Jack Miner - Conservation Ethic

Conservation Ethic

Miner’s conservation ethic was unique in the sense that it was informed by both his Christian religious beliefs and his own biological observations. Miner’s faith played a central role in shaping his ideas about conservation and more generally, the natural world, by working out of a creationist foundation. In a posthumously published article, Miner explicitly rejects evolutionary biology, ascribing to a literal interpretation of Biblical scripture. Drawing from Christian scripture, Miner came to form a worldview situating humans as holding dominion over the natural world. Indeed, his son Manly Miner describes the core belief of his father’s environmental philosophy as being that “God put birds and animals here for man’s use and for man to control.” In this sense, for Miner, humans were charged with playing an active and protective role in conservation and ecological preservation.

Miner’s religious faith is necessary for understanding his beliefs and methods of conservation. He viewed natural and biological relationships as consisting of a moral element, an idea that is illustrated in his classification of animals based on perceived human characteristics. Indeed, Miner admired the qualities of industriousness found in robins and the motherly care of ducks. He praised the monogamous mating relationships and loyalty of the Canadian goose while criticizing the tendency for drakes to leave their mate when she begins nesting. In contrast to his class of morally good animals, was a group of animals that he considered to be morally bad. This group included natural predators, whom he described as being “cold-blooded,” “cannibals,” (when referring to predatory birds) and “murderers.” The natural instincts of predators were to Miner moral dimensions and the language he uses when describing encounters with predators certainly illustrates this. In one instance, Miner writes of “seeking revenge” on an owl that had killed one of his geese. Indeed, Miner did seek revenge on the predatory birds that threatened the creatures he admired so much. He describes the delivery of trapped live crows to gun clubs to be used for target shooting, a practice which he suggests as a punishment for their “murdering” of young quail and sparrows.

While Miner’s work has been an important part of wildlife conservation in Canada, it should be noted that it was selective conservation, influenced by both the religiously derived moral qualities of wildlife and the anthropocentric view of the natural world as being an object of control and management for human beings.