Evaluating pathways to social and ecological landscape resilience
Rapid environmental changes challenge the resilience of wildlands. The western portion of the Lake Tahoe Basin in California is an important ecological and cultural hotspot that is at risk of degradation from current and future environmental pressures. Historical uses, fire suppression, and a changi...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Resilience Alliance
2022-12-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Society |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss4/art8 |
| _version_ | 1797969488992272384 |
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| author | Eric S. Abelson Keith M. Reynolds Angela M. White Jonathan W. Long Charles Maxwell Patricia N. Manley |
| author_facet | Eric S. Abelson Keith M. Reynolds Angela M. White Jonathan W. Long Charles Maxwell Patricia N. Manley |
| author_sort | Eric S. Abelson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Rapid environmental changes challenge the resilience of wildlands. The western portion of the Lake Tahoe Basin in California is an important ecological and cultural hotspot that is at risk of degradation from current and future environmental pressures. Historical uses, fire suppression, and a changing climate have created forest landscape conditions at risk of drought stress, destructive fire, and loss of habitat diversity. We prospectively modeled forest landscape conditions for a period of 100 years to evaluate the efficacy of 5 unique management scenarios in achieving desired landscape conditions. Management scenarios ranged from no management other than fire suppression to applying treatments consistent with historical fire frequencies and extent (i.e., regular and broadscale biomass reduction). We developed a decision support tool to evaluate environmental and social outcomes within a single framework to provide a transparent set of costs and benefits. Results illuminated underlying mechanisms of forest resilience and provided actionable guidance to decision makers. Sixteen attributes were assessed in the model after assigning weights to each. We found that removing forest biomass across the landscape, particularly when accomplished using extensive fire-based removal techniques, led to highly favorable conditions for environmental quality and promoted overall landscape resilience. Environmental conditions resulting from extensive fire-based biomass removal also had nominal variation over time, in contrast with strategies that had less extensive and/or used physical removal techniques (e.g., mechanical thinning). Our analysis provides a transparent approach to assess large datasets with complex and interacting variables. Ultimately, we aim to provide insights into the complexities of maintaining optimal conditions and managing landscapes to promote ecosystem resilience in a changing world. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:03:02Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9213e6404b4d48efab91cce62b8d5530 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1708-3087 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T03:03:02Z |
| publishDate | 2022-12-01 |
| publisher | Resilience Alliance |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Society |
| spelling | doaj.art-9213e6404b4d48efab91cce62b8d55302023-01-02T13:45:38ZengResilience AllianceEcology and Society1708-30872022-12-01274810.5751/ES-13243-27040813243Evaluating pathways to social and ecological landscape resilienceEric S. Abelson0Keith M. Reynolds1Angela M. White2Jonathan W. Long3Charles Maxwell4Patricia N. Manley5University of Texas, Austin, Department of Integrative Biology, Austin,TexasUS Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, OregonUS Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Davis, CaliforniaUS Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Davis, CaliforniaSpatial Informatics Group, Pleasanton, CaliforniaUS Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Davis, CaliforniaRapid environmental changes challenge the resilience of wildlands. The western portion of the Lake Tahoe Basin in California is an important ecological and cultural hotspot that is at risk of degradation from current and future environmental pressures. Historical uses, fire suppression, and a changing climate have created forest landscape conditions at risk of drought stress, destructive fire, and loss of habitat diversity. We prospectively modeled forest landscape conditions for a period of 100 years to evaluate the efficacy of 5 unique management scenarios in achieving desired landscape conditions. Management scenarios ranged from no management other than fire suppression to applying treatments consistent with historical fire frequencies and extent (i.e., regular and broadscale biomass reduction). We developed a decision support tool to evaluate environmental and social outcomes within a single framework to provide a transparent set of costs and benefits. Results illuminated underlying mechanisms of forest resilience and provided actionable guidance to decision makers. Sixteen attributes were assessed in the model after assigning weights to each. We found that removing forest biomass across the landscape, particularly when accomplished using extensive fire-based removal techniques, led to highly favorable conditions for environmental quality and promoted overall landscape resilience. Environmental conditions resulting from extensive fire-based biomass removal also had nominal variation over time, in contrast with strategies that had less extensive and/or used physical removal techniques (e.g., mechanical thinning). Our analysis provides a transparent approach to assess large datasets with complex and interacting variables. Ultimately, we aim to provide insights into the complexities of maintaining optimal conditions and managing landscapes to promote ecosystem resilience in a changing world.https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss4/art8decision supportecologyforest managementlake tahoelandscape resiliencescenario planningwildlife conservation |
| spellingShingle | Eric S. Abelson Keith M. Reynolds Angela M. White Jonathan W. Long Charles Maxwell Patricia N. Manley Evaluating pathways to social and ecological landscape resilience Ecology and Society decision support ecology forest management lake tahoe landscape resilience scenario planning wildlife conservation |
| title | Evaluating pathways to social and ecological landscape resilience |
| title_full | Evaluating pathways to social and ecological landscape resilience |
| title_fullStr | Evaluating pathways to social and ecological landscape resilience |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evaluating pathways to social and ecological landscape resilience |
| title_short | Evaluating pathways to social and ecological landscape resilience |
| title_sort | evaluating pathways to social and ecological landscape resilience |
| topic | decision support ecology forest management lake tahoe landscape resilience scenario planning wildlife conservation |
| url | https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol27/iss4/art8 |
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