Wilderness

Crocodilians represent one of the oldest constant animal lineages on the planet, in no small part due to their formidable array of predatory adaptations. As both human and crocodilian populations expand, they increasingly encroach on each others' territories, bringing morbidity and mortality to both populations. In this article, the medical and herpetologic literature pertaining to injuries caused by crocodilians is reviewed, and the patterns of saltwater crocodile attacks in Australia from 1971 to 2004 are analyzed. In this review, we examine the features of crocodilians that contribute to explaining their evolutionary success, as well as the potential hazard they pose to humans. Only by understanding their capabilities is it possible to mitigate the potential threat to life and limb.

Partnerships between natural-area managers and the tourism industry have been suggested to contribute to sustainability in protected areas. This article explores how important sustainability outcomes of partnerships are to their members, how well they are realised and the features of partnerships leading to their achievement. In 21 case studies in Australia, interviews (n = 97) and surveys (n = 100) showed that of 14 sustainability outcomes, improved understanding of protected areas values and improved biodiversity conservation were the most important. Other highly ranked outcomes were greater respect for culture, heritage, and/or traditions; improved quality of environmental conditions; social benefits to local communities; and improved economic viability of the protected area. Scores for satisfaction with outcomes were, like those for importance, all high but were less than those for importance for the majority, with improvement in quality of environmental conditions showing the largest gap. The satisfaction score exceeded that for importance only for increased competitiveness of the protected area as a tourist destination. ''Brown'' aspects of sustainability, i.e., decreased waste or energy use, were among the lowest-scoring outcomes for both importance and satisfaction. The most important factor enabling sustainability outcomes was provision of benefits to partnership members. Others were increased financial support, inclusiveness, supportive organisational and administrative arrangements, direct involvement of decision makers, partnership maturity, creation of new relationships, decreased conflict, and stimulation of innovation. Improving sustainability outcomes, therefore, requires maintaining these partnership attributes and also increasing emphasis on reducing waste and resource use.

On Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe (JST) is enacting contested approaches of reclaiming tribal histories threatened by persistent 19th century settler colonial narratives of ethnic erasure. Legally exiled from their capital village in 1871 as a result of government-mandated arson and legal ordinances banning Indigenous individuals from city limits, ancestral JST homelands also include Olympic National Park, popularly lauded as a pristine wilderness area devoid of Native inhabitation. Emanating from the Tribe’s previously unrecognized federal status and history of intermarriage with Scandinavian loggers, tropes of assimilation and extinction contribute to the contemporary non-Indigenous public’s denial of JST existence. By raising totem poles—monuments not historically rooted within JST artistic repertoire—to commemorate tribal leaders and events, the JST are challenging their veiled history in a region known for outdoor recreation and tourism. Reclaiming territory, communicating Indigenous presence, and resisting historical amnesia via totem poles have generated reconciliatory outcomes between the Tribe and non-Natives. However, adopting totem poles as a cultural iconography has also produced division within the tribal community itself, with critics raising questions about the authenticity of such monuments, as well as concerns about artistic appropriation and “performing” pan-Indigeneity for tourists. Through a lens of resiliency and regeneration, I analyze the JST’s opposition to being consigned to the past, and the challenges encountered while representing and redefining their own cultural identity.
My dissertation is organized into nine chapters, including the Introduction and Conclusion. Chapter 2 provides a brief timeline of pre-colonial JST history, and highlights how the Tribe engaged in cultural interaction and exchange prior to settler colonialism. Chapter 3 examines early JST relationships with non-Native individuals, and charts the region’s complicated trajectory from initial coexistence to conflict and Indigenous exile. Chapter 4 discusses how the Olympic Peninsula was transformed into a literal and metaphorical wilderness, the ways in which settler colonists adopted an Indigenous identity for themselves while denying JST presence, and contemporary consequences of erasure. Chapter 5 traces the historical and modern status of S’Klallam material culture, with emphasis on the gradual shift to a pan-Northwest Native genre (inclusive of totem poles) as a result of early 20th century tourist, academic, and museum attitudes that disparaged S’Klallam art and culture. Chapter 6 proposes various hypotheses for why the JST adopted totem poles beginning in the 1960s-1990s, and analyzes these recent monuments through a lens of identity performance and heritage maintenance. Chapter 7 highlights the discontent associated with JST poles by exploring issues of cultural property rights, cultural appropriation, and power imbalance within the Tribe, whereas Chapter 8 analyzes how totem poles have increased JST visibility and enhanced the Tribe’s cultural preservation attempts.

Kaygusuz Abdal Menakıbnamesi’nde veba ordularının komutanı olduğu yazılan Pir Abdal Musa Sultan, dergahı Antalya Elmalı’da bulunan, 14. Yüzyılda yaşadığı söylenen bir Bektaşi Evliyasıdır. Abdal Musa Sultan Dersim bölgesinde karşımıza, kızamık, kızamıkçık ve suçiçeği getiren, yabani kurtlar ve çekirge salgınlarıyla özdeşleştirilen Abdal Musa Orduları’nın komutanı olarak çıkar. Bu çalışmada, sözlü ve yazılı anlatılar temelinde, Abdal Musa Orduları örneğinin, geleneksel Anadolu sağlık dünyasında salgınlar, doğal felaketler ve insan toplumları arasındaki ilişki hakkında nelere işaret ettiği tartışılmıştır. Her gelenek gibi zaman içinde değişen Anadolu sağlık geleneklerinin dönüşümlerine yol açan dinamikler, 20. Yüzyılın Dersim’inde Abdal Musa anlatısının geçirdiği değişim incelenerek, analiz edilecektir. 

Pir Abdal Musa Sultan, a Bektashi Saint of the 14th century, is mentioned as the commander of the “plague armies” in the hagiography of  Kaygusuz Abdal. Saint Abdal Musa, whose shrine is in Antalya Elmalı, is known in Dersim as the commander of the “armies of Abdal Musa”, an army of divine origin bringing measles and smallpox epidemics. They also appear  in the form of locust swarms, wild wolve hordes and wild poplar groves. On the basis of written and oral accounts, this study attempts to analyse what this army indicates about the relationship between the human society and epidemics, in the lifeworld of Dersim before the 1970’s. Like all traditions, local Anatolian traditions of care and cure change over time. The changes traceable in the local identity of Abdal Musa in the last 50 years can provide traces about the dynamics effecting this relationship.

Im konfliktreichen Verhältnis von Naturschutz, Tourismus und anderen Nutzungsansprüchen an Natur kommt der Institution des Nationalparks eine Schlüsselstellung zu. Seit ihren Anfängen dienen Nationalparks nicht nur der Bewahrung ursprünglicher Natur, als Refugien bedrohter Arten und neuerdings auch als Archive genetischer Vielfalt. Darüber hinaus erfüllen sie auch den Zweck touristischer Erbauungs-und Erholungsstätten in industrialisierten und urbanisierten Gesellschaften. Als der US-amerikanische Kongress im März 1872 das Quellgebiet des Yellowstone River mit seinen Geysiren und monumentalen Felsformationen als weltweit ersten ‚Nationalpark' auswies, sollte die neue Einrichtung einerseits die "preservation, from injury or spoliation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders within said park, and their retention in their natural condition" gewährleisten, andererseits auch als "public park or pleasureing-ground [!] for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" dienen. 1 An diesen paradoxen Ansprüchen hat sich seither wenig geändert. Die gegenwärtig verbindlichen Schutzgebiets-Definitionen der International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) verstehen unter einem Nationalpark ein Gebiet, in dem sowohl Artenvielfalt und die Integrität ökologischer Prozesse und Ökosysteme, als auch Erholung und "geistig-seelische Erfahrungen" oberste Priorität haben sollen (IUCN 1994: 19). Tatsächlich sollte der Tourismus vor allem in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts zu einem der schlagkräftigsten Argumente für die Einrichtung von Nationalparks werden. In Ländern der Südhalbkugel, aber auch in sogenannten ‚strukturschwachen' Gebieten innerhalb Europas wurde durch das Label ‚Nationalpark' schützenswerte Natur als Standortfaktor touristisch verwertet und vermarktet.

O chamado sertão leste de Minas Gerais foi uma região considerada durante muitos anos como selvagem, seus primeiros habitantes, os nativos, foram tratados como bárbaros e ignóbeis. A partir do último quartel do século XVIII e no século XIX a região paulatinamente começou a despertar o interesse de colonos e da Coroa e passou a ser explorada de forma mais sistemática e ações mais expressivas foram tomada no sentido de se incorporar e se apropriar aquele espaço. O período foi particularmente caracterizado por uma expressiva produção de  registros cartográficos e iconográficos que se apresentam como fonte privilegiada nessa investigação, isso, pois figuram ao mesmo tempo como instrumento e meio de conhecimento
bem como de apropriação desse espaço. Uma das principais temáticas que nortearam a dissertação se referiu a forma, e as mudanças ocorridas na representação do leste de Minas Gerais, ao longo dos anos. Tais modificações foram observadas principalmente na produção cartográfica que representava aquela região. Vale lembrar, que durante aqueles anos estava em disputa a legitimação de poder da Monarquia sobre o espaço, tal disputa ocorria de forma intensa, tanto no plano material quanto no plano simbólico.

For many years the hinterlands of eastern Minas Gerais was considered as a wild region. There are several reports which pointed to barbaric and ignoble character of the natives who lived there. However, from the last quarter of the Eighteenth Century and throughout the Nineteenth Century, the interest of the colonial authorities and settlers in the area arouse gradually. So it began to be explored in a more systematic and expressive way.
Several actions were taken in order to incorporate and settle the region. The production of cartographic records was one of those actions and served both as an instrument of knowledge as a means of appropriation of that space. The survey was intended to observe the changes in the representations of the region, especially in cartographic production. These changes involved the legitimacy of the monarchy power on the area and were so intense, both in material and symbolic terms.

The rewilding of landscapes is one of the most important and intensively discussed landscape changes occurring in Switzerland, as the need for agricultural and forest land is decreasing. To ensure that decisions concerning future landscape management will be supported by the public, it is crucial to take public opinion into account. Hence the present study aims to assess the public attitudes towards nature and ''rewilding'' processes. In order to analyze these attitudes, we sent a standardized questionnaire to 4000 randomly selected households throughout Switzerland. A cluster analysis led to a typology with four different types of human-nature relationship (''nature lovers'', ''nature sympathizers'', ''natureconnected users'' and ''nature controllers'') that each characterize a particular attitude towards nature. These human-nature relationship types differ in their attitudes towards rewilding as well, allowing a rough classification of the sample into wilderness opponents (51.1%) and wilderness proponents (49.9%). However both groups agree with regard to their opinion concerning the rules and regulations that should apply in future wilderness areas. The parallels of the human-nature relationship typology of this survey with other typologies, and the implications for further research are discussed. We can conclude that, due to the differences concerning the attitudes towards wilderness between the humannature relationship types, between the rural and urban dwellers, and between the language regions, a uniform strategy for the designation and management of wilderness areas in Switzerland is not possible. We recommend that, when managing landscape change, all stakeholders are included in a participatory process and we advise a thorough assessment of the attitudes of the involved persons towards nature and rewilding at the start of such processes. Such an assessment would facilitate the identification of well-defined target groups allowing specific interventions and management actions customized to the needs and characteristics of each of these groups. In addition we see the commonalities between wilderness opponents and wilderness proponents concerning the rules in wilderness areas as an ideal starting point for a successful participatory process.

New Zealand has a rigorously defined approach to management of wilderness within an extensive system of conservation lands. A major challenge confronting conservation managers is how to maintain and enhance wilderness qualities in the face of changing recreation demands, accentuated by significant tourism growth. While the formal designation of Wilderness Areas will remain fundamentally important, the integration of wilderness qualities and recreation needs will also need to be addressed in other backcountry areas.

In Russia remote areas harbor some of the world’s most undisturbed
ecosystems and the idea of protecting wildlife, with references to foreign experience and with adjustments for Russian realities have been expressed nowadays. However the wilderness idea has not found such
popularity, while remaining little-known in Russian scientific and conservation circles. Major conservation gains can be made by effectively
protecting nature in these remote zones. Conducting conservation work
in remote settings presents both unique challenges and promising opportunities. In the presented work discusses the experience of implementing
GIS-based mapping, modelling and calculation of index of wildlife on
the territory of the Siberian Federal district. Spatial analyses conducted
using population density as a proxy for remoteness indicate that many
existing recognized protected areas already include remote regions, but
that the vast majority of the overall remote zones on the planet are not
yet formally protected. Initiating discussions that directly consider both
the roadblocks and opportunities for conservation in remote areas will
help increase our odds of successfully protecting biodiversity in these
unique and strategically important contexts.

Whether or not this is explicitly admitted, each normative position within the debate turns out to rely on a particular normative concept of nature. However, the use of any of these particular normative interpretations cannot be legitimized. The starting point of this inquiry is the assumption that today's environmental crisis is intrinsically related to this ambiguity with regard to the normative meaning of nature. This ambiguity has a foundational character, and the conflicts and dilemmas that stem from it cannot be solved easily. In order to clarify this relation between the environmental crisis and the crisis in morality, I  analyze the relation between nature and morality in the work of the late 19th century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and ask whether his philosophy can help us clarify the problematic relationship between nature and morality in contemporary environmental ethical debates. From Nietzsche's viewpoint, environmental ethics appears as a paradoxical undertaking, on the one hand, interested in nature in so far as it transcends human seizures of power (wildness as a critical concept), on the other hand restricted in its possibility to model this interest on anything else than yet another interpretative appropriation. That is to say, we can only articulate the moral significance of nature "itself" by interpreting it, but each interpretation inevitably implies a moment of appropriation. However, some environmental ethicists appear to do more justice to this profound problematic character of our relationship with nature by explicitly acknowledging the inaccessibility and radical otherness of wild nature. The newly developed perspective is then tested on its fruitfulness for the Dutch case of "new nature development". In this debate on ecological reconstruction, the concept of wildness functions as a moral concept, albeit a paradoxical one. This idea of wildness is elaborated hermeneutically. In a time where "real" wildernesses no longer seem to exist, we are fascinated by the idea of wildness as something beyond our ability to control and appropriate. Wildness thus poses a (moral) limit to human appropriations of nature, it is a critical border concept that puts the human, moral order in perspective.

This hybrid art-theory article discusses "Indeterminate Hikes," a smartphone app and performance created by ecoarttech, my interdisciplinary eco-art and theory collaborative. The work was originally conceived for a Whitney Museum of American Art exhibition and subsequently performed on the High Line in NYC and the M.I.T. Media Lab, among other places. My essay theorizes the ways in which "Indeterminate Hikes" contributes to discussions of new media art, environmental thought, and performance art, including its relationship to Fluxus "happenings." Excerpts from this text have been presented at the M.I.T. Media Lab, University of North Texas, Indiana University, and--forthcoming in 2012--at the annual College Art Association conference in Los Angeles.

In remote, tropical areas human influences increase, potentially threatening pristine seagrass systems. We aim (i) to provide a bench-mark for a near-pristine seagrass system in an archipelago in East Kalimantan, by quantifying a large spectrum of abiotic and biotic properties in seagrass meadows and (ii) to identify early warning indicators for river sediment and nutrient loading, by comparing the seagrass meadow properties over a gradient with varying river influence. Abiotic properties of water column, pore water and sediment were less suitable indicators for increased sediment and nutrient loading than seagrass properties. Seagrass meadows strongly responded to higher sediment and nutrient loads and proximity to the coast by decreasing seagrass cover, standing stock, number of seagrass species, changing species composition and shifts in tissue contents. Our study confirms that nutrient loads are more important than water nutrient concentrations. We identify seagrass system variables that are suitable indicators for sediment and nutrient loading, also in rapid survey scenarios with once-only measurements.

He has authored numerous publications dealing with wilderness management. MARGARET E. PETERSEN is a research forester at the Intermountain Station's Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Missoula. She received her M.S. in forestry from Oregon State University in 1980. Her interests include recreation use measurement, theories of visitor satisfaction, and visitor management techniques. SIDNEY S. FRISSELL is associate dean and professor of applied ecology and recreation management at the University of Montana School of Forestry. He holds a Ph.D. in forestry from the University of Minnesota. He has authored a number of papers on recreation and wilderness management.

Scheiber, Laura L. (2015)  Paths, Places, and Positions: Exploring Rocky Mountain Landscapes as Resource, Symbol, Wilderness, and Refuge.  In Engineering Mountain Landscapes: An Anthropology of Social Investment, edited by Laura L. Scheiber and María Nieves Zedeño, pp. 23-48. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake.

“Dying is an art, Like everything else I do it Exceptionally well”
                                                                                                  - Sylvia Plath
Never underestimate the power of Human mind. It can make you go towards any extreme conditions. The ultimate beauty of the mind is it can opt for its self-annihilation and even finds pleasure in it, as it happens in the cases of Sylvia Plath and Virginia Woolf. The recent one is Hannah Baker, the protagonist of James Asher's novel '13 Reasons Why'. When creativity and emotivity goes very wild, most of us fail to manage the imbalance and maintain the phase of coordination. Suicide or Self-destruction demands much determination and courage than all the world can do for facing the problems and harsh realities of the life. This paper throws light upon the beauty of self-annihilation or suicide in relation with the aforementioned contexts, texts and how beautifully it was portrayed as an art form in literature.

Keywords : Self-annihilation, Human rights, Beauty of Mind, Wilderness etc.

Abstract:
Operating at the intersection of ecopsychology, experiential learning, and wilderness skills, this study explores the topic of healing the human/nature division, considered necessary for a sustainable society, through reconnecting with the earth experientially. The chosen method for earth reconnection is the practice of survival skills as taught by Tom Brown, Jr., renowned tracker and survivalist. Using a personal experiential approach, the researcher experimented with different survival skills himself to test their effectiveness in facilitating his sense of reconnection with the earth, recording his findings in narratives and reflections so that they might be useful to others wishing to reconnect with the earth. The report is organized around the themes of shelter, water, fire and food. Additionally it explores various camp crafts, encounters with wildlife, and a somatic/sensory approach to interacting with nature. Ecological reconnection in urban environments is also discussed. The study concludes that survival skills are highly effective for reconnecting with the earth. Survival skills are ideal for an experiential approach aimed at inculcating a felt sense of connection with the earth because they are somatically engaging, promote sensory interaction with the landscape, and facilitate the direct perception that one’s life is supported by the wild earth. Moreover, practising survival skills is pertinent for ecological education because it reveals experientially the vital connections or interdependency between human life, other life-forms, and the earth.

The purpose of this study was to assess spatial wildfire risk in a typical Mediterranean wildland-urban interface (WUI) in Greece and the potential effect of three different burning condition scenarios on the following four major wildfire risk components: burn probability, conditional flame length, fire size, and source-sink ratio. We applied the Minimum Travel Time fire simulation algorithm using the FlamMap and ArcFuels tools to characterize the potential response of the wildfire risk to a range of different burning scenarios. We created site-specific fuel models of the study area by measuring the field fuel parameters in representative natural fuel complexes, and we determined the spatial extent of the different fuel types and residential structures in the study area using photointerpretation procedures of large scale natural color orthophotographs. The results included simulated spatially explicit fire risk components along with wildfire risk exposure analysis and the expected n...

Jay Griffiths (28th April, 2009) – The songlines of wildness. The Ecology, Cosmos and Consciousness Salon, The Institute of Ecotechnics, October Gallery, Bloomsbury, London. (Host and compère)

Jay Griffiths will talk about her book, “Wild: An Elemental Journey” which describes her journeys to wildernesses of earth and ice, water, fire and air.  This book is the result of a seven-year odyssey among Native people, listening to their philosophies; meeting cannibals; anchoring a boat to an iceberg where polar bears slept; joining Inuit hunters on a whale hunt; drinking shamanic medicine with Amazonian healers; visiting sea gypsies and journeying to the freedom fighters of West Papua.
She will discuss the songlines of the earth, the paths in the Papuan highlands remembered in song, and the ethereal music of shamans, as well as the songlines of Aboriginal Australia.  The talk will explore the words and meanings which shape ideas of wildness and it will illustrate the anarchic nature of wildness, as well as the kindness of what is wild, both in nature and the human mind. The talk will also explore some of the political resonances of wilderness and the corporate invasions of indigenous lands, arguing for the essential freedoms, and the necessary wildness of the human spirit, everywhere.

Wilderness parks in the United States are often described as landscapes of leisure for affluent white nature tourists. This article challenges that interpretation by exploring visitation to the Cook County Forest Preserves and the Indiana Dunes State Park, two Chicago-area wilderness parks that during the early twentieth century attracted far more visitors than all of the national parks combined. The author argues that if we turn our gaze from rarefied and far less-visited parks such as Yosemite and Yellowstone to the wilderness parks created just outside of major metropolitan centers, we can clearly see that early-twentieth-century wilderness landscapes attracted a far more cosmopolitan audience than commonly assumed. Moreover, the author shows that marginalized Chicagoans were not simply passive consumers of wilderness. Drawing on theorists and historians of mass-culture reception, the author makes the case that new immigrants, children of the foreign-born, African Americans, and industrial workers appropriated these Chicago wilderness parks in much the same way that they borrowed and creatively rewrote Jazz-Age mass-culture entertainment such as Hollywood films. Far from places that Americanized immigrants and neutralized class tension, Chicago-area wilderness parks became important sites for the production and reproduction of subaltern national, ethnic, and working-class communities.

This study examines the role of nature in relation to emotional highs in adult learning. Hermeneutic phenomenology was used as an overarching methodology and contained both descriptive and interpretive elements. The methodology enabled access to an exploration of the phenomenon with further interpretation of the experiences of the 21 adults who participated in one of three outdoor learning courses. As a part of the findings, three emerging themes are discussed: nature as a sense of escape; learning in nature; and sense of therapy in emotional highs. The study found that nature profoundly affected the experiences of the participants and at times operated as a co-therapist to foster unique learning opportunities. Nature was seen by participants as a learning environment where temporary escape from one's customary life is possible. Sense of escape in the education settings was found beneficial because it enabled participants, as learners, to get away from life's usual distractions and routines, and with available time and permission to reflect-to become someone else. This in turn positively affected learning capacity as participants reconnected with themselves without being bound to familiar and taken-for-granted practices.

Пространство, как основа жизненной среды для всего существующего на Земле, есть матрица развития любого индивидуального или социального организма. Доказано, что совершенствуя свою материальную и духовную природу, отношения между людьми и отношение с природой, человек выступает активным субъектом эволюции, с ростом на­ селения на планете все в меньшей степени человеческая жизнь оказывается детермини­ рованной биологической и культурной составляющей, но во все большей степени принад­ лежит социальным структурам самого человечества. В статье показано, что способ­ ность познания мира реальности не равна человеческому восприятию, она дополнено мышлением, и как следствие для построения адекватной современному уровню развития фундаментального научного знания, требуется абстрагирование, идеализация и интер­ претация. Таким образом, научная организация современности предстает глубоко разъе­ диненным и дифференцированным процессом, с одной стороны, так и интеграционными попытками и объединением-исследованием, выраженными в тенденциях к меж-и транс-дисциплинарности, с другой стороны. Ключевые слова: география, наука, глобализация, этнический код, ГИС

KA Bennett saw that "The Poet (the artist) is he who has the ability to transcend diurnal life to reveal the divine nature of humanity." :3) This is certainly true of both James Turrell and Giuseppe Penone, through whose work this study considers spiritual experience as the purpose and function of art.

The pillar of cloud and fire, the most popular motif symbolizing the divine guidance in the wilderness, represents the last stage in the gradual development of the guidance motif. The development of the various “guiding agents” can be aligned as follows: (1) Hobab, son of Reuel (Num 10,31); (2) the Ark and cloud (Num 10,33-34); (3) the cloud and fire on the Tabernacle (Exod 40,36-38; Num 9,15-23; 10,11); (4) YHWH in cloud and fire (Deut 1,33); (5) YHWH in the pillar of cloud and fire (Exod 13,21-22).

Outdoor experiential education (OEE) programs often cater to white, upper-class individuals. With major demographic shifts occurring in the United States, OEE organizations are confronting this imbalance. The National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) is addressing this issue with its Gateway Scholarship Program. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine whether Gateway Scholarship and non-scholarship students held different wilderness attitudes and whether those attitudes changed following NOLS courses. A quantitative posttest and retrospective pretest was administered online (n = 74), with follow-up telephone interviews (n = 19). Results showed that Gateway students held less positive pre-course wilderness attitudes than non-Gateway students, but most post-course scores had converged. Both groups experienced positive change in wilderness attitudes. Interview data revealed potential reasons for attitude change and areas of possible concern about the conceptualization of wilderness promoted by NOLS.

It has been noted that (early childhood) experiences with Nature enhance environmental values (Wells et al., 2007). These findings suggest that Nature activities in childhood and youth are key pathways that lead people to take an interest in Nature and later work for its protection. Yet, early exposure alone does not explain why some people who grow up next to forests do not try to stop the logging, while others from the same villages do. This question of why some come to ecocentrism and some do not is fascinating. Like others, I have no perfect answer. In the documentary film If A Tree Falls: A Story of The Earth Liberation Front, environmental activist Daniel McGowan reflects that he grew up as a typical ‘city boy’. He came to care about Nature from watching a film about deforestation when he was in his twenties (discussed in Kopnina, 2014).  It appears difficult to discern why some individuals choose to stand up for Nature and others do not, this commitment seems to vary individually, independent of culture, as I describe in my articles and books. In reflecting what wilderness means for me, I have three lived experiences to relate.

This article examines the intersections of community activism and wilderness in the sprawling suburban and industrial landscapes of Houston, Texas, in the United States. The Houston metropolitan region's rapid urban development, laissez-faire land use planning, and world-class petrochemical industries provide a critical context to explore the material and conceptual relations of wilderness. Building upon recent debates regarding the production of nature, the article argues that wilderness is and always has been integrated into our everyday suburban landscapes. The empirical data discussed reveals the practices and processes (re)producing wilderness materially and conceptually within the contemporary relations of urban life. It challenges us to envision wilderness as internal to society and society as internal to wilderness. The results suggest that wilderness, instead of being external and in need of protection, is internal to the human experience and therefore internal to our urban landscapes.

Cet article examine les intersections de l'activisme communautaire et en pleine nature dans les paysages suburbains et industriels que l'étalement autour de Houston, Texas, USA. Le développement urbain rapide de ses régions métropolitaines, la planification du laissez-faire, et les industries pétrochimiques de classe mondiale fournissent un contexte critique pour explorer la matière et les relations conceptuelles de l'espace naturel. Se fondant sur les débats récents concernant la production de la nature, l'article soutient que l'espace naturel a toujours été intégré dans nos banlieues. Les données empiriques examinées révèle les pratiques et les processus (re)produisant l'espace naturel matériellement et conceptuellement dans les relations contemporaines de la vie urbaine. Il nous incite à envisager l'espace naturel comme interne à la société, et la société en interne à l'espace naturel. Les résultats suggèrent que l'espace naturel, au lieu d'être externe et dans le besoin de protection, est interne à l'expérience humaine et donc interne à nos paysages urbains.

Este artículo examina las intersecciones del activismo comunitario y naturaleza en los crecientes paisajes suburbanos e industriales de Houston, Texas, en Estados Unidos. El rápido desarrollo urbano, el planeamiento liberal del uso de suelo y las industrias petroquímicas de nivel internacional en la zona metropolitana de Houston, proveen un importante contexto para analizar las relaciones materiales y conceptuales de la naturaleza. Con base en recientes debates sobre la producción de naturaleza, este artículo discute que la naturaleza es y siempre ha sido integrada en nuestro cotidiano paisaje suburbano. Los datos empíricos discutidos aquí, revelan las prácticas y los procesos que (re)producen la naturaleza material y conceptual dentro de las relaciones contemporáneas de la vida urbana. Esto nos estimula a concebir a la naturaleza como algo interno a la sociedad y a su vez, a la sociedad como interna a la naturaleza. Los resultados sugieren que la naturaleza en lugar de ser externa y en necesidad de protección, es interna a la experiencia humana y por consiguiente, interna a nuestros paisajes urbanos.

The Cascade Wildlife Monitoring Project uses trained volunteers to monitor the location and movement of wildlife, through snow tracking surveys, in the vicinity of proposed wildlife crossing structures along Interstate-90 in the Washington Cascades between Snoqualmie Pass and Easton. The first field season was successful in meeting multiple objectives: collecting an initial data set on existing wildlife along the interstate; training and utilizing approximately 50 volunteers to carry out a rigorous data collection protocol; and creating a structure for ongoing citizen monitoring of wildlife over time before and after highway construction activities. Nearly all expected common mammal species predicted in the study area were detected, while no rare, threatened, or endangered species were noted. Recommendations for next season include: expanding tracking surveys to non-snow seasons, making minor adjustments to field protocols, adding of a control transect, and minor adjustments to volunteer coordination and training.

The Trans-Himalaya is a vast expanse of cold and arid land encompassing the entire Tibetan Plateau and its marginal mountains, with an estimated area of 2.5 million sq km (965,000 sq. mi.). Ladakh is located at the western tip of this huge plateau, and is the least inhabited area in India, with fewer than three persons per sq km (0.4 sq. mi.). The region supports an intact assemblage of Pleistocene large herbivores (Schaller 1977). These herbivores underwent an adaptive radiation in the late Miocene, occupying the mountainous niches created in the aftermath of the collision of the Eurasian and the Indian plates and the consequent rise of the Himalaya (Schaller 1977). Ladakh’s mammalian herbivores (20 species), belonging to six families, include eight wild ungulates: Tibetan gazelle (Procapra picticaudata), Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsoni), blue sheep (Pseudois nayaur), Ladakh urial (Ovis vignei vignei), Asiatic ibex (Capra ibex siberica), Tibetan argali (Ovis ammon hodgsoni), ...

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) develops an understanding of human beings as “part and parcel of nature” that includes the idea that we are physically, spiritually, and attitudinally (more or less) connected to the world around us. The image he offers is one in which life spent too much in civilization, where work and social expectations determine the quality of one’s daily life and personal character, lead to lives of boredom, conformity, and misplaced priorities. Time spent in more natural environments is the antidote. Such experiences have the potential to jar us out of the conformist and—to his mind—personally stunting existence into which most fall. Growth and liberation come from experiencing the “More” of which both nature and we are a part. Thoreau calls us to reevaluate our values and priorities by being in a right relationship with nature, which does not require that we accept all of his particular ontological commitments. The argument that emerges for greater protection of the environment is admittedly quite human-centered. However, Thoreau’s insight that we are part and parcel of nature is important because, as Aldo Leopold later argues, we can only progress beyond a prudential approach to nature when we see ourselves as part of the larger whole. The world looks different when it is our home and community as opposed to being mere material to be used or a stage on which our lives unfold.

Crocodilians represent one of the oldest constant animal lineages on the planet, in no small part due to their formidable array of predatory adaptations. As both human and crocodilian populations expand, they increasingly encroach on each others' territories, bringing morbidity and mortality to both populations. In this article, the medical and herpetologic literature pertaining to injuries caused by crocodilians is reviewed, and the patterns of saltwater crocodile attacks in Australia from 1971 to 2004 are analyzed. In this review, we examine the features of crocodilians that contribute to explaining their evolutionary success, as well as the potential hazard they pose to humans. Only by understanding their capabilities is it possible to mitigate the potential threat to life and limb.

Re latore : Pr of. Pa olo Luca Be rnar dini A nno acca de mic o 2013/2014 Vorrei spendere una parola in favore della natura, dell'assoluta libertà e dello stato selvaggio, contrapposti a una libertà e una cultura puramente civili, vorrei considerare l'uomo come abitatore della natura, come sua parte integrante, e non come membro della società. (Henry David Thoreau, Camminare, p. 17.) 2 INDICE SUMMARY 3 INTRODUZIONE 4 1. LE SUMMARY My work analyzed the historical circumstances in which the young boy Christopher McCandless and the famous transcendentalist philosopher and his mentor Henry David Thoreau lived their life in the American wilderness.

Traversing the ‘Wet Sahara’

Abstract
The paper develops earlier findings about wilderness and re-wilding in a post-colonial context (Haywood 2007/8) into a consideration of the marine littoral as another form of wilderness that is continually being re-wilded through a natural process of renewal.

North-east Canada has the highest tidal resonance (difference between high and low tide) in the world, and the British Isles has the second highest. The account concerns Morecambe Bay, a littoral zone of several hundred square kilometres at the southern end of Cumbria, where ebb tides can retreat by up to twelve kilometres to reveal a flat, but spectacular panorama. The Crown is prima facie the owner of the foreshore between high and low-water mark, but the terrain can only be temporarily occupied by man. The topography of the Morecambe Bay continually shifts through the interaction of rivers and sea. The land itself is fluid and maps of little value: indeed they can be dangerous.

Kings Cross Islington is a central London area located next to rapidly changing environments that follow the global trend: transforming employment land into mixed use developments. While regeneration provides opportunities, it often displaces those who cannot pay the price (Ferm and Jones 2016; Lees 2019). Usually it also comes with a change of environment that propels commodification and social control at the expense of social need (Edwards 2015). While this is nothing new (Ruth Glass coined the term “gentrification” when talking about 1960s Islington) the premise of this design research process is that it is something that could be and should be addressed. While admittedly cities (and should not!) be planned on paper (Rudlin and Hemani 2019) their change can be shaped. Rudlin argues that the state cities are in is a result of the way that emergent urban growth interacts with planners’ rules and plans. While Rudlin’s idea of ‘natural’ urban growth might be a construct itself as I imply in my proposal and I would challenge the notion of necessary growth itself (Nelson and Schneider 2019), the pur- pose of this framework is still to provide a frame to contain the way Kings Cross changes and set out ‘rules’ which guide how change takes place.
This report consists of two parts.
First, it presents an in-depth analysis of the area which I carried out together with Ali Weatherup, Jacob Revell, Louise Dins- dale and Bethany Griffin. The study area itself is interesting as it encompasses a variety of uses; commercial, residential and (increasingly disappearing) industrial. This reflects its rich history of including raves and resistance, and been criss-crossed by transport infrastructure. The two major physical barriers; the canal and the railway lines, have shaped the area’s identity but also mean that it lacks “joined-upness” which at the first instance makes it seem like isolated in its urban setting. The analysis uncovered numerous elements that are valuable but hidden, importantly the subterranean River Fleet. (Coursework 1)
Second, it proposes a principle of guidance that I call clutter of wilderness ecology. In reality, a masterplan should be devel- oped with the participation of those who live and work in the area, but this document can hopefully serve as a starting point for a framework for urbanism and as illustration of how that can be applied on a site. (Coursework 2)