Page 342 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

we make them aware of our preferences and help drive
demand for these products. Consumer demand has led
Home Depot and other major retailers to carry sustainable
wood, and these retailers’ purchasing decisions are influ-
encing timber harvesting practices around the world. You
can look for the logos of certifying organizations on forest
products where they are sold. If certification standards are
kept strong, then we as consumers can exercise choice in
the marketplace and thereby help to promote sustainable
forestry practices.

Parks and Protected Areas

As our world fills with more people consuming more
resources, the conservation and sustainable management of
resources from forests and other ecosystems becomes ever
more important. So does our need to preserve functional eco-
systems by setting aside tracts of undisturbed land to remain
forever undeveloped.
Preservation has been part of the American psyche ever
since John Muir rallied support for saving scenic lands in
the Sierras (pp. 156–157). For ethical reasons as well as
pragmatic ecological and economic ones, Americans and
people worldwide have chosen to set aside areas of land in
perpetuity to be protected from development. Today 12.7%
of the world’s land area is designated for preservation in
various types of parks, reserves, and protected areas. FIGURE 12.21 The awe-inspiring beauty of places such as
Yosemite draws millions of people to America’s national
parks.
Why create parks and reserves?

Mount Rainier, and Crater Lake National Parks. The Antiqui-
People establish parks and protected areas for several reasons:
ties Act of 1906 gave the U.S. president authority to declare
• Enormous or unusual scenic features such as the Grand selected public lands as national monuments, which may later
Canyon, Mount Rainier, or Yosemite Valley inspire peo- become national parks.
ple to preserve them (FIGURE 12.21). The National Park Service was created in 1916 to admin-
ister the growing system of parks and monuments, which
• Protected areas offer recreational value for hiking, fish-
ing, hunting, kayaking, bird-watching, and other pursuits. today numbers 401 sites totaling 34 million ha (84 million
acres) and includes national historic sites, national recrea-
• Parks generate revenue from ecotourism (pp. 88, 311). tion areas, national wild and scenic rivers, and other areas
• Undeveloped land offers us peace of mind, health, explo- (see Figure 12.10). The parks receive 280 million reported
ration, wonder, and spiritual solace. Children in particular recreation visits per year—almost one per U.S. resident.
benefit from healthy exposure to the outdoors (p. 312). Because America’s national parks are open to everyone CHAPTER 12 • FOREST S, FOREST MAN A GEMENT, AND PR O TECTED AREAS
• Protected areas offer utilitarian benefits through ecosystem and showcase the nation’s natural beauty in a democratic way,
services. For example, undeveloped watersheds provide writer Wallace Stegner famously called them “the best idea
cities with clean drinking water and a buffer against floods. we ever had.” A mill worker in Escanaba can take his or her
family for the weekend to Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore,
• Reserves protect biodiversity. These islands of habitat
help to maintain species, communities, and ecosystems. where they can camp along sandstone cliffs on the shore of
Lake Superior. They can head across the lake to remote Isle
Royale National Park to hike and canoe through lands that are
Federal parks and reserves began home to moose and wolves. Or they can cross Lake Michigan
in the United States and enjoy climbing immense sand dunes at Sleeping Bear
Dunes National Lakeshore.
The striking scenery of the American West persuaded the Another type of federal protected area in the United States
U.S. government to create the world’s first national parks, is the national wildlife refuge. The system of national wild-
public lands protected from resource extraction and devel- life refuges, begun in 1903 by President Theodore Roosevelt,
opment but open to nature appreciation and recreation. Yel- now totals over 560 sites comprising 39 million ha (96 mil-
lowstone National Park was established in 1872, followed lion acres; see Figure 12.10), plus an additional 22 million ha
by Sequoia, General Grant (now Kings Canyon), Yosemite, (55 million acres) of ocean and islands within the immense 341

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