Robert H. Schaible

Ecosystem management could be practiced by governments and large industries if they so desired because their large holdings frequently include one or more entire watersheds. But when a watershed includes many private properties, both urban and rural, how can all of the landowners be encouraged to subscribe to one management plan?

Property owners are generally independent and, thus, not inclined to go with the crowd. Financial incentives in the form of reduced taxes, purchased easements and subsidies seem to be the most likely means to achieve cooperative efforts. But a few scattered participants will not a managed ecosystem make. Incentives need to be graduated; the lowest level for individual landowner participation, the next level for those whose adjacent landowners are all participating, and the highest level for those within an entire watershed or critical area of a watershed where all landowners participate. Given such a program, the individual landowner would be rewarded not just for his participation, but especially for convincing his neighbors to participate. Such a stepwise process would encourage landowners to continue improving their forest management practices. Under current programs, once minimum requirements are met, such as those for Classified Forest, it's only the dedication of the individual woodland owner that promotes further improvements.

The incentive for participants in the graduated program to become mentors, get out and "beat the bushes", and enroll their neighbors is designed to bring the most improvement. A woodland owner would have to provide a good example if he were to expect to influence neighboring landowners. The graduated program may be recognized as having pyramid structure, except that if and when it would become completely successful, all participants would receive the same financial incentive per unit area of a given environmental type. The highest incentives would be for wetlands, filter-stripped streams and forests, followed by pastures and croplands, then residential areas and barnyards and finally industries and paved lots. Even though the latter categories are the least desirable environmentally, they could be made more environmentally friendly and worthy of financial incentives if their owners subscribed to the best environmental practices known for those specific areas. If ecosystem management is to be successful, no type of landholding can be excluded from receiving incentives provided that the owner is willing to practice the best management known for that type of holding.

Urban streams particularly need to be considered in ecosystem management. Incentives are particularly needed for those who own properties that include or border streams that pass through urban areas. If those property owners were provided with incentives to develop filter strips and wetlands to absorb run-off, they would be less likely to clamor for government agencies to build high, cement levees which prevent local flooding by providing a straight conduit to carry water away quickly. Residences which once had a meandering stream at the back of their yards graced with wetlands vegetation, fish, waterfowl and other wildlife, now frequently have only a barren, concrete aqueduct in view. They may not be inconvenienced with a flooded backyard, but the flooding problem is greatly exacerbated downstream after the stream leaves the city and enters the rural area .

The rural population is fast becoming a minority. Interests of rural people will be served less and less as the trend continues. Instead of lamenting the breaking up of forests into small tracts on which single residences are built, we should rejoice that people with an appreciation of the natural environment are joining the ranks of the rural population. There should be a special effort made to educate newcomers in the ways of sustainable development and give them incentives to develop good management practices. Harvesting of small woodlands is not likely to be profitable unless adjacent tracts are logged at the same time by way of common logging roads.

The protection of forests and wildlife habitats having absentee landlords will become more of a problem as our human population grows. If those properties can become ringed with small properties that are occupied by owners who participate in an ecosystem management plan, the entire area will become much more secure. Anyone who grew up in a community composed of small farms as I did, knows that surveillance was tight.

My employment as an adult was in urban settings. I could not afford more than one or two acres with my residence for the first 25 years of owning property. When I became able financially to purchase a large tract, a young friend, who has been able to afford only a five-acre woodlot himself, was the most helpful to me in making decisions regarding the purchasing and development of my woodlands. Young landowners of small tracts should be given every possible opportunity to participate in the management of the area in which they live. If incentives were extended to them, they would more likely become owners of larger tracts in the future. But even their small acreage’s could become quite productive, if managed together as an ecosystem.