Conservation in Urban and Suburban Landscapes: What Does Nature Mean?

The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future invites you to attend its upcoming seminar, “Conservation in Urban and Suburban Landscapes: What Does Nature Mean?” The seminar will be held at the Pardee Center at 67 Bay State Road on Thursday October 20, 2016 from 12:30 – 2:00 pm (lunch will be provided beginning at 12:00 pm). Pardee Center post-doctoral associate John Patrick Connors will moderate a panel featuring David Stainbrook, a Deer/Moose biologist at the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife, and Joshua Duclos, a PhD candidate in the BU Department of Philosophy and a 2016 Pardee Graduate Summer Fellow. They will discuss the distinct challenges for conservation and wildlife management in the environmental and social context of suburban landscapes. The conversation will give particular attention to the emerging challenges of deer management across Massachusetts, and the controversies that have surrounded recent hunts. In this context, the discussion will also consider the ethical parameters of wildlife conservation, specifically the issue of making tradeoffs between sacrificing individual animals and preserving a landscape.