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As we ponder the prospects of our rangelands, we face the fundamental ethical and ecological question: what is good rangeland management? We propose that good management is based on caring relationships. Caring about any person or anything is our only tangible way of expressing gratitude for life and our moment of opportunity to participate in it. The motivation of gratitude is the essence of ethical actions. Good management results from expressions of gratitude through informed, diverse, and responsive relationships with the land. Our relationships must be informed by sound ecological understanding; uninformed acts of gratitude have degraded the rangelands. Good relationships can involve extraction, preservation, conservation and enhancement of natural resources. No single relationship with the land is wholly appropriate. Good management is based on relationships that are responsive to the dynamics of rangeland ecosystems. The ethic and science of ecological sustainability must be incorporated into the moral concept of justice, otherwise justice is short lived. Without justice, communities and the land on which they depend suffer and decline. A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. Is wrong when it tends otherwise. -Ado Leopold |
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