Lee Foote

Where is the avoidance in the implementation of wetland law and policy

Many jurisdictions in North America use a “mitigation sequence” to protect wetlands: First, avoid impacts; second, minimize unavoidable impacts; and third, compensate for irreducible impacts through the use of wetland restoration, enhancement, creation, or protection. Despite the continued reliance on this sequence in wetland decision-making, there is broad agreement among scholars, scientists, policymakers, regulators, and the regulated community that the first and most important step in the mitigation sequence, avoidance, is ignored more often than it is implemented. This paper draws on literature published between 1989 and 2010, as well as 33 semi-structured, key-informant interviews carried out in 2009 and 2010 with actors intimately involved with wetland policy in Alberta, Canada, to address key reasons why “avoidance” as a policy directive is seldom effective. Five key factors emerged from the literature, and were supported by interview data, as being central to the failure of decision-makers to prioritize wetland avoidance and minimization above compensation in the mitigation sequence: (1) a lack of agreement on what constitutes avoidance; (2) current approaches to land-use planning do not identify high-priority wetlands in advance of development; (3) wetlands are economically undervalued; (4) there is a “techno-arrogance” associated with wetland creation and restoration that results in increased wetland loss, and; (5) compensation requirements are inadequately enforced. Largely untested but proactive ways to re-institute avoidance as a workable option in wetland management include: watershed-based planning; comprehensive economic and social valuation of wetlands; and long-term citizen-based monitoring schemes.

College and University Environmental Programs as a Policy Problem (Part 1): Integrating Knowledge, Education, and Action for a Better World?

The environmental sciences/studies movement, with more than 1000 programs at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, is unified by a common interest—ameliorating environmental problems through empirical enquiry and analytic judgment. Unfortunately, environmental programs have struggled in their efforts to integrate knowledge across disciplines and educate students to become sound problem solvers and leaders. We examine the environmental program movement as a policy problem, looking at overall goals, mapping trends in relation to those goals, identifying the underlying factors contributing to trends, and projecting the future. We argue that despite its shared common interest, the environmental program movement is disparate and fragmented by goal ambiguity, positivistic disciplinary approaches, and poorly rationalized curricula, pedagogies, and educational philosophies. We discuss these challenges and the nature of the changes that are needed in order to overcome them. In a subsequent article (Part 2) we propose specific strategies for improvement.

College and University Environmental Programs as a Policy Problem (Part 2): Strategies for Improvement

Environmental studies and environmental sciences programs in American and Canadian colleges and universities seek to ameliorate environmental problems through empirical enquiry and analytic judgment. In a companion article (Part 1) we describe the environmental program movement (EPM) and discuss factors that have hindered its performance. Here, we complete our analysis by proposing strategies for improvement. We recommend that environmental programs re-organize around three principles. First, adopt as an overriding goal the concept of human dignity—defined as freedom and social justice in healthy, sustainable environments. This clear higher-order goal captures the human and environmental aspirations of the EPM and would provide a more coherent direction for the efforts of diverse participants. Second, employ an explicit, genuinely interdisciplinary analytical framework that facilitates the use of multiple methods to investigate and address environmental and social problems in context. Third, develop educational programs and applied experiences that provide students with the technical knowledge, powers of observation, critical thinking skills and management acumen required for them to become effective professionals and leaders. Organizing around these three principles would build unity in the EPM while at the same time capitalizing on the strengths of the many disciplines and diverse local conditions involved.

Should Academics Advocate on Environmental Issues

Academic advocacy involves advancing convincingly reasoned arguments that are supported by research results and academic expertise. However, academics must recognize that their notions of “good” are context dependent. Advocacy is an important and useful service of the university and failure to advocate undermines the social relevance of academia. Nonetheless, advocacy can have personal cost for the advocate, and we consider it appropriate that institutions should minimize this. We offer the following four tenets on how scientists can effectively advocate positions in public debates: (1) Be open about values and speak to the “big picture”; (2) advocate with credibility; (3) address counterpoints and admit uncertainty; and (4) simplify complexity so the media will embrace the delivered message. Advocacy is a core academic activity essential for addressing environmental issues in a responsible and accountable manner.

Replacing natural wetlands with stormwater management facilities: biophysical and perceived social values

Urban expansion replaces wetlands of natural origin with artificial stormwater management facilities. The literature suggests that efforts to mimic natural wetlands in the design of stormwater facilities can expand the provision of ecosystem services. Policy developments seek to capitalize on these improvements, encouraging developers to build stormwater wetlands in place of stormwater ponds; however, few have compared the biophysical values and social perceptions of these created wetlands to those of the natural wetlands they are replacing. We compared four types of wetlands: natural references sites, natural wetlands impacted by agriculture, created stormwater wetlands, and created stormwater ponds. We anticipated that they would exhibit a gradient in biodiversity, ecological integrity, chemical and hydrologic stress. We further anticipated that perceived values would mirror measured biophysical values. We found higher biophysical values associated with wetlands of natural origin (both reference and agriculturally impacted). The biophysical values of stormwater wetlands and stormwater ponds were lower and indistinguishable from one another. The perceived wetland values assessed by the public differed from the observed biophysical values. This has important policy implications, as the public are not likely to perceive the loss of values associated with the replacement of natural wetlands with created stormwater management facilities. We conclude that 1) agriculturally impacted wetlands provide biophysical values equivalent to those of natural wetlands, meaning that land use alone is not a great predictor of wetland value; 2) stormwater wetlands are not a substantive improvement over stormwater ponds, relative to wetlands of natural origin; 3) stormwater wetlands are poor mimics of natural wetlands, likely due to fundamental distinctions in terms of basin morphology, temporal variation in hydrology, ground water connectivity, and landscape position; 4) these drivers are relatively fixed, thus, once constructed, it may not be possible to modify them to improve provision of biophysical values; 5) these fixed drivers are not well perceived by the public and thus public perception may not capture the true value of natural wetlands, including those impacted by agriculture.

Natural capital and the political economy of wetland governance in Alberta

ABSTRACT The legitimacy of wetland decisions depends on how science and values are integrated and reflected in wetland management decisions. Natural capital and ecosystem services (ES) have become integral to how we think about ecosystem management however there is no consensus on how these concepts should be applied in management. Through the example of Alberta’s wetland policy, we show how policies designed to mainstream natural capital and ES in decision-making are aligned with liberal governance arrangements that emerged in the nineteenth century. There is a governance gap between individual wetland decisions and collective ecological outcomes. The Alberta wetland policy highlights three challenges to embracing the natural capital metaphor in a liberal government context: lack of consensus on policy objectives; case by case enforcement of policy leading to continued wetland drainage; and minimal consequences for non-compliance. The combination of norms about what is fair in terms of government intervention in land use decisions and scientific uncertainty about wetland ecosystem function makes it difficult to achieve consensus on limits to wetland loss contributing to continued loss of wetland ecological function. The discussion highlights the necessity of renewed political discourse about freedom, power, and justice in relation to collective economic and ecological security.

Comparison of Site Preparation and Revegetation Strategies Within a Sphagnum-dominated Peatland Following Removal of an Oil Well Pad

Few guidelines exist for the effective revegetation of peatlands following the removal of in-situ oil and gas infrastructure. We conducted a manipulative field study in northeast Alberta, Canada, on a well pad undergoing removal and revegetation to test different management practices for facilitating vegetation establishment and recovery of a sphagnum-dominated peatland. A randomized block design was used to evaluate the effect of various revegetation practices, including augmenting natural recovery with the use of native transplants, acrotelm transfer from a similar intact donor peatland, and the use of variable surface microtopography. Although overall survival of transplants was similar between areas smoothed and left rough, areas that were rough had greater species richness under natural recovery, including trees, shrubs, and other perennial herbs. Moreover, survival and growth of woody transplants (Picea mariana—black spruce and Ledum groenlandicum—Labrador tea) were greater when planted within the top and middle microtopographic positions rather than micro-depressions. Survival of transplanted sedges (Carex spp.) was high at all topographic positions, but benefited the most in growth from planting in depressions. Contrary to expectations, no benefits of acrotelm application were found on vegetation recovery during the first two seasons, and even reduced the presence of some native vegetation. Although transplants directly contributed to revegetation, the recovering peatland remained highly dissimilar (> 90%) in composition relative to the neighboring peatland after two years.

Evaluating Sampling Techniques for Low-Density Populations of Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus)

Abstract In Alberta, Canada, and throughout its North American range, Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus) populations are rapidly declining. As part of monitoring and recovery planning, sampling protocols currently require direction for consistency and cost effectiveness. We assessed whether common sampling techniques, backpack electrofishing and angling, could reliably detect the presence and determine abundance estimates of the species in wadeable tributary streams of the Athabasca River. Additionally, we report on the use of a novel technique, egg-kick surveys, to detect spawning habitat and monitor abundance. Backpack electrofishing and angling with dry flies had the highest detection probabilities, although CPUEs were generally low. Egg-kick surveys rarely detected Arctic Grayling and generally failed as a monitoring tool in our study streams. We found that the size structure of catches were subject to temporal biases (early versus later summer) and dependent on gear type. As expected, angling detected more large fish (>110 mm) and included both juveniles and adults. We recorded about 3.1 times more large Arctic Grayling/km of angling versus backpack electrofishing. Young-of-the-year were more easily detected using backpack electrofishing in late summer (July–August). We were unable to calculate and compare abundance estimates derived from mark-recapture and three-pass removal methods because both techniques generally failed to meet literature-derived criteria and produced unreliable estimates. Our research emphasizes some of the challenges in formulating effective stream sampling protocols for monitoring a declining species characterized by low densities and patchy distributions.

Hunting Tourism: The Case of Canadian Prairie Waterfowl Hunters

Hunting tourism plays important roles in the conservation of wildlife; hunters provide financial support for conservation programs and habitat protection, assist in the monitoring of wildlife populations, and play important roles in population management (Heffelfinger et al. in Int J Environ Stud 70(3):399–413, 2013). These conservation roles indirectly benefit host communities through the stewardship of wildlife populations and the protection of habitats. The hunting of waterfowl is a popular form of hunting tourism; however, the number of North American waterfowl hunters has been declining since the mid-1970s (NAWMP Revised objectives: an addendum to the 2012 North American Waterfowl Management Plan. Fish and Wildlife Service, Washington, 2014). Although a number of conservation and waterfowl hunting organizations and government programs offer educational and mentorship programs to promote waterfowl hunting and retain hunters, declines in the number of waterfowl hunters continues. This chapter examines constraints to hunting tourism and explores waterfowl hunters’ motivations in an effort to understand what influences decisions to participate in waterfowl hunting as a nature-based tourism activity. Using a deductive approach, this chapter employs self-determination theory (Deci and Ryan in J Mind Behav 1(1):33–43, 1980), the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen in Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 50(2):179–211, 1991), and leisure constraints theory (Crawford et al. in Leisure Sci 13(4):309–320, 1991) to guide a thematic analysis. Thirty-four waterfowl hunters, representing a range of skill levels and commitment to the activity, were interviewed in three Canadian provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba) about the factors that influenced their decisions to hunt waterfowl. These factors included structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal constraints, and attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. We contrast the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings. Findings of this qualitative research inform tourism, outdoor recreation, and wildlife managers and planners to develop strategies for the recruitment and retention of hunting tourists and help retain the local ecological and economic benefits of waterfowl hunting.