🚀 go-pugleaf

Grant Gerrish touched on another point of debate when he stated that the " goal
of conservation biology is to preserve"  I would disagree ( I believe many
applied ecologists would also).  The goals of conservation biology are not to
PRESERVE but to CONSERVE biodiversity (or what ever you chooose to call it).  I
believe there is a key distiction.  Preservation is perhaps a unrealistic ideal
in which biodiversity is protected from any impact (i.e not to be used by
humans, particularly for resources).  While conservation strives to maintain and
manage biodiversity for many uses (i.e. Recreation, Hunting/fishing, Timber
extraction, and wildlife protection).  Do I belong to the norm in this view.
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Steven Vieira
Dept. of Zoology
Michigan State University
East Lansing  MI  48824
Email: vieirast@pilot.msu.edu
Office: 517-353-4575
Home:  517-484-8198

"We end...at what might be called the standard paradox of the 20th century: Our
tools are better than we are, and grow better than we do.  They suffice to
crack the atom, to command the tides, but they do not suffice for the oldest
task in human history to live on a piece of land with out spoiling it"

                                                    -Aldo Leopold