Glenn R. Harris

Response to congruity or contrast for man‐made features in natural‐recreation settings

Abstract This study dealt with peoples responses to scenes featuring man‐made structures in natural settings. A set of 48 slides taken in various urban and state parks in the Northeast was selected and scaled by a set of judges with respect to the contrast or fittingness between the man‐made and the natural elements of the scene. The slides were then presented to a group of undergraduate students, who rated them on various evaluative semantic‐differential scales. In a subsidiary experiment a further group of students was shown the same slides, with instructions simply to look at each slide, exposed briefly, as many times as they wished. The results bear out the important role of the congruity or fittingness variable as a determiner of evaluative judgments, but not of free exploration time. Theoretical and practical implications of these results are considered.

Modern Amish farming as ecological agriculture

Critics of industrial agriculture and advocates of ecological agriculture have cited Amish farming as a model of stewardship and sustainability. Amish farming in St. Lawrence County, New York, embodied ecological agriculture in some respects but not others. In comparison with non‐Amish neighbors, Amish farms were smaller in scale, more diverse, and less integrated into the market economy. On the other hand, use of fertilizers and pesticides for crop production appeared to differ in kind, not amount. Amish farmers relied primarily on their own experience, not trade magazines or the local cooperative extension, for agricultural information. The high use of petroleum‐based inputs may have reflected the newness of Amish settlement in St. Lawrence County, a lack of awareness of the ecological impacts of these substances, or a shift away from traditional practices. In the self‐sufficiency of their lives based on subsistence and diversity, these Amish otherwise exemplified the productive and self‐regulatory char...

Local Responses to Rapid Rural Growth New York and Vermont Cases

Abstract Most of the growth management literature looks at urban areas. In rural areas, investigators have evaluated state and regional programs with little attention to local planning. This study investigated local planning in rural areas of New York and Vermont. There, towns experiencing rapid growth were replacing an informal planning style with formal procedures and new techniques. Despite similarities in their stated goals, planning boards exhibited different responses to growth ranging from promoting to stopping growth. Towns that were seeking to control development employed regulation, impact fees, phasing, and opinion surveys in their efforts, and were active, innovative, and flexible in managing growth.

Citizen Participation, NEPA, and Land-Use Planning in Northern New York, USA

Citizen participation and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) both have long and storied histories in environmental practice. Arnsteins ladder for citizen participation depicts a continuum of possibilities for public involvement in land-use planning, with nonparticipation at one extreme and full control at the other. This typology was published in 1969, but examples across the full spectrum can still be found in land-use and environmental planning today. The National Environmental Policy Act, enacted one year after publication of Arnsteins article, requires public involvement for environmental assessments of all federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment. We employ Arnsteins typology to evaluate citizen participation in decisions about habitat protection in northern New York. This area has been identified as a critical location in the eastern North American flyway for migratory waterfowl. Initiatives to protect habitat reflected little public involvement before the implementation of NEPA, but substantial involvement afterwards. Before NEPA, residents were simply informed of agency actions. After NEPA, citizen participation caused a land acquisition plan to be withdrawn and replaced by a voluntary partnership program. Recently, a second acquisition proposal also was suspended, in part as a consequence of citizen input. These case studies demonstrate how citizens have utilized NEPA to participate in environmental decision making.

Reconsidering Planning and Environmental Protection

Recognizing that environmental problems transcend political boundaries, planners have advocated centralization of policy to protect the environment. Strategies of growth management have recommended state preemption of land-use planning traditionally exercised by local government. Thus, a strong bias against local planning has been reinforced in the literature over the last two decades. Based on studies in rural areas of the Northeast, this article questions the prevailing attitudes and underlying assumptions about local planning. The research demonstrates that people in rural areas are concerned about environmental issues, that local planning boards do not reject land control for environmental protection, and that state planning may not protect the rural environment more effectively than local planning.

Regional planning acceptance by residents of northern New York, USA

This study compares the effectiveness of two regional planning agencies in terms of public support for various planning activities. The Adirondack Park Agency and the Temporary State Commission on Tug Hill have fundamentally different approaches to planning. The Adirondack Park Agency has implemented a restrictive regulatory program with little citizen participation by Adirondack residents. The Tug Hill Commission has implemented an advisory and coordinating program with an emphasis on public input. Residents of two towns in each region were surveyed to determine environmental concern and support for regional planning activities. Respondents from both regions favored a planning agency that incorporates citizen input; controls air, water, and toxic waste pollution; and develops recreation areas. They strongly opposed an agency that regulates private land-use. Basic demographic characteristics and levels of environmental concern were similar in all four towns, but receptivity to various planning activities was consistently greater among residents of the Tug Hill Region. Paired comparisons of the four towns demonstrated no differences between towns of the same region and significant differences between towns of different regions. Public support for regional planning is greater in the Tug Hill Region than in the Adirondack Park.

Nitrate levels in shallow groundwater of upstate New York, USA

This paper summarizes research evaluating nitrate levels in shallow groundwater of upstate New York, USA. Water from abandoned dug wells in six different land-use categories was analyzed for nitrate. Findings indicate that regardless of overlying land-use, shallow groundwater is susceptible to high levels of nitrate. Over 60 percent of the water samples tested, including at least one sample from each land-use category, had nitrate levels in excess of the United States drinking water standard of 10 mg 1−1. Due to the potential threat of elevated nitrate levels, efforts should be made to eliminate abandoned dug wells in shallow groundwater as a source of water supply.

Teaching Ecosystem Management and Sustainability

Summary At first glance, a refuge proposed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) appeared to be an effective approach for protecting the habitat of migratory waterfowl. Under careful scrutiny, the proposal was predicated on false assumptions about development pressure and affected landowners exhibited a lifestyle reflecting environmental values. Residents promoted wildlife and utilized renewable resources on their land; they practiced ecological sustainability through private stewardship. Ecological sustainability is a long‐term strategy based on deep ecology and bioregionalism. Technological sustainability is a short‐term strategy based, on centralized bureaucracies, high technologies and economic markets. USFWS engages technological sustainability through acquisition and ecosystem management. While technological sustainability is urgently needed where habitat is disappearing rapidly, it can preempt ecological sustainability elsewhere, as illustrated in this case study. Environmental edu...

Public acquisition versus private stewardship for wetland protection: an evaluation of the St Lawrence valley national wildlife refuge, USA

Abstract Private stewardship can be an efficacious strategy for wetland protection in areas not subject to development pressure, provided landowners are environmentally conscious and a safety net of regulations has been enacted. Public acquisition is better directed toward areas undergoing rapid land‐use change. The St Lawrence Valley National Wildlife Refuge proposed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service was ill‐advised, because wetlands are not being converted to other uses, landowners are engaging practices that promote and enhance wildlife, and wetlands are protected from serious losses by state regulations. A less costly and less contentious role for governmental agencies in such situations is to initiate and support activities of private landowners.

A practical and theoretical assessment of sustainable development―a case study

Sustainable development meets the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet future needs. Proposals on sustainable development were evaluated for the Akwesasne Reservation of the St. Regis Mohawks in North America. Resources for aquaculture, sweet‐grass basket‐making, maple sugaring, and fallow‐deer farming can be managed on a renewable basis. Sustainable development has limited congruence with other concepts of modern environmentalism, being compatible with some and incompatible with others. It views the natural world as dynamic and changing rather than constant, and it integrates rather than segregates humans and the natural world. In comparison to other economic strategies, sustainable development retains the spiritual significance of nature for Mohawk culture at Akwesasne.