A careful reading of recent issues of the "Natural Areas Journal," the publication of the Natural Areas Association, will leave you with the conclusion that humans are not a part of natural areas. When humans do appear, it is either as disturbing agents, disrupting the naturalness through, for example, the introduction of exotic plants and animals, or as managers, enhancing the naturalness through, for example, prescribed burning. The journal defines natural areas as places that are held out of time, protected remnants of plant and animal communities that were once more widely distributed but have since been removed. However, historical geographers adopt a broader view of nature and natural areas, one that features humans as a factor in environmental change.