Rural System's

Modern Wild Faunal Resource System Management

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Cross Currents: Preface

There are debates about whether "wildlife management "can be called a field, a profession, a school of thought, an area of work, a unit of ecology, or something else. That decision is a mere ripple in a flood of other necessary decisions for those employed, schools and their students using the words, and related agencies. There are competitive organizations that have formed that dissipate the funds, interests, and enthusiasm for the work that is needed. Those dis-economies can be ignored as long as the objectives of the competitors are the same -- improved management of the resource called "wildlife." I fear that they are not, but I have no time (or are others likely to have any) to probe into that darkness which is also changing.

Having observed and participated in the arena for 30 years, I am well aware of claims that it began with the first textbook on Game Management by Leopold in 1933. He cited evidence of earlier work, and others in the western states and elsewhere were already "practicing". Leaders in India over a century ago were clearly involved in more than raising captive animals for sport. I care little where it started or with whom, but I do care about what I perceive to be slow progress, failure to develop a coherent or unifying theory, and now stagnation with internal conflicts and unregulated growth with few standards for things known or accepted as workable truths. The arena is diminished by nay-sayers who use animals only as means to stop or delay land use changes. Some claim my attitude is one in which "the glass is half empty". A faulty claim, I believe I see what can be a very full glass that is only moist within.

We have been slow over 40 observed years to use computers, to embrace international problems, to support and develop geographic information systems, to form cooperative multi-state efforts, to include law enforcement in integrated programs or work, to engage in vertebrate damage management, to include wild plants as part of the wild "life" being managed, or to engage in economic analyses of the faunal resource and its costs of production. Clearly some of these have been done, but they are conspicuous as "singles." I believe this can, and in my view, must change and at a rapid rate. That is one reason for this book.

I attended a respected "wildlife lecture" given to a group of diverse resource managers a bare 2 years ago. I heard content that was 30 years old, presented to professionals as if to school children, and it was without a hint of practicality. Learning words was the objective as if the words might feed, protect, or house animals or increase their productivity ... or their value to people. At every break in the lecture I noted the possible alternative. Later I termed these cross currents for there were evident conflicts and overlaps. Counter-claims existed for many of them. People within the natural resource, wildland, and wildlife management arena needed to know not the simplicity, but the complexity, of the decisions necessary and the grave consequences of poor decisions. They needed to fear the decision, not assume it easily made by anyone who has seen an animal. I grow weary, almost ill, when people paid as wildlife managers only act as if they were youth leaders, as if they were appearing on week-end TV programs as the recreating elite, or as unengaged "eunuchs in the harem."

Cross Currents is a little unit with "an attitude". I've tried to cite major sources of ideas and materials and I beg forgiveness for omissions. I have read and attended conferences and seminars and all sources are unknown and ideas have perplexing sources. I've made the book personal, for that is the genuine nature of the Web. I have made links to resources for you. I know that wildlife managers are very diverse so I have placed nodes in the text so that you may jump ahead to avoid things you know well or in which you have little interest or schooling ... or jump backwards to review. At the end of each chapter there are aids that may help you evaluate your understanding of the materials. It is a free book, thus the high cost of a conventional book of similar size and with color illustrations will not impede reading and using the contents. Throughout there are supportive units such as the glossary. The book is best read as a hypertext, jumping around, link to link. There are small interactive units in which you can see the likely consequences of making managerial changes in the environment or to populations. There are a few active models or simulations. This is not a book about all wildlife management. I attempted that before (Giles 1972 and 1988) and now it is time for distilling observations and attempting to describe the grounds of a new paradigm. It is a book about things that I now know and what I think is a powerful new way to look at and work with the wildlife resource, i.e., within an entrepreneurial system. I am hopeful that the content will cause some lectures to be changed, some thoughts to be sparked, and alternative ways of engaging in managing the wild faunal resource to emerge. They can, you know. They need to be.

I am grateful to the Conservation Management Institute of Virginia Tech for housing this unit and my web site on their servers.

I'll try to be responsive to suggestions and I am eager to gain related ideas. There is probably room for Cross Currents II and III or more. I hope that you will write them and make them available on the Web. I doubt if I have time left. I believe that people of the world dependent upon the resource which depends upon you (or both of us) for management.

Check it out. Do you have the essence of the concept? This is your place for feedback. Just place your pointer over the marker(s) by the brief statement(s) that you think is/are most correct. (The guides or answers are hidden.)

We have to eliminate the cross-currents in our arena.
Cross currents can be challenges but we need to move to a firm concept of wild faunal resource system management.
Cross Currents is a unit about ocean navigation.

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Last revision January 15, 2004.