The Capacity for Wonder: Preserving National ParksBrookings Institution Press, 1 de des. 2010 - 296 pàgines The national parks of North America are great public treasures, visited by 300 million people each year. Set aside to be kept in relatively natural condition, these remarkable places of forests, rivers, mountains, and wildlife still inspire our "capacity for wonder." Today, however, the parks are threatened by increasingly difficult problems from both inside and outside their borders. This book, enriched with personal anecdotes of the author's trips throughout the parks of North America, examines changes in the park services of the United States and Canada over the past fifteen years. William Lowry describes the many challenges facing the parks—such as rising crime, tourism, and overcrowding, pollution, eroding funding for environmental research, and the contentious debate over preservation versus use—and the abilities of the agencies to deal with them. The Capacity for Wonder provides a revealing comparison of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) and the Canadian Parks Service (CPS). The author explains that, while the services are similar in many ways, the priorities of these two agencies have changed dramatically in recent years. Lowry shows how increasing conflicts over agency goals and decreasing institutional support have make the NPS vulnerable to interagency disputes, reluctant to take any risks in its operations, and extremely responsive to political pressures. As a result, U.S. national parks are now managed mainly to serve political purposes. Lowry illustrates how in the 1980s politicians pushed the NPS to expand private uses of national parks through development, timber harvesting, grazing, and mining, while environmental groups push the NPS in the other direction. Over the same period, the CPS enjoyed a clarification of goals and increased institutional supports. As a result, the CPS has been able to decentralize its structure, empower its employees, and renew its commitment to preservation. Lowry considers several proposals to change the institutions governing the parks. His own recommendations are more in line with proposals to revitalize public agencies than with those that suggest replacing them with private enterprise, state agencies, or endowment boards. Lowry concludes that preserving nature should be the primary, explicit goal of the park services, and he calls for a stronger commitment to that goal in the United States. |
Altres edicions - Mostra-ho tot
The Capacity for Wonder: Preserving National Parks William Robert Lowry Visualització de fragments - 1994 |
The Capacity for Wonder: Preserving National Parks William Robert Lowry Previsualització no disponible - 1994 |
Frases i termes més freqüents
administration agency behavior agency's appropriations areas Banff budget bureaucrats Calgary Herald Canadian national parks Canadian Parks Service changes commitment congressional consensus Conservation Association CPS employees decades decentralized decisions economic ecosystem effects efforts Elk Island emphasis Environment Canada environmental example federal fire Fishing Bridge Forest Service Grand Canyon grazing grizzly bears Interior involved issues J. G. Nelson Jasper Lake legislation levels management plan mandate million motorized Mountain Mulroney National Park Service Natural Resources NPS director operations park managers park officials park units park's parklands Parks and Conservation Parks Canada Parks Service 1991b percent personnel political support potential preservation goal Prince Albert programs proposed protection provincial public lands ranger Reagan recent recreation regional offices resource management responsibilities revenue river Senate Shenandoah specific Steamtown structure superintendent tion tourists town sites U.S. Congress U.S. National Park visitor service Washington Post Western Region wilderness wildlife wood bison Yellowstone Yosemite
Referències a aquest llibre
Bureaucratic Landscapes: Interagency Cooperation and the Preservation of ... Craig W. Thomas Previsualització limitada - 2002 |
The Politics of Pork: A Study of Congressional Appropriation Earmarks Scott A. Frisch Previsualització no disponible - 1998 |