What is the value of any
particular place?
What makes any plot of ground worth something?
á water
á energy
á air
á landscape terrain
Drawn as we are to familiar places what is it that attracts our attention to a piece of terrain?
Tidal marshes and
estuaries
"salt and fresh water flow together in tidal marshes"
rivers,
watershed
drainage basin
the mouth of the river where it meets the sea is a special place
Ÿ physically
Ÿ biologically
Ÿ socially
Ÿ synergy the total impacts is far greater than the mere sum of the parts.
http://myweb.rollins.edu/jsiry/SiryBookOverview.html
border of the land and the sea
Oceans and continents meet in watersheds -- the drainage of surface and underground water into the marine
transformation of borders
agriculture
mining
technology and policy
Commercial and agrarian values in conflicts
predictive capacity of ecology to discern a measure of production
1. in fisheries science
2 on land, or agronomy
Struggle led to discoveries -intensified conflicts --> meaning of coevolved diversity
Where
organic life adjusted
coastal water bodies
Bays
3
shore wetlands submerged and &causes for
integral parts
a raid change in attitudes about worth
4
estuarine systems
macro the Hudson Valley Adirondack mountain relations
micro-- the contours of upper and lower New York Bay
food production
fisheries
ebb ad flood of the tides
5
extent of marshes and flats in a river mouth
natural resource use and conflicts revealed in this history of exploit and settle
navigation --trade, commerce, exchange and transport
6
the distinction
between conservation and preservation
Conservation is development for future use
equating renaissance use and beauty
7
Clarence Glacken -- Traces on the Rhodian Shore
conflicts over proper development
recreation is also subject to conflicts
ecological approach 1: systematic organization
9
Ecology provides an explanation -- role in nature is ecological approach 2
The Estuarine
preservation ideal emerged
the biotic health of the
environment
wetland ecology was a slow accumulation of awareness, measure and policy failures
a progression in ideas historic patterns of land use
contours of the land
shaping policies due to catastrophes
conversion of landscape is cultural landscape
economics
technical skills
population
geography
desire
hunting versus navigation
Roman jurisprudence
10
public access - commons = public trust
stewardship of wildlife resources
colonial - pre-industrial phase
population change
second industrial transformation
agrarian to industrial values brought a sentiment change
11
navigation and reclamation take precedence
Swamplands Acts
Civil War and technology
1900s fisheries wildlife protection dawn
12
general tax revenues funded dredge, fill, levees and drainage
Progressive conservation (third phase)
comprehensive riverine management
1930s-40s a new quantitative analysis -- Tansely on ecological systems / ecossyetm
13
energy from the sun and oceans converted into food by photosynthesis
food
agricultural products
cohesive science
Odum
ecologists
weak spot in Progressive ideas agricultural surplus + drainage = ³ oversupply
industrial land and
water use noticeably degraded estuarine qualities
1950s and 60s
14
National Estuary Protection Act -1968 Coastal Zone Management Act, 1972
NEPA 1969
Protection brought with it problems and conflicts persisted
national versus state
state versus local control
Army Corps of Engineers
US Fish and Wildlife Service
15
intractable conflicts
predictive capacity of ecology to discern / ascertain / determine worth
keener understanding of food web dynamics and thermodynamic loss
Coevolved diversity
16
Still the public interest
"Throughout the nation today a series of state and
federal estuarine refuges exist as quiet testimony to the ideals, efforts and
commitment of local conservation groups, planners, engineers, and scientists.
These advocates possess a resolute maturity in asserting that some places must
be set aside for future generations because, as Rachel Carson once remarked,
'man's way is not always the best.' "
17