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Public Lands (public + land)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	46%
Life Sciences	38%

Selected Abstracts

Wildfire Policy and Public Lands: Integrating Scientific Understanding with Social Concerns across Landscapes

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2004
MICHAEL P. DOMBECK
administración de bosques; fuego no controlado; política; Servicio Forestal Estados Unidos; tierras públicas Abstract:,Efforts to suppress wildfires have become increasingly problematic in recent years as costs have risen, threats to firefighter safety have escalated, and detrimental impacts to ecosystems have multiplied. Wildfires that escape initial suppression often expand into large, high-intensity summer blazes. Lost is the legacy of smaller fires that likely burned outside extreme weather and fuel conditions and resulted in less severe impacts. Despite the recognized need for modifications to existing policies and practices, resource agencies have been slow to respond. The spread of exotic species, climate change, and increasing human development in wildlands further complicates the issue. New policies are needed that integrate social and ecological needs across administrative boundaries and broad landscapes. These policies should promote a continuum of treatments with active management and reduction of fuel hazard in wildland-urban interface zones and reintroduction of fire in wildlands. Management goals should focus on restoration of the long-term ecological health of the land. Projects that reduce fuel loads but compromise the integrity of soil, water supplies, or watersheds will do more harm than good in the long run. Despite significant ecological concerns, learning to live with fire remains primarily a social issue that will require greater political leadership, agency innovation, public involvement, and community responsibility. Resumen:,En años recientes, los esfuerzos para suprimir los fuegos no controlados se han vuelto cada vez más problemáticos por el incremento de costos, el aumento de las amenazas a la seguridad de bomberos y se la multiplicio, de los impactos perjudiciales a los ecosistemas. Los incendios que escapan la supresión inicial a menudo se expanden a grandes conflagraciones estivales de alta intensidad. Se ha perdido el legado de fuegos menores que probablemente se llevaban a cabo en condiciones climáticas y de combustible extremas que tenían impactos menos severos. A pesar del reconocimiento de la necesidad de modificaciones a las políticas y prácticas actuales, las agencias han respondido lentamente. La expansión de especies exóticas, el cambio climático y el incremento del desarrollo humano en áreas silvestres complican el problema aún más. Se requieren políticas nuevas que integren necesidades sociales y ecológicas más allá de límites administrativos y en paisajes amplios. Estas políticas deben promover un continuo de tratamientos con gestión activa y reducción de riesgo de combustión en la interfase área silvestre-urbana y la reintroducción de fuego en áreas silvestres. Las metas de la gestión deben enfocar en la restauración de la salud ecológica a largo plazo. Los proyectos que reducen la carga de combustible pero que comprometen la integridad del suelo, las reservas de agua o cuencas hidrológicas no serán de mucha utilidad en el largo plazo. A pesar de preocupaciones ecológicas significativas, aprender a vivir con fuego seguirá siendo un aspecto social que requerirá de mayor liderazgo político, innovación de agencias, participación del público y responsabilidad comunitaria. [source]

The Dynamics of Incrementalism: Subsystems, Politics, and Public Lands

POLICY STUDIES JOURNAL, Issue 1 2006
Robert S. Wood
A host of research has been produced in the decade since Baumgartner and Jones' theory of punctuated equilibrium first drew attention to the dynamics of policy change over time. Much of this research follows a topic across time, highlighting the shift from negative to positive feedback as challengers push an issue from subsystem to institutional level. Far less attention has been paid to the periods between major punctuations, neglecting key questions about whether incremental periods reflect an absence of challengers or the successful defense of established subsystem interests. This research is a comparison of policy change across two segments of environmental policy. The breakup of the timber subsystem was a clear victory for environmentalists, yet these same actors have been largely unsuccessful at dislodging established grazing interests. These findings highlight the strategic value of venue shifting for bypassing entrenched interests and illustrate the potential for successful challenges to occur in judicial venues. [source]

MANAGING PLACE AND IDENTITY: THE MARIN COAST MIWOK EXPERIENCE

GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 1 2002
JENNIFER SOKOLOVE
ABSTRACT. Group identity serves as a mechanism for claiming rights of control and access to land in the United States. Public land managers face myriad identity-based claims to land in their care. Identity shapes claims that must appear valid within the strictures of a legal system created by a dominant culture to serve its interests. The very form of those systems,of which public lands are a large part,makes possible the expression of particular forms of identity. The story of the Coast Miwok community and the Point Reyes National Seashore suggests that geographical links among identity, landscape, and history are actively constructed through political work and rarely are as obvious as they first appear. Both the formal legal process of federal tribal recognition and restoration and the far less formal Coast Miwok claims to land at Point Reyes National Seashore teach important lessons about neotraditional identity-based claims to public land. [source]

Forest Stand Dynamics and Livestock Grazing in Historical Context

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2005
MICHAEL M. BORMAN
clima; incendio forestal; pastoreo histórico; pino ponderosa; supresión de fuego Abstract:,Livestock grazing has been implicated as a cause of the unhealthy condition of ponderosa pine forest stands in the western United States. An evaluation of livestock grazing impacts on natural resources requires an understanding of the context in which grazing occurred. Context should include timing of grazing, duration of grazing, intensity of grazing, and species of grazing animal. Historical context, when and under what circumstances grazing occurred, is also an important consideration. Many of the dense ponderosa pine forests and less-than-desirable forest health conditions of today originated in the early 1900s. Contributing to that condition was a convergence of fire, climate, and grazing factors that were unique to that time. During that time period, substantially fewer low-intensity ground fires (those that thinned dense stands of younger trees) were the result of reduced fine fuels (grazing), a substantial reduction in fires initiated by Native Americans, and effective fire-suppression programs. Especially favorable climate years for tree reproduction occurred during the early 1900s. Exceptionally heavy, unregulated, unmanaged grazing by very large numbers of horses, cattle, and sheep during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries occurred in most of the U.S. West and beginning earlier in portions of the Southwest. Today, livestock numbers on public lands are substantially lower than they were during this time and grazing is generally managed. Grazing then and grazing now are not the same. Resumen:,El pastoreo de ganado ha sido implicado como una causa de la mala salud de los bosques de pino ponderosa en el occidente de Estados Unidos. La evaluación de los impactos del pastoreo sobre los recursos naturales requiere de conocimiento del contexto en que ocurrió el pastoreo. El contexto debe incluir al período de ocurrencia, la duración y la intensidad del pastoreo, así como la especie de animal que pastoreó. El contexto histórico, cuando y bajo que circunstancias ocurrió el pastoreo, también es una consideración importante. Muchos de los bosques densos de pino ponderosa y de las condiciones, menos que deseables, de salud de los bosques actuales se originaron al principio del siglo pasado. Contribuyó a esa condición una convergencia de factores, fuego, clima y pastoreo, que fueron únicos en ese tiempo. Durante ese período, hubo sustancialmente menos incendios superficiales de baja intensidad (que afectaron a grupos densos de árboles más jóvenes) como resultado de la reducción de combustibles finos (pastoreo), una reducción sustancial en los incendios iniciados por Americanos Nativos y programas efectivos de supresión de incendios. Al inicio del siglo pasado hubo años con clima especialmente favorable para la reproducción de árboles. Al final del siglo diecinueve y comienzo del veinte hubo pastoreo no regulado ni manejado, excepcionalmente intensivo, por una gran cantidad de caballos, reses y ovejas en la mayor parte del oeste de E.U.A. y aun antes en porciones del suroeste. En la actualidad, el número de semovientes en terrenos públicos es sustancialmente menor al de ese tiempo, y el pastoreo generalmente es manejado. El pastoreo entonces y el pastoreo ahora no son lo mismo. [source]

Why We Need Megareserves in Amazonia

CONSERVATION BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2005
CARLOS A. PERES
I consider several large-scale issues in biodiversity conservation planning (e.g., resource extraction, large areas needed for top predators, species migration, fire, and carbon sequestration) in light of our severely deficient understanding of basinwide patterns of species distribution and little-known Amazonian biota. The long-term persistence of this biota is best served by strictly protected and sustainable development forest reserves that are both embedded in a benign forest matrix and sufficiently large to support a full complement of species and landscape-scale ecological processes. Given rapidly accelerating trends in agricultural frontier expansion into previously unclaimed public lands, protection and controlled development of forests is urgent. Resumen:,La Amazonía brasileña enfrenta una de las mayores amenazas y oportunidades para la conservación de la biodiversidad tropical de nuestros tiempos. Considero varios aspectos de planificación de conservación de biodiversidad a gran escala (e. g. extracción de recursos, áreas extensas para depredadores mayores, migración de especies, fuego y secuestro de carbono) a la luz de nuestro entendimiento severamente deficiente de patrones de distribución de especies a nivel cuenca y de la poco conocida biota Amazónica. La persistencia a largo plazo de esta biota es favorecida por la protección estricta y por reservas forestales de desarrollo sustentable que estén embebidas en una matriz forestal benigna y que sean suficientemente extensas para sostener a un complemento completo de especies y procesos ecológicos a nivel paisaje. La protección y desarrollo controlado de bosques es urgente debido a la rápida aceleración de las tendencias en la expansión de la frontera agrícola hacia terrenos públicos no reclamados. [source]

An Exchange for All Things?

GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, Issue 1 2001
An Inquiry into the Scholarship of Fire
Fire was once considered a founding element and an informing principle for analysis of the world. Today it is neither. Its study resides primarily in those countries that have both public lands, which hold fire, and scientific institutions, with which to study it. In particular, forestry has long claimed fire as a speciality and continues to harbour the most practical experience regarding it. In fact, fire may deserve better, and can give more. A case, not entirely whimsical, can be made for a programme of ,fire studies' that could span the many forms of scholarship that share an interest in humanity's species monopoly over fire's manipulation. [source]

MANAGING PLACE AND IDENTITY: THE MARIN COAST MIWOK EXPERIENCE

Property Rights and Public Interests: A Wyoming Agricultural Lands Study

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 1 2002
Katherine Inman
Rocky Mountain states have experienced unprecedented growth as agricultural land is converted to residences. Preservation efforts meet with protest from private landholders claiming public efforts undermine private property rights. This paper explores the degree to which respondents think management of agricultural lands is a public versus a private matter. Data are from a Sublette County, Wyoming, mail survey. Results are relevant to many western counties having public lands and high growth rates. They suggest that landowners, wage earners, college graduates, and those who value the county's rural community lifestyle support public management strategies. Well-established residents and those with economic reasons for living in the county support private management strategies. [source]

Equine abstracts HELICOPTER RESCUE , TO FLY OR NOT TO FLY

JOURNAL OF VETERINARY EMERGENCY AND CRITICAL CARE, Issue S1 2004
Rebecca M. Gimenez PhD
Improved options for the successful transport of horses trapped in inaccessible areas (floodwater, steep ravines, etc.) during a disaster or emergency are available to practitioners using helicopter assets and the Anderson SlingÔ. Horses present a particularly difficult problem to remove from the rescue environment of a wide flooded area, or difficult steep terrain far from access by vehicles or heavy equipment. Due to their fractious and fearful nature, they may fight any effort to walk, climb or swim them to safety, and those attempts are inherently very dangerous for the rescuer(s). Unfortunately, many disaster or emergency scenarios may occur in areas not conducive to the use of other options (barge, rescue glide, simple vertical lift sling). Veterinary practitioners on scene should have familiarity with helicopter sling-load operations. The use of cargo nets, inappropriate home-made slings, and inadequate equipment has contributed to disastrous efforts by well-intentioned rescuers. There have even been desperate attempts at sling loading of cattle by roping the horns or one leg and transporting them into a waiting truck for removal from public lands. The Anderson SlingÔ has been successfully used for helicopter operations in multiple emergencies and training demonstration flights, and is the only Equine Sling recommended for this purpose. Although it was originally intended for clinical use in long-term recovery cases, it has become the industry standard for helicopter operations with equines because of its demonstrated safety margin, design and strength. In clinical use, leg straps further distribute the animal's weight to the legs, but are not necessary in rescue lifts. In some states, there are Large Animal Rescue Teams associated with the Veterinary School, the State Emergency Management Association, or local private Equine Ambulance Services that may have equipment and personnel trained in helicopter sling-loading. This is a specialty interest that requires prior coordination, significant planning, and training of all personnel involved. [source]

Rising natural gas demand necessitates improved access to public lands

NATURAL GAS & ELECTRICITY (PREVIOUSLY : NATURAL GAS), Issue 1 2000
Christine Hansen
[source]

TIMBER MARKETS AND FUEL TREATMENTS IN THE WESTERN U.S.

NATURAL RESOURCE MODELING, Issue 1 2006
KAREN L. ABT
ABSTRACT. We developed a model of interrelated timber markets in the U.S. West to assess the impacts of large-scale fuel reduction programs on these markets, and concomitant effects ofthe market on the fuel reduction programs. The linear programming spatial equilibrium model allows interstate and international trade with western Canada and the rest of the world, while accounting for price effects of introducing softwood logs to the market. The model maximizes area treated, given fire regime-condition class priorities, maximum increases in softwood processing capacity, maximum rates of annual treatments, prohibitions on exports of U.S. and Canadian softwood logs from public lands and a fixed annual treatment budget. Results show that the loss to U.S. private timber producers is less than the gains for timber consumers (mills). States receiving more treatments when spending is not constrained by state proportions include Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon. When only the wildland-urban interface is treated, California, Oregon and Washington receive more treatments. Utah and Colorado receive more treatments when low risk stands are included. [source]

Fauna habitat modelling and mapping: A review and case study in the Lower Hunter Central Coast region of NSW

AUSTRAL ECOLOGY, Issue 7 2005
BRENDAN A. WINTLE
Abstract Habitat models are now broadly used in conservation planning on public lands. If implemented correctly, habitat modelling is a transparent and repeatable technique for describing and mapping biodiversity values, and its application in peri-urban and agricultural landscape planning is likely to expand rapidly. Conservation planning in such landscapes must be robust to the scrutiny that arises when biodiversity constraints are placed on developers and private landholders. A standardized modelling and model evaluation method based on widely accepted techniques will improve the robustness of conservation plans. We review current habitat modelling and model evaluation methods and provide a habitat modelling case study in the New South Wales central coast region that we hope will serve as a methodological template for conservation planners. We make recommendations on modelling methods that are appropriate when presence-absence and presence-only survey data are available and provide methodological details and a website with data and training material for modellers. Our aim is to provide practical guidelines that preserve methodological rigour and result in defendable habitat models and maps. The case study was undertaken in a rapidly developing area with substantial biodiversity values under urbanization pressure. Habitat maps for seven priority fauna species were developed using logistic regression models of species-habitat relationships and a bootstrapping methodology was used to evaluate model predictions. The modelled species were the koala, tiger quoll, squirrel glider, yellow-bellied glider, masked owl, powerful owl and sooty owl. Models ranked sites adequately in terms of habitat suitability and provided predictions of sufficient reliability for the purpose of identifying preliminary conservation priority areas. However, they are subject to multiple uncertainties and should not be viewed as a completely accurate representation of the distribution of species habitat. We recommend the use of model prediction in an adaptive framework whereby models are iteratively updated and refined as new data become available. [source]

Property as Interorganizational Discourse: Rights in the Politics of Public Spaces

COMMUNICATION THEORY, Issue 2 2008
Todd Norton
In this article, I extend organization and communication theory to conceptualize property as an interorganizational discourse. As an analytic of discourse's capacity to gain and defend stakeholder rights in the public domain, property discourses provide a rigorous, language-centered approach to organizational conflict over environmental spaces by conceptualizing how material,symbolic tensions play out diachronically. I ground this theoretical terrain through a discourse analysis of a decade-long conflict over public lands in the southern part of the U.S. state of Utah. The case,Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument,constitutes a significant clash of politics between environmental preservation and extraction and especially what political regime ought to control roads accessing this 1.9-million-acre national monument. The analysis and interpretation indicate that property politics involve a complex interplay of symbolic and material forces among stakeholders. Conceptualized in this way property discourses provide considerable insight as many nations and societies face escalating struggles over increasingly scarce resources. Résumé La propriété comme discours interorganisationnel : les droits dans la politique des espaces publics Dans cet article, j'élargis les théories de l,organisation et de la communication pour conceptualiser la propriété comme un discours interorganisationnel. Comme élément analytique de la capacité du discours de gagner et de défendre les droits des parties prenantes dans le domaine public, les discours de propriété offrent une approche rigoureuse et centrée sur le langage pour l'analyse des conflits organisationnels à propos d,espaces environnementaux. En effet, ils permettent de conceptualiser la manière dont les tensions matérielles-symboliques ont lieu de façon diachronique. Je fonde ce terrain théorique sur l'analyse discursive d,un conflit s'étirant sur une dizaine d'années autour de terres publiques dans la partie australe de l'État américain de l,Utah. Le cas , Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GS-ENM) , consiste en une dispute politique importante autour de la préservation de l'environnement et de l,extraction et, surtout, autour de la question à savoir quel régime politique devrait pouvoir contrôler des routes donnant accès à ce monument national d'une superficie de 1,9 million d,acres. L'analyse et l,interprétation indiquent que les politiques de propriété impliquent une interaction complexe de forces symboliques et matérielles des parties prenantes. Conceptualisés de cette manière, les discours de propriété offrent un aperçu considérable alors que plusieurs nations et sociétés font face à des luttes qui s'intensifient autour de ressources de plus en plus rares. Abstract Eigentum als Diskurs zwischen Organisationen. Rechte in der Politik des öffentlichen Raums In diesem Artikel erweitere ich Organisations- und Kommunikationstheorie, um Eigentum als Diskurs zwischen Organisationen zu konzeptualisieren. Als eine Analyse der Vermögens eines Diskurses, Akteursrechte in der öffentlichen Domäne zu erlangen und zu verteidigen, bieten Diskurse zum Eigentum einen entscheidenden, sprachzentrierten Ansatz zu Organisationskonflikten bezüglich Umwelträumen, indem nämlich konzeptualisiert wird, wie material-symbolische Spannungen im Zeitverlauf zusammenspielen. Die Theorie basiert auf der Diskursanalyse eines Jahrzehnte dauernden Konflikts um öffentliches Land im Süden des US-Bundesstaates Utah. Der Fall - Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GS-ENM) - bildet einen wichtigen Politikkonflikt zwischen Umweltschutz und Förderung ab , insbesondere bezüglich der Frage, welches politische Regime die Zugangsstraßen zu diesem 190 km2 großen nationalen Monuments kontrollieren soll. Die Analyse und Interpretation zeigt, dass Eigentumspolitik ein komplexes Zusammenspiel von symbolischen und materiellen Kräften von Akteuren ist. Auf diese Weise konzeptualisiert, lassen sich vor dem Hintergrund knapper werdender Ressourcen und daraus entstehenden nationalen und gesellschaftlichen Krisen wichtige Einsichten gewinnen. Resumen La Propiedad como Discurso entre las Organizaciones: Los Derechos en la Política de los Espacios Públicos En este artículo extiendo la teoría de la organización y la comunicación para conceptualizar la propiedad como un discurso entre organizaciones. Como un elemento analítico de la capacidad del discurso para ganar y defender los derechos de los interesados en el dominio público, los discursos de la propiedad proveen una aproximación rigurosa y un lenguaje centrado en el conflicto organizacional de los espacios medioambientales a través de una conceptualización de cómo las tensiones entre lo material y lo simbólico juegan un rol diacrónico. Conecto este terreno teórico a través de un análisis de una década de un discurso de conflicto sobre las tierras públicas en la parte sur del estado de Utah. El caso,Grand Staircase-Escalante Monumento Nacional (GS-ENM),constituye un enfrentamiento significativo de las políticos de preservación del medioambiente y la extracción y especialmente qué régimen político debe controlar los caminos de acceso a este monumento nacional de 1.9 millones de acres. El análisis y la interpretación indican que la política de la propiedad incluye la compleja interacción de fuerzas simbólicas y materiales entre los interesados. Conceptualizada de esta manera los discursos de la propiedad proveen de un entendimiento considerable para las muchas naciones y sociedades que enfrentan considerable disputas sobre los crecientes recursos escasos. ZhaiYao Yo yak [source]