Southeastern Ecological Framework: A Planning Tool for Managing Ecosystem Integrity.
Author(s)
Durbrow, Richard B.
Burns, Neil B.
Richardson, John R.
Berish, Cory W.
Advisor(s)
Editor(s)
Hatcher, Kathryn J.
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Abstract
The southeastern United States has large
areas of unique ecological character. Agricultural,
silvicultural, and road development practices are
having landscape fragmentation impacts on these
unique ecosystems. More devastating practices
associated with economic progress are quickly
eclipsing these threats to the ecological processes in
the region. Urban sprawl is becoming the major
problem in the protection of environmental processes
that protect human health. Currently natural
ecosystems show trends for high losses of several
ecosystem types, such as long leaf pine forests and
wetlands. These ecosystems support processes that
provide habitat for many endangered species while
also protecting water quality for a rapidly growing
population. The unmanaged growth in the southeast is
placing significant stress on the remaining intact
natural ecosystem. The resulting impact on the
environment is a fragmentation of ecosystem
processes. The impacts on the population are
increased costs required to meet water quality
standards and a diminished quality of life.
In order to safeguard the functionality of large
ecosystem processes providing environmental services
and protecting human health, threats to ecological
function and conflicts in resource protection need to be
identified and prioritized. Effective protection
measures must be established to minimize
environmental degradation from ecosystem
fragmentation. The delineation of an ecological
framework in the southeast can provides an
opportunity to take a proactive approach to protecting
ecological processes that support water quality.
Utilizing a regional framework as an organizing
principle for ecosystem protection provides federal
agencies, state and local governments, community
groups and nonprofit organizations with the ability to
leverage scarce resources to meet broad environmental
goals through specific on-the-ground objectives.
Sponsor
Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology
Date
2001-03
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Resource Type
Text
Resource Subtype
Proceedings