Conservation Management Basics

When deciding which areas to focus on in conservation, agencies must take many aspects into consideration.  Aesthetics, recreation, natural beauty, wildlife, biodiversity, or uncommon or spectacular species are all reasons to protect a piece of land.  What the focus of a protected area will be affects what type of protection it can receive.  There are two basic systems of conservation, coarse and fine filter.  Coarse filter reserves focus on ecosystems, whether they be forests, grasslands, or anything in between, as whole.  Here, special considerations are made to species interactions.  On the other hand, fine filter focus on individual species, such as the bald eagle or the wood turtle.  The goal of fine filtering is the preservation of one species whereas the protection of many species, or even land forms, may be included in coarse filtering protection.  In either case, the protection of biodiversity includes the protection of genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity. 

After a particular reason has been chosen for conservation, the specific, physical area must be chosen.  Four questions can be asked when considering an area:

1)     How many and how large will areas have to be?

2)     How representative is the area?

3)     How much work will have to be done on the area?

4)     How feasible is the project?

Sense of Place and Management

"Sense of place is a concept with great potential for bridging the
gap between the science of ecosystems and their management."
(Williams and Stewart 1998)

In actuality, some land management can be seen as people management (Hunter 1996).  Many areas offer picnic shelters, water recreation, and trails of various kinds for public use.  Not all conservation is deeply scientific and there is ample room for anyone to be active in conservation.  The involvement of people, especially those that live near protected areas, is a must for successful land conservation.  It has been argued numerous times that when people feel a connection to a natural place, they will be active in its conservation (Cheng, et al. 2003, Hunter 1996, Williams and Stewart 1998).  This connection to a place is part of what is called sense of place.  Sense of place can involve any kind of local knowledge, including that of the natural world (Williams and Stewart 1998).  In turn, by developing a sense of place in relation to conservation, people can create for themselves an overall conservation ethic that can spread beyond their local places.  They can care for the conservation of places they haven't visited (Cheng et al. 2003).

The first step in this then, is to create a sense of place with local natural areas.   The Cannon River area is blessed with many protected areas and ways for people to become involved.  The Cannon River area is a unique place.  It lies on the boarder of the great grasslands of the west and the deciduous forests to the east. The dominant forest type in the area is known as the “Big Woods,” or a maple-basswood forest, named for its dominant tree species.  The land surrounding the Cannon River is beautifully diverse; bluffs, rolling hills and flatter land, flank its shores (Grimm 1984).  Along its shores, one can view a variety of wildlife including white-tailed deer, beaver, otter, bobcats, fox, and coyotes. Bald eagles can be sighted near the Mississippi River.  The Cannon River is designated as a state canoe route, and as a Scenic and Recreational River (MN DNR 2004).

Because of the various types of wildlife, landscape, and vegetation, the Cannon River is a great place to explore nature and begin to develop a sense of place.  Different places along the Cannon River are protected in different ways.  The purpose of this project is to introduce three different protection methods and places in the Cannon River area under such protection.  The places were chosen for their close proximity to the Cannon River itself.  To accomplish this, information from various forms of literature was compiled to provide information on three protected places directly on the Cannon River (for a full list of sources, look at the Works Cited page).  Visits to the individual places were also necessary for photographs and familiarity with the places (my own sense of place).  To experience these places for yourself, click on the links below or to the left.  Explore the details of the the programs and/or scroll down to read about a place along the Cannon River.

The Scientific and Natural Areas Program - The Cannon River Turtle Preserve

Minnesota State Forests - The Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest