Natural resource management is a major area of Canadian policy, as recent literature reveals. Yet analysts have devoted little attention to the management of parks and protected areas. In Taking the Air, Paul Kopas takes a comprehensive approach to this aspect of policy debate. He scrutinizes the policy-making process for national parks since the mid-1950s and interrogates the rationale and policies that have governed their administration.

Kopas argues that national parks and park policy reflect not only environmental concerns but also the political and social attitudes of bureaucrats, citizens, interest groups, Aboriginal peoples, and legal authorities. He explores how the goals of each group have been shaped by the historical context of park policy, influencing the shape and weight of their contributions.

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Paul Kopas teaches political science at the University of British Columbia.

This well-written account of the origins and administration of our national parks begins with a challenging assertion that “national parks are about meaning” and goes on to analyse what this meaning might be. […] Forest professionals will find most interest in the chapters detailing the growth and impact of public participation in management decisions during the 1970s and 1980s.

BC Forest Professional, Vol.15, Issue 6, November-December 2008

This book scrutinizes the policy-making process for national parks since the mid-1950s and integrates the rationale and policies that have governed park administration. … In the context of Canadian nation-building and environmental policy, this book will be useful to policy analysts, planners, academics, and students in fields ranging from environmental studies to tourism and recreation. It will also interest general readers concerned with Canada’s parks and the environment.

APADE, 2007