The Laws of Nature: Managing Ecosystems for A Sustainable Future

10. Wildlife Conservation,Climate Change, and Ecosystem Management

235 10Wildlife Conservation, Climate Change, and Ecosystem Management RobertB.Keiter,Universityof Utah G rizzly bears have long roamed across Yellowstone National Park and beyond—aseminalfactthattriggeredacontroversialearlyfederalecosystem management effort. Less than a quarter century ago, though protectedundertheEndangeredSpeciesAct,theYellowstonegrizzlypopulation teeteredontheedgeof extinction,jeopardizedbyescalatingdevelopmentpressuresaroundtheparkandanunresponsivefederalbureaucracyseeminglyindif ferenttothemountingbearlosses .Onceacongressionalinvestigationrevealed thegrizzly’sworseningplight,theresponsibleagenciesrespondedbyproposing tocoordinatetheirconservationeffortsatanecosystemscaleandtorevisetheir landmanagementpracticestoreducethreatstotheregion’siconicbearpopulation . Although the most grandiose of their plans, captured in a draft Greater Yellowstone Area Vision Document, fell prey to local political intermeddling, the concept of ecosystem management as a plausible—even essential— approachtowildlifemanagementwasvalidated.Andtheregion’sgrizzlypopulation began rebounding to the point where it is now a candidate for removal from the federal endangered species list.1 But the Yellowstone grizzly bear population is not yet secure, not in the face of climate changes that are inexorably altering the regional ecosystem and once againcallingintoquestiontheadequacyof ourconservationefforts.Accordingto scientists, warming temperatures and mountain pine beetles are devastating the region’s high elevation whitebark pine trees, which produce nuts that represent 236 Wildlife Conservation, Climate Change, and Ecosystem Management an important seasonal food source for the grizzly bear.2 Two federal courts have agreed and ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider whether the lossof thisfoodsourcewillaffectthebear’slong-termsurvival.3 Infact,whitebark pine is dying at such an alarming rate over its range that it is now a candidate for listingundertheEndangeredSpeciesAct.4 Theculprit,bymostaccounts,isglobal warming, which has unleashed a massive bark beetle infestation and intensified wildfires,bothof whicharetakingatollonthewhitebarkpine.Asthegrizzlyloses this critical food source, it will be forced to roam further afield for nutrition, a journeythatwilllikelyresultinmoredeadlyencounterswithhumans.Futureconservationeffortswillplainlyhavetotakeaccountof theseclimatechangeimpacts, providingyetanotherjustificationforanecosystem-basedmanagementstrategy.5 This chapter will address the relationship between wildlife conservation, climatechange,andecosystemmanagement,suggestingthatacoordinatedand adaptive landscape-scale approach is the only viable strategy for ensuring that the grizzly bear and other species survive in a warming world. It begins by describing the relationship between wildlife conservation and ecosystem management , highlighting key ecosystem management principles designed to promote biodiversity conservation in a world where ecological change is often unpredictable.Thisincludesacriticaloverviewof thenaturereservesystemthat we have created to promote wildlife conservation, explaining the system’s ecological and managerial shortcomings. The chapter then introduces climate change, reviewing the impacts that rising temperatures will likely have on wildlife populations and potential adaptive responses that could ameliorate these impacts. The chapter concludes with an assessment of how the law underpinningecosystemmanagementmightbeemployedtoaddresstheclimatechange challenge through landscape-scale, adaptive management conservation strategies . Given the dire consequences of failing to act in the face of climate change, adaptiveecosystemmanagementmeritscarefulconsiderationasaviablewildlife conservationstrategyforaddressingtheuncertainandpotentiallydrasticenvironmental changes that are afoot. i. wildlife conservation and ecosystem management Wildlife conservation has evolved as scientists have come to better understandspeciesandtheirneeds .Duringthelatenineteenthcentury,asthenation was filling up its western reaches, unregulated commercial hunting devastated the region’s once plentiful bison and elk herds, driving bison to the brink of robert b. keiter 237 extinction and decimating local elk populations. Conservationists responded byadvocatingnaturereserves—nationalparks,forests,andwildlifereserves— wheretheanimalswouldbesecure,andtheytransplantedanimalsfromYellowstoneandelsewheretorepopulatebisonandelknumbersinotherlocations .We alsoestablishedandenforcedlimitationsonhunting,includingapermitsystem andlicensefees,tohalttheindiscriminatekilling.Wewerenotsokind,however, to large predators like the wolf, which was labeled a ‘beast of destruction’ and huntedtoextinction.Otherspecieswithoutcommercialorutilitarianvaluewere mostlyignored,whilenewlyestablishedstatewildlifeagenciesfocusedonensuring elk, deer, and other big game species were available for their hunting constituencies , whose fees supported the agencies and their conservation efforts.6 Asthetwentiethcenturyprogressed,thestrictlyutilitarianviewtowardwildlife began to shift, laying the foundation for modern wildlife conservation practices . Aldo Leopold, a universally respected biology professor at the University of Wisconsin, made key contributions to this shift: he identified the critical role habitat played in maintaining viable wildlife populations, and he introduced ethicalnotionsintoconservationpolicy,callingforadoptionof an“ethicdealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it.”7 Leopold’s view that “man is, in fact, only a member of a biotic team” helped legitimize the notion that all species mattered in nature’s scheme and that the ecosystemwaskeytoconservation.8 Oneupshotwastheemergenceof biodiversityasanewfocalpointforconservationefforts ,anotherwasthereversalof past predatoreradicationpolicies,includingresurrectionof thewolf asanimportant ecologicalcog,andyetanotherwastherealizationthataneffectiveconservation policyshouldfocusattheecosystemlevel.Thislatterpointunderscoredthelimitationsof ournaturereservesystem,whichscientistswerecomingtobelievewas inadequate alone to ensure the long term survival of many species.9 These realizations soon coalesced in the ecosystem management idea as a more effective conservation strategy to meet biodiversity, habitat, and other needs.Oneof themostprominentearlyeffortstomoveecosystemmanagement from an idea onto the ground occurred during the late 1980s in the Yellowstone region, when the principal federal land management agencies, facing considerable congressional pressure over the potential loss of the grizzly bear, joined togethertoproduceavisiondocumentthatwouldestablishGreaterYellowstone as a ‘world-class model’ for integrated and coordinated natural resource management . The draft document called for ecosystem management to administer “a landscape where natural processes are operating with little hindrance on a 238 Wildlife Conservation, Climate Change, and...