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Welcome to GWS2011!
Abstract deadline: September 30
The Call for Proposals for the 2011 GWS Conference on Parks, Protected Areas, and Cultural Sites is out. Click "More" to go to the conference website, and plan to join us in New Orleans next March!
NPS Centennial Essay
Time to discard the "unimpaired" standard

Former NPS historian William C. Tweed argues that the long-standing NPS goal of maintaining parks "unimpaired" for the future is no longer feasible — and probably never was.
What's your passion?
At the GWS, our passion is protected areas: the special places—natural areas and cultural sites alike—that are being safeguarded for perpetuity by people like you all over the world. We are dedicated to building the knowledge needed to protect, manage, and understand protected areas around the globe. The GWS is the one organization whose sole focus is on the scientific and heritage values of parks and other kinds of protected areas, from the largest wilderness area to the smallest historic site. Are these your core values too? Then help us make them a reality — Donate now!
What is the George Wright Society?
The society is dedicated to the protection, preservation, and management of cultural and natural parks and reserves through research and education.
The GWS is a nonprofit association of researchers, managers, administrators, educators, and other professionals who work on behalf of the scientific and heritage values of protected areas. When many people think of parks, they think of them exclusively in terms of being vacation destinations and recreation areas. But the heart of parks, protected areas, and cultural sites is the resources they protect. The GWS is dedicated to protecting and understanding these resources by promoting scientific research and cultural heritage scholarship within and on behalf of protected areas.
By “protected areas,” we mean a broad array of places—both “cultural” and “natural”—managed by different entities: parks at all levels; historic and cultural sites; research areas and designated wilderness within national and state forests, grasslands, wildlife refuges, and other public lands; tribal reserves, traditional indigenous cultural places, and community-conserved areas; marine, estuarine, freshwater, and other aquatic sanctuaries; private land-trust reserves; and similarly designated areas. Find out more
Off the press
Sample the current issue of our journal, The George Wright Forum
Check out these recent books by GWS members

Beyond Naturalness: Rethinking Park and Wilderness Stewardship in an Era of Rapid Change • David N. Cole & Laurie Yung, eds.
Prominent scientists consider radically different approaches to managing protected areas

Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History (revised ed.) • Richard West Sellars
An updated edition of the seminal history of NPS natural resource management

Parks & People: Managing Outdoor Recreation at Acadia National Park • Robert E. Manning, ed.
A science-based approach to outdoor recreation at Acadia National Park

Wilderness in National Parks: Playground or Preserve • John C. Miles
A history of NPS's tumultuous relationship with the designated wilderness concept


