IsisCB Explore

Thesis ID: CBB001561015

The Conflicted Mission of the United States Bureau of Biological Survey, 1885--1940: Wildlife, Uncertainty, and Ambivalence (2012)

University of Oklahoma
Pisani, Donald
Evans, Sterling

Publication Date: 2012
Edition Details: Advisors: Pisani, Donald; Sterling Evans
Physical Details: 461 pp.
Language: English

Outside Links

Academia.edu

Biological surveys Societies; institutions; academies Science and government 19th century 20th century, early United States United States. Bureau of Biological Survey

The United States Bureau of Biological Survey, initially founded as the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy within the Department of Agriculture in 1885, began with a focus on scientific research. Its principle responsibilities were mapping the North American continent's geographical distribution of flora and fauna and determining which animal species were beneficial or injurious to agriculture. Soon, however, the Survey took on new assignments. By the first decade of the twentieth century, the federal bureau was controlling predators and rodents, protecting wildlife on big game reservations and avian refuges, and enforcing wildlife legislation. These added responsibilities resulted in a conflicted mission for the Survey: Since the bureau had to both kill (through predator and rodent control) and protect wildlife, it could not build unequivocal, long-lasting alliances with groups of constituents that would support the Survey. Stockmen supported predator and rodent control yet were critical of wildlife protection. Sport hunters welcomed the avian refuges but often opposed the enforcement of hunting regulations. Scientists and conservationists endorsed wildlife protection but disapproved of predator and rodent control. Furthermore, states, other federal agencies, and residents living near the refuges and reservations often had their own ideas about wildlife and the acceptable use of land designated for wildlife protection, sometimes welcoming the Survey, sometimes opposing it, and sometimes demonstrating a combination of support and resistance. Thus, the Survey's relationships with states, other bureaus, local citizens, and different groups of constituents were ambivalent and uncertain. The uncertainty was further exacerbated by the lack of basic knowledge of wildlife, a reflection of the incipient fields of wildlife science and game management. Working within the restraints of a conflicted mission, divided authority between state and federal government over the management of wildlife, a wavering base of support, and limited scientific understanding of wildlife, the Survey faced its responsibilities with a high degree of uncertainty and was pulled in multiple directions.

...More

Description Cited in ProQuest Diss. & Thes. (2012). ProQuest Doc. ID 1015379183.

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001561015/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Jeremy Vetter; (2018)
Experiential and Cosmopolitan Knowledge: The Transcontinental Field Practices of the U.S. Bureau of Biological Survey (/isis/citation/CBB278374867/)

Article Johnny Miri; (2021)
The Fall of Vannevar Bush: The Forgotten War for Control of Science Policy in Postwar America (/isis/citation/CBB869305077/)

Article Etienne S. Benson; (2017)
A Centrifuge of Calculation: Managing Data and Enthusiasm in Early Twentieth-Century Bird Banding (/isis/citation/CBB999485139/)

Article Kohler, Robert E.; (2008)
From Farm and Family to Career Naturalist: The Apprenticeship of Vernon Bailey (/isis/citation/CBB000775035/)

Article Kevles, Daniel J.; (2013)
Not a Hundred Millionaires (/isis/citation/CBB001201239/)

Article Bennett, Tony; (2014)
Liberal Government and the Practical History of Anthropology (/isis/citation/CBB001201582/)

Book Bont, Raf de; (2015)
Stations in the Field: A History of Place-Based Animal Research, 1870--1930 (/isis/citation/CBB001551940/)

Book Fox, Robert; (2012)
The Savant and the State: Science and Cultural Politics in Nineteenth-Century France (/isis/citation/CBB001210045/)

Chapter Vetter, Jeremy; (2012)
Field Life in the American West: Surveys, Networks, Stations, and Quarries (/isis/citation/CBB001210267/)

Thesis Daniels, Brian Isaac; (2012)
A History of Antiquities Ownership in the United States, 1870--1934 (/isis/citation/CBB001567360/)

Thesis Carlson, Laurie Winn; (2004)
William J. Spillman: Scientific Agriculture in the Progressive Era (/isis/citation/CBB001561750/)

Book Nemec, Mark R.; (2006)
Ivory Towers and Nationalist Minds: Universities, Leadership, and the Development of the American State (/isis/citation/CBB000741488/)

Book Hirt, Paul W.; (2012)
The Wired Northwest: The History of Electric Power, 1870s--1970s (/isis/citation/CBB001201248/)

Thesis Madsen-Brooks, Leslie; (2006)
To Study, to Control, and to Love: Women Scientists in American Natural History Institutions, 1880--1950 (/isis/citation/CBB001561454/)

Article Bedford, Riiko; (2015)
Heredity As Ideology: Ideas of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of The United States and Ontario on Heredity and Social Reform, 1880--1910 (/isis/citation/CBB001552476/)

Thesis Cain, Victoria Elizabeth Moffit; (2007)
Nature under Glass: Popular Science, Professional Illusion and theTransformation of American Natural History Museums, 1870--1940 (/isis/citation/CBB001561472/)

Article Berneking, Carolyn Bailey; (2000)
The Contributions of E. H. S. Bailey to the Development of Pure Food and Water Laws in Kansas (/isis/citation/CBB000112000/)

Article Young, Cristobal; (2009)
The Emergence of Sociology from Political Economy in the United States: 1890 to 1940 (/isis/citation/CBB000932847/)

Chapter Roca i Rosell, Antoni; (2009)
La República, la Generalitat i la renovació de les institucions científiques (/isis/citation/CBB000954177/)

Article Zhu, Jianhong; (2003)
Analysis on the Background to the Establishment of the National Science Foundation of the U. S. A. (/isis/citation/CBB000500424/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}