Appreciation, use, and management of biodiversity and ecosystem services in California's working landscapes.

"Working landscapes" is the concept of fostering effective ecosystem stewardship and conservation through active human presence and management and integrating livestock, crop, and timber production with the provision of a broad range of ecosystem services at the landscape scale. Based on a statewide survey of private landowners of "working" forests and rangelands in California, we investigated whether owners who are engaged in commercial livestock or timber production appreciate and manage biodiversity and ecosystem services on their land in different ways than purely residential owners. Both specific uses and management practices, as well as underlying attitudes and motivations toward biodiversity and ecosystem services, were assessed. Correlation analysis showed one bundle of ecosystem goods and services (e.g., livestock, timber, crops, and housing) that is supported by some landowners at the community level. Another closely correlated bundle of biodiversity and ecosystem services includes recreation, hunting/fishing, wildlife habitat, and fire prevention. Producers were more likely to ally with the first bundle and residential owners with the second. The survey further confirmed that cultural ecosystem services and quality-of-life aspects are among the primary amenities that motivate forest and rangeland ownership regardless of ownership type. To live near natural beauty was the most important motive for both landowner groups. Producers were much more active in management for habitat improvement and other environmental goals than residential owners. As the number of production-oriented owners decreases, developing strategies for encouraging environment-positive management by all types of landowners is crucial.

Expanding the table: the web as a tool for participatory adaptive management in California forests.

Participatory adaptive management is widely promoted as the new paradigm in public lands management. It is grounded in two underlying principles - that management experiments and diverse sources of information should be used to continually refine management in complex ecological systems, and that the public must be included throughout the adaptive management process. Access to scientific results and exchange of information is at the core of both of these principles. The recent proliferation of Internet communities and web-based participation tools raises the question of how the Internet might help facilitate information exchange in participatory adaptive management. Using a case study approach, the role of web technologies in facilitating the flow of transparent and useful information was examined in a participatory adaptive management project focused on Forest Service vegetation management treatments in California's Sierra Nevada. Three evaluation methods were used: analysis of web usage and content, a survey of active participants, and a review of comments posted to the project website. Results suggest that the web played an important role throughout the adaptive management cycle by supporting communication through disseminating information to the public and increasing the transparency of the scientific process. The web played a small, but important role in public consultation, by providing a forum for targeted questions and feedback from the public. Internet technology did not actively support the two-way flow of information necessary for mutual learning. Web technology complements face-to-face interactions and public meetings, rather than replacing them.

Consider the source: the impact of media and authority in outreach to private forest and rangeland owners.

Over half of the United States is privately owned. Improving environmental sustainability requires that the scientific and management communities provide effective outreach to the many landowners making decisions about land use and management practices on these lands. We surveyed California forest and rangeland owners in ten counties throughout the state to assess the impact of existing outreach and identify gaps in information distribution and content. Although a number of organizations provide land management advice highly-ranked by landowners, no individual organization currently reaches more than 30% of forest and rangeland owners, and these groups together reach less than 60% of landowners. The lowest ranked advice came from wildlife and land management agencies, whereas the highest ranked advice came from private consultants and advisory organizations. The ecosystem services provided by forests and rangelands are strongly influenced by conservation scale, and this appears to be recognized in current outreach efforts. Owners of large properties (>200 ha) were substantially more likely to have received land management advice than smaller-sized properties, and from a broader group of organizations. As ownerships become increasingly fragmented, outreach focus and methods will need to shift to more effectively target the owners of smaller properties. On the other hand, some major outreach goals, such as conservation of wildlife, ranchland, or agricultural communities, will continue to rely on effective outreach to owners of larger properties.