Federal Natural Resource Agencies Research Articles

Restoration of bighorn sheep: History, successes, and remaining conservation issues

Mammals are imperiled worldwide, primarily from habitat loss or modification, and exhibit downward trends in their populations and distributions. Likewise, large-bodied herbivores have undergone a collapse in numbers and are at the highest extinction risk of all mammals. Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) are among those large-bodied herbivores that possess a slow-paced life history, suffer from debilitating diseases, and have experienced range contractions across their historical distribution since the late 1800s. Translocations and reintroductions of these mountain ungulates are key aspects of restoration and often are used to re-establish populations in historical habitat or to supplement declining herds. Millions of US dollars and much effort by state and federal natural resource agencies, as well as public and private organizations, have been expended to restore bighorn sheep. Despite those efforts, translocated populations of bighorn sheep have not always been successful. We assessed restoration of bighorn sheep to provide insights in the context of conservation of populations of bighorn sheep, because this management tool is a frequently used to re-establish populations. We focused briefly on past efforts to restore bighorn sheep populations and followed with updates on the value of habitat enhancements, genetic issues, the importance of ecotypic or phenotypic adaptations when restoring populations, predation, and disease transmission. We also raised issues and posed questions that have potential to affect future decisions regarding the restoration of bighorn sheep. This information will help conservationists improve the success of conserving these iconic large mammals.

A Long-Term Vision for an Ecologically Sound Platte River

The Platte River extends about 310 mi (499 km) from North Platte, Nebraska, to its terminus at the Missouri River confluence near Plattsmouth, Nebraska. The Platte River Valley is a continentally significant ecosystem that serves as a major stopover for migratory waterbirds in the Central Flyway including the endangered Whooping Crane (Grus americana) and >1 million Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis) at the peak of spring migration. However, the Platte River Valley also supports a great diversity of avifauna including grassland breeding birds, native stream fish, vascular plants, herpetofauna, mammals, pollinators, and aquatic macroinvertebrates. Despite ongoing conservation efforts since the mid-1970s the ecosystem remains largely conservation dependent and an increasing number of species across taxa are being considered at risk of regional extirpation or outright extinction. However, given the attention provided to conservation in the Platte River Valley and the need to maintain ecologically functional stopover sites in the Central Flyway, there is a great opportunity to create a resilient refugium for biodiversity conservation in the central Great Plains. To that end we convened a working group of >18 individuals representing >9 organizations including representatives from non-profit conservation organizations, universities, and state and federal natural resource agencies to develop a long-term vision for an ecologically sound Platte River Valley (PRV). We met in groups of varying size for >170 hours throughout a more than 3-year period and developed conservation priorities and objectives using a landscape design process. Landscape design is an interdisciplinary conservation planning process that incorporates components of landscape ecology and social dimensions of natural resources with the explicit intention of improving conservation implementation.

Delivery of habitat conservation programs on private land

ABSTRACTState Wildlife Action Plans serve as blueprints for conserving our nation's fish and wildlife and preventing endangered species listings. These plans guide conservation of >12,000 species in greatest conservation need. Recovering these species will require a dramatic increase in funding. The majority of these habitat‐restoration efforts will have to be located on private land, particularly in the eastern two‐thirds of the United States. A wide variety of state and federal habitat conservation programs and associated funding sources already exist, but current funding mechanisms appear to be inadequate to meet conservation needs, and delivery mechanisms are duplicative. Coordination is difficult for state and federal natural resource agencies, which can lead to inefficiency and redundancy among programs. Successful conservation depends on the collaboration of many individuals, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations. Conservation program efficiency can be improved by expanding, strengthening, and simplifying partnerships. We believe federal natural‐resource agencies should transfer funds to states through block grants and technical‐service provider agreements to manage and protect habitats for threatened and endangered species, migratory birds, and other federal‐trust species primarily through conservation delivery on private lands. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.

Can We Manage for Resilience? The Integration of Resilience Thinking into Natural Resource Management in the United States

The concept of resilience is now frequently invoked by natural resource agencies in the US. This reflects growing trends within ecology, conservation biology, and other disciplines acknowledging that social-ecological systems require management approaches recognizing their complexity. In this paper, we examine the concept of resilience and the manner in which some legal and regulatory frameworks governing federal natural resource agencies have difficulty accommodating it. We then use the U.S. Forest Service's employment of resilience as an illustration of the challenges ahead.

Challenges of Professional Development: Balancing the Demands of Employers and Professions in Federal Natural Resource Agencies

Effectiveness of government natural resource agencies depends on the capabilities of their employees. These capabilities may be maintained or enhanced through professional development activities, including involvement in scientific societies. The authors studied factors that influence whether U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey biologists participate in a variety of professional development activities. Previous research has indicated that a tension sometimes exists between employees’ commitment to their professions (professional commitment) and their commitment to their employing organizations (organizational commitment). The authors explored how these two orientations related to professional development. The authors found that increases in engagement in a number of types of professional development activities were associated with increases in professional commitment and education. Decreases in engagement in some types of professional development were associated with increases in organizational commitment, however, suggesting that engaging in professional development may involve a trade-off between meeting one’s professional needs and satisfying obligations to one’s agency.

Dinosaur Ramblings

Abstract: Over the last 35 years there has been a shift in university wildlife and fisheries academic programs away from management and toward an ecology or conservation ethos. These university changes have been in both research and education. A similar change has occurred in direction among state and federal natural resource agencies. However, the changes exhibited by both groups have not been to the same degree. I believe university academic programs are now scaled more to the ecology—conservation side, while agencies still average to the management side. This represents a disconnect because university academic programs conduct research for these agencies (and others) and also educate future agency employees and provide technical services to agencies.

Hunters' and Other Citizens' Reactions to Discovery of CWD in Central New York

The discovery of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in New York in March 2005 resulted in a major effort by state and federal natural resource agencies to contain the disease, protect wild deer herds, and inform the public about the disease. One of the most urgent information needs of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) concerned the level of awareness of CWD among hunters and other New York residents. A “rapid response” survey effort was designed jointly by staff from the Human Dimensions Research Unit at Cornell University and NYSDEC. The survey assessed the effect of the discovery of CWD on hunters' plans to hunt deer in fall 2005. The results showed hunters were much more aware of the discovery of CWD than the general public. Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) was perceived by most respondents as a highly credible source of information on CWD, and the various agencies were rated above the midpoint between not trusting at all and greatly trusting information on CWD.

U.S. Courts of Appeals Judges’ Review of Federal Natural Resource Agencies’ Decisions

Commentators have suggested that federal judges who review federal natural resource agencies’ management decisions sometimes substitute their own preferences for agencies’ decisions. We used four competing judicial decision-making models to test this assertion. We analyzed all published cases decided by the U.S. Courts of Appeals from 1970 to 1997 in which a federal natural resource agency was the defendant in a case involving natural resource statutes. All four models significantly classified judges’ opinions on the model developmental data. However, when we validated the models on independent data, only the attitudinal model was statistically significant. The results establish that while facts and precedent are important, judges respond to multiple stimuli when making decisions. This research empirically demonstrates that some judges do not function as objective decision makers in some natural resource management cases, and develops variables and models researchers can use to investigate how the legal system affects natural resources management.

THE INTRUSION OF CRIMINAL LAW ON THE NRDA PROCESS

ABSTRACT A primary goal of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA 90) is to make the environment and public whole for injuries to natural resources that result from the discharge of oil. OPA 90 authorizes state and federal natural resource agencies to serve as trustees for natural resources and provides them with the responsibility, through a natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) process, to ensure that injured natural resources are restored. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) promulgated damage assessment regulations, and in an attempt to correct deficiencies and meet OPA 90 mandates, developed a framework intended to promote expeditious restoration. To lessen the common litigious nature of the NRDA process, the regulations encourage active participation by a responsible party in a cooperative assessment of damages. Natural resource trustee agencies also have authority to enforce criminal aspects of other statutes for impacts resulting from an oil spill. However, when agencies initiate a criminal investigation under these statutes for an oil spill, the goals mandated in OPA 90 and set forth in the NOAA regulations can be substantially undermined. There are potential solutions that could, at least partially, resolve this dilemma for the responsible party to a point where participation in the NRDA process would not unduly prejudice its position in a criminal investigation. Such solutions might include written agreements as to communications and transactional use of immunity agreements, stay of proceedings, and protective orders, which singly, or in combination, could prove invaluable in preserving a progressive NRDA process, fully inclusive of the responsible party.

Sustaining the People's Lands -- Recommendations for Stewardship of the National Forests and Grasslands into the Next Century

Abstract In December 1997, Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman convened an interdisciplinary committee of 13 scientists to provide scientific and technical advice on the Forest Service's land and resource management planning process. The committee was asked to recommend how best to accomplish resource planning within the existing environmental laws and statutory mission of the Forest Service; to provide technical advice on planning and provide material for the agency to consider in revising planning regulations; to recommend improvements in coordination with other federal agencies, state and local government agencies, and tribal governments; and to suggest a new planning framework that could last a generation. The committee took field trips and met in cities and towns around the country to hear from Forest Service employees, representatives of tribes, state and local governments, related federal natural resource agencies, and members of the public. Drawing on many of the approaches and improvements to planning it observed, the committee has made its recommendations.

Review of policy evaluation in natural resources

On the basis of a literature review and an informal review of evaluations conducted by federal natural resource agencies, emerging themes in evaluation research are identified. Scholars are beginning to question the theories and approaches underlying evaluation research, prompting a search for alternatives to traditional evaluations, including the development of frameworks for analysis. At the federal level, themes include that evaluations are not routinely undertaken through formal mechanisms and are often conducted in response to “felt need” and crisis. Recommendations for improving the evaluation of natural resource policies are offered, including the need to create better linkages between theory and practice.

Preserving coastal biodiversity: The private, nonprofit approach

Abstract Cooperation among state, federal, and private conservation organizations is essential to help preserve coastal biodiversity. The Nature Conservancy's Natural Heritage Program, a state‐by‐state rare species and natural community inventory, has been adopted throughout most of the United States and was initially funded, in part, privately, but will ultimately be incorporated into and funded by state governments. Many more such novel programs combining public and private support will be necessary if the United States is to preserve coastal biodiversity. The first step is to state clearly as a mission throughout state and federal natural resource agencies that biodiversity preservation is of top priority. Then, by working cooperatively with private, nonprofit land trusts and conservation organizations, research, habitat acquisition, and management can be accomplished through pooled talents and resources much more efficiently. Two coastal examples, one regarding protection and research of an endangered...

Legislative Confrontation of Groupthink in US Natural Resource Agencies

Within the apparent strength of proud, successful, cohesive agencies are often found characteristics that inhibit their ability to adapt successfully in an environment of change. Organizations can be so successful that they feel invulnerable to public petition. They can stereotype, and dismiss as uninformed ‘outsiders’ or biased trouble-makers, any others who criticize them. Janis (1967) has described such organizational tendencies as groupthink behaviour—where proud and successful, professional organizations such as the USDA-Forest Service (USFS), consider themselves superior to the public, and where any external criticism is filtered, rationalized, and stereotyped to minimize the need for organizational introspection and change.This article looks at how groupthink tendencies were a normal, understandable part of USFS behaviour in the 1950–60s—and how these tendencies inhibited its adaptation to a post-industrial American society that was increasingly concerned with forest recreational and amenity values. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA, 1970) was the first of several laws that directly confronted the utilitarian, developmental values and the groupthink tendencies in federal natural resource agencies. Responding to NEPA (1970) and other legislative and policy changes of that era, the USFS has latterly become a much more sexually and professionally diverse agency, that is more open to public input than formerly. This volte-face has reduced the probability of groupthink operating in the agency, and consequently improved the latter's prospects of a useful and equitable future.