An Emerging Project of the National Biological Service
When the valuable biological and physical information maintained by different organizations is combined with aerial photography and remotely sensed data, it will be possible to stitch together a continuous timeline, from prehistoric times to the present
The Value of a Land Use History
Efforts to manage the nation’s biological resources arc hampered by the lack of an historical perspective on conditions prior to European settlement and subsequent changes in the North American landscape. Much of the impact that people have had on the environment can be viewed as a series of unplanned experiments, with particular perturbations generating measurable responses, in the form of contractions in the ranges of some species and expansions in the ranges of others. Within the context of these temporal dynamics, species extinctions and the spread of non-indigenous species may be seen as the extreme cases, where biological elements are lost or introduced. These experiments have been run, and environmental scientists are beginning to assemble the data needed to assess the results. The first task is to develop a clearer understanding of the historic changes in the distributions of plants and animals and their relation to human-induced changes to the landscape. Given this understanding, land managers will be able to review the effects of past perturbations and apply this information when attempting to evaluate the likely outcomes of future land changes.
Much of the data needed to construct such a retrospective view have already been collected; information on landscape change spans the period of human habitation of North America. Impressive regional efforts have been undertaken to synthesize the available information regarding land use change and its impact on ecological systems, but these projects have generally been limited to relatively small areas and short timelines. Large quantities of valuable biological and physical information remain unexplored, warehoused in different locations, and maintained by different organizations. –
Consider the abundant information on prehistoric land cover and species distributions accumulated through the creative efforts of paleoecologists. Integration of coarse- resolution data such as these with information derived from original land surveys of the country (e.g., data archived by the Bureau of Land Management), and the U.S. Forest Service’s data on the fire history of North America, for example, could make the characterization of historic landscape change quite tractable. When these data are combined with aerial photography from the extensive surveys started in the 1930s, and remotely sensed data from advanced satellite imagery, it will be possible to stitch together a continuous timeline, from prehistoric times to the present. Catalyzing such an effort is the intent of the National Biological Service’s Land Use History of North America project (LUHNA).
Launching the Project
LUHNA is an ambitious project, one that will require the collaboration of many different individuals and agencies, both within and outside government. In August 1995, the National Biological Service (NBS) convened a workshop to help define the scope and intent of the LUHNA effort, and to identify a strategy for fostering the multi-disciplinary collaboration that it will require. Representatives from six government agencies, six universities, and three not-for-profit organizations established a framework for building a broader LUHNA effort. While it will serve as the organizer and initial “home base” for the project, NBS cannot possibly carry out such a large project alone, nor fund all the work required. Instead, the Service will provide a forum for discussion, communication and scoping of the project and the initiative for developing the necessary interdisciplinary relationships, and will also approach other organizations for cooperation and/or funding support.
NBS has established an electronic mail account (luhna@ibis.mib.nbs.gov) to solicit comment for the LUHNA project. Currently, limited staff are assigned to the project, and messages will be responded to as time allows. In the near future, a bulletin board will be established, permitting an open exchange of ideas among all collaborators and interested parties. The NBS will assemble a directory of individuals and organizations interested in LUHNA, as well as a bibliography of important publications related to the concept.
For information on formats, potential contributors are invited to send inquiries to the electronic mail address above. Submissions to both documents will be compiled and distributed electronically to all respondents, unless otherwise requested.
Thomas D. Sisk, Ecologist, and Barry R. Noon, Acting Chief Scientist, National Biological Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C.