Conflict Among User Groups: An Overview of Major Issues and Opportunities

14 pages. Contains 2 pages of references

Gauging the Acceptability of Fuels Management: A Matter of Trust

There is a significant gap between the acceptability of management practices in theory and the confidence that citizens have in land managers\u27 abilities to use those practices safely and effectively. But since most citizens are willing to accept the use of multiple practices on a small scale, opportunities exist for land managers to build citizens’ confidence in their activities while gradually reducing the risk of wildfire to the Great Basin’s most susceptible communities

Think-tanking the challenges in three regions: The Northern Rockies

Four characteristics of the Northern Rockies that are most important to ecosystem management are the large number of high-profile wildlife species, the diversity of ecological types, the rural socio-economic systems that are highly resource-based, and the fire-dependent natural systems. Potential constraints include the diversity of human values, insufficient knowledge about ecosystems, the tendency for political systems to produce solutions that are not ecologically optimal, and the prevalence of a utilitarian growth orientation coupled with anti-government sentiment. Characteristics most favorable for EM are the large amount of federal ownership, abundant research opportunities, a growing public recognition of the need to make environmental progress, and recognition among the agencies of the need for partnerships

Comparing Citizens\u27 and Managers\u27 Concerns About Sagebrush Management and Restoration in the Great Basin

The Great Basin sagebrush steppe ecosystem is among the most imperiled in the U.S. Cheatgrass invasion, conifer encroachment, and catastrophic wildfires are considered to be primary catalysts of decline. Efforts are underway to restore and increase the resiliency of this damaged ecosystem through broad-scale applications of fuel reduction and restoration treatments involving mechanical removal, prescribed fire, and herbicide application. While research points to the potential benefits of these treatments, controversy and challenge often surface when treatments are proposed on public lands. Therefore it is critical for land managers to understand the views held by key stakeholder groups concerning management and restoration of public lands. We interviewed ranchers, environmental activists, Extension educators, multiple-use recreationists, and livestock industry representatives from throughout the Great Basin, as well as public land managers themselves, to gain a better understanding of the concerns citizens have about sagebrush-steppe management and restoration. While we found strong support for the concept of restoration in principle, citizen interviewees expressed concerns about agencies’ capacity to make it happen. Among the issues raised by interviewees were concerns about: levels of available funding, ability to keep pace with increasing wildfire and invasion processes, emphasis on post-disturbance restoration rather than on prevention, interference from political forces both in constituency groups and in Washington, D.C., and agency willingness to incorporate local knowledge into restoration planning. Managers shared many concerns with citizens, but identified different local-level barriers to implementation

Break-Out Session 3: the Northern Rockies

Four characteristics of the Northern Rockies that are most important to ecosystem management are the large number of high-profile wildlife species, the diversity of ecological types, the rural socio-economic systems that are highly resource-based, and the fire-dependent natural systems. Potential constraints include the diversity of human values, insufficient knowledge about ecosystems, the tendency for political systems to produce solutions that are not ecologically optimal, and the prevalence of a utilitarian growth orientation coupled with anti-government sentiment. Characteristics most favorable for EM are the large amount of federal ownership, abundant research opportunities, a growing public recognition of the need to make environmental progress, and recognition among the agencies of the need for partnerships

Economic and Social Impacts of Wildfires and Invasive Plants in American Deserts: Lessons From the Great Basin

Research on the impacts of wildfire and invasive plants in rangelands has focused on biophysical rather than human dimensions of these environmental processes. We offer a synthetic perspective on economic and social aspects of wildfire and invasive plants in American deserts, focusing on the Great Basin because greater research attention has been given to the effects of cheatgrass expansion than to other desert wildfire/invasion cycles. We focus first on impacts at the level of the individual decision-maker, then on impacts experienced at the human community or larger socio-political scales. Economic impacts of wildfire differ from those of invasive grasses because although fire typically reduces forage availability and thus ranch profit opportunities, invasive grasses can also be used as a forage source and ranchers have adapted their grazing systems to take advantage of that circumstance. To reduce the threat of increased ranch bankruptcies, strategies are needed that can increase access to alternative early-season forage sources and/or promote diversification of ranch income streams by capturing value from ranch ecosystem services other than forage. The growth of low-density, exurban subdivisions in Western deserts influences not only the pattern and frequency of wildfire and plant invasions but also affects prevailing public opinion toward potential management options, and thereby the capacity of land management agencies to use those options. Outreach efforts can influence public opinion, but must be rooted in new knowledge about multiple impacts of invasion and increased wildfire in American deserts

Cross-Boundary Weed Management in Protected Area-Centered Ecosystems: How Can it Work and What Makes it Harder to Achieve?

Invasive species management in natural landscapes is generally executed at the scale of independent jurisdictions, yet the ecological processes and biodiversity to be protected from invasion occur over large spatial scales and across multiple jurisdictions. Jurisdictional land boundaries can influence the flows and dynamics of ecological systems, as well as the social systems that exist in these complex landscapes. Land management entities in large, protected area-centered ecosystems may use different approaches to address cross-boundary management challenges. To understand these differing strategies and their effects on cooperative invasive plant management, we interviewed employees with federal, county and state agencies, research organizations, nonprofits, and local stakeholder groups in two national parks and their surrounding lands in California, USA. Although all participants stressed the importance of working together, they did so along a continuum of strategies ranging from simple communication to coordination of independent efforts to active collaboration. Barriers to collaboration can be categorized as originating within or externally to the management unit, including limited resources, differing agency priorities, paperwork requirements, and lack of support by higher-level managers. Strategies to reduce barriers depend on where they originate

Multidisciplinary, Multisite Evaluation of Alternative Sagebrush Steppe Restoration Treatments: The SageSTEP Project

This special issue presents short-term ecological effects of restoration treatments imposed as part of the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP), and summarizes public attitude survey results related to restoration efforts. Funded by the US Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP; 2005–2011), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM; 2011 to present), the National Interagency Fire Center (2011 to present), and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (2010), SageSTEP was designed and implemented to provide treatment-related information to managers concerned about the rapidly changing condition of sagebrush steppe ecosystems in the US Interior West (McIver et al. 2010). At lower elevations, cheatgrass has become more dominant at the expense of native perennial bunchgrasses, in some locations shifting fire return intervals from &spigt;50–100 yr to &spilt; 20 yr, and greatly increasing mean fire size (Whisenant 1990; Miller et al. 2011; Balch et al. 2012). At higher elevations, piñon pine and juniper woodlands have expanded and displaced sagebrush and other shrubs, in some places shifting fire return intervals from 10–50 yr to &spigt;&spigt; 50 yr, and significantly increasing mean fire severity (Miller and Heyerdahl 2008)

Engaging Faculty in Preparing Students for Non-Academic Environmental Careers

As a biology major at New York University, I was introduced to ecology in a course that bused the class out of New York University\u27s Greenwich Village campus every weekend, to investigate biodiversity patterns in nearby forests and wetlands. After a day crossing bogs and walking through forests, I would take the subway home, hip boots in hand, reflecting on how the day\u27s activities connected to my routine city life. Engaging others in understanding the city connections to adjacent habitats became my life\u27s work. As Dean of Arts and Sciences at a public liberal arts university, I encourage faculty and students to engage in connecting classroom knowledge to real‐world problem solving, as required in non‐academic environmental careers. – CR

Two birds, one stone: Can a natural resources core class serve the entire university?

As natural resource management grows more complex, natural resource curricula continually must expand to incorporate new topics and techniques. At the same time, colleges and departments are pressured to keep within tight budgets, and to meet the demands of students, parents and legislators to minimize the length of time needed to acquire a degree. In the College of Natural Resources (CNR) at Utah State University (USU), one strategy for achieving these apparently conflicting needs has been to create core courses that can serve students in all CNR majors, thereby reducing the potential for overlap and redundancy. When the university switched in 1998 from a quarter to a semester calendar, the college was challenged to maintain a core while reducing the number of required credits, continuing to meet professional accreditation standards, and participating in an expanded university-wide general education program. One way we tried to meet that challenge was to develop a new core course called Natural Resources and Society that would simultaneously: (1) meet the core goal of introducing majors to the human dimensions of natural resources; (2) meet the general education goal of providing a broad introduction to the ideas and methods of the social sciences; (3) attract large numbers of non-CNR students (important because some university funding is tied to student credit hours); and (4) recruit students into the university\u27s lowest-enrollment college. This paper describes our evaluation of the course\u27s success at meeting those objectives