Planning for change? Assessing the integration of climate change and land-based livelihoods in Colorado BLM planning documents

Julia Nave,Shannon Mcneeley,Corrine Noel Knapp

doi:10.1007/s10113-020-01590-0

Abstract

Many western communities are surrounded by public lands that support land-based and local economies. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision-making affects the vulnerability of those land-based livelihoods, especially in the context of climate change. We analyzed Colorado BLM planning documents to evaluate how they are considering climate change, sensitive resources, impacts, and land-based livelihoods in their planning processes using both quantitative word counts and qualitative coding. Documents published in recent years (2011–2015) include more mentions of climate change than older documents (1985–1997). However, the review showed that while climate change is discussed within the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) planning documents, the final Resource Management Plans contain few mentions of climate change. Further, there is minimal consideration of how climate change may impact land-based livelihoods. These results prompt questions about the planning process, how climate change considerations are integrated into the final documents, and how that impacts on-the-ground management. The review suggests a need for increased consideration of climate change throughout the BLM’s planning process so that landscapes can be managed with more attention and awareness to climate change and the associated impacts to resources and dependent communities.

Highlights

In the Western USA, changes in climate have introduced a suite of impacts that are projected to increase in frequencyCommunicated by Debbie Ley Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, USA 3 Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA and severity in the future, including drought, forest fire, and flooding (Gordon & Ojima 2015; Gonzalez et al 2018; Reidmiller et al 2018)
Severity in the future, including drought, forest fire, and flooding (Gordon & Ojima 2015; Gonzalez et al 2018; Reidmiller et al 2018). These impacts pose a challenge to public land management agencies, who manage an average of 48.3% of the land in each of the 12 western states (Vincent et al 2017), and the people whose livelihoods are dependent upon federal lands (Gordon & Ojima 2015; Kemp et al 2015)
US Forest Service (USFS) firefighting budget has gone from 16% of their annual budget in 1995 to over 50% in 2015 (US Forest Service (USFS), 2015), and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) permitted livestock authorizations dropped from over 18 million animal unit months (AUMs1) in 1953 to about 8 million in 2014 due in part to the impact of drought on rangeland health (Wiles & Warren 2016)

Summary

Introduction

Laramie, Wyoming, USA 3 Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA and severity in the future, including drought, forest fire, and flooding (Gordon & Ojima 2015; Gonzalez et al 2018; Reidmiller et al 2018) These impacts pose a challenge to public land management agencies, who manage an average of 48.3% of the land in each of the 12 western states (Vincent et al 2017), and the people whose livelihoods are dependent upon federal lands (Gordon & Ojima 2015; Kemp et al 2015).

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Conclusion