I don’t like the word conservation because it doesn’t include people, or their culture for that matter. It insinuates that people are messing things up. I don’t think this is a healthy approach.
Conservation has historically imposed hard science, and just like anything else, this includes both positive and negative effects. These effects are both environmental and human oriented. Many of the positive effects of conservation are things we all take for granted, like Yellowstone or Yosemite. I am proud of my heritage and feel a much deeper connection to where I am from because of reserves like these. It is important that we continue to foster a connection between people and the natural environment in which they are from.
I am deeply thankful to call the west my home, where nature is still wild and a somewhat endangered culture supports this lifestyle. The voice of conservation should be thanked for these things but, too often this is not the case. Seventy-five years past has turned into ancient history for mainstream American and land use has become compartmentalized thus detaching many from the section of the earth in which they are from.
We have reached a point where culture needs to be integrated into this idea of conservation, and will thus strengthen both. Conservation efforts do seem to be making a jump in the right direction. Groups like defenders of wildlife devote much of their efforts to working with local people. Their efforts in Idaho around the 1995 wolf reintroduction are commendable. They are devoted to working with groups who oppose the wolf, such as ranchers and hunters, to find ways to coexist. In the past 15 years they have given over a million dollars to ranchers for lost livestock due to wolf depredation.
Conservation efforts should be pushed to find the ways in which local people live harmoniously with our earth. Build alliances with the people who live with the land and possess great knowledge that science does not always understand. There are sustainable practices out there and when we find these practices we reinforce positive cultural relationships to the land and grow from there. Let’s use science and traditional ecological knowledge to strengthen our relationship to the earth. Many times these practices are very much ‘out of the box’ for conceptual conservation; little gifts given to humanity when we choose to stop judging others.
People and Wolves 