Ecosystem Management on Public Lands: An Application of Optimal Externality to Timber Production

While there are increasing numbers of non-consumptive forest uses on public lands, some silvicultural management systems provide little flexibility for the realization of non-commodity values. Traditional economic decision-making tools, such as net present value, are often applied in a manner which inadequately accounts for the full value of the resource. As a result, sub-optimal management practices are often implemented. By applying a marginal analysis of the optimal externality of different silvicultural systems, it is possible to identify the optimal timber management strategy in terms of the total costs of the timber harvest under alternative uses. Although difficulties arise in valuing non-consumptive uses, contingent valuation with averting costs estimates can establish a lower bound on society's willingness to pay for foregone timber harvesting. Low impact harvest operations and “new forestry” techniques, such as selection harvest cuts, are helpful in reducing the external costs of timber cutting. Therefore, the implementation of such systems may actually increase the socially optimal area of public lands to be harvested under a multiple-use designation.     

Using Social Media to Discover Public Values, Interests, and Perceptions about Cattle Grazing on Park Lands

In the western United States, livestock grazing often co-exists with recreation, cultural resource management and biodiversity protection on federal and state protected rangelands as well as on many local government open space areas. While the value of livestock grazing for managing rangeland vegetation to reduce fire fuel loads and improve wildlife habitat is increasingly recognized by resource management professionals, public concerns, and conflict between recreationist and livestock have led to reductions in public land grazing. Traditional public input methods yield a constrained picture of people’s attitudes toward cows and public land grazing. Public meetings, hearings, and surveys, the most commonly used mechanisms for public land managers to solicit public opinion, tend to foster participation of organized special interests or, in the case of surveys, focus on a specific topic. General public input is limited. This study explored the use of personal photography in social media to gain insight into public perceptions of livestock grazing in public spaces. Key findings of this study include that many recreationist in grazed San Francisco Bay Area parks shared views, interests, and concerns about cows and grazing on the photo-sharing website, Flickr^TM that seldom show up at a public meeting or in surveys. Results suggest that social media analysis can help develop a more nuanced understanding of public viewpoints useful in making decisions and creating outreach and education programs for public grazing lands. This study demonstrates that using such media can be useful in gaining an understanding of public concerns about natural resource management.     

中国矿产地战略储备的运行管理模式研究

矿产地储备是矿产资源战略储备的重要形式之一.政府是实施矿产地战略储备的主体,储备地建立的途径包括规划、国家直接出资勘查和回购矿业权三种形式.随着国内外政治、经济、资源、市场、技术等因素的变化,需要对储备的矿产地实行梯次动态轮换.矿产地储备的启动资金由国家财政负担,在轮换和动用时用矿业权转让价款弥补储备期间的成本.中国应实行大储备的管理体制,统筹协调矿产品储备、石油储备和矿产地储备.现阶段矿产地战略储备管理体制应由决策层、执行层和操作层组成.矿产地战略储备要协调国家与地方经济利益,建立补偿机制促进矿产地战略储备的顺利进行.     

Amenity Migration and Public Lands: Rise of the Protected Areas

Environmental Management - Rural amenity migration, or the relocation for quality of life purposes as opposed to monetary enhancement, has been occurring for decades and has been particularly...     

遗产型城市游憩公园自导式解说系统规划初探

城市游憩公园是非赢利性的大众休闲场所,较少重视内部解说系统建设,使其中遗产型城市游憩公园面临文化被遗忘的境地.通过构建遗产型城市游憩公园自导式解说系统的动力模型,并在前人理论基础上,提出自导式解说系统内部要素构成分析和自导式解说系统的分类.行之有效的自导式解说系统是挽救遗产型公园的历史文化价值,内强素质,外塑形象的必要途径.     

Managing United States Public Lands in Response to Climate Change: A View From the Ground Up

Federal land managers are faced with the task of balancing multiple uses and goals when making decisions about land use and the activities that occur on public lands. Though climate change is now well recognized by federal agencies and their local land and resource managers, it is not yet clear how issues related to climate change will be incorporated into on-the-ground decision making within the framework of multiple use objectives. We conducted a case study of a federal land management agency field office, the San Juan Public Lands Center in Durango, CO, U.S.A., to understand from their perspective how decisions are currently made, and how climate change and carbon management are being factored into decision making. We evaluated three major management sectors in which climate change or carbon management may intersect other use goals: forests, biofuels, and grazing. While land managers are aware of climate change and eager to understand more about how it might affect land resources, the incorporation of climate change considerations into everyday decision making is currently quite limited. Climate change is therefore on the radar screen, but remains a lower priority than other issues. To assist the office in making decisions that are based on sound scientific information, further research is needed into how management activities influence carbon storage and resilience of the landscape under climate change.     

Policy And Practice The Future Tenure of Rural Public Lands in Slovakia

The adoption of democracy and the market economy ideology in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe is encouraging changes in rural public land policy. A system of state public land is being partly dismantled, to be replaced by private ownership.This paper exploresthe present dynamics of the rural public land reprivatization process in Slovakia. In Slovakia approximately 40% of rural public land are being reprivatized. Evidence indicates that the reprivatization of public land is having a detrimental effect on the management of State Forests, National Parks and game management.The integrated, centrally planned public land system of the communist era is being fragmented by reprivatization. This paper argues that this process is creating barriers to the achievement of the sustainable management of the natural resources of rural Slovakia. Recent Governmentof Slovakia laws and policies on sustainable development and environmental management, and adherence to international environmental conventions may provide opportunities for enlightened change in the reprivatization process. A public land system in a democratic free market economy can be an effective mechanism to secure the protection and the sustainable managementof forests, farmland, game, outstanding landscapes and wildlife. This is an opportune time to debate the future of rural public land in Central and Eastern Europe in order that enlightened policy making may be fostered.     

Determinants of Trust for Public Lands: Fire and Fuels Management on the Bitterroot National Forest

Management of public lands occurs today with high levels of scrutiny and controversy. To succeed, managers seek the support, involvement, and endorsement of the public. This study examines trust as an indicator of managerial success and attempts to identify and measure the components that most influence it. A review of trust literature yielded 14 attributes that were hypothesized to contribute to trust, grouped into the three dimensions of Shared Norms and Values, Willingness to Endorse, and Perceived Efficacy. Operationalizing these attributes and dimensions, a telephone survey was administered to a sample of Montana, USA, residents living adjacent to the Bitterroot National Forest (n = 1,152). Each of the attributes was measured in the context of federal lands fire and fuel management. Structural equation modeling showed that all 14 attributes were found to be influential contributors to levels of trust. Results suggest that if managers are to maintain or increase levels of public trust, they need to consider each of trust’s attributes as they make social, ecological, and economic resource decisions.     

Adapting to Climate Change on Western Public Lands: Addressing the Ecological Effects of Domestic, Wild, and Feral Ungulates

Climate change affects public land ecosystems and services throughout the American West and these effects are projected to intensify. Even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, adaptation strategies for public lands are needed to reduce anthropogenic stressors of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and to help native species and ecosystems survive in an altered environment. Historical and contemporary livestock production—the most widespread and long-running commercial use of public lands—can alter vegetation, soils, hydrology, and wildlife species composition and abundances in ways that exacerbate the effects of climate change on these resources. Excess abundance of native ungulates (e.g., deer or elk) and feral horses and burros add to these impacts. Although many of these consequences have been studied for decades, the ongoing and impending effects of ungulates in a changing climate require new management strategies for limiting their threats to the long-term supply of ecosystem services on public lands. Removing or reducing livestock across large areas of public land would alleviate a widely recognized and long-term stressor and make these lands less susceptible to the effects of climate change. Where livestock use continues, or where significant densities of wild or feral ungulates occur, management should carefully document the ecological, social, and economic consequences (both costs and benefits) to better ensure management that minimizes ungulate impacts to plant and animal communities, soils, and water resources. Reestablishing apex predators in large, contiguous areas of public land may help mitigate any adverse ecological effects of wild ungulates.     

Evaluating the Performance of Volunteers in Mapping Invasive Plants in Public Conservation Lands

Citizen science programs are touted as useful tools for engaging the public in science and for collecting important data for scientists and resource managers. To accomplish the latter, it must be shown that data collected by volunteers is sufficiently accurate and reliable. We engaged 119 volunteers over three years to map and estimate abundance of invasive plants in New York and New Jersey parklands. We tested their accuracy via collected pressed samples and by subsampling their transect points. We also compared the performances of volunteers and botanical experts. Our results support the notion that volunteer participation can enhance the data generated by scientists alone. We found that the quality of data collected might be affected by the environment in which the data are collected. We suggest that giving consideration to how people learn can not only help to achieve educational goals but can also help to produce more data to be used in scientific study.     

Reducing Livestock Effects on Public Lands in the Western United States as the Climate Changes: A Reply to Svejcar et al

Svejcar et al. (Environ Manage, 2014) offered several perspectives regarding Beschta et al. (Environ Manage 51:474–491, 2013)—a publication that addressed the interacting ecological effects of climate change and domestic, wild, and feral ungulates on public lands in the western United States (US)—by largely focusing on three livestock grazing issues: (1) legacy versus current day impacts; (2) grazing as a fire reduction tool; and (3) the complexity of grazing. Regarding these issues, we indicate that (1) legacy effects to western ecosystems were indeed significant and contemporary livestock use on public lands generally maintains or exacerbates many of those effects; (2) livestock grazing has been a major factor affecting fire frequency, fire severity, and ecosystem trajectories in the western US for over a century; and (3) the removal or reduction of grazing impacts in these altered ecosystems is the most effective means of initiating ecological recovery. Svejcar et al. (Environ Manage, 2014) offer no evidence that livestock use is consistent with the timely recovery of grazing-degraded uplands, riparian areas, or stream systems. We thus conclude that public-land ecosystems can best persist or cope with a changing climate by significantly reducing ungulate grazing and related impacts.     

保护湿地要全民参与

升金湖、菜子湖的鸟儿显然过得还比较滋润,那么全省的候鸟栖息情况又如何呢?记者从安徽省林业厅自然保护站了解到,从近年的监测数字来看,在安徽越冬栖息的候鸟数量下降明显。2004年的一次同步监测中,安徽主要湿地鸟类总数是17万只左右,2005年大约在13万只左右,2010年是9万只左右。安徽省林业厅自然保护站站长顾长明告诉本刊记者,虽然同步监测候鸟总的数量是逐年减少,但也有个别种类却增加了,且鸟类是在不断移动的,这一数字并不能准确客观反映安徽越冬鸟类的真实整体数量。     

游憩践踏对芜湖赭山城市公园影响研究

城市生态型公园是户外游憩活动影响最集中的一个区域,特别是践踏的影响表现最为明显。对芜湖市赭山生态型城市公园的19条游憩路径进行了调查,路径总长度达3123m。分析了户外游憩活动践踏造成的影响,得出了不同的旅游路径对践踏所引起的路面变宽、植物根系暴露、多路径和路面损伤是不同的,土质路面游道受到践踏影响的程度最大,石板路面游道次之,水泥路面相对最小。城市生态型公园的道路系统建设应该适应游客的游憩需求,减少践踏对公园生态环境的影响,最大化地满足城市居民的需要。     

Economic Incentives to Conserve Wildlife on Private Lands: Analysis and Policy

Some believe that provision of private property rights in wildlife on private land provides a powerful economic incentive for nature conservation because it enables property owners to market such wildlife or its attributes. If such marketing is profitable, private landholders will conserve the wildlife concerned and its required habitat. But land is not always most profitably used for exploitation of wildlife, and many economic values of wildlife (such as non-use economic values) cannot be marketed. The mobility of some wildlife adds to the limitations of the private-property approach. While some species may be conserved by this approach, it is suboptimal as a single policy approach to nature conservation. Nevertheless, it is being experimented with, in the Northern Territory of Australia where landholders had a possibility of harvesting on their properties a quota of eggs and chicks of red-tailed black cockatoos for commercial sale. This scheme was expected to provide an incentive to private landholders to retain hollow trees essential for the nesting of these birds but failed. This case and others are analysed. Despite private-property failures, the long-term survival of some wildlife species depends on their ability to use private lands without severe harassment, either for their migration or to supplement their available resources, for example, the Asian elephant. Nature conservation on private land is often a useful, if not essential, supplement to conservation on public lands. Community and public incentives for such conservation are outlined.     

Collaborative Implementation for Ecological Restoration on US Public Lands: Implications for Legal Context,Accountability, and Adaptive Management

The Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), established in 2009, encourages collaborative landscape scale ecosystem restoration efforts on United States Forest Service (USFS) lands. Although the USFS employees have experience engaging in collaborative planning, CFLRP requires collaboration in implementation, a domain where little prior experience can be drawn on for guidance. The purpose of this research is to identify the ways in which CFLRP’s collaborative participants and agency personnel conceptualize how stakeholders can contribute to implementation on landscape scale restoration projects, and to build theory on dynamics of collaborative implementation in environmental management. This research uses a grounded theory methodology to explore collaborative implementation from the perspectives and experiences of participants in landscapes selected as part of the CFLRP in 2010. Interviewees characterized collaborative implementation as encompassing three different types of activities: prioritization, enhancing treatments, and multiparty monitoring. The paper describes examples of activities in each of these categories and then identifies ways in which collaborative implementation in the context of CFLRP (1) is both hindered and enabled by overlapping legal mandates about agency collaboration, (2) creates opportunities for expanded accountability through informal and relational means, and, (3) creates feedback loops at multiple temporal and spatial scales through which monitoring information, prioritization, and implementation actions shape restoration work both within and across projects throughout the landscape creating more robust opportunities for adaptive management.     

A Regional Waterway Management System for Balancing Recreational Boating and Resource Protection

Florida’s coasts have been transformed over the past three decades as population growth and unprecedented demand for individual shore access to bays and estuaries led to the creation of residential canal developments. Thousands of miles of channels and basins were dredged as a by-product of this urbanization process. The navigable waterways that resulted are now being stressed by increasing boat traffic and canal-side activities. Recognizing their common goal to preserve the recreational and ecological value of southwest Florida waterways, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the four-county West Coast Inland Navigation District, and the University of Florida Sea Grant College Program signed a Memorandum of Agreement. The signatories agreed to develop a science-based Regional Waterway Management System (RWMS), which is a new approach to waterway planning and permitting based on carefully mapped channel depths, a census of actual boat populations, and the spatial extent of natural resources. The RWMS provides a comprehensive, regional overview of channel conditions and the geographic distribution and severity of existing impediments to safe navigation and resource protection. RWMS information and analyses result in regional-scale permitting to accommodate water-dependent uses while minimizing environmental impacts and reducing public expenditures. Compared with traditional approaches to waterway management, the science-based RWMS is relatively unbiased, objective, transparent, ecologically sound, and fiscally prudent.