Forestry and Conservation, although inherently kindred interests, have recently diverged to the point of antagonism. Why is this, and how can they be brought together again?

John Evelyn, a founder of forestry, as a matter of public policy, presented it as of much wider significance than the production of timber alone. During the past century, however, a narrower and more materialist approach has prevailed, ignoring the relationship between land, men, and science, and creating conflicts between foresters and conservationists. It is probably common ground that until very recently much of the training of professional foresters has been inadequate to equip them for appreciating the broader role of forestry and for communicating with fellow interests in land-use.

Conservationists equally suffer from deformations arising from their early struggles. They tend to line up in two groups—the ‘polarizers’ who are heirs of the pioneer missionary and compaigning stage, and the ‘integrators’ who are more concerned to find operators in the area of natural resources who are ready to cooperate in acceptable compromises.

Many current practices in forestry unfortunately tend to repel the ‘integrators’ and to drive conservationists into adopting ‘polarizer’ attitudes. Forest managers are at last becoming aware of this problem, and to the importance of decision-making on the basis of underlying scientific principles and facts, which can enable a joint strategy to be developed between foresters and conservationists for the wise and balanced long-term use of the vast forest resource.

Environmental and floristic evidence is presented to show that, after removal of the White Spruce (Picea glauca) and willow-alder (Salix spp.–Alnus crispa) canopies from exposed sites within the boreal woodland of the Mackenzie River Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada, environmental degradation is such that secondary succession of low-arctic tundra heath, mosses, and lichens, takes place. The extreme exposure of cleared sites enables a hardy group of tundra plants to compete with the local flora and invade the previously forested location.

Conservation organizations have been primary forces in the establishment of wilderness areas throughout the United States. They have also been actual participants in wilderness recreation, particularly through sponsored trips. Preliminary results indicate that these trips have a tremendous impact on the wilderness resource because of the large-size parties, sedentary camping habits, and the large amount of bulky tentage and equipment employed. Basic policy changes are suggested as a means of protecting the wilderness landscape.

This paper describes the effects of 1,020 passages of snowmobiles, made over two winters, on three regularly winter-snow-free alpine tundra plant communities. A cushion-plant community on a 7-degrees slope showed a 31% reduction in total living plant coverage due to snowmobile impact. Destruction was greatest to soil lichens, rock lichens, and the cushion-plants Arenaria obtusiloba, Arenaria fendleri, Paronychia sessiliflora var. pulvinata, Silene acaulis, Eritrichium aretioides, and Phlox pulvinata. Graminoids generally survived to increase in importance. On a flat site, a cushion-plant community with Kobresia myosuroides as its most important species, showed the greatest loss of living-plant coverage, namely 46%. This was due primarily to the destruction of Kobresia, although Selaginella densa, Arenaria obtusiloba, Hymenoxys acaulis, and Eritrichium aretioides, also showed heavy losses. In a Kobresia turf community, destruction was decidedly less severe than in the cushion-plant communities, reduction in total living plant coverage being only 19%. It is suggested that the closed nature of the Kobresia turf, with its stiff tussocks, enables it to absorb impact well. It is recommended that snow-mobile travel be confined to Kobresia or similar turfs, when such travel is necessary under snow-free conditions.

The conservation movement in Africa during the 1960s has worked along many front lines. Failures and successes have been registered. As a whole one may say that there has been tremendous progress for conservation in Africa when the situation in 1974 is compared with what it was in 1960, but nevertheless at present there are still more productive waters and land areas that are being destroyed than are being saved or restored. The conservation fight has to go on, and it is a battle against time and human misconceptions. Particularly are there some countries in which the values of menaced Nature have been considered to be of such exceptional importance that special efforts have been undertaken within the meagre means available to the international organizations most concerned.

The present paper constitutes a review of significant environmental conservation measures, proposals, and failures, in various regions and countries of equatorial Africa. It is hoped to follow with a similar treatment of northern and southern Africa. Emphasis will be laid on national parks and nature reserves, because at present it is particularly in this field that African states show their conservation consciousness. It is to be hoped that the time will soon come when the necessity for conservation, management, and wise utilization, of renewable natural resources, will be fully realized also outside the national parks and equivalent reserves.

Soil, vegetation, and rainfall, have been collected in the vicinity of a nickel–copper smelter at Sudbury, Ontario. The region is a major producer of many metals, and the large areas of forest desolation in the vicinity have been ascribed to sulphur dioxide fumigations over the past 80 years. In the present study, attention has been focused on potentially toxic heavy metals. Very elevated soil levels of nickel and copper were found, with values up to 5,104 ppm Ni and 2,892 ppm Cu within 1.1 km of the smelter. The concentrations decreased with distance to 49.8 km in one direction. Surface soils were the most contaminated, and a decline through the soil profile was found. Other metals such as iron, cobalt, and silver, showed a similar pattern of distance and depth, suggestive of an airborne source. Analyses of the foliage of three plant species also showed excessive levels of nickel and copper, as well as of aluminium. The levels declined with distance from the smelter.

The relative possibilities of soil versus aerial uptake are considered. The soils within 2–3 km of the smelter were markedly more acidic than those from farther away, and this was paralleled by their increased conductivity. Dustfall–rainfall collections and analyses of the soluble heavy metals indicated that a major aerial source of metals existed, and that the problem of metallic emissions is not merely one of the past. Heavy metals are persistent in soils, and the ecological consequences to date have perhaps only been masked around Sudbury by the sulphur dioxide damage, and the particular importance attached to it in the past.

Various social trends, not usually thought to be related to environmental conservation, are examined in relation to their impact on the conservation movement. The student rebellion of the 1960s is seen as an important force backing environmental causes. Leading as it did to a ‘return to the land’ and the development of alternative life-styles, it may become a significant pioneering effort towards finding a more viable relationship between Man and his environment. As a further outgrowth of the development of a ‘counter-culture,’ there is a renewed interest in those religious and psychological movements that seek to eliminate the dualities between body/mind, Man/Nature, matter/spirit, long imposed by traditional western philosophy. This is seen as having a potential for major changes in human attitudes towards nature conservation.

In environmental terms the after-treatment and subsequent utilization of worked-out opencast mining areas is of the greatest importance. One of the largest extractive industries in the world using the opencast method is that of sand and gravel. Ready Mixed Concrete Limited is the largest sand and gravel producer in the United Kingdom, and is pioneering new approaches to the problems of after-treatment.

Unlike other forms of development, mineral workings constitute a temporary use of land of comparatively short duration, yet often involving considerable areas. Therefore the planned after-treatment and after-use of the worked-out areas is of the utmost importance.

Dry gravel workings can either be filled with waste materials and restored to the original ground-level or the soils can be replaced, so that a new surface is created on the floor of the excavation. In both cases the new surfaces can be made available for agriculture, playing fields, or other forms of development. Flooded gravel workings can also be filled in a similar manner. However, the British Government is now anxious to retain many of these artificial lakes for water sports and other leisure purposes. If the new lake areas are to be made available for public leisure and recreation, then large sums of capital expenditure will be necessary. Leisure Sport Limited has been formed for the purpose of designing, building, and operating, centres of this kind.

Many small communities use septic tanks as a method of partial sewage treatment in situations where effluents may be satisfactorily discharged into the soil. These systems are also suitable for use in many situations where intermittent occupation occurs. Where effluents are discharged into streams in which serious pollution is likely, further treatment by secondary processes is necessary, and in many situations tertiary treatment processes are added as a final safeguard. Prefabricated or package-plant systems using variants of the activated-sludge process or special types of percolating filter, have become available and can be designed by the manufacturers to satisfy all of the purposes of primary and secondary treatment in specific situations. Maintenance requirements of most of these processes are small, but no system may be operated for long periods without a minimum of maintenance.

Some of the simplest systems of sewage treatment can provide excellent sanitary conditions and a high level of protection from health hazards and environmental deterioration if properly designed and operated. Package plants are compact and convenient but not necessarily more effective. They are usually dependent on a reliable power-supply, but have many advantages on restricted sites or sites requiring rapid development or expansion.