RESILIENCE
AND
INTACTNESS
A Manager’s Perspective
Why does it matter?
• Global change is occurring at an increasing rate
• Climate change
• Accelerating demand for resources
• Intact and Resilient Landscapes
• Support functioning habitats, species
• Absorb change
• Provide ecosystem services
• Alaska is largely intact
• How do we know?
• How do we maintain?
• Where and how do we authorize uses?
A Few Factoids
• BLM manages about 245 million acres and 700 million
subsurface acres in the United States
• Over 70 million acres and 200 million subsurface acres in Alaska
• Multiple Use and Sustained Yield
• Energy, communications, mining, grazing
• Wildlife habitat, cultural and heritage resources
• Inherently landscape-scale
Landscape Approach – Major Components
Regional Assessments
Monitoring for
Adaptive Management
Projects and Permits
Science and
Geospatial
Services
Regional Conservation
and Development
Strategies
Land Use Plans
Landscape Goals
• Maintain Viable Ecosystems
• Resilient to Global Change
• Climate change
• Development
• Fire
• Invasive species
• Provide Ecosystem Services
• Commodities – energy, minerals
• Quality of life – recreation, visual
• Community sustainability – subsistence, water quality
Landscape Management
• Assumes human footprint is the main threat
• Maintain remaining large intact areas
• The best of what’s left
• Areas of Critical Environmental Concern
• Concentrate uses in already disturbed areas
• Co-locate uses
• Create linear corridors
• Maintain or reconnect large intact areas
• Land acquisition, easements, etc.
• Restoration
• Movement corridors
Another way?
• ACECs with boundaries that adapt to changing conditions
• Locate uses in resilient areas/Conserve fragile areas
• Disperse uses in more resilient areas that can absorb change
• Avoid concentrated uses that may create barriers
• Alternatives that address different climate scenarios
• Consider alternative future scenarios
• Attribute based alternatives
• Manage for resources across time and space, not in fixed locations
• Mitigation based alternatives
• Restore as we go, identify limits of change
• Allow for cascading mitigation as conditions change
Managing Intact Landscapes
• How large is a large landscape?
• Static and dynamic landscapes
• What constitutes crucial habitat in an intact landscape?
• How much development could cause barriers or
•
•
•
•
fragmentation?
Should uses be concentrated or dispersed?
How do we assess “other than development” impacts to
intactness?
How do we mitigate long-term projects on a changing
landscape?
How do we assist communities in adapting to global
change?