DRAFT Topic Description - 10/5/95
DRAFT Topic Description - 10/5/95
This talk should light everyone's fire by charging the group with their mission for the session. Lay out a clear vision for the workshop's final product, emphasize why the product is important, and give the group a sense of urgency about the mission.
- ecological and social bases
- dominant and emerging themes
- discuss goals, objectives, expectations, process, and logistics
- brief overview of issues to be addressed to set the meeting context
- linking science and management
- What are the common definitions of terms and descriptions of concepts that are the components of an EM approach?
A statement of ecology from a human perspective, with due consideration for biologically-centered ecosystem models and social science constructs.
- key elements of a human ecosystem model
- critical resources ( natural, socioeconomic, and cultural), social institutions, social cycles, and order ( identities, norms, and hierarchies)
- can the human ecosystem model play an organizing role in an ecologically based approach to management?
Focus should be on assessing public values and the "anthropology of the community," as a base upon which a local manager can begin to chart a course for holistic management. This talk is somewhat methodological, and should focus on techniques, understanding biases in surveys, understanding how interest groups can bias surveys, basics of marketing research.
- assessment of public values, gauging public opinion, recognizing differences
- what do we want to sustain for what publics and for how long
- how to use/balance public values in determining priorities
- wise-use movement, private property rights
- trade-offs, sustainability, non-traditional uses
- weighting public good versus majority opinion
- public land expectations, beliefs and value systems,
- individual and social identity, the notion of human welfare
- how do you work within a community with very different values?
- understanding how people are trying to influence you
- What methods do I use to determine the range of public expectations and values and how do they change over time?
- How do I gauge what different segments of the public want to sustain and for how long? [or] What do different segments of the public want to sustain and for how long?
- How do I achieve consensus or balance among local, regional, and national needs and values?
- How do we bring together the "community of place" and "community of interest" together?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- How do I determine and assess the range of public expectations and values?
- How do I measure and monitor shifting values?
- What do we want to sustain for what publics and for how long?
- How do different cultural and social perspectives of land use constrain ecosystem management?
- What are the desired roles of Government, citizens, science in making decisions and setting objectives for ecosystems?
- How do we poll future generations?
- How do you gather information from the public? (Traditional govt. approach vs. non traditional); How do we use this information?
- What is the variety of expectations from the public?
- How do we get at values?
- Can a customer-driven approach by govt. be used by govt. to support ecologically-based land stewardship?
- How do we reconcile long-term ecosystem management with changing public values?
- What are constraints (legal, policies) to integrating public wants?
- Local vs. Regional vs. larger-scale publics
- How do I get to the "silent majority" and/or the special interest minority groups?
- How do we manage ecosystems in the long-term in a changing political environment?
- How do we bring the "community of place" and "community of interest" together (local and societal)?
- How do you create or change to a "land ethic" based on an understanding and appreciation of natural systems?
- How do I balance local and national values and needs?
This should be a synthesis paper that addresses who uses different resources and how their needs are accommodated into a holistic plan, with focus on tribal issues, "traditional" western land uses, and urban perceptions.
- social, cultural, and regional differences in perceptions in land use management (urban/rural, American Indian, Traditional Hispanic, SE Asian, African American, rural white communities)
- sovereignty, treaty/ land-grant rights, religious implications
- subsistence/ traditional uses of land and water resources
- communities dependent on natural resource use
- cultural effects of changing resources and resource uses
- How do we incorporate cultural differences into analysis and decision-making related to natural resources?
a)How do we determine cultural differences?
b)How do we determine and reconcile urban & rural values and interests?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- Is ecosystem management solely a Western (European) analytical concept?
- Is ecosystem management different in the West (US) than East (US)?
- How do I incorporate cultural differences in EM?
- How do I get beyond cultural barriers to the land management issue?
- Is ecosystem management for everyone?
- Does it have to mean the same to all?
- How do we respond to cultural values that can't be disclosed?
- Does one cultural/religious value take precedence over others?
- How do we create cross-cultural bridges?
- How does technology effect subsistence?
- How integrate cultural and natural resources?
- What are the roles of "natural" areas in the urban interface?
- How do I determine cultural differences?
- How do I incorporate these differences into analyses and decision-making?
- How do we determine and reconcile urban and rural values and interests?
A scholarly synthesis that is a survey of both successful and unsuccessful consensus-achieving events, with an emphasis on looking for patterns or common traits of successful and unsuccessful attempts as consensus. What are the common ingredients to successfully achieving consensus? What conditions or factors have to be in place for success? Appropriate scale for this talk is the community or local management area.
- working in mixed ownerships, incentive mechanisms
- collaboration for understanding & coordination
- needs for information and data sharing (2-way)
- priorities/objectives and planning/characterizing existing conditions
- role of state & private landowners/ responsibilities of Federal agencies
- are there common factors for success?
- factors associated with effective participation
- community-level/ synthesis of cases where it has worked
- economic incentives, restraint of trade issues, property rights issues
- the functions of participatory decision making in EM
- fostering federal management consistent with nonindustrial private landowner objectives
- interrelationships among ownership sectors
- clearly identify the roles and contributions of all land classes
- What are the mechanisms by which broad representative participation can be fostered?
- How do we reach a common description of desired conditions for a given ecosystem?
- How do you deal with situations where there is no clear working consensus on common values, goals, and desired conditions?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What incentives are available?
- What incentives are there for private land owners?
- What flexibility is there to adjust policy at the local level?
- What incentive programs can I develop?
- How to use science to promote and test incentives?
- How can I encourage local governments to zone lands adjacent to public lands?
- How can management of public lands be adjusted to fit in with local goals?
- How do I evaluate trade-offs associated with incentives?
- How do I assure access to information all?
- Can we inventory other lands?
- What is the Federal role in providing and controlling information?
- How do we manage dissent (un-met needs)?
- What community meetings should a manager participate in?
- How will what I do affect private property rights?
- How do I get effective involvement of groups up-front to prevent last minute train wrecks?
- Are there ways that group representatives truly represent the group?
- How do we maintain momentum and ownership for agreed-upon goals and objectives?
- How do I deal with fringe groups?
- How do I reconcile local consensus with national agendas?
- What is the entirety of the legislative authorities and ownerships (surface and sub-surface) of the land I'm managing?
- What public involvement methods have the best track record for reaching consensus?
- How do I organize information and develop shared management goals across broad areas of mixed ownership?
- What are the mechnaisms by which broad representative participation can be fostered?
- How do you deal with situations where neighbors do not share common values and goals?
- What incentives and mechanisms are available to encourage cooperation?
Similar approach to ST-3, in that this is a scholarly synthesis of examples of both successful and unsuccessful attempts at regional cooperation among large land- and stake-holders. What are the common ingredients to both successful and unsuccessful attempts? Appropriate scale for this talk is the multi-management or regional area.
- how do we do it/what are the patterns?
- multiple areas and scales/ties to higher and lower scales
- forming Federal partnerships consistent with each Federal agency's mission
- forming state/local/tribal partnerships
- synchronizing planning efforts/land allocation strategies
- federal role in coordinating agencies at the regional level
- role of non-industrial private forest lands
- role of state and private landowners
- How do we achieve adequate coordination (inter-agency, inter-governmental & inter-sectoral) to manage at an ecoregion level?
- How do we organize information and development shared management goals across broad areas of mixed ownership?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What are the desired roles of Government, citizens, science in making decisions and setting objectives for ecosystems?
- How do we use M.O.U.s to formulate partnerships?
- What can I bring to a partnership?
- How do we define and then resolve administrative and legal barriers among agencies?
- What organization structure is effective for coordinating among ownerships?
- Are there actual legal barriers to partnerships (including private)?
- What about hidden partners (e.g., banks)?
- How do we get partners to agree on what ecosystem management is? On what shared goals and objectives are?
- Can we establish a national philosophy?
- Will I be suborning rights by entering into a partnership?
- How do I honor my responsibilities while participating in partnerships?
- What is the value of a partnership and what will it cost?
- What are the non-monetary values of partnerships (true cost/benefit)?
- Will partnerships let me reach my goals? What if all partners don't want to participate?
- What are the key elements of a successful partnerships?
- What are the limitations to unilateral approaches to ecosystem management?
- What are the advantages of having multiple agencies manage the land base?
- What are the potentials for using a private group (such as TNC) as an ambassador or middle-man?
- What tools (incentives for partnerships) does a manager have to encourage private landowners to participate in regional management schemes?
- How do we link goals and directions between differing scales of assessment and decision-making?
- How do we synchronize planning efforts and land allocation strategies between federal, state, tribal, and county jurisdictions?
History of human interactions with the environment; clear acknowledgment that humans are a part of the ecosystem and must be considered in ecosystem management.
- environmental history (history of change using documentary sources)
- prehistoric and historic land use patterns (one of the values of archeological and historical sites)
- anthropogenic effects/alteration of processes (e.g. fire, damming of rivers)
- movement of species
- patterns of change in land cover
- What historical knowledge (natural and cultural) do we need to understand present and potential conditions? (How can we get this knowledge for a particular area?)
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What historical knowledge (natural and cultural) do we need to understand present conditions?
- What are meaningful reference conditions?
- How do you define reference conditions?
- What are likely future conditions?
- How much effect have pre-historic and historic uses had on ecosystems?
- Does it matter?
- How do we use an understanding of the past to manage for the future?
- How can we manage in the future given growing populations and the emergence of capitalist societies?
- How can I make a "Quality" experience vs. a "Quantity" experience?
- What are the impacts of increasing urbanization and agricultural development?
- Am I managing a tract of land that is a unique example (the last?) of an ecosystem?
Analysis of land-use issues from mathematical perspective; why traditional approaches will not work in today's social, political, ecological environment.
- How have physical and biological conditions changed over time?
- What are meaningful reference conditions, how do you define them, and how do you use them?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What are meaningful reference conditions?
- How do you define reference conditions?
- What are likely future conditions?
- How much effect have pre-historic and historic uses had on ecosystems?
- Does it matter?
- How do we use an understanding of the past to manage for the future?
- How can we manage in the future given growing populations and the emergence of capitalist societies?
- What are the impacts of increasing urbanization and agricultural development?
Current and future uses of ecosystem for commercial purposes, including tractional uses such as timber and minerals, and also nontraditional things such as biodiversity prospecting, mushrooms, etc. What are the trends for these competing uses? Should avoid recreational issues at this point.
- characterize anthropogenic trends/ resource demand
- local interactions between humans and resources (amenities, mushrooms, ginseng, firewood, mining, grazing, wood products, water, fisheries, recreation, bioprospecting, biotechnology etc.)
- intensity of use (wilderness) (address range of intensity, i.e. from wilderness to developed campgrounds)
- traditional uses are no longer options as decision options have become constrained
- scenic management system/social impact analysis/recreation opportunity spectrum
- recreation, aesthetics
- What are the patterns and future trends in resource use and consumption?
- How can economic and demographic trends be expected to influence these uses?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What are trends in resource use in a locality, by culture?
- How many uses are compatible or sustainable? What level?
- What are the total "costs" of sustaining a system in a given state?
- What is the appropriate distribution and intensity of uses? What is sustainable?
- How do we identify thresholds before reaching them?
- Should I be encouraging use?
- How to educate conflicting user groups to get along.
- How do I determine carrying capacity considering future conditions?
- How do we manage human uses?
- Which types of human impacts are the biggest impact?
- How many amenities are appropriate?
- Are mixes of land uses including "intensive use areas" a possible way to manage for multiple values and expectations?
Other science topics cover the value of social and historical knowledge to an ecological approach. This topic addresses how we should manage heritage resources so that their potential contribution to ecosystem management is fulfilled. It includes issues of recognition, classification, evaluation, and data management.
- scale and classification: individual sites vs. cultural landscapes.
- perception and data recording: what kinds of archaeological sites can yield information about past land and resource use?
- evaluation: are sites that can contribute important information to ecosystem management being recognized, recorded, and protected?
- what changes are needed in management philosophy, and in practical approaches to fieldwork, so that heritage management contributes to ecosystem management?
- How are heritage resources significant to ecosystem management?
- How do we manage heritage resources as a component of ecosystem management?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- How can we ensure the maintenance of these sites when it is difficult to determine their value?.
- How can we adequately protect them as they occur across the landscapes and it is difficult to protect very many of them when doing management projects or extracting commodities?
- How can I use these sites as a source of information about kinds of resources used, when they were used, the intensity of their use, and for other purposes?
Define and provide references as to what ecosystem sustainability is as a concept; particularly emphasize this definition from a human perspective. What does it mean to sustain an ecosystem, including human use of the ecosystem? What are benchmarks for achieving sustainability?
- is sustainability achievable
- reference conditions (why do we care about them and when, where, and why are they useful)/criteria/indicators/thresholds
- management tools that affect/improve condition and sustainability
- developing decision rules - can/should ecosystem considerations override the desire for commodity outputs?
- How do we define and measure criteria, indicators, and thresholds of sustainability?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What principles of nature support sustainability?
- What principles of history support sustainability?
- What are the consequences of not being sustainable?
- How can we perpetuate a tract as a "reference example"?
- Do I need a definition sustainability?
- What is ecosystem health?
- How would local criteria differ from national and international ones?
- What historic uses are harmful to biological diversity?
- How can patterns of diversity be maintained? At what scale?
- When, where, and how are reference conditions useful?
- How do we detect and evaluate subtle cumulative environmental effects?
- How do we measure key indicators of sustainability?
- Are some ecosystems more important than others? (Keystone ecosystems)
- Do we need decision rules?
- How can we mimic natural processes vs. returning to reference conditions?
- How do we deal with exotic species?
- What is the potential for re-introducing large predators to small tracts?
- Are historic species appropriate to be re-introduced everywhere?
- How much margin is there for change to (resilience of) ecosystems?
- What am I trying to sustain, for what uses and values, overwhat time frames?
- How do we define and measure criteria, indicators, and thresholds of sustainability?
- What are the appropriate scales for addressing different parameters of sustainability?
- How do we detect and evaluate subtle cumulative environmental effects?
- How can we deal with conflicts when it is not possible to satify all interests simultaneously?
Define concepts of restoration and maintenance. Not a practitioners discussion of how to do it, but rather a philosophical presentation of what to restore, how to measure if you have restored it, what do you restore it to, etc.
- concepts of restoration/maintenance
- desired future condition/goals/outcomes - what does restore mean?
- available technology and needed technology
- cost efficiency and effectiveness
- dealing with alien and exotic species/ do species mixes matter?
- restoration process
- How do we decide the (when, what, how, who, why) of ecosystem restoration?
a. Where will my restoration efforts be most cost-effective?
b. How do we measure success?
c. How do we determine to what state or condition to restore to?
- What tools are needed/available for ecological restoration?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- Where will my restoration efforts be most cost-effective?
- How much restoration is enough?
- Do we restore ecosystems or just parts?
- Define "future."
- What is a projects' longevity?
- What is the time frame for success?
- How do I decide what to restore? (How do we know what to restore?)
- Can I do it?
- What will it cost?
- How do I measure success?
- How can I burn more? (Tech and ques, policies, public support, legal restrictions).
- How can I increase effectiveness of restoration outside my boundary?
- Is there a role for herbicides, biological control? What are the real risks to public health and no-target ecosystem components?
- How much ecological restoration is enough?
- How do we reverse effects of past actions?
- How do we accomplish restoration in "protected" areas?
- How do I determine to what state to restore to?
Why it is important; why it is important to conserve it, particularly from the human perspective; challenges in conserving it and managing it. Address primarily from the species level.
- species and species needs
- ecologically significant units
- importance and implications of genetic/species diversity
- alpha diversity
- impacts of alien and exotic species
- How do you measure, monitor and manage biodiversity?
- How can I manage simultaneously for many individual species given that some have greater ecological values versus those with greater social values?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- How do you measure/estimate and monitor biodiversity?
- How do we establish a strategy for maintaining biodiversity at various scales?
- How can I apply the fine filter versus coarse filter approaches? What fine filters are needed to supplement coarse filters?
- How can I manage simultaneously for many individual species given that some have greater ecological values versus those with greater social values?
- How do you measure/estimate and monitor biodiversity? Do you need to?
- Alpha, Beta, Gamma - What do these levels imply?
- Do indicator species work? Has it ever been effective? How do you select them?
- What about species other than vertebrates?
- How do local actions to increase species decrease diversity at a larger scale?
- Is biodiversity just numbers of species?
- How can I manage for biodiversity in the absence of inventories?
- How do I make choices between socially desirable exotics vs. native spp.?
- Are reference conditions meaningful?
- How do you identify and prioritize landscape connectivity needs and priorities?.
- How does infrastructure influence biodiversity?
- What is the role of distribution and patterns of biodiversity across the landscape?
- What are the fluctuations?
- Is global climate change real? How do we plan for it?
- What are the effects of different harvest practices on genetic diversity?
- What are effects of planting improved stock on genetic diversity?
- What are the rare elements of a system?
- How important is "nativeness" (endemism)?
Importance of placing your individual management unit into the larger context of the landscape.
- local versus regional diversity
- beta and gamma diversity
- importance and implications of ecosystem/landscape diversity
- ecosystem/landscape patterns
- How do I measure, monitor and manage levels of ecosystem and landscape diversity?
- How can I manage simultaneously for ecosystem and landscape diversity given that some have greater ecological values versus those with greater social values?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- How do you measure/estimate and monitor biodiversity?
- Alpha, Beta, Gamma - What do these levels imply?
- Do indicator species work? Has it ever been effective? How do you select them?
- What about species other than vertebrates?
- How do local actions to increase species decrease diversity at a larger scale?
- How can I manage for biodiversity in the absence of inventories?
- How do I make choices between socially desirable exotics vs. native spp.?
- Are reference conditions meaningful?
- When will we measure biodiversity?
- How do you identify and prioritize landscape connectivity needs and priorities?.
- What is a corridor?
- How does infrastructure influence biodiversity?
- What is the role of distribution and patterns of biodiversity across the landscape?
- What are the fluctuations?
- Is global climate change real? How do we plan for it?
- What fine filters are needed to supplement coarse filters?
- What are the rare elements of a system?
- How important is "nativeness" (endemism)?
- How do we establish a strategy for maintaining biodiversity at various scales?
- How can I apply the fine filter versus coarse filter approaches?
What does maintenance of a viable population mean? What are viable populations? How do you manage overlapping needs of different species?
- demographics/distribution patterns
- landscape connectivity/habitat connectivity/fragmentation/corridors/barriers
- explode myth that you have to manage either for species or ecosystems
- how to deal with competing and overlapping needs for species
- ecological unit design
- linking population dynamics with habitat quality
- expanding habitat considerations beyond successional stages of plants to address geomorphology and climate
- cyclic nature of populations, genetic drift
- What are the approaches to address population viability questions and how can they be applied?
a. How do we and should we assess viability in a "quick and dirty" way?
b. Do we know enough about species to ensure viability?
c. How do we provide for viability of species across jurisdictions?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- Is there such a thing as "minimum viable populations"? Can we assess vulnerability?
- Is "my" population important?
- What are the threats from exotic species?
- Which species need corridors to other habitats? What are the negative effects of corridors?
- What are scientific recommendations for corridors and buffer zones?
- How do we assess viability in a "quick and dirty" way?
- Do we know enough about species to ensure viability? How important is redundancy?
- How can individual species act as indicators of ecosystem health?
- How long a time frame do we manage for?
- How do we allow for natural temporal variation in populations?
- What are some of the alternative approaches to population viability questions and how can they be applied (i.e. a habitat approach)? How do we set populations levels? (2 is enough, 1 is not).
- How do we accommodate viability of species across jurisdictions?
- What are short-term considerations to preserve rare elements vs. long term solutions?
- What constitutes fragmentation for forest neotropical migratory birds in a forested matrix?
- How do we continue to commit to a long-term objective?
- What are the management minimums that are not the "ideal" but are still worth doing (re. genetic and spp. viability)?
Strong link to previous talk; should examine flip-side to managing for species by examining processes of which species are one part. If you manage for processes, do you then accommodate species needs?
- information about ecological processes; carbon cycle, nutrient cycle, hydrologic cycle, succession, biodiversity, population dynamics.
- linkages within and between systems and processes.
- How do I measure, monitor and manage for key cycles and processes?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What landscape processes and features are critical?
- Where is the science of soil ecology?
- What is management doing to soil productivity? How do we measure/monitor?
- Is science prepared to deal with "my" issues?
- What are the losses to biodiversity from fire suppression?
- How much flexibility do I have?
- How do we determine reference conditions for processes?
- What can I alter? What can I alter only with the cooperation of others?
- How do I understand the essential ecological processes for sustaining my ecosystem?
- How important are individual species to function and process (both natives and exotics)?
- How do we shift focus from symptom to disease?
- Is prescribed fire affecting soil productivity?
- Has disruption of function and process allowed invasion of exotic and weedy species?
- What are acceptable limits for change in ecosystems relative to historic conditions?
- How do I consider and manage for key cycles and flows?
Importance of managing for dynamics of systems; change is not only o.k., but desirable and part of the process. Successful ecosystem management must incorporate ecological and environmental change, chaos, etc.
- Characterize ecosystem cycles and limitations.
- Define major disturbance factors and their range of historic variation.
- processes that shape landscape and ecosystem conditions.
- relate to evolutionary adaptation of species.
- effects of alien and exotic species
- resilience/fire/flooding/landslides
- mimicking natural processes - prescribed fire/silviculture
- dynamics is the norm
- How do I measure, monitor and manage disturbance?
- How can management substitute for disturbance?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- Have exotics disrupted the normal role of disturbance?
- Can management substitute for natural disturbance? How?
- Have we created an imbalance of disturbances - pattern intensity?
- What do we do about it?
- How do we maintain early successional stage species with low disturbance?
- Do we need to maintain them on public lands?
- How do we adjust man-made disturbance to approximate natural disturbances?
- How do we pick the priorities for correcting problems caused by altered disturbance regimes - priorities for restoration?
- How do we manage for differing scales of landscape disturbance in the context of other objectives?
- What disturbance history do we need to make the decisions?
- Which criteria govern our management of disturbance?
- How do you define the natural range of disturbance? What is its role?
- What are the temporal and spatial scales of disturbance for my ecosystem?
What aspects of scale do managers have to address? How do decisions made at one scale affect management at other scales?
- characterize landscape patterns and linkages over time and space
- address biotic information across levels of biological organization (cell, organism, population, community, ecosystem, landscape, biome, biosphere).
- social
- biotic information across life cycle scales
- How do I deal with several scales (spatial, temporal, biological, social, organizational, geophysical) at the same time?
- How do I match the scale of information and the scale of partners with the scale of the decisions?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What scales?
- How do I deal with several scales at the same time? (spatial, temporal, biological, social, organizational)
- How do we focus at the proper time scale (both historic and in the future)?
- What are the boundaries of the ecosystem I manage?
- How many boundaries are enough?
- How can we identify local, regional, national goals for a "place"?
- What are the temporal and spatial scales of disturbance for my ecosystem?
- What are the constraints to management (legislative, funding, etc.)?
- What are the biological and social trade-offs of management strategies?
- How should management decisions be guided by knowledge of historic disturbance patterns?
- At what scale are ecological processes "beyond our control"?
- How big a picture do I need to consider (right scale for decision)?
Not a dry presentation of what different classification systems are; rather a talk on how you manage ecological classification given the information that is available to you. Doing the best with what you have.
- conceptual basis/how do you classify a landscape?/how can it be used?
- value of classification/principles for classification
- under what conditions are differing systems most appropriate?
- common approaches/integrating different approaches
- terrestrial, aquatic & hydrologic systems
- coastal interfaces/integration of terrestrial/aquatic systems
- umbrella species/autecological approaches to setting size
- terrestrial versus marine & coastal systems
- role of classifications in supporting EM
- value of having boundaries for EM
- How do we use a variety of biophysical classifications and ecological assessments in decision making?
- How do partners develop a common ecologically based classification that works for all the partners?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What is a logical baseline classification for managing my land?
- At what scale is the classification important, relevant?
- Is it wise to pursue one classification scheme for all Federal lands, all lands?
- What systems should we agree on?
- Given lack of agreement, how can we share appropriate elements?
- Why are we pursuing agreement?
- How do we use a variety of ecological classifications to determine decision-making boundaries?
- Are ecological classifications an impediment to accomplishing management?
- What other information is necessary to make decisions?
- What ecological classifications work best at what scales?
- What common elements of classification do land management agencies need to agree on? At what scales?
- human systems
- value systems
- social/economic scales
- role of classifications in supporting EM
- land tenure
- What are the existing social and cultural categorizations?
- How can the different kinds of classifications, stratifications, and categorizations that exist to provide social and cultural information be used in the management decision-making process?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- How do social/cultural classifications fit into the decision-making process?
- Who are my constituents, stake holders?
- How do we sort out various value systems? What are the trends?
- What differences are there in social and cultural perceptives of land-use in the area influenced by public lands?
- What are the economic dependancies?
- At what scales, how do demographic trends at large scales effect local scales?
- How does it fit into an international perspective of human disturbance to an ecosystem?
- What are the state-of-the art methods for assessing social and cultural interests?
- What are the information sources?
- How can the different kinds of classifications, stratifications, and categorizations that exist to provide social and cultural information be used in the management decision-making process?
- How can I determine my keyconstituents and stake holders and identify/address their various value systems?
- social system framework
- what are the main components of social systems?
- what are the functions of these components?
- How do they interact with each other?
- how do social systems interact with ecosystems?
- multiple scales that need to be considered in analyzing social systems
- How do social system components interact with each other?
- How do social systems interact with the biological and physical components of the ecosystem?
Potential Set of Management Questions
How decisions at a local scale affect global management. Example: setting aside timber on public lands raises timber value in general, thereby causing private owners to cut, thereby reducing habitat available for wildlife, etc. Act locally, but think globally.
- resource use/resource availability
- historical trends in commodity production/ future projections of demand
- valuation of commodity goods and services/ inheritance taxes
- economic drivers of land management decisions and their impact on timber and wildlife values
- How do we measure, monitor and apply economics in assessments and decision making?
- How do different levels (scale) of economic interaction affect local decision making?
- How far do we need to go in evaluating economic/environmental effects of our actions?
- What role does the federal manager play when his/her decisions may affect private land conversion, local economics, tourism, etc.?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- Where is local, regional, national economical information available and what is its value?
- How will major energy prices increases affect management?
- Are agencies staffed with the appropriate economic expertise?
- How can I explain to county commissioners why ecosystem management benefits them?
- Where are we in the commodity production cycle? How do I look ahead of global economic changes? How will ecosystem management affect the GNP? How can we embed long term economic effects in short-term decisions?
- How do we utilize economic models from third world parks to encourage local land owners to support ecosystem management (non-commodity based economics)?
- How can ecosystem management support quality of life, indigenous life styles, prevent loss of cultural diversity and forestall land use changes?
- Can we project commodity demands? How do international commodity production and consumption trends affect U.S. land and vice versa?
- Will ecosystem management cost the taxpayers more or less?
- How far do we need to go in evaluating economic/environmental effects of our actions?
- Who and how should economic effects of decisions be addressed at different scales (i.e locally or regionally)? What role does the federal manager play when his decisions may affect private land conversion, local economics, tourism, etc.? How can federal managers and local governments share responsibility for considering effects of decisions?
- Where is the most economically and ecologically efficient place to produce the Nation's timber? Can we regionally zone the intensity of land use (e.g., timber production)?
How do you value ecological processes when you do something to perturb an ecosystem? How do you measure the costs, both socially and ecologically, when you do something to an ecosystem?
- internalizing resource/environmental costs in analyses (embodying environmental costs) (embedded energy costs)
- valuation of ecological/public amenity goods and services
- scale (both spatial and temporal)
- non-traditional uses/trade-offs/ measures/sustainability
- environmental costs of alternatives to using wood
- what type of economics is required for EM?
- economics as a decision science vs. economics as a behavioral science
- What are the metrics for economical or resource values, services and commodities and how can they be used in economic analysis?
- How can we measure the true costs and benefits of resource use and conservation?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- Will ecosystem management evolve a new form of economics? Will it establish a new highest and best use? How can we measure the true costs of using a resource?
- Given lack of support for ecological economics at national level, can we apply locally?
- How do we market esthetic values?
- What are the metrics for economical or resource values and commodities and how can they be used in traditional economic analyses?
- What human resources are available to help managers with ecological economics?
- Of what value is knowledge of external environmental costs?
- How do we determine the value of future options and embed those in the decision-making process? How do we address economics without considering equity?
- Is ecosystem management really ecosystem/economics management?
- Who really pays for production from public lands? Does traditional discounting of future benefits contradict ecosystem management goals for sustainability of future options?
- Does the success of ecosystem management rely on the effects of supply and demand?
- What incentives are available to support ecologically-based production?
- How does the definition of sustainability change as we switch from traditional to ecological economics? Will we strive to maintain economical or economic factors or both?
- How do we incorporate the value of "priceless" things such as "wildness", sacred mountains?
- How do we value more "common" natural areas?
- Is ecosystem management on public lands dependant on the maintenance of an affluent society?
- production of timber products, forage, non-renewable resources
- role of alternative fiber production strategies (i.e., "non-natural" wood and fiber production - kenaf, eucalyptus, hybrid popular, short rotation conifer, etc.)
- role of imports/ exporting ecological impacts/ green certification criteria
- implications of ecosystem management on the quality and quantity of future wood products
- role of wood products in facilitating ecosystem management
- How can resource availability for commodity be estimated in the context of ecological based stewardship?
- How does traditional multiple-use, sustained-yield fit in EM?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- If we decide to offer only stewardship sales which treats forest products as derivative, how will we maintain a viable timber industry?
- How will we calculate an ASQ or long-term sustained yield timber capacity under this scenario when our ecosystem assessments are not complete?
- Can we manage for a fully regulated forest (area control) under EM?
- How do "timber purpose sales", which by definition do not provide significant other resource benefits fit into EM?
- Where will the wood and other raw materials come from that will provide shelter, fuel, durable goods, etc. for growing populations?
- Is the New Zealand model (intensive plantations to meet commodity needs and preserve old growth) an option for the U.S.?
What is it, and how do managers deal with it? What are the relative risks of management actions, from both the economic and social perspective; most importantly, what is linkage between two?
- ecological risk assessment/ socioeconomic risk assessment
- quantifying uncertainty/ difficulties in coping with complex systems
- define ties to monitoring and evaluation
- links to projections of species viability
- What models are available to do risk-analysis and how do we incorporate them into management?
- How do we quantify risk & uncertainty to guide/prioritize monitoring, evaluation and decision making? (include the following thought)
a. How do we involve the public in developing analysis in risk assessment and uncertainty?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- How do we manage with incomplete information?
- How will ecosystem management on public lands affect local insurance rates?
- How do I quantify uncertainty with woefully inadequate resource information? (or even with good information)
- Can I prevail in court if I admit uncertainty in environmental documents?
- How do I allow for uncertainty in decision-making?
- Is the Federal government subsidizing development?
- What models are available to do risk-analysis and how do we incorporate them into management?
- Can ecosystem management on public lands reduce risks on private lands?
- How do we use uncertainty to trigger monitoring, evaluation, and course correction? (adaptive management)
- How do we effectively use tools (such as the press) to market ecosystem management?
How does an organization adapt to making major frame-shifts happen? What are the training and management priorities. Use private models to illustrate how the process can be successful. How do you maintain your focus in a changing world.
- administrative organization
- budgeting/performance measures
- criteria and indicators of progress toward management goals.
- new approaches to setting management goals in ecosystem management terms (both strategic and local program)
- policy adjustment/setting priorities
- personnel initiatives/organizing for implementing ecological stewardship
- organizational values/team organization (internal)
- institutional change as a key to successful implementation of EM
- what is the nature of institutional change that is required?
- Evolutionary (incremental) vs. Revolutionary institutional change
- endogenous and exogenous change
- changes in organizational structure, culture and in laws and regulations
- institutional change related to adaptive management
- institutional arrangements for collaborative decision-making
- how are we going to work
- What opportunities exist or could be developed to share expertise, funds or resources within or across organizational boundaries?
- How do we incorporate an ecosystem perspective into the fundamental managerial responsibilities for planning, budgeting and accomplishment reporting? How do we ensure accountability to congress and the public?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- Can we share employees across agencies?
- What opportunities and mechanisms exist to share expertise across agencies and jurisdictions?
- Is ecosystem management incompatible with career mobility? (Mobility is detrimental to building relationships and ecosystem knowledge)
- What changes need to be made to allow for maintaining long-term relationships and developing ecosystem knowledge? How do we maintain expertise while decentralizing? How do we keep people from stagnating in one job?
- How can we adjust policy and administration locally to meet needs for partnerships, etc.?
- How can we develop joint interagency budgets that reflect cooperative management efforts?
- How can organizational culture keep pace with changing social values?
- What is the best organizational structure for EM? When are we going to reorganize to it?
- How can we use other means (personnel and funds) to accomplish our work?
- Do performance appraisals currently support ecosystem management implementation?
- Are we structured to allow decision making at the lowest levels of organizations?
- Do we need different organizational structures at the field level vs. regional or WO levels?
- What are the mechanisms needed to kill old paradigms and embrace new ones?
- Where is the accountability in EM? Who is accountable in partnerships? How do we show accountability to Congress for funds spent under EM?
- What is the ideal organizational structure for managing regional landscapes including state, federal, and private?
- How do we institutionalize long-term ecosystem management (ownership by individual managers)?
In-depth management questions for topic 24 that may be used as an overarching framework for the workshop:
I. CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES
a. How do we identify and address organizational and policy barriers to integrated resource management with an ecosystem perspective? What changes are needed for managers to feel they have the flexibility and authority that will allow them to implement ecosystem management consistent with current science?
b. How do we adapt leadership and human resources to manage organizational change? Should ecosystem management responsibilities be concentrated within one area of an agency, or spread throughout all agency functions?
c. How do we incorporate an ecosystem perspective into the fundamental managerial responsibilities for planning, budgeting, and accomplishment measuring/reporting? How do we ensure accountability to Congress and the public?
d. How do we empower field personnel to undertake the necessary activities for ecosystem management, such as monitoring and coordination, that are given insufficient resources? How do we institutionalize these activities, and how do we fund them?
II. CHANGING INSTITUTIONAL CULTURE
a. How do you ensure credibility for those who simply ask the right questions as opposed to those who only answer questions?
b. How do we facilitate common understanding of management direction across different sections and levels of an agency?
c. What changes are needed for managers to feel they have the flexibility and authority that will allow them to implement ecosystem management consistent with current science?
III. FACILITATING INTER-AGENCY COOPERATION
a. How do we facilitate inter-agency cooperation? How do we increase common understanding of management direction across agencies and implement joint inter-agency planning and budgeting?
IV. FACILITATING INTER-SECTORAL COOPERATION
a. How do we facilitate inter-sectoral cooperation?
How do you do all of this given the current legal environment and restrictions? What is the current legal framework, and how do you deal with it? How all this makes sense in light of NFMA.
- authorities versus mandates
- current legal framework (ESA, NFMA, FLMPA, NEPA, etc.)
- impediments/barriers to EM approach
- what's lacking or needed? (regional planning?)
- F.A.C.A. and legal issues/authorities
- antitrust implications
- current legal framework in which we operate
- How can we work other partners (particularly native Americans, tribal, all scales, international, local, state, municipalities, world heritage) in developing management objectives within the context of existing laws?
- To what extent do competing or conflicting legal mandates (for individual agencies and among different agencies) limit or encourage effectiveness of ecosystem-based approaches to management?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What is not currently covered in legislation that is needed for EM?
- Do we have the legal mandate for EM?
- How do current legal mandates allow us to do EM?
- How do we reconcile conflicting legal mandates within and between agencies? (Ex: limitations embedded in the Clean Air Act and need to burn for maintaining and restoring ecosystems)
- What are the chances of an integrated rewrite of natural resource/federal land mgmt. legislation?
- How do we get permission to use our authorities to the maximum extent?
- How do we move from collecting info in order to legally defend our actions to collecting data in order to build consensus?
- What are the laws that I shouldn't be breaking?
- How can we work with other partners in developing management objectives within the context of existing laws?
- How do we get opinion-leader concerns under F.A.C.A?
- What are the limits of the new F.A.C.A rules?
- eco-regional assessments/ ecosystem assessments/ watershed analysis
- programmatic assessments/ nested hierarchial assessments
- "rare" elements such as habitats for endangered species
- looking at reference conditions in information analyses
- relationship to the decision making process
- respecting private property rights
- social assessments
- what information do you need to do adaptive management
- How do you consolidate/coordinate data collection and analysis for ecological assessments to inform decision making?
- What information is needed to do them?
- How do we tailor assessments to meet management needs?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What types of assessments are needed for EM? What data is needed to do them?
- What new information do we collect for future decisions? How much data do I need to make a decision?
- How can we manage information so it can be shared and synthesized among agencies and organizations, (collecting, storage, retrieval, manipulation)? How do we develop compatible systems among agencies? How do we consolidate poorly standardized data, at several scales?
- How do we make best use of existing data? How do we consolidate information of low accuracy and precision? How do I get metadata? Where do I get it?
- How can we increase automation of standard reports? (Less with less)
- How can we use data sharing to better involve the public in our decisions?
- What is being done in the area of collaborative data collection, analysis, and info sharing?
- How do we make resolution of data commensurate with the resolution of management actions?
- How do we ensure continuity of databases through changing administrations?
- How will we identify critical data needs for EM? Who decides? How can we coordinate prioritization? What are the minimum information needs? (biological, social, cultural, etc.)?
- How do we effectively synthesize existing info in support of EM? Are we using latest technologies? What are these technologies?
- Are ecoregional assessments necessary to make good site specific decisions? How do we make site specific decisions without such assessments? How do we prioritize what to assess?
- What kind of systems and processes are needed among agencies to ensure a progressive flow of data to info to knowledge?
- Who is going to do social and economic assessments in support of EM?
- Do rapid assessment programs play a role in N. America?
What is it, why is it desirable, how is it different from what we are doing now, how do I start doing it, when will I know I have achieved it, how do I use the results from it to do a better job?
- setting goals and objectives/ protocols and standards/ accountability
- linkages between planning/acting/monitoring/evaluating
- role of uncertainty and risk analysis in decisionmaking
- role of science in helping design, implement, and refine management plans/actions
- revision of standards and guidelines
- How do we implement and what are the attributes/protocols for adaptive management?
- How do we find or identify the appropriate partners for adaptive management?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What are the models for adaptive management? What are the steps to instituting adaptive management?
- What incentives and compromises are needed to get managers and scientists together in an adaptive management effort?
- How do we manage with incomplete information?
- How do we formulate goals that enjoy wide public support and participation?
- Are common goals necessary, and if so what should they be?
- At what point does a management goal make a difference on the landscape not be just an academic exercise?
- How do we better design monitoring into management?
- What methods or approaches can be used to determine the cumulative impacts of many snall activities over long periods of time on a landscape?
- How do we share information and collaborate based on adaptive management?
- How do I implement and what are the attribures/protocols for adaptive management?
What is the importance of models and other technologies such as GIS, and how do we use them, what they can and can't do for us. Where do we get them, what are their limits for social, ecological, economic considerations.
- importance of spatial and temporal scales
- applicability, useability, reliability, predictability, validity, & credibility
- what's currently available/ social and economic considerations
- development of a systematic way of arraying existing information
- how do you make the information useful?
- strategies for developing new models and systems for arraying information
- What existing decision models/tools are available and appropriate for blending ecological, economic and social information and how do we use them in management?
- How reliable/valid are models and how much weight should we put on models?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- How do we identify metrics for natural resource/ecological economics for the decision space?
- What kind of processes are needed to ensure scientific credibility of govt. data? What kind of delivery systems are needed to build credibility of govt. data/info?
- How can we capture experiential knowledge of managers and other knowledgeable sources?
- What spatially-explicit ecosystem models are commercially available now?
- What existing decision models are available and appropriate for blending ecological, economic and social information and how do we use them in management?
- Can we deliver info in a way that supports consensus building?
- Can the admission of uncertainty increase credibility?
- What decision support models are currently available?
- How reliable are models and how much weight should I put on model results?
- How do we validate models?
- How do we overcome or minimize the influence of "prostitute" expert witnesses that hurt our credibility?
- What are the new techniques for consensus building over scientific issues (citizen juries, etc) or (conflicts over facts)?
- Are there allowances in consensus for scientific breakthroughs?
- How can we measure and predict long-term effects?
What are the benchmarks for managers to let them know they are on the right course for ecosystem management? What are the different scales for benchmarks, what are costs?
- defining measurable goals and objectives/evaluation tools
- monitoring protocols/standards
- budget and cost effectiveness
- spatial and temporal scale considerations/ determining trends and thresholds
- what needs to be monitored?
- development of monitoring and evaluation criteria to measure progress toward goals and to test/verify assumptions
- criteria, indicators, thresholds, scale, and trends (for Ecosystem Sustainability and Condition)
- What and how do we monitor? What are the objectives? How can we afford to monitor? What do we do with the results?
- How do organizations "imbed" monitoring into their day-to-day activities? How do we institutionalize monitoring into an organization? Role of partnerships....etc.
Potential Set of Management Questions
- What are key indicators to monitor ecosystem conditions?
- How do we decide on the objectives of monitoring? System health indicators? Mgmt. effects?
- How do we establish and implement a long-term commitment to monitoring?
- Where is the monetary commitment to ecosystem monitoring?
- Are our monitoring questions, protocols, and standards adequate?
- How do we involve scientists in developing monitoring plans?
- How does monitoring result in differences in mgmt. actions?
- How do we monitor regional or landscape parameters across ownerships? Who's responsible for monitoring at these larger scales?
- Will monitoring outside the framework of Adaptive Mgmt. ever make a difference?
- How do we balance long-term research needs with shorter monitoring needs?
- How do we measure success under ecosystem management without ensuring adequate monitoring?
- Does ecosystem management imply a standing body of science within and among agencies?
- What are the potentials and benefits of monitoring through partnerships?
- What kind of information mgmt. system is needed to support the science that supports EM?
- How do we monitor? What are the key indicators of ecosystem condition and sustainability? How are they measured?
- What non-traditional analysis methods are available for looking at non-replicated monitoring data (patrec. models, etc.)
What are new opportunities for sharing data, collecting data, obtaining data. Importance of all managers using the same language to communicate. What do we most need to manage, and where do we get it, and where do we get help to learn how to use it?
- common protocols/standards/ why, where, when, & how to share information
- anti-trust concerns over data sharing
- define common uses/ define needs by scales and boundaries
- data reliability and quality/ security and storage/ ownership and use questions
- define common needs/ heritage programs/existing efforts
- why, where, when & how to collect new & existing information
- spatial and temporal scale considerations
- common protocols/standards (sampling, mapping, classification)
- applicability/ sampling and statistical inference
- resource directory
- How do we manage data, information, and collections so that it can be shared and synthesized among agencies and organizations? (How is the latest information technology useful at achieving this?)
- How can we use data sharing to better involve and educate all partners in decision making activities?
Potential Set of Management Questions
- How do we consolidate poorly standardized data, at several scales?
- How do we consolidate information of low accuracy and precision?
- How much data do I need to make a decision?
- How can we increase automation of standard reports? (Less with less)
- How can we use data sharing to better involve the public in our decisions?
- What is being done in the area of collaborative data collection, analysis, and info sharing?
- How do we make best use of existing data?
- How do we make resolution of data commensurate with the resolution of management actions?
- How do we ensure continuity of databases through changing administrations?
- How do we move from data ownership to data stewardship? Increase access and sharing?
- How can we use data in a more proactive way? Predictive models used in decision-making.
- How can we be sure to protect sensitive or proprietary, data within an environment of data sharing?
- What scales are appropriate for inventory in N. America?
- What do you inventory?
- How can we ensure continuity of long-term data sets needed to monitor long-term ecosystem changes?
- What are costs of data archiving?
- How do we develop relationship between data managers and resource managers based on shared mission?
- How will we identify critical data needs for EM? Who decides? How can we coordinate prioritization?
- How do we effectively synthesize existing info in support of EM? Are we using latest technologies? What are these technologies?
- What kind of systems and processes are needed among agencies to ensure a progressive flow of data to info to knowledge?
- How do I get metadata? Where do I get it?
- What are the minimum information needs? (biological, social, cultural, etc.)
- What new information do we collect for future decisions?
- How can we manage information so it can be shared and synthesized among agencies and organizations, (collecting, storage, retrieval, manipulation)
