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Educating for integrated resource management
Educating for IntegratedResource Management CLAY SCHOENFELD* Professor, Journalism and Mass Communication The University o f Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
SUMMARY How do we inculcate that mass conservation literacy necessary to fuel the public and private quest for ecological survival. One such approach wouM establish on appropriate university campuses Integrated Resource Management Education Centers. Such centers would focus on the problem of translating resource management policies and plans into action on the landscape through (a) the collation of information about, and the preparation of practical materials on, restoring the quality of the environment, {b} informal instruction and technical assistance carried out directly to local governments, regional instrumentalities, and citizen groups, (c) the refresher education of key practitioners brought back to the campus for work in natural resource policy implementation, and (d) research in adult education theory and practice.
Integrated resource management education centers
Webster's dictionary (1979 edition) says integrated means " f o r m e d into a whole"; resource means "a source o f supply or support"; and management means "judicious use o f means to accomplish an end." "Integrated resource management" can thus be interpreted to mean "judicious employment o f strategy and tactics in a holistic manner to accomplish conservation o f sources o f supply and support." Integrated resource management has become a 20th century imperative worldwide. What educational modes and methods in colleges and universities does integrated resource management demand ? *Clay Schoenfeld is Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, Affiliate Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Chair of the Center for Environmental Communication and Education Studies, and Director of Inter-College Programs at The University of WisconsinMadison. Schoenfeld is perhaps best known as the author of 20 books and over 200 national journal and magazine articles. He is a past president of three national associations in the fields of university administration and environmental education.
The Environmentalist, 1 (1981) 117-122
Some suggestions for future needs in the undergraduate training o f wildlife and fisheries professionals, for example, come from a recent survey of alumni, recent graduates, and the faculty o f the Department of Wildlife Science at Utah State University, and employers o f people trained there (Eastmond and Kadlec, 1977). The topics respondents ranked highest as educational needs that the present program fails to meet were, in order: (1) knowledge of political obstacles to the implementation of sound resource programs, (2) ability to deal with cost considerations o f wildlife programs, and (3) skill in critical thinking and use of judgment. Next in importance were interdisciplinary study and planning at the ecosystem level, particularly in relation to current energy problems. These perceptions were nearly unanimous, suggesting a strong need and mandate for change in the curriculum. Arnold (1976) has provided some stimulating ideas for new directions in wildlife training for resource decision-makers. Starting from the premise that "there are too many inadequately prepared professors in too many schools training too many students to perform tasks that no longer exist," he proposes a new professional-manager o f resource affairs. His idea is to escape the constraints of narrow viewpoints shaped by professional identification with a particular r e s o u r c e - wildlife, for e x a m p l e - - a n d to promote more sensitivity to the needs of the publics for whom the total resource is managed. In short, the new professional should have an ecosystem viewpoint and a strong concern for people. Arnold proposes that a few universities establish two-year programs leading to the degree "Master of Resource Affairs." Admittance requirements would include three to five years o f professional resource management experience. The curriculum itself, outlined in some detail b y Arnold, would concentrate on policy, economics, and social and behavioral science, and it would require a summer internship in policy or planning projects.
© Elsevier Sequoia S.A., Lausanne - Printed in The Netherlands
Dingell and Potter (1976) believe "the time may have come to consider the virtues of creating some sort of an institution to identify and nurture principles of sound ecosystem management": a National Ecosystem Management Institute. They suggest such an institution should have at least the following elements: (1) a data bank and human resource file on what has already been done, (2) a curriculum for the training of managers and for education of the general public, from kindergarten on, in ecological principles, and (3) support of applied research and pilot studies to demonstrate the economic and social values of ecosystem management programs.
There are too many inadequately prepared professors in too many schools training too many students to perform tasks that no longer exist All these ideas are ambitious, and they come at a time when venture fiscal and capital funds are no longer available. Yet I dare say somewhere, somehow in the 1980s we will see these ideas implemented, if only by identifying those elements of an integrated ecosystem management capability that already exist and by providing some means whereby these elements, many of which are now working to bring about inconsistent objectives, can instead work in a cooperative, symbiotic way toward a common objective. Legislation may be necessary to make this happen. Now let me offer a concept aimed at inculcating that mass conservation literacy necessary to fuel the public and private quest for ecological survival, speaking as President of the National Association for Environmental Education. One such approach would establish on appropriate university campuses Integrated Resource Management Education Centers that will focus on the problem of translating resource management policies and plans into action on the landscape through (a) the collation of information about, and the preparation of practical materials on, restoring the quality of the environment, (b) informal instruction and technical assistance carried out directly to local governments, regional instrumentalities, and citizen groups, (c) the refresher education of key practitioners brought back to the campus for work in natural resource policy implementation, and (d) research in adult education theory and practice. Growing national programs of integrated environmental manage118
ment depend increasingly on state and local initiative and responsibility. "The problem of the states" as a national magazine said in a recent editorial, "is not lack of power or opportunity or even solely of money;it is a shortage of competent public servants." The proposed Integrated Resource Management Education Centers would tackle the problem directly by upgrading such key community leaders as planners, lawyers, resource specialists, adult educators, communicators, teachers, and public administrators, and by reinforcing them with improved educational materials and professional consultation. The Centers would also be concerned with adult-educationand-communications research. The degradation of our surroundings and the resulting need to protect and enhance the quality of our environment is increasingly entering our consciousness. Legislative bodies at all levels of government, public agencies, and private groups are seeking to halt pervasive pollutions brought about by multiplying man and disappearing land. New federal and state agencies have come into existence, and significant federal and state funds have been made available for attacks on water pollution, air pollution, open space acquisition, wildlife conservation, highway beautification, urban sprawl, and so on. But substantial areas of our choicest landscapes continue to approach a state of perturbation which will be difficult if not impossible to correct at reasonable cost and within reasonable time limits.
One such approach would establish on appropriate university campuses integrated resource management education centers We are figuratively and literally sick and tired of a degradation of our environment that diminishes daily the quality of the human experience: water pollution; air pollution; soil erosion; forest, range, and wetland deterioration; waning wildlife; urban sprawl; preempted open spaces; vanishing wilderness; landscapes scarred by highways, litter, noise, and b l i g h t - - a not-so-quiet crisis of decreasing beauty and increasing contamination that threatens not only the pursuit of happiness but life itself. To do something about environmental quality conservation, redevelopment, and maintenance requires a sense of husbandry, a sense of responsibility on the part of every American citizen: that man land ethic or "ecological conscience" about which Aldo Leopold spoke. Unthinking people The Environmentalist
pollute the environment; thinking people can effect a "new conservation": in the words o f former President Johnson, to restore as well as to protect, to bring beauty to the cities as well as to keep it in the countryside, to handle the waste products o f technology as well as the waste o f natural resources, to halt the massive deterioration in the American environment, to husband those resources and amenities which are inextricably linked not only to economic prosperity but to the inner prosperity o f the human spirit.
The urgency of need will not be met through educational processes of normal pace and dispersion What is the bottleneck? Why do we continue to have serious trouble translating federal intentions and state plans into timely, sound action on the land ? One answer would certainly seem to be that only at the local and regional level can public policies be translated into public and private practices, and yet at the intrastate level the forces o f integrated resource management continue to be ill-equipped to deal with the forces o f exploitation. The inefficiency with which public agencies and private citizens go about performing the socially essential tasks of environmental housekeeping stems largely from the fact that the technical and organizational skills available to the land conserver or rational planner are normally inferior to those available to the land exploiter. While we do not, o f course, yet understand all the scientific facts and societal values attendant to integrated resource management, what we do know is not being applied on a scale commensurate with the present pace of environmental degradation. At the local and regional level, where most o f the decisions affecting the quality o f the environment are made, we must address ourselves firmly to laying a basis for action by elucidating the choices in land and water use, relating them to general values and social objectives, instilling in people a desire for constructive change, and providing practical guidelines that encompass integrated rather than unilateral approaches. The urgency of need will not be met through educational processes o f normal pace and dispersion. What is needed now, and for some time to come, is a steady stream o f specific skills and resources rifled to the local and regional firing line. We need local leaders equipped with an understanding o f the interrelationships involved between their callings and integrated environmental Vol. 1, No. 2 (1981)
management, and with a knowledge o f the "tools o f the trade" in fueling land and water use controls. To begin to develop and equip a cadre o f local resource management leaders, it will be helpful to concentrate on those individuals at the local and regional level who typically do or can play the role o f "change agents" in conservation. Four such categories o f key personnel can be identified: (a) lawyers, (b) planners and administrators, (c) field resource technicians, and (d) communicators and educators. There is an acute shortage o f competent personnel with legal skills related to land and water use. There is an acute shortage of planners and administrators with a grasp of natural resource policy implementation. There is an acute shortage o f field biologists, foresters, hydrologists, park managers, agricultural agents, and so on with other than a narrow approach to the ecological and economic resources over which they preside. And there is an acute shortage o f media communicators, educators, and public relations persons equipped to interpret resource problems in such a way as to achieve consensus rather than conflict. For example, a recent "needs assessment" in a three-county area of Wisconsin alone identified a clear lack of "at least three" people in each o f the four change-agent categories. If that assessment is representative, the national and international shortage can only be called acute. To train all such change agents and to equip them and their clientele with effective educationfor-action materials and services would be a role o f the Integrated Resource Management Education Centers. The Centers would also perform related research focused on improving their concepts and techniques. Initially an Integrated Resource Management Education Center would assemble from a university and elsewhere as necessary a staff representing overall competence in environmental problems, to include people trained in biology, design, soils, economics, geology, engineering, ecology, sociology, public administration, journalism, education, law, and other environmental disciplines applicable to land-use issues. Their extension function would be the collection and collation o f what is known, what has been done, what is being done, and what might be done; the preparation o f educational materials, utilizing a variety of media; and the dissemination of information and technical counsel to local governments and citizen groups through institutes, audio and visual media, and consultation. The team will be encouraged to work with maximum speed and practicality, yet with intellectual breadth so that the environmen119
tal caretakers on the receiving end develop a sound view of the interrelatedness of decisions affecting the environment and of the immense complexity of human needs that must be reconciled and met. At the same time, the Center would provide fellowships for practicing change agents to come to the campus for a year of study focused on the practical problems faced by those trying to plan, acquire, maintain, and manage lands and waters for public purpose. These professionals would take regular courses and special interdisciplinary seminars, and would also perform research duties in the Center. Appropriate degrees could be awarded to qualified personnel. The specific program of a Center could be organized under the following major thrusts: 1. Development o f Educational Materials. Assembling available knowledge and know-how, feeding in the latest knowledge, and preparing manuals, brochures, film strips, case studies, technical guidelines, articles, slides, syllabi, and other communications devices. 2. Informal Education and Technical Services in the Field. Local and regional conferences and institutes, cadres of consultants, use of the mass media, short courses, public forums, study by mail. 3. Resident Instruction. Refresher postgraduate education on campus of selected environmental management practitioners. 4. Research. Such studies: What is the nature of leadership in conservation, the nature of the conservationist, the nature of those who vandalize the environment? What is the key that makes individuals feel and act as they do vis-gt-vis the environment? the spark? the environment? What is the force which motivates individuals? How best can we employ what modes and methods of adult education, formal and informal? How can we enhance the role of such mass media as press, radio, television, bulletins, and displays? 5. Demonstration Sites and Model Programs. In this role each regional Center would serve the surrounding area as interpretive and teaching facilities. All aspects of the program would be mutually supporting. For example, as a part of their educational regimen the environmental management fellows would be expected to assist in the preparation of utilitarian manuals and guides to community action; in turn, the university specialists going afield as environmental management consultants would be expected to feed back to the instructional program the dimensions of practical problems and emerging solutions. Both would engage in related research. 120
While the focus of this paper, given the parochialism of its author, has been on the United States, such is not to imply that environmental problems are not ubiquitous, nor that the raw materials for Centers of Integrated Resource Management Education are not in place in many countries. Indeed, the IRMEC concept may be particularly applicable to the developing nations, where the Lmpacts of technological advance on the environment are increasingly intense and where shortages of community change agents are particularly to be felt. Take the Philippines, for example. That country, so richly endowed with forest resources, could face a timber famine in but the ticking of a clock, so addicted is its farming class to a slash-burn-plant-run cycle. To reform this pattern of agriculture there is no magic wand available, yet the components of an IRMEC approach are there in a federal forestry agency linked to the extension apparatus of the federal universities.
The IRMEC concept may be particularly applicable to the developing nations Today issues of natural resource policy range from the more traditional concern of resource scarcity to questions of preserving and enhancing the qualitative aspects of life. Conflicts among competing resource demands are frequent and intense, and the choice of alternatives involves legal, economic, social, administrative, technological, aesthetic, ecological, and ethical considerations which must be encompassed in the decisionmaking process. At the local and regional'level, where conservation problems find their ultimate focus, there is a great need for leaders who can deal effectively and creatively with policy issues in all of their complexity, who are familiar with the tools of the trade in land and water use control, and who are reasonably adept at the engineering of public consent for translating plans into action. While there is always the danger of superficiality masquerading under the title of breadth, the essential role of this "change agent" at the local level cannot be denied in the presence of massive extension of federal and state policy into new areas of environmental planning and management. The implications for the nation's institutions of higher learning are obvious. They must supply the technical assistance and trained personnel with which to overcome the current conservation gap occurring between gross policies, no matter how enlightened, and timely action on the ground.
The Environmentalist
Those contending for environmental quality need data to show that economically we can afford such surroundings and that biologically we cannot afford anything less. That information needs to be made applicable and available in localities where the problems exist and where the issues are fought. We have need o f not just more research but of bringing existing techniques and existing skills to the service o f communities on the front lines. Local leadership needs a point o f focus for coordinated action. Local leadership needs a fund o f counsel and special talents on which to draw, including the effective stimulus that would come from knowing the experience o f other leaders in other communities who have met and overcome some of the c o m m o n problems. Local leadership needs an infusion o f new talent. What might be envisaged is a series of University Integrated Resource Management Education Centers that will focus an interdisciplinary thrust on educational research and the ti'aining of researchers, on professional management education o f several types, on citizenship education, and on extension counseling and services--in the classic manner of the land-grant college. Whether we should contemplate such a Center in each state is a question fraught with academic, fiscal, and political considerations. Certainly we will need upwards o f a score if we are to generate sufficient varied skills and resources. Each Center need not be identical. It would be well if each reflected the particular strengths and slants o f its institution and the needs of its region.
Those contending for environmental quality need data to show that economically we can afford such surroundings and that biologically we cannot afford anything less Within the flexibility assured by installing Integrated Resource Management Education Centers at universities which differ somewhat in ethos and structure, it will be important that certain national priorities be achieved. Each Center should be multidisciplinary in its posture and multiprocess in its programs; unilateral approaches to environmental management have caused many o f our present problems. By multiprocess, I mean a university program concerned with the production of new knowledge and new knowledge-seekers, of more and better resource managers, of citizenship education, and o f technical counseling and services. What do I Vol. 1, No. 2 (1981)
mean by multidisciplinary? I mean we are concerned with the total environment of humankind: its social, cultural, economic, and esthetic, as well as its physical and biological, aspects. To seek environmental sanity requires contributions by all the arts, sciences, and professions. The end is to bring conflicting forces into functional relationships in an order in which human impact does not needlessly destroy environmental quality and where environmental quality contributes to more fruitful human life, liberty, and the pursuit o f happiness. While we recognize the essential impor-
We are concerned with the total environment of humankind; its social, cultural, economic and esthetic as well as its physical and biological aspects tance o f strengthening existing disciplines, the essential nature of environmental education looks toward research, teaching, and extension configurations that transcend traditional lines o f endeavor and are concerned with the wholeness of the relationship between people and their surroundings. Rex Resler, Executive Vice President of the American Forestry Association, in commenting on a draft o f this paper, writes: "I think you've identified a vital need. The idea of advanced study of resource professionals, researchers, and others who could be influential in public policy decisions, has great merit. I've often thought that there was something fundamentally incongruous about the notion that the military services have their academies with well-designed programs of advanced study relating to the individuals' career advancement; i.e., the War College, etc., but we leave to chance and the initiative o f individual agencies the advanced study o f natural resource managers. And as you point out, the tendency is towards greater specialization in narrower and narrower fields which really exacerbates the problem of viewing resource management activites in an interdisciplinary context. I think your concept is sound and long overdue". As a matter of fact, some prototype IRMEC's are in being (Schoenfeld and Disinger, 1978). For example, although it didn't go by that name until recently, broad environmental management training has been at home at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as long or longer than anywhere in the c o u n t r y - - i n the University of Michigan's distinguished School of Natural Resources. That School embraces both 121
the natural and social sciences as they impinge on the study and management of natural resources, organized under six formal graduate programs, whose products enlighten environmental husbandry around the world. How do you translate the skills and resources of a university into public participation in resource management issues? The Florida State Environmental Education Project has developed a technique for involving faculty, public officials, lay
How do you translate the skills and resources of a university into public participation in resources management issues? leaders, and in-service teachers in communitybased workshops around the state. Based on tile premise that it is necessary not only to examine the pieces of the energy situation, but also to comprehend how the pieces fit together, the Energy and Resources Group two-year M.S. and M.A. degree programs at the University of California-Berkeley, admit students with degrees in either the natural sciences broadly defined or the social studies broadly defined, and then buttress the former with an improved social perspective and the latter with better technical understanding. Both groups pool their learning in group seminars and collaborative research-outreach projects. The University of Washington's Institute for Environmental Studies features internships in environmental decision-making and a series of public service conferences and publications focused on current environmental issues in the Pacific Northwest. Environmental health programs at the University of Kansas bring together engineering students and science students in an interdisciplinary approach to modern problems in environmental health; air pollution, water quality, toxic wastes, and their socio-political relationships. Program research has led to three important patents
122
on wastewater treatment devices and processes. An outreach effort features television-linked offcampus evening and weekend classes. Some Sea Grant University Programs are in effect mini-IRMEC's, notably those at the Universities of Delaware and Wisconsin. At least a dozen other departures at other universities could be cited. As an old pupil of his, I would be behaving uncharacteristically if I did not summarize this paper with a reference to Aldo Leopold (1947). He said: "The practice of conservation must spring from a conviction of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as w e l l as what is economically expedient." He did n o t say, "regardless of what is economically expedient." In short, Leopold was espousing integrated resource management. Leopold went on to explain, "A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beaqty of the community, and the community includes the soil, water, fauna, and flora, as w e l l as p e o p l e . " He did n o t leave p e o p l e out of the equation. Leopold was defining integrated resource management education.
REFERENCES
Arnold R. Keith (1976) Perspectives
on training needs for future resource managers. Proceedings of the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. WildlifeManagement
Institute, WashingtonD.C. Dingelt John D. and Potter FrankM. Jr. (1976) Federalinitiatives in wildlifemanagement.In HowardP. Brokaw(ed.) Wildlife and America. GOP,Washington,D.C. Eastmond J. N. and Kadlec J. A. (1977) Undergraduate educational needsin wildlifescience.Wildlife Society Bulletin, 52 5166. Leopold Aldo (1947) The ecological conscience. Bulletin of the Garden Club of America, 12(12) 46-53. Schoenfeld Clay and Disinger John (1978) Environmental Education in Aetion-lI: Case Studies of Environmental Studies Programs in Colleges and Universities Today. ERIC]SMEAC, Columbus, Ohio. Webster, Merriam (1979) New Collegiate Dictionary. G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass.
The Environmentalist
SUMMARY How do we inculcate that mass conservation literacy necessary to fuel the public and private quest for ecological survival. One such approach wouM establish on appropriate university campuses Integrated Resource Management Education Centers. Such centers would focus on the problem of translating resource management policies and plans into action on the landscape through (a) the collation of information about, and the preparation of practical materials on, restoring the quality of the environment, {b} informal instruction and technical assistance carried out directly to local governments, regional instrumentalities, and citizen groups, (c) the refresher education of key practitioners brought back to the campus for work in natural resource policy implementation, and (d) research in adult education theory and practice.
Integrated resource management education centers
Webster's dictionary (1979 edition) says integrated means " f o r m e d into a whole"; resource means "a source o f supply or support"; and management means "judicious use o f means to accomplish an end." "Integrated resource management" can thus be interpreted to mean "judicious employment o f strategy and tactics in a holistic manner to accomplish conservation o f sources o f supply and support." Integrated resource management has become a 20th century imperative worldwide. What educational modes and methods in colleges and universities does integrated resource management demand ? *Clay Schoenfeld is Professor of Journalism and Mass Communication, Affiliate Professor of Wildlife Ecology, Chair of the Center for Environmental Communication and Education Studies, and Director of Inter-College Programs at The University of WisconsinMadison. Schoenfeld is perhaps best known as the author of 20 books and over 200 national journal and magazine articles. He is a past president of three national associations in the fields of university administration and environmental education.
The Environmentalist, 1 (1981) 117-122
Some suggestions for future needs in the undergraduate training o f wildlife and fisheries professionals, for example, come from a recent survey of alumni, recent graduates, and the faculty o f the Department of Wildlife Science at Utah State University, and employers o f people trained there (Eastmond and Kadlec, 1977). The topics respondents ranked highest as educational needs that the present program fails to meet were, in order: (1) knowledge of political obstacles to the implementation of sound resource programs, (2) ability to deal with cost considerations o f wildlife programs, and (3) skill in critical thinking and use of judgment. Next in importance were interdisciplinary study and planning at the ecosystem level, particularly in relation to current energy problems. These perceptions were nearly unanimous, suggesting a strong need and mandate for change in the curriculum. Arnold (1976) has provided some stimulating ideas for new directions in wildlife training for resource decision-makers. Starting from the premise that "there are too many inadequately prepared professors in too many schools training too many students to perform tasks that no longer exist," he proposes a new professional-manager o f resource affairs. His idea is to escape the constraints of narrow viewpoints shaped by professional identification with a particular r e s o u r c e - wildlife, for e x a m p l e - - a n d to promote more sensitivity to the needs of the publics for whom the total resource is managed. In short, the new professional should have an ecosystem viewpoint and a strong concern for people. Arnold proposes that a few universities establish two-year programs leading to the degree "Master of Resource Affairs." Admittance requirements would include three to five years o f professional resource management experience. The curriculum itself, outlined in some detail b y Arnold, would concentrate on policy, economics, and social and behavioral science, and it would require a summer internship in policy or planning projects.
© Elsevier Sequoia S.A., Lausanne - Printed in The Netherlands
Dingell and Potter (1976) believe "the time may have come to consider the virtues of creating some sort of an institution to identify and nurture principles of sound ecosystem management": a National Ecosystem Management Institute. They suggest such an institution should have at least the following elements: (1) a data bank and human resource file on what has already been done, (2) a curriculum for the training of managers and for education of the general public, from kindergarten on, in ecological principles, and (3) support of applied research and pilot studies to demonstrate the economic and social values of ecosystem management programs.
There are too many inadequately prepared professors in too many schools training too many students to perform tasks that no longer exist All these ideas are ambitious, and they come at a time when venture fiscal and capital funds are no longer available. Yet I dare say somewhere, somehow in the 1980s we will see these ideas implemented, if only by identifying those elements of an integrated ecosystem management capability that already exist and by providing some means whereby these elements, many of which are now working to bring about inconsistent objectives, can instead work in a cooperative, symbiotic way toward a common objective. Legislation may be necessary to make this happen. Now let me offer a concept aimed at inculcating that mass conservation literacy necessary to fuel the public and private quest for ecological survival, speaking as President of the National Association for Environmental Education. One such approach would establish on appropriate university campuses Integrated Resource Management Education Centers that will focus on the problem of translating resource management policies and plans into action on the landscape through (a) the collation of information about, and the preparation of practical materials on, restoring the quality of the environment, (b) informal instruction and technical assistance carried out directly to local governments, regional instrumentalities, and citizen groups, (c) the refresher education of key practitioners brought back to the campus for work in natural resource policy implementation, and (d) research in adult education theory and practice. Growing national programs of integrated environmental manage118
ment depend increasingly on state and local initiative and responsibility. "The problem of the states" as a national magazine said in a recent editorial, "is not lack of power or opportunity or even solely of money;it is a shortage of competent public servants." The proposed Integrated Resource Management Education Centers would tackle the problem directly by upgrading such key community leaders as planners, lawyers, resource specialists, adult educators, communicators, teachers, and public administrators, and by reinforcing them with improved educational materials and professional consultation. The Centers would also be concerned with adult-educationand-communications research. The degradation of our surroundings and the resulting need to protect and enhance the quality of our environment is increasingly entering our consciousness. Legislative bodies at all levels of government, public agencies, and private groups are seeking to halt pervasive pollutions brought about by multiplying man and disappearing land. New federal and state agencies have come into existence, and significant federal and state funds have been made available for attacks on water pollution, air pollution, open space acquisition, wildlife conservation, highway beautification, urban sprawl, and so on. But substantial areas of our choicest landscapes continue to approach a state of perturbation which will be difficult if not impossible to correct at reasonable cost and within reasonable time limits.
One such approach would establish on appropriate university campuses integrated resource management education centers We are figuratively and literally sick and tired of a degradation of our environment that diminishes daily the quality of the human experience: water pollution; air pollution; soil erosion; forest, range, and wetland deterioration; waning wildlife; urban sprawl; preempted open spaces; vanishing wilderness; landscapes scarred by highways, litter, noise, and b l i g h t - - a not-so-quiet crisis of decreasing beauty and increasing contamination that threatens not only the pursuit of happiness but life itself. To do something about environmental quality conservation, redevelopment, and maintenance requires a sense of husbandry, a sense of responsibility on the part of every American citizen: that man land ethic or "ecological conscience" about which Aldo Leopold spoke. Unthinking people The Environmentalist
pollute the environment; thinking people can effect a "new conservation": in the words o f former President Johnson, to restore as well as to protect, to bring beauty to the cities as well as to keep it in the countryside, to handle the waste products o f technology as well as the waste o f natural resources, to halt the massive deterioration in the American environment, to husband those resources and amenities which are inextricably linked not only to economic prosperity but to the inner prosperity o f the human spirit.
The urgency of need will not be met through educational processes of normal pace and dispersion What is the bottleneck? Why do we continue to have serious trouble translating federal intentions and state plans into timely, sound action on the land ? One answer would certainly seem to be that only at the local and regional level can public policies be translated into public and private practices, and yet at the intrastate level the forces o f integrated resource management continue to be ill-equipped to deal with the forces o f exploitation. The inefficiency with which public agencies and private citizens go about performing the socially essential tasks of environmental housekeeping stems largely from the fact that the technical and organizational skills available to the land conserver or rational planner are normally inferior to those available to the land exploiter. While we do not, o f course, yet understand all the scientific facts and societal values attendant to integrated resource management, what we do know is not being applied on a scale commensurate with the present pace of environmental degradation. At the local and regional level, where most o f the decisions affecting the quality o f the environment are made, we must address ourselves firmly to laying a basis for action by elucidating the choices in land and water use, relating them to general values and social objectives, instilling in people a desire for constructive change, and providing practical guidelines that encompass integrated rather than unilateral approaches. The urgency of need will not be met through educational processes o f normal pace and dispersion. What is needed now, and for some time to come, is a steady stream o f specific skills and resources rifled to the local and regional firing line. We need local leaders equipped with an understanding o f the interrelationships involved between their callings and integrated environmental Vol. 1, No. 2 (1981)
management, and with a knowledge o f the "tools o f the trade" in fueling land and water use controls. To begin to develop and equip a cadre o f local resource management leaders, it will be helpful to concentrate on those individuals at the local and regional level who typically do or can play the role o f "change agents" in conservation. Four such categories o f key personnel can be identified: (a) lawyers, (b) planners and administrators, (c) field resource technicians, and (d) communicators and educators. There is an acute shortage o f competent personnel with legal skills related to land and water use. There is an acute shortage of planners and administrators with a grasp of natural resource policy implementation. There is an acute shortage o f field biologists, foresters, hydrologists, park managers, agricultural agents, and so on with other than a narrow approach to the ecological and economic resources over which they preside. And there is an acute shortage o f media communicators, educators, and public relations persons equipped to interpret resource problems in such a way as to achieve consensus rather than conflict. For example, a recent "needs assessment" in a three-county area of Wisconsin alone identified a clear lack of "at least three" people in each o f the four change-agent categories. If that assessment is representative, the national and international shortage can only be called acute. To train all such change agents and to equip them and their clientele with effective educationfor-action materials and services would be a role o f the Integrated Resource Management Education Centers. The Centers would also perform related research focused on improving their concepts and techniques. Initially an Integrated Resource Management Education Center would assemble from a university and elsewhere as necessary a staff representing overall competence in environmental problems, to include people trained in biology, design, soils, economics, geology, engineering, ecology, sociology, public administration, journalism, education, law, and other environmental disciplines applicable to land-use issues. Their extension function would be the collection and collation o f what is known, what has been done, what is being done, and what might be done; the preparation o f educational materials, utilizing a variety of media; and the dissemination of information and technical counsel to local governments and citizen groups through institutes, audio and visual media, and consultation. The team will be encouraged to work with maximum speed and practicality, yet with intellectual breadth so that the environmen119
tal caretakers on the receiving end develop a sound view of the interrelatedness of decisions affecting the environment and of the immense complexity of human needs that must be reconciled and met. At the same time, the Center would provide fellowships for practicing change agents to come to the campus for a year of study focused on the practical problems faced by those trying to plan, acquire, maintain, and manage lands and waters for public purpose. These professionals would take regular courses and special interdisciplinary seminars, and would also perform research duties in the Center. Appropriate degrees could be awarded to qualified personnel. The specific program of a Center could be organized under the following major thrusts: 1. Development o f Educational Materials. Assembling available knowledge and know-how, feeding in the latest knowledge, and preparing manuals, brochures, film strips, case studies, technical guidelines, articles, slides, syllabi, and other communications devices. 2. Informal Education and Technical Services in the Field. Local and regional conferences and institutes, cadres of consultants, use of the mass media, short courses, public forums, study by mail. 3. Resident Instruction. Refresher postgraduate education on campus of selected environmental management practitioners. 4. Research. Such studies: What is the nature of leadership in conservation, the nature of the conservationist, the nature of those who vandalize the environment? What is the key that makes individuals feel and act as they do vis-gt-vis the environment? the spark? the environment? What is the force which motivates individuals? How best can we employ what modes and methods of adult education, formal and informal? How can we enhance the role of such mass media as press, radio, television, bulletins, and displays? 5. Demonstration Sites and Model Programs. In this role each regional Center would serve the surrounding area as interpretive and teaching facilities. All aspects of the program would be mutually supporting. For example, as a part of their educational regimen the environmental management fellows would be expected to assist in the preparation of utilitarian manuals and guides to community action; in turn, the university specialists going afield as environmental management consultants would be expected to feed back to the instructional program the dimensions of practical problems and emerging solutions. Both would engage in related research. 120
While the focus of this paper, given the parochialism of its author, has been on the United States, such is not to imply that environmental problems are not ubiquitous, nor that the raw materials for Centers of Integrated Resource Management Education are not in place in many countries. Indeed, the IRMEC concept may be particularly applicable to the developing nations, where the Lmpacts of technological advance on the environment are increasingly intense and where shortages of community change agents are particularly to be felt. Take the Philippines, for example. That country, so richly endowed with forest resources, could face a timber famine in but the ticking of a clock, so addicted is its farming class to a slash-burn-plant-run cycle. To reform this pattern of agriculture there is no magic wand available, yet the components of an IRMEC approach are there in a federal forestry agency linked to the extension apparatus of the federal universities.
The IRMEC concept may be particularly applicable to the developing nations Today issues of natural resource policy range from the more traditional concern of resource scarcity to questions of preserving and enhancing the qualitative aspects of life. Conflicts among competing resource demands are frequent and intense, and the choice of alternatives involves legal, economic, social, administrative, technological, aesthetic, ecological, and ethical considerations which must be encompassed in the decisionmaking process. At the local and regional'level, where conservation problems find their ultimate focus, there is a great need for leaders who can deal effectively and creatively with policy issues in all of their complexity, who are familiar with the tools of the trade in land and water use control, and who are reasonably adept at the engineering of public consent for translating plans into action. While there is always the danger of superficiality masquerading under the title of breadth, the essential role of this "change agent" at the local level cannot be denied in the presence of massive extension of federal and state policy into new areas of environmental planning and management. The implications for the nation's institutions of higher learning are obvious. They must supply the technical assistance and trained personnel with which to overcome the current conservation gap occurring between gross policies, no matter how enlightened, and timely action on the ground.
The Environmentalist
Those contending for environmental quality need data to show that economically we can afford such surroundings and that biologically we cannot afford anything less. That information needs to be made applicable and available in localities where the problems exist and where the issues are fought. We have need o f not just more research but of bringing existing techniques and existing skills to the service o f communities on the front lines. Local leadership needs a point o f focus for coordinated action. Local leadership needs a fund o f counsel and special talents on which to draw, including the effective stimulus that would come from knowing the experience o f other leaders in other communities who have met and overcome some of the c o m m o n problems. Local leadership needs an infusion o f new talent. What might be envisaged is a series of University Integrated Resource Management Education Centers that will focus an interdisciplinary thrust on educational research and the ti'aining of researchers, on professional management education o f several types, on citizenship education, and on extension counseling and services--in the classic manner of the land-grant college. Whether we should contemplate such a Center in each state is a question fraught with academic, fiscal, and political considerations. Certainly we will need upwards o f a score if we are to generate sufficient varied skills and resources. Each Center need not be identical. It would be well if each reflected the particular strengths and slants o f its institution and the needs of its region.
Those contending for environmental quality need data to show that economically we can afford such surroundings and that biologically we cannot afford anything less Within the flexibility assured by installing Integrated Resource Management Education Centers at universities which differ somewhat in ethos and structure, it will be important that certain national priorities be achieved. Each Center should be multidisciplinary in its posture and multiprocess in its programs; unilateral approaches to environmental management have caused many o f our present problems. By multiprocess, I mean a university program concerned with the production of new knowledge and new knowledge-seekers, of more and better resource managers, of citizenship education, and o f technical counseling and services. What do I Vol. 1, No. 2 (1981)
mean by multidisciplinary? I mean we are concerned with the total environment of humankind: its social, cultural, economic, and esthetic, as well as its physical and biological, aspects. To seek environmental sanity requires contributions by all the arts, sciences, and professions. The end is to bring conflicting forces into functional relationships in an order in which human impact does not needlessly destroy environmental quality and where environmental quality contributes to more fruitful human life, liberty, and the pursuit o f happiness. While we recognize the essential impor-
We are concerned with the total environment of humankind; its social, cultural, economic and esthetic as well as its physical and biological aspects tance o f strengthening existing disciplines, the essential nature of environmental education looks toward research, teaching, and extension configurations that transcend traditional lines o f endeavor and are concerned with the wholeness of the relationship between people and their surroundings. Rex Resler, Executive Vice President of the American Forestry Association, in commenting on a draft o f this paper, writes: "I think you've identified a vital need. The idea of advanced study of resource professionals, researchers, and others who could be influential in public policy decisions, has great merit. I've often thought that there was something fundamentally incongruous about the notion that the military services have their academies with well-designed programs of advanced study relating to the individuals' career advancement; i.e., the War College, etc., but we leave to chance and the initiative o f individual agencies the advanced study o f natural resource managers. And as you point out, the tendency is towards greater specialization in narrower and narrower fields which really exacerbates the problem of viewing resource management activites in an interdisciplinary context. I think your concept is sound and long overdue". As a matter of fact, some prototype IRMEC's are in being (Schoenfeld and Disinger, 1978). For example, although it didn't go by that name until recently, broad environmental management training has been at home at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as long or longer than anywhere in the c o u n t r y - - i n the University of Michigan's distinguished School of Natural Resources. That School embraces both 121
the natural and social sciences as they impinge on the study and management of natural resources, organized under six formal graduate programs, whose products enlighten environmental husbandry around the world. How do you translate the skills and resources of a university into public participation in resource management issues? The Florida State Environmental Education Project has developed a technique for involving faculty, public officials, lay
How do you translate the skills and resources of a university into public participation in resources management issues? leaders, and in-service teachers in communitybased workshops around the state. Based on tile premise that it is necessary not only to examine the pieces of the energy situation, but also to comprehend how the pieces fit together, the Energy and Resources Group two-year M.S. and M.A. degree programs at the University of California-Berkeley, admit students with degrees in either the natural sciences broadly defined or the social studies broadly defined, and then buttress the former with an improved social perspective and the latter with better technical understanding. Both groups pool their learning in group seminars and collaborative research-outreach projects. The University of Washington's Institute for Environmental Studies features internships in environmental decision-making and a series of public service conferences and publications focused on current environmental issues in the Pacific Northwest. Environmental health programs at the University of Kansas bring together engineering students and science students in an interdisciplinary approach to modern problems in environmental health; air pollution, water quality, toxic wastes, and their socio-political relationships. Program research has led to three important patents
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on wastewater treatment devices and processes. An outreach effort features television-linked offcampus evening and weekend classes. Some Sea Grant University Programs are in effect mini-IRMEC's, notably those at the Universities of Delaware and Wisconsin. At least a dozen other departures at other universities could be cited. As an old pupil of his, I would be behaving uncharacteristically if I did not summarize this paper with a reference to Aldo Leopold (1947). He said: "The practice of conservation must spring from a conviction of what is ethically and aesthetically right, as w e l l as what is economically expedient." He did n o t say, "regardless of what is economically expedient." In short, Leopold was espousing integrated resource management. Leopold went on to explain, "A thing is right only when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beaqty of the community, and the community includes the soil, water, fauna, and flora, as w e l l as p e o p l e . " He did n o t leave p e o p l e out of the equation. Leopold was defining integrated resource management education.
REFERENCES
Arnold R. Keith (1976) Perspectives
on training needs for future resource managers. Proceedings of the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference. WildlifeManagement
Institute, WashingtonD.C. Dingelt John D. and Potter FrankM. Jr. (1976) Federalinitiatives in wildlifemanagement.In HowardP. Brokaw(ed.) Wildlife and America. GOP,Washington,D.C. Eastmond J. N. and Kadlec J. A. (1977) Undergraduate educational needsin wildlifescience.Wildlife Society Bulletin, 52 5166. Leopold Aldo (1947) The ecological conscience. Bulletin of the Garden Club of America, 12(12) 46-53. Schoenfeld Clay and Disinger John (1978) Environmental Education in Aetion-lI: Case Studies of Environmental Studies Programs in Colleges and Universities Today. ERIC]SMEAC, Columbus, Ohio. Webster, Merriam (1979) New Collegiate Dictionary. G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass.
The Environmentalist