Biodiversity and Land‐Use Change in the American Mountain West

Autor: Wendell Gilgert, Richard L. Knight, Jeremy D. Maestas
Rok vydání: 2001
Předmět:
Zdroj: Geographical Review. 91:509-524
ISSN: 1931-0846
0016-7428
DOI: 10.1111/j.1931-0846.2001.tb00238.x
Popis: Conservationists have an admirable history of documenting the impacts of human land uses on biodiversity to better inform resource-management decisions. Considering all that, the state of our current knowledge about land-use changes in the Mountain West of the United States is less than satisfactory. Across the region, we work to diminish extractive and commodity-based industries, such as water development, logging, mining, and livestock grazing, but have largely failed to recognize the ecological consequences of our own actions, especially where we choose to live and play. While we devote much of our attention to the traditional consumptive land uses that characterized the "Old West," other threats to biodiversity become more pervasive each year with the emergence of a "New West." Urban sprawl and outdoor recreation, for example, are the second and fourth leading causes of the decline in federally listed threatened and endangered species (Czech, Krausman, and Devers 2000). The character of the New West is being shaped by a flood of immigrants seeking to enjoy the natural amenities and recreational opportunities of a region rich in public lands (Power 1996; Masnick 2001). Importantly, however, only half of the West is public lands; the most productive lands in the region are in private ownership (Scott and others 2001). This is critical, because the most profound land-use change in the New West is the conversion of private lands presently in ranching and farming to rural residential, or exurban, developments (Knight 2002). Unfortunately, conservationists have given scant attention to studying the ecological implications of this western land-use conversion. Addressed here are some of the ecological issues associated with land-use change in the Mountain West. For readers who are unfamiliar with the region's current status, we provide a brief review of the changes that are occurring with human population, dominant land uses, and growth patterns. We then examine an emerging strategy that is being implemented to protect biodiversity from these growth pressures. Testing the unstated assumptions of this new conservation strategy, we present the results of a comparison of bio diversity on the three principal land uses beyond incorporated city limits in the Mountain West: protected areas (areas protected from residential development),livestock ranches, and exurban developments. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for conservation. EXURBANIZATION OF THE MOUNTAIN WEST The Mountain West of the United States is experiencing a human population boom that rivals any in its history. Of the eight states that make up this region--Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming--five are the fastest growing in the country (Figure 1). Metropolitan areas and their suburbs have accommodated much of this in-migration, but rural areas are growing at a faster rate (Heimlich and Anderson 2001). Driven by a mixture of economic and quality-of-life features, people are increasingly drawn to the rural Mountain West (Power 1996). Unlike previous booms driven by resource extraction and commodity production, the present period of growth is fueled by the expansion of service, recreation, and information industries and is marked by the conversion of private land use from agriculture to exurban development (Riebsame, Gosnell, and Theobald 1996; Sullins and others 2002). As a result, three of the principal land uses in the rural Mountain West today are protection, livestock ranching, and exurban development. Exurban development refers to low-density residential development that occurs beyond incorporated city limits (Nelson and Dueker 1990; Knight 1999). The main human use in protected areas is outdoor recreation and the protection of perceived natural values; on ranches it is livestock production; in exurban developments it is human residence. The amount of land in protection is relatively static, with little added annually. …
Databáze: OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:
Nepřihlášeným uživatelům se plný text nezobrazuje