ABSTRACT
Over hundreds of generations, conditions for wildlife populations in North America were nearly ideal, despite, as with any healthy ecosystem, being constantly in flux. This chapter presents the key events in the history of wildlife management in North America. The American conservation movement began in earnest during the late 1800s with the emergence of two discrete views of nature and the country’s wildlife heritage. Sustainable-use advocates, often termed “progressives,” counted Gifford Pinchot and Theodore Roosevelt among their ranks, while John Muir and other “romantics” represented the preservationist standpoint. In order to more fully understand the separation between people and wildlife that occurs with urban sprawl, one needs to compare the interactions between people and wildlife in a rural community with what most readers experience on a daily basis in their urban communities. Urban society should also realize that unsustainable use of natural resources endangers human society as well as wildlife.
