Chapter Summary

Parks, wildlife refuges, wilderness areas, and nature preserves occupy a small percentage of our total land area but protect valuable cultural resources and representative samples of the earth’s species and ecosystems. We can discern much about people’s environmental ideals by examining the gardens, parks, and recreation areas that they create. Yosemite in California was probably the first park in the world set aside to protect wild nature. Yellowstone, which was established in 1872, was the first official national park in the world.

Parks are havens for wildlife and places for healthful outdoor recreation. Many are overcrowded, misused, and neglected, however. Pollution and incompatible uses outside parks threaten the values that we seek to protect. Wildlife is at the center of many park controversies. Is the park’s purpose to preserve wild nature or provide entertainment for visitors? How much management is acceptable? When should we intervene and when should we let nature take its course?

There are proposals to remove distracting or damaging uses from parks and to limit entrance permits. We may reach the point where each of us might be allowed to visit some of the more popular parks only once in a lifetime. One solution to congestion and overuse is to create additional parks in some of the many deserving but unprotected areas.

Worldwide, only about 4 percent of total land area has been protected in parks, wildlife refuges, and nature preserves. Some biomes such as dry tropical forests and tundra are well represented in this network, but others such as grassland and wetlands are underrepresented. The optimum size for nature preserves depends on the terrain and the values they are intended to protect, but—in general—the larger a reserve is, the more species it can protect. Establishing corridors to link separate areas can be a good way to increase effective space and to allow migration from one area to another. Economic development and nature protection can go hand in hand. Ecotourism may be the most lucrative and long-lasting way to use resources in many developing countries.

Areas chosen for preservation often are lands of indigenous people. Careful planning and zoning can protect nature and also allow sustainable use of resources. Man and Biosphere (MAB) reserves provide for multiple use in some areas but strict conservation in others. Wildlife refuges were intended to be sanctuaries for wildlife, but over the years many improbable and damaging uses have become established in them.

Wetlands are areas periodically covered with water that support unique assemblages of plants that can survive in water-saturated soil. Much of our wildlife, including many endangered species, depend on wetlands for a part of their life cycles. Historically, we have regarded wetlands as worthless, disagreeable places and we have encouraged people to drain or fill them. About half of our original wetlands in the United States have been destroyed or degraded. Flood control and flood insurance encourage people to build homes and businesses on floodplains, barrier islands, beaches, and other fragile, flood-prone areas. Human and ecological costs of these misguided policies have been high.