Rocky Mountain Futures: An Ecological Perspective

by Baron, Jill S.

• ISBN13: 9781559639545
• ISBN10: 1559639547
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-09-01
• Publisher: Island Pr

Summary

The Rocky Mountain West is largely arid and steep, with ecological scars from past human use visible for hundreds of years. Just how damaging were the past 150 years of activity? How do current rates of disturbance compare with past mining, grazing, and water diversion activities? In the face of constant change, what constitutes a "natural" ecosystem? And can a high quality of life be achieved for both human and natural communities in this region.Rocky Mountain Futurespresents a comprehensive and wide-ranging examination of the ecological consequences of past, current, and future human activities in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States and Canada. The book brings together 32 leading ecologists, geographers, and other scientists and researchers to present an objective assessment of the cumulative effects of human activity on the region's ecological health and to consider changes wrought by past human use. This combined view of past and present reveals where Rocky Mountain ecosystems are heading, and the authors project what the future holds based upon current economic and social trends and the patterns that emerge from them. The book:examines the biogeographic and paleoenvironmental setting and historical climate that have shaped Rocky Mountain ecosystemstraces the direct human influences on landscapes and ecosystems over the past 150 yearsexplores the cumulative effects of past, present, and projected future human activities on tundra, subalpine and montane forests, valleys, grasslands, and watersoffers case studies that illustrate specific examples of human influence and current efforts to restore the environment Case studies focus on northern New Mexico; Summit County, Colorado; Flathead Valley, Montana; and Alberta, Canada. Among the contributors are Craig D. Allen, N. Thompson Hobbs, Linda L. Joyce, Robert E. Keane, David Schindler, Timothy R. Seastedt, David Theobald, Diana Tomback, William Travis, Cathy Whitlock, and Jack Stanford.The United Nations has proclaimed 2002 as the International Year of Mountains to increase international awareness of the global importance of mountain ecosystems. The case-based multidisciplinary approach of this book constitutes an important new model for understanding the implications of land-use practices and economic activity on mountains, and will serve a vital role in improving decisionmaking both in the Rocky Mountains and in other parts of the world that face similar challenges.

Author Biography

Craig D. Allen is an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Bandelier National Monument, with broad interests in landscape ecology, land use change, and the fire ecology of northern New Mexico. William L. Baker is a professor in the Department of Geography and Recreation at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, specializing in the ecology of southern Rocky Mountain landscapes. Jill S. Baron is an ecosystem ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University. William D. Bowman is director of the Mountain Research Station and a professor in the Department of Environmental, Population, and Organismic Biology, University of Colorado at Boulder. David R. Butler is a geomorphologist at Southwest Texas State University with secondary training in biogeography. He has conducted field research for more than twenty-five years in Glacier National Park, Montana. David M. Cairns is a biogeographer in the Department of Geography at Texas A&M University. He is interested in vegetation response to geomorphology. Thomas N. Chase is affiliated with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the Department of Geography at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he researches the interactions between climate and land cover change. Bonnie K. Ellis is a microbial ecologist at the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station. She is interested in understanding the physical, biological, and chemical factors that control production in Flathead Lake. Daniel B. Fagre is an ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Glacier National Park, Montana. He conducts research to understand the effects of global-scale environmental change on mountain ecosystems of the northern Rockies. Brad Hawkes has been a fire research officer for the Canadian Forest Service at the Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria, British Columbia, since 1980. N. Thompson Hobbs is a senior research scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University. He studies the ecology of large herbivores in natural and human-dominated systems. Linda A. Joyce is research project leader for the research project Sustaining Alpine and Forest Ecosystems under Atmospheric and Terrestrial Disturbances, conducted at the USDA Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, Colorado. Robert E. Keane is a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, Missoula, Montana. Katherine C. Kendall studies the ecology and population trends of forest carnivore populations as a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey's Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Glacier National Park, Montana. Carl H. Key is a geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey's Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center in Glacier National Park, Montana. He works on problems ranging from fire ecology to climatic influences on glaciers. Timothy G. F. Kittel studies the nature of climate variability and how it influences the structure and function of ecosystems as a scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, Terrestrial Sciences Section, Boulder, Colorado, and with the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University. Jesse A. Logan is a research entomologist with the Rocky Mountain Research Station in Logan, Utah, with interests in the ecological role of insect disturbances in Rocky Mountain conifer forests. George P. Malanson is a landscape ecologist and modeler at the Department of Geography, University of Iowa, with research interests in mountain geography. David M. Pepin is a graduate student in stream ecology at Colorado State University. He studies regulated river ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains. N. LeRoy Poff is an aquatic ecologist and associate professor in the Department of Biology at Colorado State University. Mel A. Reasoner is a science officer with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) Mountain Research Initiative in Bern, Switzerland; his research interests focus on paleoenvironmental reconstructions of high-elevation sites in the Rocky Mountains. J. Andy Royle is a statistician with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with interests in the application of spatial statistical methods to problems in biology, ecology, and natural resources. Heather M. Rueth is a terrestrial ecosystem ecologist at the Ecosystem Center of the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. She is interested in the effects of human activity on ecosystem processes. Kevin C. Ryan is project leader for fire effects at the USDA Forest Service Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, Montana. David W. Schindler is Killam Memorial Professor of Ecology at the University of Alberta, Edmonton. He is the recipient of the 2001 Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering. Timothy R. Seastedt is an ecologist with the University of Colorado at Boulder and director of the Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research program. He is interested in the role of biotic systems in global change issues and their response to global change. Jack A. Stanford is Jesse M. Bierman Professor of Ecology and director of the Flathead Lake Biological Station, University of Montana-Polson. Thomas J. Stohlgren is a research ecologist for the Fort Collins Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey, Fort Collins, Colorado. He specializes in landscape ecology, invasive species, and issues of scaling and spatial modeling. David M. Theobald is a research scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory and is assistant professor in the Department of Natural Resource Recreation and Tourism at Colorado State University, where he studies the effects of land use change on biodiversity. Peter E. Thornton studies interactions between terrestrial biogeochemical cycles and global climate at the Climate and Global Dynamics Division of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado. Diana F. Tomback is an ecologist and professor in the Department of Biology, University of Colorado at Denver. William R. Travis teaches environmental geography at the University of Colorado at Boulder and studies land use change in the American West. Thomas T. Veblen, a professor of geography at the University of Colorado at Boulder, teaches and conducts research in forest dynamics, disturbance ecology, and tree-ring applications to forest ecology. Cathy Whitlock is a professor of geography at the University of Oregon with research interests in the late Quaternary climate, vegetation, and fire history of the western United States.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. xi
List of Plates	p. xiii
List of Tables	p. xv
List of Boxes	p. xvii
Foreword	p. xix
Preface	p. xxiii
Transforming the Rockies: Human Forces, Settlement Patterns, and Ecosystem Effects	p. 1
The Background of Environmental Change	p. 25
Geomorphic and Biogeographic Setting of the Rocky Mountains	p. 27
Paleoenvironmental History of the Rocky Mountain Region during the Past 20,000 Years	p. 41
Climates of the Rocky Mountains: Historical and Future Patterns	p. 59
Human-Driven Changes to Rocky Mountain Landscapes	p. 83
Natural Resource Extraction: Past, Present, and Future	p. 85
Ecological Effects of Resource Development in Running Waters	p. 113
The Cascading Effects of Fire Exclusion in Rocky Mountain Ecosystems	p. 133
Rocky Road in the Rockies: Challenges to Biodiversity	p. 153
Synthesis of Human Influences on Different Ecological Zones	p. 181
Islands in the Sky: Alpine and Treeline Ecosystems of the Rockies	p. 183
The Heart of the Rockies: Montane and Subalpine Ecosystems	p. 203
Base Camps of the Rockies: The Intermountain Grasslands	p. 219
Case Studies	p. 237
Rumblings in Rio Arriba: Landscape Changes in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Northern New Mexico	p. 239
Collaborative Development of a Conservation Planning System: A Case Study of Summit County, Colorado	p. 255
Natural and Cultural Influences on Ecosystem Processes in the Flathead River Basin (Montana and British Columbia)	p. 269
The Eastern Slopes of the Canadian Rockies: Must We Follow the American Blueprint?	p. 285
Conclusion: Rocky Mountain Futures: Forecasting a Future We Do Not Want	p. 301
About the Authors	p. 307
Index	p. 311
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