As the political, economic and cultural fabric of all regions of the British
Columbia landscape grows more sophisticated, legislative remedies to
environmental issues will become more difficult to execute. If our society's values
towards resources are to change, the resource protection field may need to evolve
from legislated protection to cultural protection based on appreciation and peer
pressure. In this regard, natural park sites have the potential to influence the
values which will be carried beyond that particular site.
Protective attitudes towards the environment often grow out of a feeling of
connection to, and an understanding of, particular places. The act of conferring
park status on a natural place acknowledges that we consider it to be special and
hence worthy of protection. The way in which this environment is planned,
designed and managed has the potential to demonstrate environmental protection
values while educating people about the natural world and our impact upon it.
Retaining the true "spirit of place" in a natural area park is a worthy goal but often
difficult to achieve.
In British Columbia's Provincial Park System, a dual mandate to provide for
recreational pursuits while protecting the environment creates problems for staff
who must fulfill what is often a conflicting prescription. A detailed policy framework
for facilities, based on explicitly examined values, would provide direction for
decision making about park facilities.
This thesis looks at the topic of retaining a "sense of place" in natural area
parks, examines the issue of values and tradeoffs in park management, and offers
a planning framework to operationalize the B.C. Parks mandate to protect and
present provincial parks.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/4264 |
| Date | 05 1900 |
| Creators | Blue, Mary Bonnie |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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