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Final Report: A Tool for Sustainability: Measuring Outcomes with Indicators of Ecosystem Health

EPA Grant Number: SU831865
Title: A Tool for Sustainability: Measuring Outcomes with Indicators of Ecosystem Health
Investigators: Sisk, Thomas D. , Aguilar-González, Bernardo , Loeser, Matthew R. , Muñoz-Erickson, Tischa A. , Richey, Amy
Institution: Northern Arizona University , Prescott College
EPA Project Officer: Nolt-Helms, Cynthia
Project Period: September 30, 2004 through May 1, 2005
Project Amount: $9,320
RFA: P3 Awards: A National Student Design Competition for Sustainability Focusing on People, Prosperity, and the Planet (2004)
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development

Description:

Objective:

Sustainable management of natural resources is a high public priority across the United States, particularly in the West where vast areas of public forests and rangelands are mixed with private lands historically used for logging, livestock, and other renewable resource industries. Historically, these resource-based economies incentives to maximize yields often let to over-harvesting or over-utilization. Ecosystems across the West have been degraded, and the need for sounder management is widely acknowledged. Public land managers face a daunting challenge because they are being asked to manage for sustainability but the definition of sustainability is typically user-defined, often vague, and can lead to conflicting stakeholder demands. Traditional management approaches that are government- mandated and expert-driven have limited the ability of managers and scientists to effectively communicate scientific and technical information to the public in a manner that engages the public meaningfully in decision-making. Thus, while environmental science and technology progress, their effective translation and democratization via policies that address sustainability is overshadowed by the current inability of scientists and managers to reach out and incorporate the values of ordinary citizens into planning, management, and environmental monitoring.

In Phase I of this project we proposed that this challenge to sustainability could be addressed though community-based partnerships with the collaborative and scientific capacity to define sustainability in a practical manner and monitor progress toward achieving it by measuring key ecological and social parameters to evaluate it. Fundamental to building this capacity is a tool to assess, evaluate and monitor the sustainability of the ecosystem, the Holistic Ecosystem Health Indicator (HEHI). Phase I of this project involved an intensive refinement process with stakeholder input at every step, resulting in a thorough framework that integrates the main objectives for both ecological and economic sustainability, provides information in a clear, succinct, and easily understood context. The objectives outlined for each step in the development of the HEHI were successfully achieved and they demonstrate the great strides we have made in moving the project forward to its implementation phase.

Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):

Overall, we successfully integrated multiple scientific disciplines and input from stakeholders in the refinement and adaptation of the HEHI to a focal area of 400,000 acres of mixed-ownership rangelands, while providing the opportunity for mutual learning among the research team, students and stakeholders through workshops, university courses and other avenues. The end result of this is a tool for sustainability that has been subjected to multiple refinement "tests", from scientific scrutiny to conflicting political values, strengthening its definition, applicability, and scope to balance the key elements of people, prosperity and the planet relevant to rangeland ecosystems. Crucial to this success was the collaborative design process in which we gained the support from Diablo Trust's stakeholders in using the HEHI as a monitoring tool and their commitment to learn from its implementation and evaluate its long-term potential.

Proposed Phase II Objectives and Strategies:

We believe that this project is in a unique position to move forward with on-the-ground implementation of the tool and continue collaborating with our partners in Phase II of the P3 Award to assess the practical realities of implementing the tool in the long-term. Therefore, we propose to build on the success of the collaborative design process of Phase I through the development and trial of a cost-effective technical infrastructure that facilitates the integration of on-the-ground information collected by landowners, agency managers, scientists and volunteers with census data and other socioeconomic indicators in the HEHI framework. Data synthesis and analysis, via a web-based HEHI database, and the provision of value-added information, tailored to the needs of specific stakeholders, can then support a much more coordinated set of management actions on the part of diverse stakeholders working together to achieve the share objective of sustainable management. While the implementation of the concepts and technical infrastructure proposed here is targeted to Western rangelands, all project elements are carefully designed to provide, in addition, a general model that can be exported to other regions and other "working landscapes", where environmental and economic objectives are tightly interconnected. In this sense, the long- term outcome of this proposal is to develop an integrated information system that will allow landowners, public agencies, and concerned citizens (people) the ability to monitor and learn about the condition of the ecosystems they manage (planet) and assess the viability of supporting private enterprise, and healthy, vigorous communities through sustainable natural resource management (prosperity).

Supplemental Keywords:

ecosystem, indicators, integrated assessment, decision making, monitoring, , Sustainable Industry/Business, Scientific Discipline, RFA, Technology for Sustainable Environment, Sustainable Environment, Ecology and Ecosystems, Environmental Monitoring, Urban and Regional Planning, computer generated alternatives, environmental sustainability, ecosystem indicators, arid rangeland, decision making, environmental education, land use, community based
Relevant Websites:

http://www.envsci.nau.edu/sisklab/research_projects/rangelands_website/projects_imfos.htm exit EPA

Progress and Final Reports:
Original Abstract

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The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.

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