Abstract
The general public and environmental policy makers often perceive management actions of environmental managers as “science,” when such actions are, in fact, value judgments about when to intervene in natural processes. The choice of action requires ethical as well as scientific analysis because managers must choose a normative outcome to direct their intervention. I examine a management case study involving prescribed burning of sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) communities in south-central Montana (USA) to illustrate how to teach students to ethically evaluate a management action by precisely identifying: 1) the proposed management action, 2) the deficiency of the system to be remedied by the action, 3) the stakeholders affected by the action, and 4) the category and type of values affirmed in the management action. Through such analysis, students are taught to recognize implicit and explicit value judgments associated with management actions, identify stakeholders to whom managers have legitimate ethical obligations, and practice a general method of ethical analysis applicable to many forms of environmental management.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bunnell, F.L., and Dupuis, L.A. (1995) Conservation Biology’s literature revisited: wine or vinaigrette? Wildlife Society Bulletin 23: 56–62.
Murphy, D.D. (1990) Conservation biology and the scientific method, Conservation Biology 4: 203–204.
Tarlock, A.D. (1994) The nonequilibrium paradigm in ecology and the partial unraveling of environmental law, Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 27: 1121–1144.
Dworkin, R. (1977) Taking rights seriously, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Elliot, J. (1978) Lessons from Love Canal, Journal of the American Medical Association 240: 2033–2034, 2040.
Davidson, A. (1990) In the Wake of the Exxon Valdez: The Devastating Impact of the Alaska Oil Spill, Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, California.
Porter, W.F. and Underwood, H.B. (1999) Of elephants and blind men: deer management in the U.S. national parks, Ecological Applications 9: 3–9.
Daly, H.E. (1968) On economics as a life science, Journal of Political Economy 76: 392–406.
Van Dyke, F.G., DiBenedetto, J.P. and Thomas, S.C. (1991) Vegetation and elk response to prescribed burning in south-central Montana, pp. 163–179; in Keiter, R.B. and Boyce, M.S. (eds.) The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: Redefining America’s Wilderness Heritage, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.
Van Dyke, F., Klein, W.C. and Stewart, S.T. (1998) Long-term range fidelity in Rocky Mountain elk, The Journal of Wildlife Management 61: 1020–1036.
Ralston H. III, (1986) Philosophy Gone Wild: Essays in Environmental Ethics, Prometheus Books, Buffalo, New York.
Nash, R. (1989) The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Wisconsin.
Davis, M. (1986) The moral status of dogs, forests, and other persons, Social Theory and Practice 12: 27–59
Petulla, J.M. (1988) American Environmental History, 2nd edition, Macmillan, New York.
Leopold, A. (1974) A Sand County Almanac: With Essays on Conservation from Round River, Sierra Club/Ballantine, New York.
Van Dyke, F., Mahan, D.C., Sheldon, J.K. and Brand, R.H. (1996) Redeeming Creation: The Biblical Basis for Environmental Stewardship, Inter Varsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois.
Robinson, J.B. (1992) Of maps and territories: the use and abuse of socio-economic modeling in support of decision-making, Technological Forecasting and Social Change 42: 147–164.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Van Dyke, F. Teaching ethical analysis in environmental management decisions: A process-oriented approach. SCI ENG ETHICS 11, 659–669 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-005-0034-z
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-005-0034-z