Biology 5865

Conservation Biology

Lecture 17

-Management of Protected Areas

- Note Chapter 17

• In 1989 designated as a

17,000 km section of the

Amazon Basin as a

UNESCO Biosphere

Reserve

• Also sits atop Ecuador’s

second largest reserve of

crude oil

• Suggest that the area’s

forests has the highest

number of species on the

planet

• Ecuadorian President said

he would permanently

protect the park and fight

global warming in exchange

for several billion dollars

Science 331,p.29 -7 Jan 2011

Time Magazine – April 4, 2011

Chape et al. 2005

Protected Area An area of land and/or sea especially dedicated to the

protection and maintenance of biological diversity,

and of natural and associated cultural resources, and

managed through legal or other effective means.

• protected areas cover 13% of the Earth's land surface (IUCN,

2005)

http://earthtrends.wri.org

IUCN categories and objectives

• Category Ia – Strict nature reserve –managed primarily for scientific

research

• Cagory Ib – Wilderness area – managed mainly for wilderness

protection

• Category II – National Parks – ecosystem protection and recreation

• Category III – National Monument – conservation of specific natural

features

• Category IV – Habitat/species management area – conservation

through management intervention

• Category V – Protected landscape/seascape – landscape/seascape

conservation and recreation

• Category VI – Managed resource protected area – sustainable use of

natural ecosystems

Minnesota Scientific and Natural Areas (SNAs)

Category Ia. Nature Reserves

Program mission Preserve and perpetuate the ecological diversity of Minnesota's

natural heritage, including landforms, fossil remains, plant and animal

communities, rare and endangered species, or other biotic features

and geological formations, for scientific study and public edification

as components of a healthy environment.

The SNA Program's goal is to ensure that no single rare feature is lost from any region of the state. This requires protection and management of each feature in sufficient

quantity and distribution across the landscape.

The activities utilized by the program to carry out its mission and goals include: land protection, management, education, research and prairie initiatives as well as producing

publications, working with others, and helping private landowners.

The Program's long-range goal is to protect at least:

•Five locations of plant communities known to occur in each landscape region

•Three locations per region of each rare species, plant or animal, and geological feature

Protection of multiple sites in each landscape region is a vital means of capturing the genetic diversity and preventing the loss of important species, communities, and

features. This strategy observes the wisdom of not putting all our eggs in one basket.

It is estimated that 500 natural areas are needed throughout the state to adequately protect significant features. Because over 40 percent of these rare features occur in

prairies, 200 natural areas would be in the prairie area of the state. Of the remainder, approximately 135 are estimated to be needed in the deciduous and 165 in coniferous

forest landscape communities in the next 100 years.

The program, created by the 1969 Minnesota Legislature, currently administers over 130 natural areas encompassing:

•Undisturbed plant communities, such as prairie or peatlands

•Rare or endangered species habitat, such as the sunny rock outcrops needed for the uncommon five-lined skink

•Seasonal habitat for bird or animal concentrations, such as herons, egrets and the endangered piping plover

•Natural geologic formations and features, such as glacial formations

•Plant communities undergoing succession as a result of natural processes, such as old-growth forests

Minnesota Scientific and Natural Areas

(SNAs)

Category Ib. Wilderness Areas

•no actions can be taken to

diminish wilderness

•often motorless and roadless

•no permanent human

habitation

e.g. Apostle Islands, BWCAW

• the practices and methods used to reach our

(conservation) objectives

– ecology, sociology, institutional perspectives

– temporal and spatial time frames

• active vs. passive management

– draw boundaries and let 'nature take it's course'?

• things change: deer, earthworms, disturbance

• wilderness designation usually means 'hands off'

management, but

– salvage logging

– prescribed burning

What is Natural Resource Management?

• There is no inherently right or wrong way to manage a

nature reserve…the aptness of any method of

management must be related to the objects of

management for any particular site…Only when objects of

management have been formulated can results of

scientific management be applied

• (Duffey and Watts 1971; p. 391in Primack)

What is Natural Resource Management?

Category II. National Parks

Yellowstone – first National Park

1872

Multiple goals

• national parks must

allow for environmentally

compatible recreation

– from hiking to

snowmobiling

• other protected areas

may incorporate

– harvest, logging

– hunting, etc…

• concept of zoning

Category IV. Species management area

Douglas County (WI) Wildlife Management Area

• Sharp-tailed grouse

• need large blocks of

open habitat

• fewer than 1000 acres of

habitat in Wisconsin

USDA National Forests and Grasslands

Category VI. Managed resource protected areas

US FWS National Wildlife Refuges

Minnesota State Parks

The Division of Parks

and Recreation

develops and manages

a system of 66 state

parks, six state

recreation areas, and

eight waysides that

contain examples of

Minnesota's most scenic

lands.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/compass.html

Minnesota Wildlife Management Areas

(WMAs)

•1,380 public wildlife areas with 1.2

million acres of habitat, from prairies

and wetlands to forests and swamps,

for Minnesota's game and nongame

wildlife species.

•Recreation for upland, waterfowl, and

deer hunters.

•Wildlife watching opportunities—

sandhill cranes, herons, prairie

chickens, shore birds, and waterfowl.

•The Department of Natural Resources

Division of Forestry manages over 3.2

million acres of land within state forest

boundaries and more than 1.3 million

acres of other state-owned land.

•Management actions are planned to reap

the benefits of this renewable resource,

while at the same time assuring it is

sustained, healthy, vital, and improving in

productive capacity.

•Multiple-use management principles are

applied to allocate state forest resources

to meet the needs of the state's citizens.

Bird watching, aesthetics, hiking, camping-

-to name a few--are just a few of the

reasons for ensuring the sustainability of

our forests.

•Our state forests are managed with an

"ecosystem-based" approach. This means

looking at the natural resources from a

big-picture perspective that takes into

account not just a single area, but all of

the living and nonliving things in and

around the area. It also means working

with other private and public partners to

meet mutual goals. It means balancing the

needs of economy, community, and

environment.

Minnesota State Forests

MISSION STATEMENT

The primary responsibility of the Douglas County Forestry Department

is to, on behalf of Douglas County residents, provide stewardship to

forest resources, develop and maintain recreational opportunities, and

serve as an informational resource to the public.

The Douglas County Forest is over 269,000 acres in size, making it the

largest county forest in Wisconsin. 80% of the County Forest is

commercial forest land with the remaining 20% being brush prairies,

lakes, rivers, dams, flowages, and marsh wetlands. Large aspen blocks

are being managed for wildlife such as deer, ruffed grouse, and

woodcock, as well as other associated upland non-game species. In

addition, several scientific and benchmark areas have been established

throughout Douglas County where unusual or rare resource features

are being observed, studied, and protected.

The Forestry Department, through their management of timber

harvesting operations, generates revenues of over $2 million annually.

Ten percent of these revenues are paid to local townships in Douglas

County based upon the percentage of County forest land within their

boundaries.

County Forests

Participatory planning

Management Practices

• literally thousands of techniques or practices

– from building bird nest boxes to dynamiting beaver

dams

Approaches

• single species management

• manage threats: e.g. removal of non-native species

• manage habitat or landscape: mimic natural

disturbances

Superior NF NNIS plan, 2006

Mimic natural disturbance regimes

• logging to mimic

fire or wind

disturbances

• prescribed

burning

Indicator Species

What do indicators tell us – from our recent review ?

1. Something about the condition of the environment (‘early warning system’) – a current good example is the decline in amphibian populations

2. Information to possibly diagnose the cause of a change in the condition (e.g., using trend information)

3. Current reporting in most places and linkages with economic or socio-political decision-making is abysmal

Monitoring

• Fulfills the need to assess if

objectives are being met

• Goal is to track changes in a

resource through time

• Twenty year monitoring effort on

forest birds in 3 national forests

– 1991 to 2010

www.nrri.umn.edu/mnbirds