John Lemons publishes article on the national park ideal in ‘Aeon’
John Lemons, Ph.D., emeritus professor of biology and environmental science in the Department of Environmental Studies, recently published an article in the literary and cultural magazine Aeon. The title is "Splendid No More" and concerns management and visions of the national park ideal.
In the article, Lemons discusses the struggle between conservation on the one hand and use and development on the other. He suggests that it is only when the general public understands the original concept behind the establishment of national parks and comes to expect the national park experience to be a natural, authentic one without significant “human-manufactured distraction” that parks stand a chance of being free of traffic jams, hotel-cluttered roads, and all the other aspects of park environment that have robbed the areas of the very majesty and scenic-wonder that their status as a national park originally sought to preserve.