Evaluating Areas of High Conservation Value in Western Oregon with a Decision‐Support Model

Abstract: The Northwest Forest Plan was implemented in 1994 to protect habitat for species associated with old‐growth forests, including Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentailis caurina) in Washington, Oregon, and northern California (U.S.A.). Nevertheless, 10‐year monitoring data indicate mixed success in meeting the ecological goals of the plan. We used the ecosystem management decision‐support model to evaluate terrestrial and aquatic habitats across the landscape on the basis of ecological objectives of the Northwest Forest Plan, which included maintenance of late‐successional and old‐growth forest, recovery, and maintenance of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), and viability of Northern Spotted Owls. Areas of the landscape that contained habitat characteristics that supported these objectives were considered of high conservation value. We used the model to evaluate ecological condition of each of the 36, 180 township and range sections of the study area. Eighteen percent of the study area was identified as habitat of high conservation value. These areas were mostly on public lands. Many of the sections that contained habitat of exceptional conservation value were on Bureau of Land Management land that has been considered for management‐plan revisions to increase timber harvests. The results of our model can be used to guide future land management in the Northwest Forest Plan area, and illustrate how decision‐support models can help land managers develop strategies to better meet their goals.     

Arctic Wilderness Policy in the United States and Finland

The United States and Finland have passed laws to classify and manage Arctic wilderness areas, but their national policies are based on different nature ideologies. Finns tend to perceive wilderness as a human-centered idea, while Americans are inclined to see the same land from a nature-based point of view. Rural residents in the Arctic, and especially indigenous peoples, use motorized vehicles for hunting and gathering in wilderness areas. Attempts of southern-based environmental groups to restrict motor use by imposing a nature-based ideology on rural residents in northern Alaska will result in high levels of political conflict. Alaska land managers need to respect the minority rights of rural residents and a study of wilderness policies in Finnish Lapland is instructive toward this end.     

Recovery Trajectories After In Situ Burning of an Oiled Wetland in Coastal Louisiana,USA

The high degree of physical disturbance associated with conventional response options to oil spills in wetlands is driving the investigation of alternative cleanup methodologies. In March 1995, a spill of gas condensate in a brackish marsh at Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge in southwestern Louisiana was remediated through the use of in situ burning. An assessment of vegetation recovery was initiated in three treatment marshes: (1) oil-impacted and burned, (2) oil impacted and unburned, and (3) a nonoiled unburned reference. We compared percent cover, stem density, and biomass in the treatment marshes to define ecological recovery of the marsh vegetation and soil hydrocarbon content to determine the efficacy of in situ burning as a cleanup technique. Burning led to a rapid decrease in soil hydrocarbon concentrations in the impacted-and-burned marsh to background levels by the end of the first growing season. Although a management fire accidentally burned the oil-impacted-and-unburned and reference marshes in December 1995, stem density, live biomass, and total percent cover values in the oil-impacted-and-burned marsh were equivalent to those in the other treatment marshes after three years. In addition, plant community composition within the oil-impacted-and-burned marsh was similar to the codominant mix of the grasses Distichlis spicata (salt grass) and Spartina patens (wire grass) characteristic of the surrounding marsh after the same time period. Rapid recovery of the oil-impacted-and-unburned marsh was likely due to lower initial hydrocarbon exposure. Water levels inundating the soil surface of this grass-dominated marsh and the timing of the in situ burn early in the growing season were important factors contributing to the rapid recovery of this wetland. The results of this in situ burn evaluation support the conclusion that burning, under the proper conditions, can be relied upon as an effective cleanup response to hydrocarbon spills in herbaceous wetlands.     

Shifting Priorities at the Department of Energy's Bomb Factories: Protecting Human and Ecological Health

More than 50 years of research, development, manufacture, and testing of nuclear weapons at Department of Energy (DOE) sites has left a legacy of on-site contamination that often spreads to surrounding areas. Despite substantial cleanup budgets in the last decade, the DOE's top-to-bottom review team concluded that relatively little actual cleanup has been accomplished, although milestones have been met and work packages completed. Rather than solely use regulatory constraints to direct cleanup, many people have suggested that human and ecological health should guide long-term stewardship goals of DOE-managed sites. The main questions are how ecological and human health considerations should be applied in deciding the extent of cleanup that contaminated sites should receive and how near-term and longer run considerations of costs and benefits should be balanced as cleanup decisions are made. One effort to protect ecological integrity is the designation of the largest sites as National Environmental Research Parks (NERPs). Recently, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) suggested isolating and conserving DOE sites as a policy priority because of their rich ecological diversity. A more effective long-term stewardship approach for former nuclear weapons complex sites may emerge if the guiding principles are to (1) reduce risks to human and ecological health, (2) protect cultural traditions, and (3) lower short- and long-term cleanup and remediation costs. A “net benefits” perspective that takes both near- and longer-term costs and consequences into account can help illuminate the trade-offs between expensive cleanup in the near term and the need to assure long-term protection of human health, cultural values, and high levels of biodiversity and ecological integrity that currently exist at many DOE sites.     

Energy Conservation in Rapid-Growth Economies of Asia

Energy demand, including demand for petroleum, is expected to increase at a faster rate in the rapidly-developing nations of East and Southeast Asia than elsewhere in the world through the turn of the century. In the aggregate, the countries of this region are heavily dependent on imported oil, coal and natural gas. Rapid industrialization, electrification and increased consumer demand for energy-consuming durable goods and housing underlie the expected strong growth in energy consumption. Substantial scope for greater economy in energy-use exists in the industrial and transport sectors but effects in these areas will require effective management and institutional support in addition to getting prices right. In the context of balance of payments and external debt considerations, and the continued growth of energy consumption in East and Southeast Asia, improving energy conservation will be of great importance in lessening the likelihood that future economic development will be constrained by energy problems.     

Ecological Ethics: Building a New Tool Kit for Ecologists and Biodiversity Managers

Abstract:  Ecological research and biodiversity management often raise ethical questions in areas that include responsibilities and duties to the scientific community, public welfare, research animals, species, and ecosystems. Answering these questions is challenging because ecologists and biodiversity managers do not have the equivalent of bioethics, an established field with a support network focused mainly on biomedicine, to guide them in making decisions. Environmental ethics provides some insight into environmental values and the duties these may impose on humans. But for the most part those in the field have not considered many of the common responsibilities and obligations that ecologists and managers have to the scientific profession or to public welfare. There is a need to bring ethicists, scientists, and biodiversity managers together in a collaborative effort to study and inform the methods of ethical analysis and problem solving in ecological research and biodiversity management. We present a series of cases that illustrate the kinds of ethical questions faced by researchers and biodiversity managers in practice. We argue for the creation of an extensive case database and a pluralistic and integrated ethical framework, one that draws from the theoretical (normative), research, animal, and environmental ethics traditions. These tools form the foundations of a new area of inquiry and practical ethical problem solving, that we call "ecological ethics."     

Importance of Well-Designed Monitoring Programs for the Conservation of Endangered Species: Case Study of the Snail Kite

Abstract:  Monitoring natural populations is often a necessary step to establish the conservation status of species and to help improve management decisions. Nevertheless, many monitoring programs do not effectively address primary sources of variability in monitoring data, which ultimately may limit the utility of monitoring in identifying declines and improving management. To illustrate the importance of taking into account detectability and spatial variation, we used a recently proposed estimator of abundance (superpopulation estimator) to estimate population size of and number of young produced by the Snail Kite ( Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus ) in Florida. During the last decade, primary recovery targets set by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Snail Kite that were based on deficient monitoring programs (i.e., uncorrected counts) were close to being met (by simply increasing search effort during count surveys). During that same period, the Snail Kite population declined dramatically (by 55% from 1997 to 2005) and the number of young decreased by 70% between 1992–1998 and 1999–2005. Our results provide a strong practical case in favor of the argument that investing a sufficient amount of time and resources into designing and implementing monitoring programs that carefully address detectability and spatial variation is critical for the conservation of endangered species.     

Faunal Changes and Bottomland Hardwood Forest Loss in the Tensas Watershed, Louisiana

Intentamos asociar las diferencias entre las poblaclones de fauna en la cuenca de Tensas con las diferencias de extensión de áreas de bosques caducifolios de tierras bajas, usando datos existentes. La cuenca de Tensas era parte del area de distribución original de varias especies que actualmente están ausentes: lobo rojo, la puma de Florida, Pájaro Carpintero. El oso negro de Louisiana y Gorjeador de Bachman. también está en peligro de extinción. Los catastras de aves proporcionaron los mejores datos faunisticos Las comparaciones de poblaciones de aves (1) con la disminución del bosque caducifolio de tierras bajas al pasar del tiempo y (2) con áreas con diferentes superficies de este tipo de bosque apoyan la bipótesis de que el número de especies selvicolas y las densidades de población de especies del interior del bosque decrecieron junto con la disminución acumulativa en el área de bosques. Hemos señalado el deterioro de las poblaciones de fauna autoctona utilizando encuestas existentes de aves y datos cualitativos, demostrando la utilidad del enfoque del impacto acumulativo a una escala de cuencas hidrográfica Asegurando la conservación de los habitats necesarioq un plan de munejo de impacto acumulativo reducería extinciones adicionales en esta cuenca hidrográfica.