Social and Cultural Data in Landscape Ecology

1. Social and Cultural Data in Landscape Ecology Michelle Steen-Adams

2. Outline • Significance of integrating humans into ecological studies • Conceptual Foundation • Ways that human presence shapes landscape pattern • Applications • Data • Case Study: Development of Landscape pattern on Ojibwe and Private lands in northern Wisconsin

3. I. Significance of integrating humans into ecological studies • Interdisciplinary nature of many ecological issues • Socio-cultural aspects of many scientific questions • Values • Ethics

4. II. Conceptual Foundation Zev Naveh (1991) Human Sphere: Culture Technology Biophysical Sphere Emergent Structural And Functional Characteristics

5. III. Ways that human presence shapes landscape pattern • Land Use • Human History • Culture • Land Ownership • Politics and Economics

6. Shapers of Landscape Pattern: Land Use Haut Saint Laurent, Quebec Bouchard and Demon (1997)

7. Shapers of Landscape Pattern: Human History Eastern Upper Peninsula, Michigan Silbernagel et al. 1997

8. Shapers of Landscape Pattern: Culture Cultural Landscape Little Tennessee River Valley Delcourt and Delcourt 1988 Kickapoo Valley, Wisconsin Heasley and Guries 1998

9. Cultural drivers of landscape change Liberty Township, Vernon County, Wisconsin. Heasley and Guries 1998

10. Shapers of Landscape Pattern:Land Ownership

11. IV. Applications • Restoration • Management Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, Dunwiddie, 2001.

12. V. Data • Remotely-sensed Imagery • Aerial photography • Satellite Imagery

13. Data • Archival Materials: Written Records • Agency reports • Plat maps and property tax rolls • Journal entries • Archival Materials: Survey data • State land inventories • U.S. Public Land Survey System

14. Data • Photographs and Maps • Archeological Record

15. V. Case Study: Development of Landscape pattern on Ojibwe and Private lands in northern Wisconsin

16. Big Picture Questions • Ecological historical/Landscape Ecological literatures: • How have landscapes changed through time? • How has human history shaped ecological change (ecological legacies)? Significance: Historical range of Variability, Forest Dynamics, Guidance to forest management and restoration • Environmental historical literature: • How have culture, politics, and economics interacted to shape environmental change? Significance: Social lessons for human-environment relations

17. Existing Understanding: Interrelations between Human History and Ecological History • Pre-EuroAmerican Forest: • Multistory canopy structure • Shaped by Little Ice Age (15th-18th c.) • Post-EuroAmerican settlement (1860-1930) • Selective Logging and slash fires  Early successional forests • 1930s to Present: • Fire suppression, forest management, and maturation processes Second growth forest and managed rotation forest

18. Human historical shapers of landscape pattern

19. Human historical shapers of landscape pattern

20. Question 1: How has the forest changed in terms of landscape composition and structure over a 130-year period (1857-1987)? Hypotheses • Landscape Composition: Proportion of early successional species, like aspen has increased, late successional species, like white pine has decreased. • Landscape Structure: Mean Patch Size: General pattern: First, decrease, later increase

21. Research Design: Delineation of study area by Land Type Association (LTA) • Regions of relative ecological and physical homogeneity delineate LTAs • Control for Biophysical Variation • Focus on human historical sources of ecological variation

22. Forest Vegetation Data Source #1: Public Land Survey Records (ca. 1857)

23. Forest Vegetation Data Source #2: Wisconsin Land Economic Inventory (ca. 1928)

24. Forest Vegetation Data Source #3: Aerial Photography (1951)

25. Forest Vegetation Data Source #4: Multi-Temporal Satellite Imagery (1987)

26. Landscape Transition Analysis Dominant Species in 1987 data set

27. Vegetative Composition prior to Euro-American Settlement

28. Primary Landscape Change Trajectories

29. Question 2: In Lake Superior clay plain, how have the histories of land use, fire, or the interaction between these two disturbances, influenced trajectories of forest change? • Hypotheses • Cultivation or pasture land use correlated with white pine initially (i.e. in 1951), then hardwoods later (i.e. in 1987) • Sites that experienced repeated or intense fire are more likely to support aspen, whereas those that did not experience fire are more likely to support white pine.

31. Hypothesized Results: Influence of Land Use History

32. Question 3: How has the history of land ownership influenced forest change? Hypothesis: Early-successional species tend to be more predominant on the Bad River Reservation Reservation than on neighboring non-Industrial Private lands, due to differing management histories.

34. Hypothetical Results: Influence of Land Ownership History

35. Question 4: How have cultural and political histories influenced forest change? The cultural characteristics of land owners influences forest change. The political relations of land owners with either government or businesses/ corporations influences forest change.

36. Political and Cultural History on Bad River Reservation

37. Bad River Reservation Management History1930s-1980s Emphasis on pulpwood production by BIA forest managers Harvest of Aspen Pulpwood on Bad River Reservation (ca. 1935)

38. Closing Remarks: Challenges and Possibilities • Challenges • Present limited understanding of how social dynamics shape landscape pattern • Possibilities • Aim to gain more complete understanding of landscape development • Applied uses: guide management, restoration, and land use.

39. Key Points • Many landscape ecological questions require an integration of humans into the analysis. • A conceptual foundation and body of research literature exists. • Human presence shapes landscape pattern in multiple ways. • There are applied reasons to integrate social and cultural variables into landscape ecology research. • Data and analytical techniques do exist to conduct this kind of research.