Env 121: Conservation of Biodiversity

Topic: Habitat conservation plans

Professor Sork: 5 June 2007

Conservation in the news:

Fateful Voice of a Generation Still Drowns Out Real Science, NY Times June 5, 2007

Environmental Radical Gets 7 Years, By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 5, 2007, NY Times

World Environment Day Homes In on Fear Of Melting Ice, By REUTERS
Published: June 5, 2007, NY Times

Outline of lecture:

1. Habitat Conservation Plans
2. Critique of Multispecies Habitat Conservation Plans
3. Good conservation management
4. Ecosystem management
5. Perspectives on ecosystem management

I. Habitat Conservation Plans

source: US Fish and Wildlife Service, 2005. Habitat Conservation Plans. Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act.

A. What is a Habitat Conservation Plan?

Created by Section 10 of Endangered Species Act in 1982 as a modification to the original ESA in 1973, which prohibited "take". "Incidental Take Permit" required when non-Federal activities with result in "take" of threatened or endangered wildlife HCP must accompany an application for an incidental take permit authorizes the incidental take of listed species Issued by US Fish and Wildlife Service Anyone who has project that that will result in an "incidental take" must apply for a permit and then design an HCP An HCP ensures there is adequate minimizing and mitigating of the effects of the authorized incidental take.

B. What is Incidental Take ?

1. definition: harm, harass, kill, trap, capture, collect any endangered or threatened species
2. Harm can include habitat modification
3. Does not apply to listed plants, although the HCP must not jeopardize listed plant species.

C. What needs to be in an HCP?

1. An assessment of impacts likely to result from the taking of federally listed species
2. measures that will be undertaken to monitor, minimize and mitigate impacts of take
3. funding to implement the measures
4. procedures to deal with unforeseen circumstances
5. Alternative actions that were analyzed and why not selected
6. Additional measures that the FWS might require

D. What kinds of actions are considered mitigation?

1. Measures that reduce or address potential adverse affects of the proposed activity on the species covered by the HCP
2. Measures could include
   • preservation via acquisition or conservation easements of existing habitat
   • enhancement or restoration of degraded habitat
   • creation of new habitats
   • establishment of buffer areas of existing habitats
   • modification of land use practices
   • restriction of access

E. "No Surprises Assurances"

1. Provided by the government to the permittee as long as the terms and conditions of the HCP are implemented and maintained.
2. Private landowners are assured that if "unforeseen circumstances" arise, the FWS will not require commitment of additional land or water or financial compensation or additional restrictions beyond those agreed in the HCP.

F. HCP's by December 2007

• 430 HCPs
• many early ones were less than 1000 ac
• 10 exceed 500,000 acres
• several > 1,000,000 acres
• some involve multiple species and multiple projects

G. Examples:

1. Central Coastal Orange County HCP

See web site: US FWS Endangered Species Habitat Conservation Planning

II. Critique of Multispecies Habitat Conservation Plans

source: M Rahn, H Doremus, J Diffendorfer. 2006. Species coverage in multispecies habitat conservation plans: Where's the science? BioScience 56: 613-619.

A. Multispecies HCPs

1. Promoted by wildlife agencies
2. Allegedly this approach increases the biological values of HCPs by providing "Ecosystem Planning"
3. Evidence suggest that species covered under MSHCP's are less likely to show improving trends than single species plans.
4. MSCHP's are intented to satisfy interests of conservation and economic development

B. Goals of paper

1. Assess whether MSCHP's incorporate science-based conservation planning
   • are covered species confirmed in planning area?
   • does the conservation plan contain specific measures for the covered species?

C. Methods

1. Limited analysis to USFWS REgion 1: 85% of MSHCPs
2. 22 plans approved before Dec 2005
   • include at least one federally listed species and one unlisted species
   • terrestrial systems
   • all documents must be avaialbe
3. Determined whether a covered species was confirmed to be in the planning area: needs site specific data
4. Evaluated whether covered species had plans for species-specif conservation measures
5. size ranged from 155 to 5 M acres
6. Number of species ranged from 8-161

See Table 1 of article

D. Results

1. 41% of species covered in the plans were not in the planning area (Table 1)
   • Only one plan had all the covered species confirmed
   • In another plan, 89% of covered species were not confirmed to be in the planning area
2. Many reasons that species weren't confirmed
   • Known to be in nearby area or similar habitat
   • Might pass through the planning area (e.g. canadian geese)
3. 85% of species without species-specifi conservation actions, were the ones not confirmed in the planning area

E. Conclusions

1. Many HCPs are approved without adequate scientific data
2. Absence of information on coverage of species in planning area makes it impossible to evaluate conservation benefits
3. The HCP cannot ensure that the area set aside for conservation would result in "no jeopardy"
4. This problem is particularly acute for multi-species habitat plans
5. 40-50% of listed species in multispecies plans show declining trends (Taylor et al 2005)
   • probably due to lack of coverage
   • "umbrella approach" does not necessarily work
6. More scientific information is needed before HCP's should be approved or can be implmented.

III. Good Conservation Management

Principle 1: Critical ecological processes and biodiversity composition must be maintained.

1. Key species management

• Grizzly bears at Yellowstone
• Large ungulates, E. Africa

2. Habitat or ecosystem management

• disturbance processes are managed
• fire regimes in 500 ha reserve in Northern Florida

Principle 2: External threats must be minimized and external benefits maximized.

1. not "island of natural habitat": pollution, invasions

2. boundary effects

• Need to minimize depth of negative boundary effects
• strategy depends on threats
• work with landowners and managers of surrounding land
• community relations with suburban area
• address traditional uses of land by indigenous people (See Essay 11B)

3. effective reserve size

• can increase with semi-wild lands surrounding reserve

4. Habitat corridors

• controversial
• require careful design
• can be less expensive than large preserves

Principle 3: Evolutionary processes must be conserved.

1. stochastic effects

2. retain genetic variation before populations are threatened

Principle 4: Management must be adaptive and minimally intrusive

1. Contingency plans

2. Flexibility

3. Peregrine falcon example:

• southern populations require re-introductions from northern populations
• sensitivity analysis: adult survival more imp. than nestling survival
• thus, adult survival in no. pops is essential

IV. Ecosystem management

A. Biophysical ecosystem

1. Biophysical unit = level of biological organization above that of populations or communities that includes interactions between biota and physical environment.

2. Ecosystem management: management of structure and processes of a set of biophysical ecosystems within a large area.

3. Example: Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

4. boundaries of management area:

• ecosystem should be completely enclosed within management area
• inclusion of several ecosystem units should be based on their functional linkages
• might want to include unlinked ecosystems that are affected by same stresses

5. Ecosystem management must include functional landscape mosaic.

B. Defining characteristics of an ecosystem approach

1. "An approach to maintaining or restoring the composition, structure, and function of natural and modified ecosystems for the goal of long-term sustainability."

2. "Integrates ecological, so cio-economical, and institutional perspectives"

3. "applied to a geographical regions with natural boundaries".

4. Many definitions

5. spatial and temporal scales of ecosystem management must be appropriate to specific ecosystem.

Table 11.2 (Meffe, Carroll, et al. 1997)

Traditional vs. ecosystem approaches to management

Emphasis on commodities and natural resource extraction	Emphasis on balance between commodities, amenities, and ecological integrity
Equilibrium perspective	Nonequilibrium perspective
Ecological stability	Dynamics, resilience
Climax communities	Shifting mosaics
Reductionism	Holism
Prescription; command and control management	Uncertainty and flexibility; adaptive management
Site specificity	Attention to context
Solutions imposed by resource management agencies	Solutions developed through discussions with stakeholders
Optimization; problem simplification; search for single best answer	Multiple solutions to complex problems
Confrontation; single-issue polarization; public seen as advisory	Consensus building; multiple issues; public invited as partners

C. Adaptive management

1. Strategy to set, monitor and modify ecosystem management goals
   • Continual monitoring
   • Analyses of policy alternatives
2. Has a beginning but no end
3. Experimental approach with treatment and control units (e.g. MOFEP)
4. Or, smaller, prototype management trials can be instituted and assessed (hopefully with statistical analysis).

D. Development of management plans

1. Review the mission statement

2. Review history of the site or program

3. Identify the major specific problems that require management.

4. Establish a group of formal or informal advisors.

5. Develop a management plant for reserve

• short-term (5 yr) and long term (often less likely)
• physical plant and zoning
• evaluation of goals

6. Develop annual work plans

7. Develop an inventory of resource and site description

8. Identify key areas where research is needed.

9. Maintain good relations with local community

10. Look for opportunities to develop cooperative agreements for land use and storing.

V. Perspectives on Ecosystem Management

Source: Interagency ecosystem management task force. 1995. The ecosystem approach: Healthy ecosystems and sustainable economies. vol. 1. Washington, DC

1. Shared vision by all parties
2. Coordinated approach with ongoing collaboration
3. Use ecological approaches
4. Incorporate sustained economic, socio-cultural, and community goals
5. Respect private property rights
6. Recognize dynamic nature of ecosystems and institutions
7. Use adaptive approach
8. Integrate best science available
9. Establish baseline conditions for ecosystem functioning

Source: Christensen, N. L., A. Bartuska, J. Brown, S. Carpenter, C. D'Antonio, R. Francis, J. Franklin, J. MacMahon, R. Noss, D. Parsons, C. Peterson, M.Turner, and R. Woodmansee. 1996. The report of the Ecological Society of America on the scientific basis for ecosystem management. Ecological Applications 6: 665-91

1. Sustainability
2. Goals
3. Sound ecological models and understanding
4. Complexity and interconnectedness
5. Recognition of dynamics character of ecosystems
6. Context and scale
7. Humans as ecosystems components
8. Adaptability and accountability