GEOG 3422: Conservation Thought Fall 2007
Paper Assignments
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Submission Procedures:
A printed copy of the assignment must be turned in at the beginning of the
class period specified.
Assignments also must be
submitted to turnitin.com by the beginning of the class period specified.
Exercise #1 Paper Due at
11am in class Monday, September 24 (8% of total course grade)
Outline for Exercise #1 Due at 11am in class Wednesday, September 12
Select a U.S. conservation issue that is interesting to you. This issue
will be the topic of the three written exercises that you will turn in over the
course of the semester, so pick something you won't be sick of after 16
weeks! I suggest that you select a topic with a narrow geographic focus
(for example, rather than global population growth, you would look at Boulder's
growth control policies or you would look at the controversy surrounding a
specific proposed mine rather than mining in general). Also, you should
select a topic where 2-5 different perspectives are relevant to the current
debates. Otherwise, you have the latitude to select whichever topic suits
your fancy except ANWR. It could be resource-oriented like energy, or a
more traditional ÒenvironmentalÓ problem like air pollution or wilderness
management. Remember, a controversial issue will be easier to research
because more information will be available. Feel free to check with
Elizabeth or joni to see if your intended topic is appropriate.
You may
not write about oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
For this first assignment, you will briefly describe the issue, answering the
following questions.
1) What is the issue? Where is it located geographically? What is
the conflict?
2) Who are the relevant actors? Who controls the situation and who is
trying to affect their actions?
3) How has the situation developed over time?
Submit the
outline for your first paper in class on September 12. Your outline should address these three
points that describe the issue that you have chosen to research and analyze
over the course of the semester.
You may also use tables and diagrams to organize the information that
you will be presenting in your first exercise.
In addition to
your outline, submit a bibliography of the sources that you expect to be using
for your research, as well as a brief note explaining why you chose to use each
source and how reliable you believe each source to be.
The grade for
your outline will be included in your overall grade for Exercise #1 (20% of
your grade for Ex 1).
Submit your final draft in class on September
24
-> Writing matters! This includes organization, spelling, grammar, and
overall clarity. We will be looking for and grading on the basis of
¥ clear introductory paragraphs
¥ logically presented arguments
¥ proper sentence structure, spelling, word usage
¥ and so on
-> Proper citation of sources within the text and at the end of the essay is
abolutely essential. Improper
citation will be grounds for failure!
-> 500-750 words, not including your list of sources. Use the word
count on your word processor.
Exercise #2 Due at 11am in class Monday, October 24 (10% of total
course grade)
In this assignment you will continue to analyze the conservation issue that you
began researching for the last assignment. Now you will describe the
actors who are involved in the issue in more detail, answering the following
questions.
1) Who are the most important actors? Pick 2 or 3. For each actor,
give a bit of background. For example, if a federal agency is involved,
tell when the agency was created and what their mandate is. For citizen's
groups, find out when the group formed, who the leaders are, and what kinds of
people are members. If lobbyists, who is hiring them?
2) Why is each actor important (what gives them power to influence the
situation)?
3) How did each actor become involved in the conflict?
4) What is the general conservation philosophy of each actor?
Consider the conservation philosophy of each actor in terms of the framework
that we discussed early in the semester.
a) What is nature?
b) How should humans use the natural world?
c) Are humans part of or apart from nature?
d) How and by whom should uses of nature be determined?
5) How is this philosophy reflected in the opinion or position the each actor
with respect to the issue you are studying?
6) What is the fundamental philosophical issue at the heart of the conflict?
A partial outline of an example (you would fill in many more details about
conservation philosophy, write in complete sentences, in nice paragraphs with
topic sentences, and so on)
Bison Management in Yellowstone: The Main Actors
1) National Park Service: formed in 1916, oversees Yellowstone National Park,
responsible for developing bison management plan, their mission is...........
2) Ranchers: (is there an organized group or just a collection of individuals?
if individuals, does there seem to be a prominent spokesperson?) live on park
boundary, most ranches settled in 18xx, they want to protect livestock industry
from Brucellosis infection and keep wildlife from eating up forage. They
have much influence in how land outside the park boundaries is managed (can
convince state wildlife officials to kill bison that comes out of park).
3) National Wildlife Federation: citizen's group, formed in 18xx, xxxx members,
most members are .....[basic social and demographic info] their mission is to
protect the natural world, trying to influence public opinion in order to
influence the EIS process
4) General Public: important because of EIS process and public comment
period. Opinions too diverse to clearly identify [though if you can get
access to records of public comments for your issue, go ahead and do so].
-> Writing counts! This includes organization, spelling, grammar, and
overall clarity.
-> List all of your sources of information at the end. All sources should
also be attributed within the relevant sections of the text.
-> 750-1000 words, not including your list of sources. Use the word
count on your word processor.
-> We will be happy to review drafts before Wednesday October 17, preferably
during office hours.
-> Hold on to each paper. You will need to turn them all in along with
your final
assignment <-
Exercise #3 Due at 11am in class Wednesday, December 5 (12% of total
course grade)
In this assignement you will continue to analyze the conservation issue that
you have been researching for the previous assignments.
For this final assignment, you will link the conservation philosophies of the
actors who are involved with the readngs you have done for class.
1) Continue with the 3 or 4 actors you discussed in your last paper.
2) For each actor, which one or two authors you have read for class seem to
have the most similar conservation philosophy? Use quotations and
specific examples from the readings and from your research into each actor to
demonstrate the similarities. Keep in mind the four questions of the
conservation framework that you used in your last paper.
-> Writing counts! This includes organization, spelling, grammar, and
overall clarity.
-> List all of your sources of information at the end. All sources should
also be attributed within the relevant sections of the text.
-> Minimum of 1000 words, not including your list of sources. Use the
word count on your word processor.
-> We will be happy to review drafts on or before Wednesday November 28,
preferrably during office hours.
-> Turn in your two previous papers along with this final assignment <-
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