Building the Framework of American Conservation: At the Intersection of Crisis, Opportunity and Leadership

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1 DRAFT November 16, 2010 Building the Framework of American Conservation: At the Intersection of Crisis, Opportunity and Leadership Hal Salwasser and Stephen P. Mealey 1 Preface American conservation marks a monumental transformation in how humans interact with the rest of nature. It sits in a context of humanity s varied relationships with wild things and wild places, a story that is very old yet ever evolving. The story will end only when the last human breathes his or her last breath. In this essay we discuss how and why human relationships with nature have changed over time and how those changes came about. We treat the evolution of conservation as if it were a story with each chapter of the book a different phase in the relationships between humanity and wild places and wild life (the original term for native plants, game and non game animals, including fishes). We focus mostly on the current chapter of the story in the United States, the era of conservation, and about the seminal roles of early sportsmen and especially members of the Boone and Crockett Club in forging its foundation and framework. We would not have conservation in America as we currently know it without pivotal historic principles and the men we cite in this story. These early voices for what would in time come to be called conservation changed the course of humanity s relationships with nature in America as well as Canada in ways that would come to have worldwide impacts. Theirs is a compelling story about vision, audacity, courage and persistence in confronting crisis and critics and creating opportunity by bringing some old and foreign ideas to fresh application in an industrializing society while creating along the way some novel approaches and policies. From reading the history of conservation in America, especially going back before the time of Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and John Muir, it is clear that the American approach to conservation did not just happen (Matthiessen 1959, Trefethen 1975, Arrandale 1983, Udall 1988, Dunlap 1989, Reiger 2001, Mahoney et al. 2008, Brinkley 2009). It emerged and evolved as society changed, a process of natural selection of cultural rules similar to how other cultural norms arise (Hayek 1978). But the fundamental policies and practices of American conservation as we currently know it did not neatly nor predictably fall into place, i.e., they are not a result of centralized planning. They were created and promoted by leaders who saw crisis in humanity s impact on nature and called people to action to change how nature was being treated. The need for ongoing action and change is still with us so our concluding thoughts are on where the story might go in the future and some possible foci for concerted action. Let s get started by going back to the beginning for some fundamental grounding, well almost the beginning. 1 This paper was originally delivered at Michigan State University as the inaugural Boone and Crockett Program Distinguished Lecture on October 23, 2009 by the lead author. It includes material initially delivered by co author, Mealey, in a dinner speech at the Boone and Crockett Club s 1989 Annual Meeting. 1

Chapter 1: In the Beginning When Homo erectus emerged in Africa nearly 2 million years ago the world got its first experience with what would in time become nature s ultimate apex predator,

Erectus was a hunter gatherer angler and archaeologists estimate there were very few of them alive at any point in time, perhaps in the low tens of thousands in total.

2 Chapter 1: In the Beginning When Homo erectus emerged in Africa nearly 2 million years ago the world got its first experience with what would in time become nature s ultimate apex predator, competitor and engineer, you might say THE keystone species of all time, so far. Erectus was a hunter gatherer angler and archaeologists estimate there were very few of them alive at any point in time, perhaps in the low tens of thousands in total. Until around 10 12,000 years ago, all Homo spp. were hunter gatherer anglers, i.e., for 99+% of our genus history. For at least the last 1 million years, Homo spp. were also pyro hunter gathereranglers, using fire to cook foods, help in the hunt or shape landscapes in their favor. Life based solely on the bounty of wild nature, or wild nature as shaped by human actions, was fundamental to hominid existence for nearly all of our history as a biological lineage. It still is for some people in remote parts of the world. Even for those who live where life is now based almost entirely on foods and materials grown or manufactured for human uses, hunting, gathering and angling remain as vital connections with humanity s primordial source of identity and well being or as intergenerational family traditions. This hunter gatherer linkage of humanity with nature is so fundamental, so natural, that many do not even think about it today. Some even think it unethical or un civilized. So, let us say a few more words on it before proceeding with the rest of the story. ~ 1.9 million.4 million ybp First Homo to leave Africa, in Eurasia ~ 1.8 million ybp Pyro-hunter-gatherer-tool maker Primitive stone tools, fire, vocalization, rafts? Date of Fossil (years ago) Africa: East Turkana 1,800,000 1,600,000 West 1,500,000 Turkana Olduvai 1,300, ,000 Gorge Bouri 1,000,000 Swartkrans 1,800,000 1,500,000 Ternifine 700, ,000 Sale 400,000 Israel: Ubeidiya 1,600,000 1,400,000 Europe: Dmanisi 1,750,000 Atapuerca 1,200,000 Java: Modjokerto 1,800,000 Sangiran 1,800,000 1,600,000 Ancestor to H. heidelbergensis, H. neanderthalensis, H. sapiens Trinil 900,000? Ngandong 400,000 China: Yuanmou 1,700,000? Lantian 800,000 Zhoukoudian 750, ,000 Hexian 400,000 A hunter, gatherer or angler must know, understand and appreciate how nature works better than just about anyone save perhaps a premier field ecologist or naturalist. Success in the pursuit of wild plants and animals depends on deep knowledge about nature. And survival depends on perpetuating nature s diversity, productivity and processes, though as you will soon see that has not always been the case. These are two of the most important reasons to retain traditions of hunting, fishing and gathering in current and future generations, though beginning with the Axial Age nearly 3,000 to a little over 2,000 years ago traditions emerged in many cultures that abhorred the taking of animal and, in some cases plant, lives to sustain human life, an alternative in human ethics toward nature that runs strong even to this day (Armstrong 2006). Yet today, hunting gathering angling may be the only direct experiences 2

many people have with the most fundamental aspects of what we are as a biological species a consumer, competitor and predator and how we once fit into the larger scheme of life on Earth.

Evolved in Africa, spread Africa ~ 800,000 100,000y bp Pyro-hunter-gatherer-advanced tools Primitive language, religion?, bury dead, built shelters Ancestor to H. neanderthalensis, H. sapiens?

3 many people have with the most fundamental aspects of what we are as a biological species a consumer, competitor and predator and how we once fit into the larger scheme of life on Earth. As you will see shortly, it is this understanding, appreciation, and reverence for wild nature from hunters and anglers that fueled the conservation movement in America. Evolved in Africa, spread Africa ~ 800, ,000y bp Pyro-hunter-gatherer-advanced tools Primitive language, religion?, bury dead, built shelters Ancestor to H. neanderthalensis, H. sapiens? Hunted megafauna, primitive wooden projectile spears Bodo d'ar 600, ,000 Broken Hill 400,000? 400, ,000? Israel Gesher Benot 790,000 Europe Arago Cave 450,000 Atapuerca 800, ,000 Boxgrove 524, ,000 Ehringsdorf ,000 Mauer 500,000 Petralona Cave 400, ,000 Steinheim 400, ,000 Swanscombe 400,000 Vértesszöllös 475, ,000 China Dali 200, ,000 Jinniushan 280,000 Maba 169, ,000 Now, back to H. erectus. Pre modern hominids first spread from Africa to Asia, then southern Europe more than 1.5 million years ago. Then they disappear from the fossil record around.5 to.3 million years ago. Around that time, possibly several hundred thousand years before, a new hominid emerged from the H. erectus line in Africa, H. heidelbergensis (NRC 2010). H. heidelbergensis is believed to be ancestral to all subsequent Homo spp. They made primitive tools, appear to have had rituals/religion, and built simple shelters. They hunted large mammals with wooden spears. Heidelbergensis dispersed from Africa around 790,000 ago and began invading Asia and Europe by around 600,000 years ago. Then, in Europe and Asia, around 150,000 years ago, another new hominid line emerged, H. neanderthalensis. Currently known Neanderthal fossils occur only in European and Asian sites. Neanderthal was cold adapted, sewed and wore clothing; made complex shelters and made more sophisticated tools than H. heidelbergensis. They also hunted large mammals using knives and stone projectile points. Sometime between 200,000 and 150,000 years ago, fully modern Homo sapiens began replacing the earlier hominids in Africa. And around 60 70,000 years ago, they repeated the invasions of Asia and Europe, eventually displacing Neanderthal by around 50,000 years ago in Asia and by around 30,000 years ago in southwestern Europe (Shreeve 2007, NRC 2010). 3

4 ~ 150,000 35,000 ybp NOT ancestral to H. sapiens Evolved in Eurasia, stayed there Cold adapted Sewing/clothes Pyro-hunter-gatherer-angler-sophisticated tools Landscape use of fire, complex shelters, hunted large mammals, jewelry, ritual defleshing/cannibalism?, language?, high frequency healed skeletal injuries similar to rodeo riders ~ 200,000 present < 10K ybp pyro-hunter-gathererangler Out of Africa Model East Africa: Date of Fossil (years ago) Herto, Middle Awash 160, ,000 Omo 1 195,000 Laetoli 120,000 South Africa: Border Cave 115,000 90,000 Klasies River Mouth 90,000 Israel: Skhul and Qafzeh 92,000 90,000 Australia: Lake Mungo 60,000 46,000 Asia: Ordos (Mongolia) 40,000 20,000? Liujiang (China) 139, ,000? Shellfishing, fine stone blades, grindstones, stone points, long distance exchange, fishing, bone tools, barbed points, etched items, microlithic blades, beads, images Zhoukoudian (China) Europe: Peştera cu Oase (Romania) Combe Capelle (France) Mladeč and Předmostí (Czech Republic) Cro Magnon (France) 27,000 36,000 34,000 35,000 30,000 35,000 25,000 27,000 23,000 The extensive dispersals of various Homo spp. from their places of origin to new territories can only be interpreted to mean that hominids have both a high propensity to populate their habitats to capacity, given prevailing technologies, and a high capacity for adaptation to new environments. The estimated low numbers of total populations indicate that the natural capacity for occupied habitats to support hominids is far less than that made possible by agriculture, public health and technological advances. 4

5 Though, as we shall see, these advances and the human populations they enabled have come at great expense to the rest of creation. Early pre humans, i.e., H. erectus, heidelbergensis and neanderthalensis, lived and moved about the landscape through multiple glacial and interglacial periods the last major interglacial prior to the one we are currently in being around 130,000 years ago proving remarkable tenacity and adaptability as early humans changed their distribution in response to ice, vegetation and climate. Since the advent of agriculture, humans have only lived in an interglacial period. Think about this in the context of current concern for climate change. Current humans have not yet been pushed to adapt nearly as much as were our ancestors. And we are far more sedentary and populous in our hardened abodes and communities, much less able to move infrastructure and cultures when conditions change. Pre humans and early humans killed large mammals and birds everywhere they went the Pleistocene megafauna as well as smaller creatures. They gathered foods and fibers. They used fire to cook their foods and shape their landscapes in ways more favorable to their existence. They moved their abodes seasonally in response to where the natural resources on which their very survival depended were most available or abundant. They made tools, many for killing and preparing food. They lived in small bands of around individuals. They often killed one another; even in current primitive cultures 30% of male mortality is a result of conflict as opposed to around 3% in civilized cultures (need to get citation). Some of them ate other humans as some still do to this day. They had rituals, the early stirrings of attempts to know their place in the grand scheme of being and probably to acknowledge or revere the sources of their subsistence. The most recent forms developed languages, perhaps as early as H. heidelbergensis or H. neanderthalensis. 5

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Bucking the Tide and Blazing New Trails at the Intersection of Crisis, Opportunity and Leadership. Hal Salwasser

Bucking the Tide and Blazing New Trails at the Intersection of Crisis, Opportunity and Leadership Hal Salwasser Vary by culture and time Dependence exploiter Dominance subdue Avoidance ahimsa Co dependence