Urs P. Kreuter

Change in ecosystem service values in the San Antonio area, Texas☆

San Antonio is one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the USA. Urban sprawl may significantly impact ecosystem services and functions but such effects are difficult to quantify and watershed-level estimates are seldom attempted. The objective of the study reported here was to determine whether LANDSAT MSS could be used to quantify changes in land-use and ecosystem services due to urban sprawl in Bexar County, TX, in which San Antonio is centered. The size of six land cover categories in the summer of 1976, 1985, and 1991 were estimated in the 141 671 ha of three watersheds in Bexar County. Coefficients published by Costanza and co-workers in 1997 [Nature 387 (1997) 253] were used to value changes in ecosystem services delivered by each land cover category, and a sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the effect of manipulating these coefficients on the estimated values. Although we estimated that there was a 65% decrease in the area of rangeland and a 29% increase in the area of urbanized land use between 1976 and 1991, there appeared to be only a 4% net decline in the estimated annual value of ecosystem services in the study area (i.e.

Multi-paddock grazing on rangelands: why the perceptual dichotomy between research results and rancher experience?

5.58 ha − 1 per year, with a 15-year cumulative total value of

The rising Great Plains fire campaign: citizens' response to woody plant encroachment

6.24 million for the whole study area). This relatively small decline could be attributed to the neutralizing effect of the estimated 403% increase in the area of the woodlands, which were assigned the highest ecosystem value coefficient. When we assumed that the shift of rangelands to woodlands produced no net change in the value of ecosystem services per hectare, the estimated annual ecosystem service value declined by 15.4% (

An Integrated Social, Economic, and Ecologic Conceptual (ISEEC) framework for considering rangeland sustainability

23.22 ha − 1 per year) between 1976 and 1991. When conducting time-series studies of ecosystem services, it is important to identify parallel changes in land cover types in order to quantify the potentially neutralizing influence of positive land cover changes on the negative effects of urban sprawl on ecosystem services.

Economics of managing mesquite in north Texas: a sensitivity analysis.

Maintaining or enhancing the productive capacity and resilience of rangeland ecosystems is critical for the continued support of people who depend on them for their livelihoods, especially in the face of climatic change. This is also necessary for the continued delivery of ecosystem services derived from rangelands for the broader benefit of societies around the world. Multi-paddock grazing management has been recommended since the mid-20th century as an important tool to adaptively manage rangelands ecosystems to sustain productivity and improve animal management. Moreover, there is much anecdotal evidence from producers that, if applied appropriately, multi-paddock grazing can improve forage and livestock production. By contrast, recent reviews of published rangeland-based grazing systems studies have concluded that, in general, field trials show no superiority of vegetation or animal production in multi-paddock grazing relative to continuous yearlong stocking of single-paddock livestock production systems. Our goal is to provide a framework for rangeland management decisions that support the productivity and resiliency of rangelands and then to identify why different perceptions exist among rangeland managers who have effectively used multi-paddock grazing systems and research scientists who have studied them. First, we discuss the ecology of grazed ecosystems under free-ranging herbivores and under single-paddock fenced conditions. Second, we identify five principles underpinning the adaptive management actions used by successful grazing managers and the ecological, physiological, and behavioral framework they use to achieve desired conservation, production, and financial goals. Third, we examine adaptive management principles needed to successfully manage rangelands subjected to varying environmental conditions. Fourth, we describe the differences between the interpretation of results of grazing systems research reported in the scientific literature and the results reported by successful grazing managers; we highlight the shortcomings of most of the previously conducted grazing systems research for providing information relevant for rangeland managers who aim to achieve desired environmental and economic goals. Finally, we outline knowledge gaps and present testable hypotheses to broaden our understanding of how planned multi-paddock grazing management can be used at the ranching enterprise scale to facilitate the adaptive management of rangelands under dynamic environmental conditions.

From Collaboration to Conservation: Insights From the Okavango Delta, Botswana

Despite years of accumulating scientific evidence that fire is critical for maintaining the structure and function of grassland ecosystems in the US Great Plains, fire has not been restored as a fundamental grassland process across broad landscapes. The result has been widespread juniper encroachment and the degradation of the multiple valuable ecosystem services provided by grasslands. Here, we review the social–ecological causes and consequences of the transformation of grasslands to juniper woodlands and synthesize the recent emergence of prescribed burn cooperatives, an extensive societal movement by private citizens to restore fire to the Great Plains biome. We discuss how burn cooperatives have helped citizens overcome dominant social constraints that limit the application of prescribed fire to improve management of encroaching woody plants in grasslands. These constraints include the generally held assumptions and political impositions that all fires should be eliminated when wildfire danger increases.

Changing landowners, changing ecosystem? Land-ownership motivations as drivers of land management practices.

Currently, there is no standard method to assess the complex systems in rangeland ecosystems. Decision makers need baselines to create a common language of current rangeland conditions and standards for continued rangeland assessment. The Sustainable Rangeland Roundtable (SRR), a group of private and public organizations and agencies, has created a forum to discuss rangeland sustainability and assessment. The SRR has worked to integrate social, economic, and ecological disciplines related to rangelands and has identified a standard set of indicators that can be used to assess rangeland sustainability. As part of this process, SRR has developed a two-tiered conceptual framework from a systems perspective to study the validity of indicators and the relationships among them. The first tier categorizes rangeland characteristics into four states. The second tier defines processes affecting these states through time and space. The framework clearly shows that the processes affect and are affected by each other.

Collective Action and Social Capital of Wildlife Management Associations

This paper presents a comparative simulation analysis of the economics of prescribed fire and aerially applied root-killing herbicide treatment as methods for maintaining livestock productivity on rangeland in the Texas Rolling Plains. A “no-treatment” scenario is used as the base for comparison. In almost all the simulated scenarios both herbicide application and prescribed burning were economically feasible since net present values were > 0 and benefit/cost ratios were >1. However, the net present values for prescribed fire were much higher that those for the herbicide treatment even with a lower increase in carrying capacity with burning. The cost of herbicide would have to be less than half the current cost of

Population Growth and Fertilizer Use: Ecological and Economic Consequences in Santa Cruz del Quiché, Guatemala

57 ha -1 before it would be economically competitive with fire in controlling mesquite. If cattle numbers were not increased after treating brush, burning had an even greater net present value and benefit/cost ratio advantage over herbicide treatment than if cow numbers were increased after treatment. Even if fences have to be constructed to implement adequate deferment for burning, the net present value and benefit/cost ratios of the fire option were higher than those for herbicide scenarios. This analysis indicates that there is an economic advantage to using fire wherever possible, and use of herbicides is restricted to those instances when fine fuel amount is < 1,700 kg ha -1 yr -1 when fire is not a viable option. The analyses indicate the economic response is most sensitive to the treatment effect on wildlife income.

Social and political influences on agricultural systems

This article summarizes 10 years of ethnographic research in the Okavango Delta and describes how local communities are collaborating with government, tour operators, and conservationists to manage wildlife through the Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) program. CBNRM channels social and economic benefits to communities in exchange for their participation in wildlife conservation. Benefits include secured access to land, institutional support, employment, and share of profits from wildlife tourism. By some accounts, CBNRM has effectively achieved co-management and wildlife conservation; by others, the program has achieved only rhetorical success. We highlight collaboration between social actors at various levels—community, government, tourism industry, international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs)—as one indicator of success. We then consider the steps that need to be followed to ensure that collaboration leads to long-term conservation. Experiences from this case may provide insights for co-management and conservation in other places where the fate of biodiversity and local livelihoods are entwined.