Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions: Science and the

Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception of Nature

American ecologists seeking to influence the founders of the National Park Service had hoped that protection of the parks would create preserves where â€œnatural conditionsâ€ could exist in an idealized presettlement state. These hopes, however, produced a bitter irony. In order to secure a naturally functioning park, officials had to provide intensive management to preserve â€œnature at work.â€ For the better part of the twentieth century, the forms this management has taken have polarized public opinion.
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James A. Pritchardâ€™s Preserving Yellowstoneâ€™s Natural Conditions demonstrates that even the most up-to-date scientific policy could not reckon with public expectations and animal behavior. When Yellowstone stopped its bear feeding program in an attempt to restore naturally regulated bear populations, the public bemoaned the loss of the spectacle. The bears, meanwhile, had learned to associate humans with food, and the loss of reliable meals brought them into campsites. Park officials had to shoot bears that made a menace of themselves, leaving many people frustrated with the parkâ€™s attempts to preserve Yellowstone as a natural ecosystem.
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Pritchard believes that restoring natural conditions for bears and other animals is a sound idea. Yellowstone, he argues, represents an ecological anchor, a relatively untrammeled slice of nature. Despite decades of tampering, the park provides scientists and managers with an outdoor laboratory for examining natural processes that existed before extensive settlement.
Country USA
Brand University of Nebraska Press
Manufacturer University of Nebraska Press
Binding Hardcover
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780803237223
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	University of Nebraska Press
Manufacturer	University of Nebraska Press
Binding	Hardcover
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780803237223
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Preserving Yellowstone's Natural Conditions: Science and the Perception of Nature

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