and management and
restocking waterfowl.
Federal Aid to Wildlife Restoration Act 1937
• Pittman-Robertson Act (PR)
• Created an 11% excise tax on guns, ammo, archery supplies
• Money available to states using a formula based on:
• land area
• number hunting licenses sold
What are these funds used for?
Provided matching funds (federal government 75%, states
25%) for:
• w ildlife habitat , restoration, rehabilitation and
improvement
• w ildlife m anagem ent research , and the distribution of
information produced by the projects.
Wildlife Education
Anna Comstock
• The mother of nature education, formed
the Comstock Publishing Company. Its
motto: "Nature through Books."
•Handbook of N ature Study (1911)
emphasized the rewards of direct
observation of wildlife. Stressed the
importance of natural relationships
•approach to nature study, she said, was
to "cultivate the child's imagination, love
of the beautiful .” Instrumental in
launching a pilot nature study program -
Roger Tory Peterson
• one of the premier naturalists and wildlife
artists of the 20th century
• designed Peterson method of field
identification and series of field guides that
popularized nature and especially bird
watching Field Guide to the Birds (1934)
Aldo Leopold (1886-1948)
A forester, game manager, scientist, teacher,
and writer, Leopold was also a visionary, whose
concept of a land ethic serves as the
philosophical underpinning of the modern-day
conservation movement
Recognized the scientific need beyond
sentiment for preserving natural areas and
systems
Pioneer of wildlife management, published
Gam e M anagem ent (1933) “Father of game
management” “Father of conservation biology”
Eloquent prose about the challenge of
defending and promoting conservation land
ethics in Sand County Alm anac (1949)
Stewardship largely responsibility of individual
not government; preached land ethic and
restrained use and light impact of natural areas;
frowned on gadgetry
 Helped create 1st wilderness area (Gila), and
actions via the Wilderness Society and philosophy
underpinned the Wilderness Act
Ecological-Evolutionary Land Ethic – not based on
religion per se, but on ecological and evolutionary
principles and concepts
Biocentric Equality - right of all organisms to achieve
self-realization. All members of biotic community,
including humans, are what Leopold called “plain
citizens”).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQED4YEMx9A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqlp-lteQj4&feature=related (Nice factual presentation by
WI student)
Wilderness Act (1964)
Established a process for permanently protecting areas from human
encroachment and development
Wilderness defined 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.”
Protected areas “are to be managed so to appear that the landscape has
primarily been shaped by the forces of nature.”
Endangered Species Act (1966-1973)
 Authorizes the determination and listing of endangered and threatened
species and their habitats
 Prohibits unauthorized taking, possession, sale, and transport of all
endangered and threatened species or destruction of their habitat, the later
includes any government agency
 Provides federal government authority to purchase land and water for the
purpose of protecting threatened or endangered species
Rachel Carson (1907-1964)
 writer, scientist, ecologist
 Silent Spring (1962) described the dangers of
pesticides and synthetic compounds; perhaps most
influential book of 20th century
 writing focused on relaying information to the public in
concise clear argumentative format
 pollution and environmental degradation could affect
multiple organisms in a food web, and were not always
local problems but could be regional, global, and lifethreatening
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_Njv5Ygg0g
(short clip on bio)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-NAUkyIgM&feature=related (Part 1 of a documentary with links
to all 6 parts, from American Experience)
National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA) 1969
•
•
On any activity that could affect
the environment, all federal
agencies must consult in planning &
decision making- all actions require
an environmental impact statement
(impacts, adverse environmental
effects, alternatives) made available
to public so that choices can be
weighed and decided on as to
whether to proceed.
Environmental impacts thus must
be equally considered with the
benefits of the proposed actions.
What is Wildlife?
Wildlife agencies determine definition, but typically…
• Undomesticated, free-ranging animals
(historically was only birds and mammals; now
includes many species under Endangered Species Act of
1973; essentially any living organism can be considered for
protection under this law)
Living or growing in its original or natural state
Hunted for food or sport (often)
GAME SPECIES VS. NON-GAME SPECIES (state and
federal government dependent)
I. Game Species = recreational/consumptive harvest (legally
exploitable for hide, fur, or flesh ; 12% of vertebrates)
Examples:
White-tailed deer, eastern cottontail, wild turkey, black bear
II. Non-game Species = no harvest (~legally unexploitable)
Examples:
Most songbirds (Northern cardinal), threatened and endangered
species
Who Owns and Manages Wildlife?
•
Wildlife are considered in most countries as a public
resource (“in the public domain”).
•
Management of wildlife depends on the species and it’s
conservation status:
• In the U.S.
a) Resident Species – State Wildlife Agency
(funded exclusively by license sales or in
addition to excise or sales tax; KY license
sales only)
b) M igratory, endangered – US Fish &
Wildlife Service (federal taxes)
Wildlife management - is a young science that only began in the 1930s
when Aldo Leopold wrote “Game Management.”
HISTORICAL DEFINITION
•Aldo Leopold (Game Management, 1933)
•“Science and art of making land produce
sustained annual crops of wild game for
recreational use.” (Concept of sustainable yield)
Bolen & Robinson (1984)
• Ecological knowledge applied to populations of vertebrate animals & their
plant/animal associates – strike a balance between needs of those
populations & needs of people
Scalet, Flake, & Willis (1996)
• Art and science of manipulating the biota, habitat, or human users to
produce some desired end point
3 Main Jobs of Wildlife Management &
Conservation (% time typically spent)
1) Manipulating Wildlife Populations (5%)
Increase
Decrease
Stabilize
2) Manipulating Wildlife Habitat (10%)
3) Managing People (85%)