Special Session - Technology Transfer and Extension in Forest Landscape Ecology: What, to Whom and How? Chair(s): Perera, Ajith¹, ¹ Ontario Forest Research Institute, Sault Ste. Marie, ON
Thursday, April 1, 2004 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM Apollo Room 2

Forest landscape ecology has evolved and matured to a point where we can begin to confidently transfer some science and tools for forest policy makers and practitioners. A substantial body of information, knowledge, and technology has accumulated during the last 10-15 years. Some forest/land management agencies, forest companies, and NGOs have recognized the importance of landscape ecology, and are making efforts to incorporate principles of LE and tools in to their management planning. However, they face many obstacles in this task. Technology transfer and extension is a relatively alien topic to forest landscape ecologists, and there has been very little dialogue on this topic among landscape ecology professional meetings.

Transfer and extension of forest landscape ecology: A matter of scale and models. King, Anthony^*,1, Perera, Ajith ², ¹ Environmental Sciences Division, Bldg. 1509, Oak Ridge, TN, USA² Ontario Forest Research Institute, Sault Ste. Marie, ON, Canada

ABSTRACT- The science of forest landscape ecology addresses spatial, temporal, and ecological scales that are broader than the resolution and extent customary to resource managers. Moreover, at the landscape scale, scientific questions are asked and knowledge conveyed primarily through models, which do not appeal to end users for several reasons: They are too abstract and conceptual; they address strategic rather than tactical issues; they deal with coarse input data; and their output can't be 'validated' with the user's experience or data at their disposal. Stochasticity, an integral part of forest landscape ecological knowledge, is also a difficult concept for users to internalize, especially when combined with spatial and temporal variability. Furthermore, forest landscape ecologists may not have sufficient empirical evidence to validate the results produced by models, except for statistical/scientific/philosophical arguments. Given this background, our goals are to examine and illustrate the generic barriers to popular use of forest landscape ecological models and to offer potential solutions. We focus less on what is wrong with models in landscape ecology, a presentation typically given to advance modeling concepts, and more on how we as developers can make models more attractive to users by understanding their perspective.

KEY WORDS: Scale, Simulation models, Forest Landscape Ecology, Technolgy transfer, Extension