Conservation is the ability to harvest resources in an environmentally friendly way as to give back to the resources you take for economical or environmental development. This in turn helps provide sustainability.
Preservation is leaving natural resources in their original state; untouched, unused and unharmed in any way.
I do believe that humans can harvest forest resources in an environmentally friendly way because of the knowledge and technology that we have today and the willingness to do so. With this being said, I am inclined to be for conservation as opposed to preservation because I feel that we would be able to provide equal usefulness between humans and forest resources. It’s the concept of giving back what we take from the forest resources, or any resources for that matter. This would help provide a substantial route to environmental sustainability and still allow humans to live with the benefits of resources that we use and need to survive. It would also help create jobs and make us less dependent on foreign resources that we spend billions of dollars on every year.
The Bridger-Teton National Forest, aka: Management Area 71, is a prime example of how we can put an environmentally friendly resource plan into action and conserve what many hold so dear to their hearts in the region. The technology that environmentalists have today would ensure that we do not compromise the integrity of the ecosystem and that we would be just as valuable to those resources as they are to us.
With the threats on our nation’s economic prosperity, national security and our lives I feel that conservation is the best route to go.