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  • Using a Comprehensive Landscape Approach for More Effective Conservation and Restorationby the Independent Scientific Advisory Board for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council
  • James G. Hallett (bio)
Using a Comprehensive Landscape Approach for More Effective Conservation and Restoration Independent Scientific Advisory Board for the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, Columbia River Basin Indian Tribes, and National Marine Fisheries Service. 2011. Portland, OR: ISAB 2011-4. 179 pages. Free download: www.nwcouncil.org/library/isab/isab2011-4.pdf

The Columbia Basin of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana has been dramatically altered by both rapid and slow agents. During one of a series of ice age floods, 2,000 km3 of water was released from glacial Lake Missoula in Montana within days. The resulting flood moved 200 km3 of soil and rock, creating the scablands of eastern Washington and the Columbia Gorge. Subsequently, indigenous peoples inhabited the region for >10,000 years prior to the arrival of Europeans. Although the Native American residents surely modified the landscape, largely through fire, their relatively low populations and regulation of natural resource allocation allowed sustainable use of this region. In Using a Comprehensive Landscape Approach for More Effective Conservation and Restoration, authored by a select group of scientists comprising the Independent Science Advisory Board (ISAB), the incremental alteration of landscapes in the Columbia Basin that took place over 200 years beginning with the European furbearer trade in the early 1800s is chronicled (Section II). The near extirpation of beavers, for example, initiated changes in stream flow and sediment transport that were later exacerbated by cattle grazing. Settlement of the Pacific Northwest was initially slow, but increased rapidly in the late 1800s due to expansion of the railroads, discovery of gold and silver, and the increasing need for food and timber. Rivers were altered to improve transportation of goods, dikes were used to create farmland, and roads were built to access timber and other resources. Installation of large hydroelectric dams modified riparian and riverine habitats, fish migration patterns, and aquatic food webs. Inexpensive electrical power allowed large scale conversion of steppe habitats to irrigated agriculture. Additionally, grazing, fire suppression, and increased human population growth and development have also modified the landscapes of the Columbia Basin. New environmental conditions have allowed non-native species to exploit both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. [End Page 100]

This report presents a new framework for responding to the recent loss, degradation, and fragmentation of habitat, and the substantial declines in native fish and wildlife populations that resulted in the Columbia Basin. The authors recognize the difficulties of restoring ecosystems dramatically impacted by cumulative human activities, the challenges of a changing climate on such efforts, and the need to better involve human residents in restoration and conservation projects. This publication extends other reports produced by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NPCC) that articulate the need to conserve and restore habitats to support fish, particularly salmonids, and wildlife populations. The real change is that the ISAB now recognizes that restoration activities must be considered within their landscape and social contexts to be successful. The authors rely heavily on work of Walker and Salt (2006) as a framework for general discussion of landscape ecology, population dynamics, and resilience of ecological and social systems (Section III). Sidebars are used to provide basic background and references, and one summarizes resilience thinking. This sidebar will be important for readers that may be unfamiliar with the concept of resilience, defined as the capacity of ecological or social systems to respond to perturbation or changing conditions while continuing essential functions.

The authors introduce a reduced set of 15 principles for a comprehensive approach to conservation and restoration drawn from socioeconomics, landscape ecology, adaptive capacity, and integration of these components. Discussion of these principles (e.g., diversity, function) is organized around each of these headings. However, the authors neglect to consider adaptive cycles, thresholds, linkages between systems, or alternate stable states. Interestingly, in their presentation on "function" they indicate that changes to some ecosystems are likely to be irreversible. They suggest that "novel ecosystems" (without using this terminology) are acceptable if the constellation of species present retains important ecological functions. This issue is of great current...

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