The continuation of my interview (see the first part here) with filmmaker Ken Burns:
KAF: At one point Dayton Duncan says that all he learned about science, he learned at the national parks and he emphasizes the role of rangers. There’s a dearth of students enrolling in science, technology and math programs now in the U.S. Do you see the parks as a way of rekindling peoples’ appreciation for ecology and science in general?
Ken Burns: Absolutely. Steven Mather, the first Director of the Park Service, called them “vast school rooms of Americanism.” He understood that they would make better citizens of people. But I wouldn’t stop there. Quite often, in our increasingly homogenized education, that is the bare minimum; we have bred a bunch of specialists or people setting out just to make money.
Listen to a clip from the interview
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Ken Burns- “Interest in science and math have waned. But here are places that are natural laboratories that can inspire people. We know this happens because it happens with us all the time. I listened with rapt attention to a guide last winter in Yellowstone at 20 degrees below zero talking about serotiny (an ecological adaptation exhibited by some plants, in which seed release occurs in response to an environmental trigger), this incredible thing that happens with the seeds of Lodgepole Pines. They are coated with a resin and they only release the seed after a temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit and only after a period of time experiencing that temperature. That means they release themselves after a forest fire has ravaged the forest. They shoot billions of seeds into this now devastated landscape. The seeds provide nourishment for animals that need to survive absent the lodgepole pines. Millions germinate, and then, because of the requirements of certain amounts of light of the lodgepole pines, some lesser plants are weeded out. And they look, as they still do today, like planted trees.
But you see the genius of evolution recapitulating itself in these myriad adaptations. It is exhilarating. It is ecstatic in the same way religious experiences are ecstatic. And I think anyone willing to spend a couple of minutes to get their mind around the beauty of this evolutionary process can only marvel at it and perhaps be inspired.”
KAF: What do you want people to come away with most as a result of watching your series?
KB: I want them to do two things: I want them to appreciate their sense of co-ownership––that for the first time in history, land was set aside for them. That they are all co-owners. As a result, the responsibilities of co-ownership are very clear. You ought to go and visit your property now and then and make sure it’s being well taken care of. If not, you complain to the people who can do something about, i.e. Congress. And then you just take care of it. The other thing is I want people to go visit. I want visitation to increase. It does put strains on the system, but those are good democratic problems to have. You can solve problems that way when the population gets too big.
At Zion National Park, they stopped allowing cars. You take a clean bus and travel through the park. In the beginning people complained. Now nobody does. It’s just a wonderful way to see Zion.
The opposite is a terrifying thing—that if nobody goes, then there are no constituencies. And when the next proposal for a dam comes along, the next proposal to put a power plant outside a natural park, when the next intrusion by a concessionary takes place, the parks won’t have the defenders they’ve always needed. So I’m hoping this film, in some small way, mints new park defenders.
KAF: And children, in particular?
KB: In particular, yes. We now live in a virtual world that is so preoccupied with video games, searching the net, and Facebook, that we forget to actually live our real life [sic]. We know what its like to scramble around and recharge our various computers and phones, but we forget that the parks are the rechargers for our souls and ourselves.
KAF: When you mentioned Zion, I was reminded of a Christian fundamentalist movement that has become environmentally conscious. Instead of hoping for the end of days when the last tree will fall and the rapture comes so that the saved can ascend into Heaven, they have turned around and acknowledged that this is God’s planet. Now they are in favor of protecting the environment.
KB: This is the best news possible. For so long, those opposed to any environmental progress could count on the Religious Right. At some point, they realized they were being manipulated by those who, for selfish and mainly monetary reasons, were using them. They suddenly woke up to the fact that though they might disagree with scientists about how old that rock is down in the Grand Canyon, we can agree that this is an amazing creation and that we ought to protect it. Who am I to permit a snail to go extinct, if this is, speaking for those religious folks, if this is part of God’s creation? The evangelical community makes strange bedfellows with those in the environmental movement. But I say, “Hurrah.” I’m happy to disagree on the number of years that they think the creation of the Grand Canyon took, if we’ve got an ally that will protect it forever.
Tags: Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns, lodgepole pines, park ranger, science education, Zion National Park
About Karen Frenkel:
Karen A. Frenkel covers science, technology, and their impacts on society. Her articles have appeared on SciAm.com, in Scientific American, and Communications of the ACM. She has also produced two documentaries for Public Television—one on women and computing and the other on online learning. Email her at kfrenkel@nyc.rr.com, follow her on Twitter as KarenAFrenkel, and visit her website, www.karenafrenkel.com.
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