The Leopold Report is a 1963 paper composed of a series of ecosystem management recommendations that were presented by the Special Advisory Board on Wildlife Management to United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall. Named for its chairman and principal author, zoologist and conservationist A. Starker Leopold, the report proved influential for future preservation mandates and reports. After several years of public controversy regarding the forced reduction of the elk population in Yellowstone National Park, Udall appointed an advisory board to collect scientific data to inform future wildlife management of the national parks. The committee observed that culling programs at other national parks had been ineffective, and recommended management of Yellowstone's elk population. In addressing the goals, policies, and methods of managing wildlife in the parks, the report suggested that in addition to protection, wildlife populations should be managed and regulated to prevent habitat degradation. Touching upon predator control, fire ecology, and other issues, the report suggested that the National Park Service hire scientists to manage the parks using current scientific research. The Leopold Report became the first concrete plan to manage park visitors and ecosystems under unified principles. It was reprinted in several national publications, and many of its recommendations were incorporated into the official policies of the NPS. Although the report is notable for proposing that park management have a fundamental goal of reflecting "the primitive scene... a reasonable illusion of primitive America", some have criticized it for its idealism and limited scope.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leopold_Report

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1651:

Khmelnytsky Uprising: The Zaporozhian Cossacks began clashing with forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Battle of Berestechko in the Volhynia Region of present-day Ukraine. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berestechko

1880:

Police captured Australian bank robber and bushranger Ned Kelly after a gun battle in Glenrowan, Victoria. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly

1914:

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated by Yugoslav nationalist Gavrilo Princip during a motorcade in Sarajevo, sparking the outbreak of World War I. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archduke_Franz_Ferdinand_of_Austria

1922:

The week-long Battle of Dublin began with an assault by the Irish Free State's National Army on the Four Courts building, which had been occupied by the Anti-Treaty Irish Republican Army, marking the start of the Irish Civil War. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dublin

1956:

Workers demanding better conditions held massive protests in Poznań, Poland, but were violently repressed by the following day by 400 tanks and 10,000 soldiers of Ludowe Wojsko Polskie and Korpus Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pozna%C5%84_1956_protests

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

equipage (n): 1. Equipment or supplies, especially military ones. 2. A type of horse-drawn carriage http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/equipage

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think. Use no constraint in matters of religion. Even those who are farthest out of the way never compel to come in by any other means than reason, truth, and love. --John Wesley http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Wesley