Conservation Biology

CONSERVATON BIOLOGYSpring 2016 Althoff Reference: Chapter 1

Lec 01

Conservation Biology• Conservation biologists advocate or

practice sensible and careful use of natural resources

• Conservation biologist “_____” for individual species, groups of species, and ecosystems….especially with consideration for the human “effect”

• Fundamental requirement of any plan:adequate habitat for a

_____________ population

Conservation Biology• Not all is lost….some species have been

brought back from the ________________

• Black-footed ferret• Timber wolves• Peregrine falcon• Kirtland’s warbler• Bald eagle• Osprey• River otter (OH,

PA)

Conservation Biology• Not all is lost….some species currently ___

____ of being endangered are “holding tight”

• Piping plover• Desert tortoise• African wild dogs• Henslow’s sparrow

(OH)• Green salamander

(OH)

Conservation Ethics – 3 key peopleHistorically-speaking….

• ____________– Romantic-TranscendentalPreservation

• ____________ – Resource ConservationEthics

• ____________ – Evolutionary-EcologicalLand Ethic

Historically significant

conservationists

Romantic-TranscendentalPreservation Ethic

• Muir (1838-1914)…writer and naturalist who founded the Sierra Club

• Muir believed that communion with ________ brings people closer to God, thereby providing a “transcendent” experience.

• A perspective that nature is a temple that is sullied by the ___________ activities of people.

• Ethic puts a high premium on establishing parks and similar areas where nature is ___________ (note: not “conserved”)

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Resource Conservation Ethic• Pinchot (1865-1946)…forester and politician founded

the US Forest Service• Pinchot considered nature consisted solely of natural

resources that should be used to provide the greatest good for the greatest number of people for the longest time.

• A perspective to ___________ nature wisely.

• Pinchot believed natural resources should owned or regulated by the government

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Evolutionary-Ecological Land Ethic• Leopold (1886-1948)…father of wildlife management as a

professional discipline• Leopold’s perspective was that species have instrumental

value because of their _____________ ecosystem…that spawned the land ethic.

• Key contribution here, perhaps, is that it _______ the “preservation” and the “conservation” splits (keep in mind, Pinchot and Muir came along a few decades earlier).

• Also, key that Leopold’s ideas gave people the right to use and manage nature and to do it responsibly (i.e, good stewards) for _____________

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“Our profession began with the job of producing something to shoot. However important this may seem to us, it is not very important to the emancipated moderns who no longer feel soil between their toes. We find that we can not produce much to shoot (or conserve) until the landowner changes his ways of using land, and in turn can not change his ways until his teachers, bankers, customers, editors, governors, and trespassers change their ideas about what land is for. To change ideas about what land is for is to change ideas about what anything is for. Thus we started to move a straw, and end up with the job of moving a mountain.“ Aldo Leopold

Journal of Wildlife Management 1940

In between and after these 3 “ethics” folks….

• Teddy Roosevelt, recognized for being a big game hunter, established the National Wildlife Refuge System in the early 1900s…federal approach to “saving” and “managing” key habitat and/or large expanses of habitat with ___________________.

• Rachel Carson with Silent Spring raised a significant “voice” for ecosystems with the alarm about the harm pollution in general and pesticides specifically had being doing…..start thinking about _____________ ____________!

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"We stand now where two roads diverge. But, unlike the roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster. The other fork on the road--the one "less traveled by" offers our last, our only chance to reach a destinations that assures the preservation of our earth“ Rachel Carson

Silent Spring 1962

What is Conservation Biology?• DEFINED: “___________________________

___________________________________ ___________________________________”

• A relatively young discipline…____: First international conference on

Conservation Biology____: First book on Conservation

Biology ____: Society of Conservation Biologystarted….and first journal

devoted to it: Conservation Biology

Conservation Biology (CB)vs.

Early (~1940s-1980s) Wildlife Management (WM)(Althoff’s recollection of “changes”)

• Habitat (WM) became ____________ (CB)• Game and non-game (aka “wildlife”…as in

vertebrates only) (WM) became __________ (aka everything living) (CB)

• Abiotic and biotic factors (WM) became ______________ (CB)

Hunter, Jr. and Gibbs perspective….(p20)

• If wildlife managers (or at least a good many of them) hadn’t focused just on vertebrates along with just the hunter and fisherman interests, then ____________________ might never have arisen. But…there is a little more to this….. @--

@--

• What Hunter, Jr. and Gibbs _______________ on p20 (or elsewhere in their text) is that much of the $$$ for conservation has come from hunters and fisherman from “the start”—at least direct $$$ (think licenses, ammo taxes, donations, etc.)

Schematic Model of CB• Illustrates the ________________ of basic

biological sciences and natural resources sciences

• Devised by Susan Jacobson (1990)• An ____________ of traditional natural

resource management (1940s? – 1980s) in that it places relatively greater emphasis on _______________. Prior to CB, it could be argued that natural resource management primarily focused on a few _____________ valuable species

Applied Management

Sciences

Basic BiologicalSciences

CONSERVATIONBIOLOGY

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

SOCIALENVIRONMENT

IMPLEMENTATONAL ENVIRONMENT

Applied Management

Sciences

Basic BiologicalSciences

CONSERVATIONBIOLOGY

Level 1 “___________”Schematic View – component breakdown

• Biology• Zoology• Botany• Ecology• Genetics• Evolution

• Wildlife Mgmt.• Fisheries Mgmt.• Range Mgmt.• Fisheries Mgmt.

APPLIEDMANAGEMENT

SCIENCES

BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

Level 2 “______”Schematic View – component breakdown

• Geography• Chemistry• Geology• Physics• Soils (?)• Climatology• etc.

PhysicalEnvironment

• Political science

• Anthropology• Sociology• Economics• Philosophy• etc.

Social Environment

ImplementationalEnvironment

• Law• Planning• Education• Engineering• Vet Sciences• Public Health• etc.

CONSERVATIONBIOLOGY

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

SOCIALENVIRONMENT

IMPLEMENTATONAL ENVIRONMENT

Applied Management

Sciences

Basic BiologicalSciences

CONSERVATIONBIOLOGY

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

SOCIALENVIRONMENT

IMPLEMENTATONAL ENVIRONMENT

Knowing whatyou know aboutWildlife and FishManagement…is there now that much differentbetween “that” discipline andthe discipline of ConservationBiology??

CBer’s (Hunter, Jr. and Gibbs) claim…• Founders of conservation biology had more

links to institutions of basic biological sciences (e.g., zoology, botany and genetics) than to natural resource management institutions (_______________)

• CB ideas from evolutionary biology, population dynamics, landscape ecology, and biogeography provided “new” understanding of the diversity of life, how it is distributed around the globe, and what most threatens it. (_______________ ________)

Questions for Discussion….• Do you think of yourself primarily as a conservationist,

ecologist, or preservationist?• Which of three ethics (Muir’s, Pinchot’s, or Leopold’s)

do you think will predominant 50 years from now? Why?

• How have these disciplines contributed to Conservation Biology?Economics SociologyChemistry LawVeterinary Science Education

In summary….• Conservation Biology is the applied science of

maintaining the earth’s _____________ diversity.• It represents “overlap” of part of the ________

biological sciences AND part of the ________ management sciences

• CB is a _______ discipline…especially compared to Wildlife and Fish Management

• The ____________ of Conservation Biology can be tied to the conservation ethics attributed to 3 individuals: Muir, Pinchot, and Leopold

• Preserve, conserve AND consider that every species has ________ in the ecosystem