The palaeobotanical beginnings of geological conservation: with case studies from the USA, Canada and Great

Abstract: The need to conserve geological features and palaeontological sites is an increasingly recognized part of conservation policy in many countries. In the USA, Canada and Great Britain this need was emphasized by the discovery in the19th century of spectacular plant fossils that were in danger of disappearing through overcollecting or through t e effects of weathering. People were spurred into action by these all too obvious dangers to ave the plant fossils where they had been found as 'monuments ' or 'records of the past'. The methodology for protection varied from one country to another through differences inboth land ownership and legislation. The backgrounds to the discoveries, the reasons for their conservation, and the methods employed for their protection are outlined and discussed. Fossil collecting can be traced back into antiquity but only really became a scientific pursuit towards the end of the 18th century. In the early years of the 19th century a number of important publications on plant fossils were published, such as Parkinson (1804) and Schlotheim (1820), although Sternberg (1820-1838) is now taken to be the first work for the valid publication of taxa. There were also the large and important works of Brongniart (1822