5/8/1998 -- BOZEMAN - Does the health of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem stimulate local economies by attracting new businesses and residents?
To find out, Montana State University-Bozeman recently started a $550,000 study funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The three-year study is measuring how characteristics of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem influence local communities and how human land use may affect the diversity and productivity of the ecosystem.
"There's probably long been the perception that protecting native species comes at the expense of socioeconomic well-being in the Yellowstone ecosystem," said MSU ecologist and project director Andy Hansen. "We are intrigued by some alternative possibilities, namely that some of the special characteristics of the ecosystem have high socioeconomic benefits."
The study is timely because the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is seeing dramatic growth in human population and socioeconomics, Hansen said.
"The wildlife, scenery and recreation of the ecosystem may be some of the region's greatest economic assets, but human development may be concentrated in the very places that are most important to native species and ecological productivity,"he said.
Hansen is working with a team of MSU scientists that includes population biologist Jay Rotella, economist Ray Rasker, political scientist Jerry Johnson and agricultural scientist Bruce Maxwell.
The study is designed to understand the relationships between people and ecosystems so that management strategies to sustain both healthy ecosystems and healthy human communities can be evaluated.
"Such knowledge should help policy-makers and the public to arrive at informed decisions on land use and management," said Rotella.
To come up with this knowledge, the scientists will use data collected by satellites to reconstruct patterns of vegetation cover, land use and habitat suitability for native species since 1973. U.S. Census data and household surveys will be used to assess trends in population size, income and property values, and rates of rural residential development. They want solid information about the changes that have occurred in the ecosystem over the past 25 years, Hansen said.
In addition to assessing past change, the team will use these data to test theories on interactions between the ecosystem and human communities. They want to draw on the results to assess the current and future risk to "ecological hotspots," or places in the ecosystem that are especially important to native species. They also plan to set up a monitoring system so decision-makers can continue to take the "ecological and socioeconomic pulse" of the ecosystem in the future.
A key goal of the study is to give local government and the public a reliable look at the ecosystem so they can make informed decisions.
"Our findings should apply to the various geographic scales from the ecosystem down to the community level and then across management jurisdictions from the rural government planners to federal agencies that are concerned about this region as a whole," said Johnson.
NASA funded the study because it wants to understand changes in land use patterns, according to the MSU researchers. The goal of NASA's Land Cover Land Use Change Program is to understand the ecological and socioeconomic consequences of land use world wide.
"NASA has keen interest in having the information from its satellites be used to understand our own planet,"commented Rotella.
The final results of the study should be available in 2000, but the study team plans to hold meetings this fall to introduce the study to ecosystem managers. Among those who might want to attend are county planners, private land owners, Forest Service managers and state officials.
For more information, contact Hansen at (406) 994-6046.
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