Stewarding our natural heritage requires more than preservation for its own sake; it demands proactive conservation and active management of our lands.
I think the 150 year old debate of Preservation vs. Conservation is more important than many realize. You can't keep people away from something while simultaneously expecting them to care about it. People need to be involved with the natural world through hunting, fishing, logging, active flora/fauna management, and recreation (i.e. conservation), or it will become marginalized, dismissed, and not cared for properly.
As biologist Dan Janzen once said about the rainforest... "You either use it, or you lose it."
I think the 150 year old debate of Preservation vs. Conservation is more important than many realize. You can't keep people away from something while simultaneously expecting them to care about it. People need to be involved with the natural world through hunting, fishing, logging, active flora/fauna management, and recreation (i.e. conservation), or it will become marginalized, dismissed, and not cared for properly.
As biologist Dan Janzen once said about the rainforest... "You either use it, or you lose it."
Thank you for this post. Good stuff.