The Protected Landscape Approach - Centre for Mediterranean ...

The Protected Landscape Approach: Linking Nature, Culture and Community
Box 4. Stewardship begins with people: an atlas of places, people,
and hand-made products (cont.)
2. Demonstrate the relationship between people, special products, and landscapes;
3. Highlight the biodiversity value of cultural landscapes;
4. Model sustainable behaviours to visitors and neighbors,
de mon strating a commitment to community steward -
ship of landscapes;
5. Enhance relationships between parks and neighboring
communities; and
6. Build a network of people and organizations involved in
this work.
The concept for this atlas also draws inspiration from a
series of exchanges between the U.S. National Park Service
and the Italian Nature Conservation Service and Lazio
Regional Park Agency under an international agreement to
promote innovation and cooperation in the protection and
management of national parks and protected areas. Through
these exchanges park managers on both sides of the Atlantic
shared ideas and experiences and discussed ways to “promote
and market local products that enhance park operations, com -
munity relations, local traditions and culture, and sustainable
practices.” The Italian parks, in cooperation with Slow Food
Italia, produced an atlas that highlights an extraordinary array
of authentic traditional food products identified with the park
areas in which they are grown or made.
Diné (Navajo) weaver, Hubbell
Trading Post National Historic Site,
Arizona, USA. Jeff Roberts
the land is still farmed today by descendant families of the early homesteaders. Many long-time
residents feel deep ties to the land.
But the story is much more than just farming history. Penn Cove, on Whidbey Island’s
protected eastern shore, and the nearby abundance of tall timber in Whidbey’s forests
attracted sea captains and shipbuilders. Captain Thomas Coupe claimed the shoreline acres that
eventually became the town of Coupeville, the main town within the reserve. Maritime trade
along Penn Cove, combined with farming, made Coupeville a thriving commercial centre.
Once water-borne transportation gave way to land-based transportation, Coupeville was no
longer a hub of Puget Sound commerce. Coupeville’s prosperous past is reflected in the wide
array of historic buildings that in 1972 were officially listed as the Central Whidbey Island
Historic District. In addition, Whidbey’s strategic placement at the entrance to Puget Sound
brought a military presence to the island in the late 1800s, which remains today. Aspects of this
military past are also preserved and interpreted through the Reserve (Gilbert et al., 1984).
The designation of Ebey’s Landing as a national reserve grew from a decade-long con -
troversy sparked by the question of whether to allow development of Ebey’s Prairie, the most
spectacular of the three major prairies and the heart of today’s Reserve. The end result, after
many twists and turns over the ten-year period, was unusual for the USNPS at that time. Ebey’s
Landing was the first unit of the National Park System intentionally set up to be managed
collaboratively by a trust board of individuals representing the USNPS and state, county and
local government. The Reserve is a “partnership park” in which the federal government’s role
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