Preserving research natural areas

Publication Type:

Magazine Article

Authors:

Tippets, David

Source:

Forestry Research West, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Issue December, p.10-16 (1990)

Call Number:

U90TIP01IDUS

Abstract:

Preserving Research Natural Area (RNA's) provides National Forest managers and scientists with a true test of management maturity. Like growing from child to adult, it presents the challenge of delaying gratification to meet tomorrow's needs by subduing the temptation to satisfy today's appetites. Like sticky-handed children looking through the candy store window, the public stands before the National Forests, pleading for more - more water, more wilderness, more recreation, more timber, more minerals, and more grazing. Few ask to have their resources invested to collect the interest of knowledge so they can reap greater benefits at maturity in clean air and water, and the ability to inherit the land at its greatest potential. Like the last piece of candy on the shelf, pristine ecosystems are threatened by the ravenous appetite of a population struggling to learn to conserve for the future. Unlike wilderness, natural areas claim no throng of passionate supporters. They offer no hope of great outdoor adventure and seldom provide scenic vistas. And for most of the public they offer no personal use. RNA's fall under the more generic classification of "natural area" that includes Areas of Critical Environmental Concern managed by the Bureau of Land Management, as well as other specifically managed public and private lands. In 1977 the Federal Committee on Ecological Reserves defined an RNA as: "A physical or biological unit in which current natural conditions are maintained...allowing natural physical biological processes to prevail...under unusual circumstances, deliberate manipulation may be utilized to maintain the unique feature that the Research Natural Area was established to protect." Ecologists propose a national network of natural areas that represents all important ecological types. For some types only relatively small areas remain, resulting in RNA's that are much smaller than typical wilderness areas. Because too much concentrated recreational use could damage natural features or disrupt natural process, RNA locations are not marked on public maps and visitation is promoted only for education and research. A natural area's constituency will likely always be the small group that looks past the landscape to discover the mysteries that bind the pieces of the landscape together into the living whole.