Navigating Climate Adaptation on Public Lands: How Views on Ecosystem Change and Scale Interact with Management Approach
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Navigating Climate Adaptation on Public Lands: How Views on Ecosystem Change and Scale Interact with Management Approaches Katherine R. Clifford 1,2,3 Laurie Yung4 William R. Travis2,3,5 Renee Rondeau6 Betsy Neely7 Imtiaz Rangwala2,3 Nina Burkardt1 Carina Wyborn4,8 ●
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Received: 6 March 2020 / Accepted: 9 July 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract Managers are increasingly being asked to integrate climate change adaptation into public land management. The literature discusses a range of adaptation approaches, including managing for resistance, resilience, and transformation; but many strategies have not yet been widely tested. This study employed in-depth interviews and scenario-based focus groups in the Upper Gunnison Basin in Colorado to learn how public land managers envision future ecosystem change, and how they plan to utilize different management approaches in the context of climate adaptation. While many managers evoked the past in thinking about projected climate impacts and potential responses, most managers in this study acknowledged and even embraced (if reluctantly) that many ecosystems will experience regime shifts in the face of climate change. However, accepting that future ecosystems will be different from past ecosystems led managers in different directions regarding how to respond and the appropriate role of management intervention. Some felt management actions should assist and even guide ecosystems toward future conditions. Others were less confident in projections and argued against transformation. Finally, some suggested that resilience could provide a middle path, allowing managers to help ecosystems adapt to change without predicting future ecosystem states. Scalar challenges and institutional constraints also influenced how managers thought about adaptation. Lack of institutional capacity was believed to constrain adaptation at larger scales. Resistance, in particular, was considered impractical at almost any scale due to institutional constraints. Managers negotiated scalar challenges and institutional constraints by nesting different approaches both spatially and temporally. Keywords Transformation Land management Environmental change Regime shift Resilience and active intervention ●
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Introduction Public lands present an important opportunity for climate adaptation, especially in the United States Intermountain West, where public lands constitute almost half of the land
Supplementary information The online version of this article (https:// doi.org/10.1007/s00267-020-01336-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Katherine R. Clifford [email protected] 1
USGS-Fort Collins Science Center, Social and Economic Analysis Branch, Fort Collins, CO, USA
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Western Water Assessment, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
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North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center, Boulder, CO, USA
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area. Public lands provide important ecological, social, cultural, and economic benefits, especially for
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