Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
understanding how current natural resource management problems or user conflicts have
developed, such research can also be used to develop interpretive material for visitors as
part of a programme of heritage management, an area in which geographers are becoming
increasingly involved (e.g. Ashworth and Tunbridge 1990; Tunbridge and Ashworth
1996; Hall and McArthur 1996, 1998). Cronan (1990) asserts that good work in
environmental history incorporates three levels of analysis. These are the dynamics of
natural ecosystems in time (ecology), the political economies that people erect within
these systems (economy) and the cognitive lenses through which people perceive those
systems (the history of ideas). Geographers, with their integrative approach to
environment, cultural landscapes and land use, would therefore seem to be ideally poised
to work in this area. As Mark (1996:153) observed, 'Widening the scope of historical
narrative has frequently resulted in more complex interpretation of the past and should
point the way toward greater understanding of the past in heritage management.'
National parks are a major focus of heritage management but have been a relatively
quiet backwater in traditional historical narrative, including historical geography.
Environmental history, however, can place them within the larger context of interaction
between nature and culture (Griffiths 1991; Mark 1996). For example, a number of
extremely valuable park histories which highlight the role of tourism and outdoor
recreation in park development have been written on the Yellowstone (Haines 1977),
Grand Canyon (J.D.Hughes 1978), Rocky Mountain (Buchholtz 1983), Olympic (Twight
1983), Sequoia and Kings Canyon (Dilsaver and Tweed 1990) and Yosemite (Runte
1990) national parks in the United States; the Albertan (Bella 1987) and the Ontario
(Killan 1993) national park systems in Canada, and with useful national overviews being
provided by Nelson (1970), Hall (1992a) and Dearden and Rollins (1993).
Substantial methodological research is called for when undertaking research on
environmental and park histories. In the New Worlds of North America and the
Antipodes, travel accounts written during the period of initial European settlement have
been utilised by scholars interested in historic environments (Powell 1978). They often
hope to establish a pre-European settlement landscape as a baseline from which to assess
subsequent environmental change. One difficulty with using travel accounts, however, is
that they are often written in places where the journalist is not actually travelling; instead
the diarist is summarising past events at a convenient place (Mark 1996). Another
problem is how to tie the usually limited detail (little of which could be utilised
quantitatively) to specific localities. The paucity of locality information is often present
in even the best accounts, such as those left by collectors of natural history specimens.
The only site-specific records available in many areas about presettlement landscapes
are land survey notes. These have been helpful in establishing an historic condition of
some forests, riparian habitats and grasslands. Their reliability varies, however, because
there can be limitations associated with insufficient description, bias in recording data,
contract fraud and land use prior to survey (Galatowitsch 1990). Another technique
which is useful for developing an historical record of land use change or for
reconstructing past environments or heritage sites is repeat photography (Rogers et al.
1984). However, while such techniques may be useful for specific sites or attractions the
photographic record of 'ordinary' landscapes, i.e. those which were not subject to the
interest of visitors as a view or panorama, is more difficult to construct because of
incomplete records. Indeed, the lack of longitudinal data on visitors to national parks and
