Rethinking park protection: treading the uncommon ground of environmental beliefs

225 Pages·2012·0.912 MB·English

by  LaPage, W. (Eds.)

RETHINKING PARK PROTECTION
Treading the Uncommon Ground of Environmental Beliefs
“The real crisis in our parks is a crisis of belief.”
The Cover
Perhaps be(cid:308) er than any heritage site in the world Stonehenge epitomizes
the tension that exists between scientists and humanists in the protection
and interpretation of our cultural assets. The scientist argues for
restricted access to the inner circle to preserve archeological artifacts,
while the humanist insists that only by experiencing the inner circle does
the visitor truly experience Stonehenge, and in so doing become a
protector of the site. Both views are driven by powerful belief systems,
while their convergence exemplifi es the enormously paradoxical world
of park preservation.
Rethinking Park Protection
Treading the Uncommon Ground of Environmental
Beliefs
Will LaPage
CABI is a trading name of CAB International
CABI CABI
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Website: www.cabi.org
© W. LaPage 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any form or by any means, electronically, mechanically, by
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the
copyright owners.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library, London,
UK.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
La Page, Will, 1935-
Rethinking park protection : treading the uncommon ground of environmental
beliefs / Will La Page.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-84593-999-1 (hbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-1-78064-001-3 (pbk. : alk.
paper) 1. National parks and reserves--Conservation and restoration. 2.
National parks and reserves--Management. 3. Parks--Conservation and restora-
tion. 4. Parks--Management. 5. Environmental policy. 6. Environmental protec-
tion. 7. Environmental protection--Philosophy. 8. Belief and doubt--Social
aspects. 9. Belief and doubt--Political aspects. I. Title.
SB481.L3 2012
333.78’3--dc23
2011042627
ISBN-13: 978 1 84593 999 1 (Hbk)
978 1 78064 001 3 (Pbk)
Commissioning editor: Claire Parfi(cid:308)
Editorial assistant: Alexandra Lainsbury
Production editor: Shankari Wilford
Typeset by Columns Design XML Ltd, Reading, UK.
Printed and bound in the UK by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY.
Contents
About the Author vii
Foreword—Why Science is Failing Our Parks ix
Preface—A Call to Action xi
Acknowledgements xv
Part I(cid:563)(cid:562)Growing Parks in the Fields of Belief 1
(cid:562)1(cid:563)The Ecology of Belief—It’s all in the Connections 3
(cid:562)2(cid:563) The Power and Theory of Belief—The Real Limits of
Preservation 13
(cid:562)3(cid:563)The Ecology, Energy, and Dynamics of Belief 27
(cid:562)4(cid:563)Norms, Ethics, and Beliefs in Our Parks 37
(cid:562)5(cid:563) Organizational Beliefs—From Visionary to Functionary 45
(cid:562)6(cid:563)Beliefs, as Values, Possessions, and Lenses 59
Part II(cid:563) Plowing the Fertile Fields of Belief 65
(cid:562)7(cid:563) Credibility, Authenticity, Believability, and Park Maintenance 67
(cid:562)8(cid:563)Pa(cid:308) erns of Thinking—Structures of Believing 75
(cid:562)9(cid:563)The Nesting Habits of Beliefs—and the Belief Tree 85
10(cid:563) The Symbolism of Beliefs: Signs, Symbols, Icons, and Omens 93
11(cid:563)This I Believe—Discovering Your Belief System 101
12(cid:563) Belief Bites—Truisms, Metaphors, Aphorisms, and the
Wisdom of the Ages 111
13(cid:563) Beliefs as Environmental Super Highways and Roadblocks 119
v
vi Contents
Part III(cid:563)Exploring the Far-Flung Fields of Belief 129
14(cid:563)Belief-Based Science and Research Methods 131
15(cid:563)From Beliefs to Science and Back Again 141
16(cid:563)The Politics of Belief—Park Wildlife as a Case Study 149
17(cid:563) Environmental Beliefs as Spiritual, Sacred, and Religious 157
18(cid:563) Toward Environmental Sanity through the Ecology of Belief 167
19(cid:563)Parks as Belief—Making Peace with Paradox 175
A(cid:286) erword(cid:562)(cid:563) The Human Need Maslow Rejected—The Need
to Believe 183
References 189
Appendix(cid:562)(cid:563)(cid:562) A Kit of Belief-Based Tools for Interpreting
Environmental Issues 191
Index 203
About the Author
Will LaPage has wri(cid:308) en several collections of poetry about parks and,
most recently, a novel, The Cli(cid:283) Dwellers. Selected as poet in residence at
three national parks, Will has also received the Theodore and Franklin
Roosevelt Award for Excellence in Park Science, and the Hartzog/Cox
award for sustained park leadership. Author of Parks for Life, and
numerous articles about park policy, Dr LaPage has served as director of
New Hampshire state parks, as a member of President Reagan’s
Commission on Americans Outdoors, and has been an international
parks consultant in South Africa, and with the US State Department and
USAID on national park issues in Eastern Europe, Central America, and
the Caribbean. Rethinking Park Protection challenges us to match the
power of objective park science with the even greater power of our
subjective park beliefs.
“Belief is what got us here.”
vii
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Foreword—Why Science is Failing
Our Parks
The “Two Cultures” don’t talk, can’t talk, to each other, lamented Lord
Charles Percy Snow, over 60 years ago. But, nobody was listening.
So, today, we fi nd ourselves in the remarkable situation where science
has warned us, time and time again, that we are failing in Basic
Environmental Protection. Even those sacred places we call “Parks” are
failing their mandate “to be preserved undiminished for future
generations.” How can this be happening? In Rethinking Park Protection, Dr
Will LaPage, an award-winning park scientist, proposes answers that are
deeply embedded in one word: belief. For the past several decades, the
scientists have failed to believe enough in their science to fi ght back
against all the others who believe that parks and the environment are
less important than just about everything else!
The ability to believe sets us apart from all other life on earth. From
the moment we wake until the moment we return to sleep (and perhaps
beyond) we are guided by an apparent jumble of beliefs about what to
wear, to eat, to say, to do with our one precious life. Even when our
pockets are empty, we are abundantly rich with beliefs. We believe in
science, and the turn of the dice, we believe in family, in friends, and in
people we’ve never met: the pilots of our jet planes, the processors of our
food, the managers of our investments, and the recipients of our votes. It
is not an exaggeration to say that we are what we believe. Yet, not one of us
has ever been encouraged to chart our beliefs, to study them as we do all
things we value in life. Had we done so, we might realize that our belief
systems are very much like our environments, they have an ecology—a
life support system as individually unique as our fi ngerprints.
ix