Leopold Report

Leopold Report

The Leopold Report, officially known as Wildlife Management in the National Parks, is a 1963 paper composed of ecosystem management recommendations. It was presented by the Special Advisory Board on Wildlife Management to United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall. The report became the first concrete plan to manage park visitors and ecosystems under unified principles.

About Leopold Report in brief

Summary Leopold ReportThe Leopold Report, officially known as Wildlife Management in the National Parks, is a 1963 paper composed of ecosystem management recommendations. It was presented by the Special Advisory Board on Wildlife Management to United States Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall. 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 different management of Yellowstone’sElk population. The report became the first concrete plan to manage park visitors and ecosystems under unified principles, 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. It is the first time an outside group was asked to evaluate wildlife management programs within the National Park Service, but it became known as the Cottam Report on March 4, 1963, when it was first presented to the U.S. Department of Interior. The Cottom Report was the first report of its kind to be published in the United States, and was published in several national publications, including the New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New York Review of Books.

It has been cited as one of the most influential reports in the history of wildlife management and conservation. It also has been used as a basis for the creation of the National Museum of Natural History in New York City, which opened in 1998. The museum is now home to a collection of more than 2,000 endangered species, including elk, grizzly bears, mountain lions, and pronghorn, among others. The National Museum’s collection of endangered species is the largest of its type in the world, and includes more than 1,000 species of plants, animals, plants, and fish. The Museum’s collections of endangered and threatened species are housed in a museum museum, which is open to the public. The U.N. Museum of Nature and Science is also home to the largest collection of threatened and endangered species in the country, including bighorn sheep, bald eagles, pronghorns, and mountain lions. The NPS was tasked with both preservation and tourism, two divergent goals that would prove divisive during the resurgence of the conservation movement in the 1940s and 1950s. NPS managers became interested in attracting more tourists to Yellowstone during the 1910s and 1920s. In the winter of 1961, park rangers responded to this dilemma by shooting and killing approximately 4,300 elk. This aggressive reduction by the Park Service caused a massive public outcry; network television and newspaper coverage of the culling resulted in public opposition.