Dale J. Blahna

Environmental stewardship footprint research: linking human agency and ecosystem health in the Puget Sound region

Urbanization processes challenge ecosystem health in many metropolitan areas. New policy and program approaches are needed to restore and sustain natural systems as public agencies and organizations face greater demands and declining budgets. Environmental stewardship is an often overlooked intervention strategy, and the full potential of civic engagement by citizens on behalf of ecosystem health is little understood. Using a coupled systems approach, integrated analysis of social and ecological footprints can lead to greater theoretical understanding and more effective programs at the landscape scale. Here we outline two pilot studies as part of an emergent research program that is investigating the extent and impact of environmental stewardship. Qualitative interviews of stewardship managers revealed multiple dimensions of motivations and purposes for stewardship, ranging from the practical to the conceptual. A regional organization census yielded a surprisingly large number of organizations that conduct stewardship, with social and ecological values being of comparable emphasis. The initial research is based in the Puget Sound area of Washington State, U.S., but results have relevance to other urban areas. Pilot study findings now guide additional research effort about motivations, organizational networks, and theory of integrated socio-ecological systems to be derived from comprehensive footprint analysis of stewardship activity.

The Use of Recreation Planning Tools in U.S. Forest Service NEPA Assessments

U.S. Forest Service managers are required to incorporate social and biophysical science information in planning and environmental analysis. The use of science is mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest Management Act, and U.S. Forest Service planning rules. Despite the agency’s emphasis on ‘science-based’ decision-making, little is known about how science is actually used in recreation planning and management. This study investigated the perceptions of Forest Service interdisciplinary (ID) team leaders for 106 NEPA projects dealing with recreation and travel management between 2005 and 2008. Our survey data show how managers rate the importance of social and biophysical science compared to other potential ‘success factors’ in NEPA assessments. We also explore how team leaders value and use multi-disciplinary tools for recreation-related assessments. Results suggest that managers employ a variety of recreation planning tools in NEPA projects, but there appears to be no common understanding or approach for how or when these tools are incorporated. The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS) was the most frequently used planning tool, but the Visitor Experience and Resource Protection (VERP) framework was the most consistently valued tool by those who used it. We recommend further evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of each planning tool and future development of procedures to select appropriate planning tools for use in recreation-related NEPA assessments.

Results of Community Deliberation About Social Impacts of Ecological Restoration: Comparing Public Input of Self-Selected Versus Actively Engaged Community Members

Participatory processes for obtaining residents’ input about community impacts of proposed environmental management actions have long raised concerns about who participates in public involvement efforts and whose interests they represent. This study explored methods of broad-based involvement and the role of deliberation in social impact assessment. Interactive community forums were conducted in 27 communities to solicit public input on proposed alternatives for recovering wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest US. Individuals identified by fellow residents as most active and involved in community affairs (“AE residents”) were invited to participate in deliberations about likely social impacts of proposed engineering and ecological actions such as dam removal. Judgments of these AE participants about community impacts were compared with the judgments of residents motivated to attend a forum out of personal interest, who were designated as self-selected (“SS”) participants. While the magnitude of impacts rated by SS participants across all communities differed significantly from AE participants’ ratings, in-depth analysis of results from two community case studies found that both AE and SS participants identified a large and diverse set of unique impacts, as well as many of the same kinds of impacts. Thus, inclusion of both kinds of residents resulted in a greater range of impacts for consideration in the environmental impact study. The case study results also found that the extent to which similar kinds of impacts are specified by AE and SS group members can differ by type of community. Study results caution against simplistic conclusions drawn from this approach to community-wide public participation. Nonetheless, the results affirm that deliberative methods for community-based impact assessment involving both AE and SS residents can provide a more complete picture of perceived impacts of proposed restoration activities.

An Ecosystem Services Framework

Ecosystem services are the full range of social, ecological, and economic benefits that people obtain from nature (Millennium Assessment 2003; Smith et al. 2011). These services include both biophysical (e.g., water, food, and fiber) and intangible (e.g., cultural or health) benefits. The concept originated in ecological economists’ attempts to assign monetary valuations to the goods and services humans receive from naturally functioning ecosystems, so that the full array of direct and indirect benefits are captured in environmental policy, management, and decision making (Westman 1977). The importance and value of ecosystem services are being recognized internationally (Farley and Costanza 2010; Muradian et al. 2010), as illustrated by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES 2012), which is currently supported by 124 nations. Many US state and federal natural resource agencies have adopted policies that include analyses of ecosystem services in planning and decision making. The US Environmental Protection Agency, US Geological Survey, and US National Park Service all have new initiatives regarding the identification and mapping of ecosystem services. Specific to national forestlands, the US Forest Service’s new planning rule (USDA 2012) requires all 175 national forests to report key ecosystem services for forest plan assessments and revisions.

Recreational use in dispersed public lands measured using social media data and on-site counts

Outdoor recreation is one of many important benefits provided by public lands. Data on recreational use are critical for informing management of recreation resources, however, managers often lack actionable information on visitor use for large protected areas that lack controlled access points. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential for social media data (e.g., geotagged images shared on Flickr and trip reports shared on a hiking forum) to provide land managers with useful measures of recreational use to dispersed areas, and to provide lessons learned from comparing several more traditional counting methods. First, we measure daily and monthly visitation rates to individual trails within the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (MBSNF) in western Washington. At 15 trailheads, we compare counts of hikers from infrared sensors, timelapse cameras, and manual on-site counts, to counts based on the number of shared geotagged images and trip reports from those locations. Second, we measure visitation rates to each National Forest System (NFS) unit across the US and compare annual measurements derived from the number of geotagged images to estimates from the US Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring Program. At both the NFS unit and the individual-trail scales, we found strong correlations between traditional measures of recreational use and measures based on user-generated content shared on the internet. For national forests in every region of the country, correlations between official Forest Service statistics and geotagged images ranged between 55% and 95%. For individual trails within the MBSNF, monthly visitor counts from on-site measurements were strongly correlated with counts from geotagged images (79%) and trip reports (91%). The convenient, cost-efficient and timely nature of collecting and analyzing user-generated data could allow land managers to monitor use over different seasons of the year and at sites and scales never previously monitored, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of recreational use patterns and values.