Summary Of Mentality And Rationalization In Canadian National Parks

In the chapter titled “Rationality and Rationalization in Canadian National Parks Predator Policy” by Alan MacEachern in Consuming Canada: Readings in Environmental History (1995), MacEachern writes “Law of nature; the destroyer is also the protector”. A short quote, which signifies the mentality of National Park warden’s during a time when their main role was to control and manage predator populations in the interior of National Parks. A role wherein they took satisfaction and pleasure fulfilling. Their days were spent trapping and hunting predators rather than conducting their duties that they were hired to do. Interestingly, the list of predators that were targeted because they were conceived as unwanted and useless are in fact seen as ecological

Gordon Hewitt’s piece titled “The Conservation of the Wild Life in Canada” (1921), outlines just how selfish, ignorant, and greedy humans were towards predators such as the wolf, coyote, and cougar. The author does a persuasive job to portray those predators as nothing more than killers that interfere with human livelihoods. There is a great deal of blame put on predators, but poor evidence and facts to back up the claims. He even goes as far as to discuss predators in each province, obviously trying to attract the attention of people all around North America. He discusses the ecology behind prey and predator, including mice, insects, and gophers. This makes him sound somewhat intelligent to the readers, and I bet during the time this was written it accomplished exactly as he wished it

For instance, the aspect of wealth and economics, in particular, agriculture and livestock were popular because that topic seemed to come up in each of the readings. The most recent one by John & Mary Theberge, “Wolf Country” written only sixteen years ago, explained how a farmer spoke during a live lecture, which was based on the material from the study, he said that “the only good wolf, is a dead one”, because they kill sheep and have been studied for far too long without any convincing truth behind their usefulness. This was during a time when most people’s mindset of wolves had changed because people learned to respect and value nature beginning around 1948 and lasted into the 60s. During the period of the 1970s, wildlife was thought to be complex and an integral part of Earth’s cycle. In addition, the public discovered the benefits of predator and prey food webs, which caused visits to National and Provincial parks to explode at a high rate due to a rising interest in this newly uncovered phenomena,