Preface

• Author: Gordon Steinhoff
• Pages: 7-8

vii

Preface

is book is concerned, most broadly, with the preservation of national

parks, wilderness, a nd other legally protected areas t hrough proper interpre-

tation a nd application of federal environmental law and polic y. is book

features extensive discussions of the Wilderness Act of 1964, the National

Environmental Policy Act, a nd §4(f ) of the Department of Transportation

Act—which protects signicant public parks and other designated areas

from impacts of federal transportation projects. I also briey discuss the

Organic Act of 1916, which governs national parks and monuments. e

book oers extensive discussions of protected area policies adopted by t he

National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Mana ge-

ment, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ese policies represent agency

responses to t he ma ndates presented within the Wilderness Act and other

federal legislation.

A major theme of the book is that maintaining natural conditions and pro-

cesses, or naturalness, is an essential goal in the ma nagement of wilderness,

national parks, and other protected areas. Indeed, naturalness is currently

mandated within the Wilderness Act of 1964, the Organic Act of 1916, other

federal environmental legislation, and agency policy. I am opposed to v iews

expressed in t he current literature by management experts who recommend

the abandonment of natura lness as a required goal in protected areas. I will

argue that naturalness is essential for the preservation of native biodiversity.

Amphibians and other environmentally sensitive species are highly vulner-

able to human alterations of natural ecosystems. ere are many examples of

native biodiversity being lost or threatened as a result of managers manipu-

lating protected areas to conserve “what we va lue” without respect for natu-

ral conditions. It will also be argued that natura lness should be maintained

within protected areas for important social reasons.

Naturalness and Biodiversity includes a chapter concerning restoration

of damage d ecosystems in national parks and ot her protected areas. e

approach to re storation recommended in this chapter can be fou nd within

federal protected area policies, a nd is in sharp contrast to the approaches

recommended by leading restoration experts. What is expressed in this

chapter ts well in the genera l theme of maintaining naturalness within

protected areas.