Laserfiche WebLink
<br />Biological issues, .comment to SWSJ, August 2004 <br /> <br />13 <br /> <br />" "' <br /> <br />severe impacts of loss of rural inter-town bus and inter-city rail passenger and freight service, <br />badly damaging elderly and low~income peoplefs mobility.,] Freemants chapter on policy and <br />organizational issues failing ecosystem needs is a persuasive statement on the mismatches of <br />costs and benefits, authority and consequences, and the need for loeaf managers to have <br />capacity to apply local knowledge. <br /> <br />Sopuckts review of sustaining the ecosystems has a Canadian perspective for once, and <br />squarely addresses privatB provision of public goods and issues of who benefits from what <br />Knopf and Samson's chapter is strongly recommended, on conserving diversity, with attention <br />to created landscapes and review of the range of issues. They note that more than 120 <br />agency offices make -daily land use decisions" in the South Platte headwaters, alone. <br />Hinck1eys review of climate and biota issues illustrates the importance of prairie resources, <br />consequences of groundwater withdrawal and irrigation supply problems threatened with <br />climate variation, B1'!d problems of adaptation~ Danielson and Klaas address landscape Joss, <br />conselVstion and restoration problems, including heterogeneity needs, and large-scale <br />coordination problems for patch patterns, corridors, and reserves. They argue for large <br />reserves, in contrast to some others arguing for greater diversity in space and condition from <br />more small ones; clearly 8 vel}' unfortunate choice to have to make" and perhaps misleading if <br />made in the abstract rather than for a particular conse/Vstion goal. <br /> <br />Kothmann's chapter on range management offers suggestions for better outcomes from <br />larger-scale management options such as herd adjustment options to match forage variation. <br />Forestry and woodlands are covered by Bratton et 8L, who note the surge in some woodlands <br />with fire suppression and planting, some of which was 19305 vintage windbreaks now lost to <br />;.center-pivot field consolidation. They are concerned with pioneer riparian trees being <br />replaced by later successional sP9C?ies in the unnatural flow stabilization regimes, and the <br />need for management of that situatjon~ ' <br /> <br />j <br /> <br />Katz, G.L. and P"B. Shafroth, 2003, Biology; ,Ecology and Management of Eleagnus Angustifolia <br />L~ (Russian Olive) in Western North America.. Wetlands 23(4): 763-n7. Reviews knowledge <br />'of this invasive species. If;s favored by reduced disturbance from flow regulation. They urge <br />~research on use of flow regimes a~ a management. tool.. <br />Kfe9t G.A.t 1991 t Conservation of Natural Resources. New York: Prentice Hall. <br />Knopf, F.L.. and F~B. Samsont Eds.t 1997, Ecoloav and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates. <br />New York: Springer. Along with National Research Council 2002, and Johnson and Bouzaher <br />1995, a comprehensive examination of scientific understanding on Great Plains issues. <br />Reviews issues such as bison partial replacement by cattle in ecological functions (Vinton and <br />Collins); and importance of wetlands in shortgrass ecologies; critical role of disturbance <br />driving events, all chapters; much greater past prominence of ephsmeral# temporary and <br />seasonal wetlands [the mosaic of types] in the region (Laubhan and Frederickson)1 with <1% <br />of original grasslandS remaining undisturbed and untold wetlands lost as critical landscape <br />element, including millions of small depressional wetlands as well as riverine and palustrine <br />wetlanc!s, drained, converted~ dried by groundwater withdraWS/51 and other changes; <br />inundation by reservoirs,. channel morphology changes, etc4j and consequent continental <br />scales of vegetation composition, due in part to impoverishment of the types of wetlands as <br />well as their frequency of existence. For example of importance to vertebrates. of 435 species <br />of birds known to breed in U.S~, 330 have bred in Great Plains, many dependent on wetlands <br />at some point and many more using them. <br /> <br />Friedman et a/~ review water management impacts on cottonwood forest dynamics; compare <br />with Johnson 1994,. 1997~ Clear showing of huge increase of cottonwoods and others, but <br />then changes ensuing with succession of green ash, invasives, and shade-tolerant species <br />and grasslands as cottonwoods do not recruit as fast as they are lost. Invasives fostered by <br />CUmlnt managed flow regjme~ including Tamarisk and Russian Olive. Bqou Creek example is <br />discussed. In the opinion of Wiener (author of annotatjon)~ this work raises the issue of <br />important retreat of riparian forests, with refatively sudden large losses of riparian habitat <br />