8095

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8095
• Author: National Research Council.
• Title: Impacts of Emerging Agricultural Trends on Fish and Wildlife Habitat.
• USFW Year: 1982.
• USFW - Doc Type: Washington, D.C.
• Copyright Material: NO

biological populations, in changing production practices, and in
developing and implementing public policies designed to bring into
better balance the national objectives of enhancing agricultural and
forestry productivity and improving habitats for fish and wildlife.
5. Encourage habitat development plans for specific wildlife in
local areas. LOcal fish and wildlife conservation groups should be
encouraged to develop plans for habitat enhancement with the
assistance and expertise of federal, state, regional, county, and
local agencies and universities.

The major critical research needs fall in four broad categories
with specific needs under each. Specific research needs for cropland
and pasture habitats, forest habitats, western rangeland habitats,
lake and stream habitats, interior wetland habitats, and coastal
wetland and estuary habitats are given at the ends of Chapters 6
through 11. The major categories of research needs are as follows:

1. Assess the effects of present agricultural and forestry
practices and systems on productivity and on fish and wildlife
habitats.

(a) resolve definitional and measurement questions related
to classification and inventory techniques for wildlife habitats.
(b) identify the shared critical parameters in agricultural
and forestry production on the one hand and fish and wildlife
habitats on the other.
(c) develop more comprehensive concepts to use in the
measurement of agricultural productivity that account for
outcomes beyond the physical production of agricultural and
forestry products, such as the cost to the environment, the
cost of energy used, and the impact on rural development.

2. The social, political, and economic aspects of land
management should be considered in efforts to develop agricultural and
forestry practices that operate efficiently to reduce erosion, reduce
water and energy requirements, reduce the use of toxic substances, and
maintain long-term quality of the resource base.
3. Develop new strains of plants and animals with greater stress
tolerance (to pests and diseases, weather, and adverse soil and water
conditions) and increased yields (improved photosynthetic efficiency,
nitrogen fixatives, and so on), ensuring conservation of resources and
improving the quantity and quality of fish and wildlife habitats.
4. Study how to use incentives as well as regulations to bring
about optimal resource use to meet multiple purposes. Such incentives
include (a) taxation, (b) subsidization, and (c) the creation of
markets to value previously nonpriced outputs from land and water
resources.

It is not within the Committee's charge to propose specific and
detailed policies for enhancing fish and wildlife habitats. In
general, however, policies, to be effective, must be internally

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