Bringing citizen monitoring into land management: a case study of the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program

Despite the rapid expansion of citizen-based monitoring, data from these programs remain underutilized by natural resource managers, perhaps due to quality and comparability issues. We present the Bosque Ecosystem Monitoring Program as a case study of an initiative successfully meeting long-term monitoring needs of federal, state, tribal, and local natural resource managers, and informing public policy. To maximize potential for partnerships with managers, we recommend the creation of a five-year plan including scientific goals and financial solvency strategies prior to establishing a citizen science program, and offering multiple platforms for data-sharing and dialogue.

Download Full-text

Factors contributing to the longevity of the commercial use of crocodiles by Indigenous people in remote Northern Australia: a case study

The Rangeland Journal ◽

10.1071/rj11082 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 34 (3) ◽

pp. 239 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

B. J. Austin ◽

B. Corey

Keyword(s):

Economic Development ◽

Indigenous People ◽

Natural Resource ◽

Sustainable Use ◽

Indigenous Australians ◽

Northern Australia ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Resource Managers ◽

Natural Resource Managers

Access to land and resources has not, in itself, been sufficient for improving the wellbeing of Indigenous people living in remote regions of Australia. Much of the land has limited potential for mainstream market-based economic development. However, some Indigenous Australians have been able to use wildlife commercially to realise economic opportunities and to enhance their capacity to engage in natural resource management on their land. In this paper, a case study is presented of one such enterprise which has managed a crocodile egg-harvesting operation from a remote township for almost 15 years. Using a sustainable livelihoods approach to conduct field observations and semi-structured interviews, key factors were identified that had contributed to the longevity of this operation. These were minimal anti-use sentiment, demonstrably sustainable harvests, the market, the institutional context, parent-organisation support, activating and enhancing capitals and capabilities, and locally relevant enterprise activity. The crocodile egg-harvesting activity investigated is an example of a community-governed natural resource-based enterprise that has been able to engage Indigenous people in market-based economic activity in remote northern Australia. The findings have potential value to Indigenous peoples and communities, development practitioners, policy-makers and natural resource managers interested in the sustainable use of wildlife and Indigenous economic development.

Download Full-text

Participatory Mapping in Browns Canyon National Monument, Colorado (USA)

Case Studies in the Environment ◽

10.1525/cse.2017.000661 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 1-16

Author(s):

John Harner ◽

Lee Cerveny ◽

Rebecca Gronewold

Keyword(s):

Land Management ◽

Planning Process ◽

Management Plan ◽

Bureau Of Land Management ◽

National Monument ◽

Resource Managers ◽

Different Types ◽

Us Forest Service ◽

Natural Resource Managers

Natural resource managers need up-to-date information about how people interact with public lands and the meanings these places hold for use in planning and decision-making. This case study explains the use of public participatory Geographic Information System (GIS) to generate and analyze spatial patterns of the uses and values people hold for the Browns Canyon National Monument in Colorado. Participants drew on maps and answered questions at both live community meetings and online sessions to develop a series of maps showing detailed responses to different types of resource uses and landscape values. Results can be disaggregated by interaction types, different meaningful values, respondent characteristics, seasonality, or frequency of visit. The study was a test for the Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service, who jointly manage the monument as they prepare their land management plan. If the information generated is as helpful throughout the entire planning process as initial responses seem, this protocol could become a component of the Bureau’s planning tool kit.

Download Full-text

Integration of Human/Social Dimensions into the Traditional European Model of Natural Resource Education and Management

Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Forstwesen ◽

10.3188/szf.2005.0264 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 156 (8) ◽

pp. 264-268

Author(s):

James J. Kennedy ◽

Niels Elers Koch

Keyword(s):

Natural Resources ◽

Natural Resource ◽

Life Forms ◽

Western World ◽

Social Dimensions ◽

Roles And Responsibilities ◽

Resource Managers ◽

Natural Resource Managers ◽

Rural Ecosystem ◽

Professional Roles And Responsibilities

The increasing diversity, complexity and dynamics of ecosystem values and uses over the last 50 years requires new ways for natural resource managers (foresters, wildlife biologists, etc.)to understand and relate to their professional roles and responsibilities in accommodating urban and rural ecosystem users, and managing the complimentary and conflicting interactions between them. Three stages in Western-world natural resources management are identified and analyzed, beginning with the (1) Traditional stage: natural resources first, foremost and forever, to (2) Transitional stage: natural resource management,for better or worse, involves people, to (3) Relationship stage: managing natural resources for valued people and ecosystem relationships. The impacts of these three perspectives on how natural resource managers view and respond to ecosystems,people and other life-forms is basic and can be profound.

Download Full-text

Census of the Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus) at Leveste, Municipality of Gehrden, Germany

Transactional Environmental Support System Design ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-2824-3.ch011 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 168-171

Author(s):

Gabor von Bethlenfalvy ◽

Julia Hindersin ◽

Egbert Strauß

Keyword(s):

Arable Land ◽

Monitoring Program ◽

Lepus Europaeus ◽

Brown Hare ◽

Lower Saxony ◽

Long Term Monitoring ◽

Term Monitoring

The case study used spotlight strip census routes to estimate Brown Hare numbers in a 793 ha hunting district. The habitats, dominated by intensively farmed arable land were also mapped. This is part of a Germany-wide long-term monitoring program of game populations which is carried out by hunters and was initiated by the German Hunters’ Association and the Hunters’ Association of Lower Saxony in 2001.

Download Full-text

Streams and Dreams and Cross-site Studies

Long-Term Ecological Research ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199380213.003.0010 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Sherri L. Johnson

Keyword(s):

Stream Temperature ◽

Principal Investigator ◽

Ecosystem Dynamics ◽

University Of Oklahoma ◽

Resource Managers ◽

Long Term Ecological Research ◽

Natural Resource Managers ◽

Heat Budgets ◽

Postdoctoral Fellowship

The influence of the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program on my science has been to broaden my scope through exposure to long-term research and to encourage me to explore major questions across biomes. Communication and outreach with natural resource managers and policy makers has given me insight into translation of science and shaped my research. Through my experiences in the LTER program, I began collaborations with stream ecologists and biogeochemists across sites, which expanded into a high-profile research project that spanned several decades. I encourage scientists to work at LTER sites because they are supportive science communities with a wealth of information to share. Currently, I am a co–principal investigator at the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest LTER project (AND) in Oregon and have been involved with LTER sites most of my professional life. In 1990, I began graduate research on freshwater shrimp responses to a hurricane at the Luquillo LTER site (LUQ) with Alan Covich, my PhD advisor at the University of Oklahoma. My involvement with LTER research expanded during my postdoctoral fellowship. Through the LTER All Scientists Meetings, I met Julia Jones and other researchers from AND. With their encouragement, I received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Postdoctoral Fellowship Grant in 1996 to examine stream temperature dynamics at AND. After several years at Oregon State University, I was hired by the US Forest Service (USFS) Pacific Northwest Research Station in 2001 as a USFS scientist for AND and became a co–principal investigator in 2002. I have had the benefit of being mentored for multiple years by Fred Swanson and have gradually assumed lead USFS responsibilities for AND. As a stream ecologist, I have studied basic questions and applied issues involving water quality, water quantity, and stream food webs, primarily in forested streams. My research at the LUQ site has examined responses of fresh water shrimp to disturbances and their role in ecosystem dynamics. At AND, my research exploring patterns and controls of stream temperature began as a theoretical landscape-scale question and expanded to examination of temperature responses to flow paths, calculations of heat budgets, and policy implications of forest management (Johnson and Jones 2000; Johnson 2004).

Download Full-text