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Wildland Management Essays
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Chapter Title
Textxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Preface I had interviewed a goat-herd owner about the arrowheads he had found. Afterwards I asked casually about the "for-sale" sign by the front gate. For years I had admired the place, a cabin and 20 acres, when I drove by. He told me a little about it… casual comments to a visitor on other business. That night I was surprised, nearly shocked, at my wife's willingness to consider buying the place. We did, with help from my father and step-mother. I justified acquisition, not on grounds of having a "vacation place," but a place for work on more conventional wildlife and ecology topics than those on which I worked previously. I thought classes could use it and it could be a place for centralizing graduate student efforts. I was wrong about that, but I found it was a place for cheap therapy. Physical work there had to be less expensive and at least as productive as time spent with a psychiatrist. I visited a friend whose wife, a medical doctor, gave me a slip of paper to read as I left. It was a "handout" about depression. In our conversations during the day I had revealed my frustrations with my university, academic, and professional situation. She had diagnosed my condition without my asking for it. I didn't realize I had a condition. The situation changed, as I did, but the things experienced in the work around the place I later called Peculiar Manor were remarkable. Several times while driving home from the cabin I realized that I had not thought of "work" - university stuff - even once! It was a shock. Most of my life is immersed, totally, in thinking about, writing about, programming for, and teaching about systems, usually large natural systems such as watersheds, regions, parks, and wildlife management areas. I've changed the 20-acres and the cabin that we call Peculiar Manor. It has changed me. It is a good place to which to go. Some say to "get away," but I view it as an alternative good place, one for work, exercise, learning, and writing (from which I usually learn). It is a place for watching the fire, recalling, trying to see the future, and trying to understand daffodils. The work herein is for my children and grandchildren - for us all. The university rarely provides a format for such work, and certainly not the journals of the "scientific" societies trying to relate to natural resource management. I am genuinely concerned about the future wildland communities of the world, especially the threatened and endangered species. Everything now must be managed because people are a part of all lands. There are no more undisturbed areas. People are everywhere; the completely-natural no longer exists. What people have modified they must continue to modify and manage because the long-term costs of failure to do so are sure to be more than they or their children are willing to pay. The wildlands and their plants and animals are being mis-managed; maximum human benefits over the long-term are not being gained. This book seeks to present a new strategy for correcting the situation. New leaders are needed to implement the strategy. My variety of experiences in the East and West of the U.S.; several other countries; smoke chasing; being a "biologist"; private consulting; writing; teaching… all have lead me to express my great concern and love for the wildlands of the world, particularly the U.S., and to suggest that the present state of affairs for the wildlands is dire. It is wrong-headed, broke, and needs fixing. This book has been written so that we can talk and think together about repair and maintenance strategies. Few people write and hardly ever talk enough to learn about anyone, either what they know or feel. We have to know these things for effective work together. It also tells where I think things in the professional world of the great out-of-doors have gotten off track and where they might head in the future. I doubt if the suggestions are radical, but some are in opposition to current practice. All, I believe, are possible. The book is intended for everyone who loves the forest and other wildlands and everything connected with it - hikers, campers, woods workers, foresters and associated professional of a wide variety. It is the kind of book I wish I had had when I was considering a career, at least graduate schools. It is the book I wish my advisor had just read before I began my career. I doubt if there is enough life left in the forestry graduate schools to discuss the concepts here and arrive at a basis for life-action. I hate to think it, but I see little hope that the needed changes are going to come from within the wildland societies. Not only is the book for people who work in or with the forests of the world. I wrote it for others. A new level of sophistication about science, ecology, and resources exists within the general public and they will find the book interesting. More importantly, I hope they will find that it becomes one basis for their efforts in moving the management of wildland resources to new levels of relevance, sophistication, and care. The book is about wildlife, wildlands, but, in truth, about all so-called natural resource management. It is about a realm of science and addresses it in a constructive way. It is about the appropriate range of things - simplify at your own risk! - from molecular attraction of insect antennae and cell growth of fungal tree root-hairs to the international politics of log export tariffs and how tree chip-board research in the U.S. affects tropical forests in Brazil. The book is about how the tree-covered and related landscapes of the world are analyzed, described, and managed and what changes are needed, badly needed, if they are to continue to produce benefits for people at an increasing or even stable rate. It is an effort to get people into the woods and allow them to enjoy them more and deeply. It is also written to get some people out of the woods, have them take a new look from a new conceptual place (call it a "paradigm shift" if you must), and then go back there to do some good works.