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