NATURE WRITERS AND NATURAL AREA PROTECTION

NATURE WRITERS AND NATURAL AREA PROTECTION

J. Glenn Eugster, Environmental Protection Specialist, Chesapeake Bay Program Office, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency


Public agencies and private groups have made great strides in the protection of natural areas. Federal, state and local governments and private groups have been working effectively to protect portions of America's landscape for its ecological, scenic, wilderness, recreational, habitat, fish, wildlife and other values.

As much as we have advanced in our protection efforts our Nation continues to see plant and animal species lost, habitats destroyed, ecological processes disrupted and natural systems replaced with more costly and less efficient man-made "natural" systems. Unfortunately, despite the admirable work which has been done in natural area protection, we continue to lose more areas and species each year than we are able to protect.

In many ways we face a situation similar to one which we have faced before. More than 170 years ago, as we settled America, people were increasingly concerned with the pace of development and the destruction of natural landscapes. In the early 1800's the nature writers movement was born in response to a concern that arose from the pace at which development was modifying and destroying natural areas, values and functions of the country.

People such as John James Audubon, John Muir, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau and others began to speak out publically expressing concern that important natural values were being lost as we tamed the wilderness, harnessed energy sources and met the needs of an expanding population.

Audubon, on a boat trip down the Ohio River, wrote in his journal,
"....this grand portion of our Union instead of being in a state of nature, is now more or less covered with villages, farms and towns. The woods are fast disappearing under the axe by day and fire by night.....". Audubon, and other nature writers, called for Americans to refocus their vision outward from their individual and corporate self toward the preservation of all plants and animals. They encouraged people to become acquainted with nature as a way to see and understand the value of these places.

Over the last three years EPA's Wetlands Protection Program, and the Chesapeake Bay Program, has been looking beyond traditional regulatory approaches to protect wetlands and other natural areas. EPA realizes the need to work cooperatively with others to increase the public's recognition of the importance of these areas and their values and functions. With the help of public and private groups, such as the National Audubon Society, EPA has been working to encourage positive relationships between people and natural areas to encourage voluntary protection.

For example, EPA and the National Audubon Society are carrying out a cooperative landscape conservation project entitled "Audubon's America". The project uses the theme of commemorating John James Audubon's writings, paintings, experiences and values toward nature as a way to organize, recognize and coordinate a series of federal, state and local government and private sector natural area protection projects in a 37 state region. The projects are being developed to raise the public's awareness of the need for the protection and restoration of natural areas.

EPA is also looking for ways to encourage environmental writers to participate in natural area protection projects. Writers are being encouraged to join specific protection efforts and use their skills in "evocative journalism" to help describe the personal values of specific natural areas and encourage people to work to protect them. This type of contemporary nature writers movement, which stresses a natural value focus, is an effective way for environmental writers to raise important issues and advocate a vision for the future.

Other nature writer ideas which are being considered by EPA and others include: encouraging students to improve their writing and observation skills by keeping a natural history journal; increasing voluntary private landowner natural area stewardship by making information available about public and private assistance programs; regenerating the idea of a Federal Writers Project to provide nature writers with financial incentives to write about natural history; and recognition and celebration of our natural areas, and their values and functions, through National events such as "American Wetlands Month" which is held annually during May.

The protection of our natural heritage is increasingly difficult as we meet other societal needs. As more and more of the public become concerned over the loss of natural areas and plant and animal species we must find a way to actively engage these individuals in the protection of our remaining natural areas. Environmental writers, in the tradition of the nature writers, can play an important role in encouraging people to become more acquainted with nature. By encouraging people to make personnal connections with nature, environmental writers can help to change the way people look at our natural areas and eventually influence the future of these important natural systems and all of their inhabitants.

J. Glenn Eugster is an ecological planner and manager working on a detail with EPA's Chesapeake Bay Program Office in Annapolis, MD. He is currently working with public and private groups to protect and restore the Potomac River watershed and the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland. Glenn also continues to be involved with "Audubon's America" using the writings of John James Audubon as a technique to help communities protect natural areas.