The Bluff River Trail: A Community Land Ethic, originated as a research study. To access the primary manuscript click here.
This research study investigates local relationships between Bluff society and the San Juan River corridor. The relationship between a rural, desert community and their home river is best described as a land ethic. Thus, the research question guiding this study is: what is the land ethic of the Bluff Community? I define a land ethic as a local process, or a social condition, composed of place, behavior, and belief. As a social phenomenon, a land ethic asks, “what are people doing outside and how do these behaviors influence meaning?” A land ethic assumes that belief, takes place. Bluff’s land ethic is a local phenomenon created by Bluff community members. People engaging in their own land ethic is how the landscape becomes a substantiated social product. The articulation and practice of a land ethic becomes the simultaneous creation and re/production of the land ethic itself.
This research study investigates local relationships between Bluff society and the San Juan River corridor. The relationship between a rural, desert community and their home river is best described as a land ethic. Thus, the research question guiding this study is: what is the land ethic of the Bluff Community? I define a land ethic as a local process, or a social condition, composed of place, behavior, and belief. As a social phenomenon, a land ethic asks, “what are people doing outside and how do these behaviors influence meaning?” A land ethic assumes that belief, takes place. Bluff’s land ethic is a local phenomenon created by Bluff community members. People engaging in their own land ethic is how the landscape becomes a substantiated social product. The articulation and practice of a land ethic becomes the simultaneous creation and re/production of the land ethic itself.
