Protection is achieved in reverse causal order through appreciation, understanding, and interpretation.

Evidence

Convinced of the logic behind this underlying philosophy of interpretation, Wirth issued a directive to all the park service’s field offices in April 1953 that gave interpretation a lasting mission: “protection through appreciation, appreciation through understanding, and understanding through interpretation.” No longer was interpretation relegated to the back burner; henceforth, it was to be a vital part of the overall strategy of park management. But the director did not stop there. He put his philosophy in place organizationally in 1954 when he reshuffled his central Washington, D.C., headquarters to achieve this objective. As a consequence, a “Division of Interpretation” was created, not several echelons down on the Washington office’s organizational chart but under the director’s immediate supervision. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 44

Categorization

• DEFINE: Wirth’s classic chain — protection through appreciation, appreciation through understanding, understanding through interpretation — the precursor to Tilden’s six principles.
• XREF: The causal chain interpretation→understanding→appreciation→protection is the spine of the entire course polyad; read as a method transferable beyond nature centers (interpretive teaching, storytelling as environmental-justice pedagogy). — connects to: Interpretation serves protection by making park appreciation possible. — Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage, 43; In absorbed action teleological order reverses causal order — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 724; Understanding means tracing the known back to what defies explanation

Broader Connections

• Understanding means tracing the known back to what defies explanation #expands (0.85)
• In absorbed action teleological order reverses causal order #expands (0.78) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 724