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Paper is about how human society organizes its proprietary relationship to the biosphere and, in particular, the property implications of ecosystem management. Our premise is that ecosystem management is endangered by its "bigger-is-better" bias, the potential source of public backlash among landowners. We document both the expansionary nature of ecocentric management and the magnitude of inholdings (encumbered property interests) which accompany it. We contrast "ecosystem inholders" with inholders who, historically, have dotted our [USA] national parks, and show the complexity of entitlement in two ecosystem cases, one old and one new. We draw historical parallels between current ecosystem management and the so-called Quiet Revolution of the 1970s and, in conclusion, point to the National Environmental Policy Act as an underutilized way to reduce conflict between ecosystem rights and property rights. [author]
