Abstract

Land management invorelves weighing the ecological, aesthetic, scientific, historical, economic, and other kinds of value the landscape holds for a community. In other words, it involves interpreting the meaning of the landscape. This chapter explores the ethical dimension of interpreting the landscape. It then focuses on two important sources of interpretive conflict: the meaning and value of wilderness (and the related concept of biodiversity) and the role of ecological knowledge in judging the aesthetic value of a landscape. It concludes by considering how interpreting the landscape may relate to social justice.