The “tragedy of the commons” argument developed by Garrett Hardin is applied to problems associated with the increasing use of the national parks in the United States. The relevance of his argument to such problems is illustrated by a discussion of the proposals included in the recent Draft General Management Plan for Yosemite National Park. Implications for the future management of Yosemite andother public recreation resources conclude the article.

User satisfaction as the ultimate goal of recreation planning and management is contested by a discussion of human adaptability which makes it possible for people to adjust to a progressively lower quality of recreation opportunities without loss of satisfaction. Recreation planning and management based on such satisfaction levels are then shown to perpetuate a deterioration in the quality of recreationenvironments themselves. To arrest this trend, a new goal for recreation planning and management is proposed based on the equation of quality (...) of opportunity with diversity of environmental settings. The article concludes with a discussion of this goal in light of the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) concept developed recently by members of the United States Forest Service. (shrink)

We apply two contrasting principles of human workmanship, the principles of design and eolithism, to the issue of responsible environmental stewardship. Both principles are described and analyzed in an environmental context with an emphasis on the weaknesses of the more popular design principle and the strengths of the lesser known eolithic principle. We conclude with a discussion of the principles’complementary potential for environmental planning and management.

Native American land ethics are not well understood by many governmental natural resource managers. This article presents the results of interviews with selected tribal elders, tribal land managers, and tribal content experts concerning traditional beliefs and values forming a land ethic and how these influence tribal land management practices. The Native American land ethic that emerged from this study includes four belief areas: “All Is Sacred”; ; “Right Action”; ; “All Is Interrelated”; ; and “Mother Earth”;. Traditional Native American beliefs (...) concerning the environment appear to spring from a spiritual context rather than the scientific‐utilitarian context more prevalent in the dominant Euro‐American culture. (shrink)