ABSTRACT
In recent years, those interested in studying the sundry processes of environmental communication have increasingly focused on place-based analyses of local attempts to preserve the natural world. In tune with what McNeely and Pitt (1985) called conservation from below, these studies often stress the means by which local initiatives and governmental programs pursue enlightened ecosystem management or the prevention of toxic spillover effects attending human commerce or development Sometimes lost in the hoopla of such localized studies regarding public participation, however, is the fact that many of the places citizens and governments wish to protect are already populated by those whose grounded attitudes more-or-less may be at odds with others’ ideas regarding the wise use of natural resources. Indeed, it may be that the social dimension of environmental protection, rather than the natural, is what ultimately secures the durable yet dynamic life of humans interacting within a larger ecosystem context (Christensen et al., 1996).
