Further Considerations of Naturalness and Climate Change

• Author: Gordon Steinhoff
• Pages: 231-235

231

Appendix 2

Further Considerations

of Naturalness and

Climate Change

Chapter 2 concludes that, in accordance with the Wilderness Act,

managers should attempt to maintain natural conditions and the

other aspects of wilderness character within federally designated wil-

derness areas. In Chapters 4 and 5, it is argued that the Wilderness Ac t,

other federal legislation, and agency policies should continue to mandate

maintaining natural conditions within wilderness and other protected areas.

e question will be raised: does it make any sense to claim that we should

maintain natural conditions in protected areas in this era of global climate

change? With average temperatures around the planet gradually rising, can

we conceive that any la nds remain in, or could be returned to, their natural

conditions? e problem is not only climate change, of course, but also other

human inuences such as pollution, habitat loss, and habitat fragmentation.

“Natural conditions” should not be misinterpreted, however. People tend

to assume that “natural conditions” or “naturalness” means pristine, entirely

uninuenced by humans. “Natural conditions” is understood in this book

in a moderate and more reasonable way, as meaning generally free of human

inuence. Essentially, this interpretation is found in federal agency poli-

cies and in the writings of some ma nagement experts —Chad Dawson and

John Hendee, for example. Can we accurately say that some protected areas

remain in their natural conditions in this sense? Perhaps we can. After all,

there is no denite point at which natural areas cease to be natural as a result

of human inuence. Naturalness is not all or nothing. is is debatable, but

it is probably accurate to say that some protected a reas, especially the larger,

more remote areas, remain in their natural conditions. Of course, as man-

agement experts emphasize, naturalness is gradual ly being lost as a result of

climate change and other huma n impacts.

As discussed in Chapter 5, natural conditions are an essential goal in pro-

tected area management if we wish to preserve native biodiversity, especially