WHAT IS CONSERVATION?

Rex Burress

Although the term “conservation” was quite apparent on April 23, 2016, at the John Muir National Historic Site, a day when the John Muir Conservation Legacy award was given out [to me], I'm not sure if everybody knew, or knows, what conservation means.

You need but go to the Webster's Dictionary, or Wikipedia on Google, to get the general definition of conservation, even though words like conservative, conservancy, preservationist, environmentalist, ecologist, and sustainability clamor to be recognized.

Conservative politics aside, conservation, as in nature conservation, is the action of conserving, or saving something [save the whales], preservation, protection, or restoration of the natural environment. A certain amount of love is involved in seeking the proper use and protection of our natural resources including animal and plant life, especially those features that are non-renewable.

Californians became very aware of the term 'water conservation' during the drought of 2015. Drastic conserving is needed when ponds and wells sink low. The wise use of anything at anytime is a good policy.

Conservation is an ethic of resource use, allocation, and protection while maintaining the health of the natural world. Conservation seeks the proper use of nature, while preservation seeks complete protection of nature from use.

Was John Muir a conservationist or preservationist? The two words are somewhat akin, although preservation emphasizes retaining nature without disturbance, while conservation is more toward the wise use of existing resources while saving enough for the future. Muir may have been more toward preserving, as in saving land for National Parks, although he certainly knew about conservation on the Wisconsin farm as a boy, and later at the Martinez ranch where he efficiently sorted saplings and fruit crops. It is said that the man who prunes his own fruit trees knows the true meaning of conservation.

In a nature interpreter job interview many years ago, Josh Barkin asked me what I thought about conservation versus preservation. Although I was well acquainted with the word conservation, I had given little thought to preservation, and I rather messed up on my answer. I was thinking primarily about my mother preserving foods in a pressure-cooker! Preservation of peach-jam in a jar is meant to be used and not to be set aside to remain untouched, as in wilderness preservation. The duo use of the term got me in an interview jam! I did OK in the field test, though, when asked what kind of bird nest was in the oak. I had seen enough fox squirrel nests in Missouri to know it was squirrel and not bird!

As a nature-loving boy I was a volunteer for the local conservation agent, or game warden, took care of confiscated animals, and went on patrols with him. Agent Sid got me started in the Nature Knight program sponsored by the MO Dept of Conservation, and I was flooded with field guide books at a time when I could memorize efficiently.

One of my projects was making a refuge out of a brushy corner in the lespedeza field next to Floyd's Timber. Setting aside little pieces of farmland for wildlife is good conservation. I was a conservationist all the way from tending my Corner to the Missouri Conservationist magazine!

Conservation is also: Attempting to put a baby bird back in its nest [as happened at Oakland Camp when a dozen seniors worked for an hour lifting a wood pewee home on a long pole]; braking for an animal crossing the road [even a snake and especially gray squirrels around Oroville]; helping trapped ducklings out of the gutter [it's the attitude and gesture that counts]; leaving a patch of flowers in the mowed field [“A Tuft of Flowers” by Robert Frost]; tending bird and bat houses; admiring roadside chicory even though it's a non-native species; respecting endangered life; supporting conservation causes; or going on a nature walk!

“Any fool can destroy trees. They cannot run away; and if they could, they would still be destroyed, chased, and hunted down as long as fun or a dollar could be got out of their bark hides, branching horns, or magnificent bole backbones.” --John Muir

“In the end we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught.” --Baba Dioum