Document: DAV-3-12-5

Conserving regional biodiversity in New England by integrating historical and biogeographical perspectives.

FOSTER, D.R.*

Harvard Forest Harvard University Petersham, MA 01366 ¹

Abstract:
New England's history places it in a remarkable, though critical position regarding the opportunities, directions, and need for conservation and restoration. Due to 300 years of deforestation, intensive agriculture, and natural reforestation forest area is at a historic maximum and the land is largely wilder than at any time in the past 200 years. As woodland area increases and forests mature native woodland plants and wildlife are expanding prodigiously and the larger mammals are creating major management issues. In contrast, open-land plants and animals, which peaked in the 19th C agrarian countryside, are disappearing along with former agricultural landscapes and land-use practices; consequently, grassland and shrubland taxa and assemblages comprise major priorities for conservation. Meanwhile an affluent society is threatening open space of all types with development and fragmentation, but largely derives its natural resources from other parts of the globe. As a consequence of these trends in regional and natural history New England supports three distinct and seemingly incompatible directions in conservation: wilderness restoration, conservation of cultural landscapes and species, and increased natural resource extraction. I argue that historical studies of species, site, and landscape dynamics provide essential background for conservation planning regardless of objective. Furthermore, by coupling historical, ecological and cultural perspective with biogeography we can seize opportunities to reconcile these different approaches regionally and accomplish many diverse and far-reaching conservation objectives.

Keywords: conservation, land use, historical ecology, disturbance, paleoecology, biogeography, New England

This abstract is being presented at: 2:05 PM in session:
Symposium # 22: Species Diversity at Broad Scales: Linking Science and Management.