Abstract
Research Highlights: Forest conservation policies can drive land-use change to other land-use types. In multifunctional landscapes, forest conservation policies will therefore impact on other functions delivered by the landscape. Finding the best pattern of land use requires considering these interactions. Background and Objectives: Population growth continues to drive the development of land for urban purposes. Consequently, there is a loss of other land uses, such as agriculture and forested lands. Efforts to conserve one type of land use will drive more change onto other land uses. Absent effective collaboration among affected communities and relevant institutional agents, unexpected and undesirable land-use change may occur. Materials and Methods: A CLUE-S (Conversion of Land Use and its Effects at Small Scales) model was developed for the Deep Creek watershed, a small sub-basin in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. The valley is experiencing among the most rapid population growth of any region in Canada. Land uses were aggregated into one forested land-use type, one urban land-use type, and three agricultural types. Land-use change was simulated for combinations of two forest conservation policies. Changes are categorized by location, land type, and an existing agricultural land policy. Results: Forest conservation policies drive land conversion onto agricultural land and may increase the loss of low elevation forested land. Model results show where the greatest pressure for removing land from agriculture is likely to occur for each scenario. As an important corridor for species movement, the loss of low elevation forest land may have serious impacts on habitat connectivity. Conclusions: Forest conservation policies that do not account for feedbacks can have unintended consequences, such as increasing conversion pressures on other valued land uses. To avoid surprises, land-use planners and policy makers need to consider these interactions. Models such as CLUE-S can help identify these spatial impacts.
Highlights
In the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams [1],” the main character hears a mysterious voice say, “If you build it, he will come.” This initiates a drama where the main character overcomes various challenges to build a baseball diamond in the middle of a corn field, a diamond which attracts the spirits of many deceased baseball heroes to play their beloved game
Forest conservation policies that do not account for feedbacks can have unintended consequences, such as increasing conversion pressures on other valued land uses
The Deep Creek watershed is located in the northern portion of the Okanagan Valley, in the 2 with southern part of British Columbia (Figure 1)
Summary
In the 1989 movie “Field of Dreams [1],” the main character hears a mysterious voice say, “If you build it, he will come.” This initiates a drama where the main character overcomes various challenges to build a baseball diamond in the middle of a corn field, a diamond which attracts the spirits of many deceased baseball heroes to play their beloved game. British Columbia’s forests provide many non-timber services that residents’ value, including recreational opportunities, wildlife habitat, carbon storage, and landscape aesthetics These services are generally diminished when forests are harvested, with civil society having a long history of public action in the province to protect forested areas of high value [3,4]. In some cases, these high value forests have strong symbolic appeal, while in other cases the high value forests are valued because they are close to communities where people live. The desire of people to live in the interface regions between urban areas and forests has led to development pressure, evidenced by strong demand for housing in the interface area, on privately held forested land
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