Conserving in the Ozarks: A Case Study of Hobbs State Park - Conservation Area

Contemporary American conservation praxis is an understudied aspect of the ethnoecological and ethnobiological literature, but is an important aspect of both environmental education and pragmatic conservation efforts in the United States. This paper seeks to address the linkages between discourses of resource management, historical ecology, funding priorities, and environmental education in the context of state park management. Building on a case study of Hobbs State Park – Conservation Area located in the southern Ozarks, this paper illustrates how park management creates and modifies conservation approaches, discourses, and historical understandings of ecology to manage cross-agency cooperation and locally-oriented environmental education. Finally, this paper will seek to address future research opportunities and methods based on this case-study.