This title presents a new framework for conservation based on public engagement and natural sciences. Management policies have tended to promote a one-size-fits-all mentality for large, complex landscapes. Landscape ecologist Charles Curtin argues that instead we need a science-based approach that accounts for the dynamic nature of complex systems and gives local stakeholders a say in their futures. The Science of Open Spaces proposes that we return to "first principles", fundamental physical laws of the universe, and think about complex systems from the ground up based on modern scientific theory backed up by practical experience. Curtin walks us through foundational concepts of thermodynamics, ecology, sociology, and resilience theory, applying them to real-world examples from years he has spent designing large-scale, place-based collaborative research programmes around the world.

About the Author
Charles Curtin is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy, University of Montana, Missoula, where he will be developing programs for the Practitioners Network for Large Landscape Conservation. He is also Interim Director of the Mora Watershed Alliance in Mora, New Mexico, where he helped develop a landscape-level conservation program in the one million acre Mora Watershed in north-western New Mexico. He was previously the director of the Resilience Design Group in the Department of Environmental Studies, Antioch University New England, in Keene, New Hampshire.


Book Information
ISBN 9781597269933
Author Charles G. Curtin
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Island Press
Publisher Island Press