A six-member survey team designated by the White House visited Southern Appalachia in July. This could result in the selection of the Southern Appalachian highlands (the SAMAB region) as a major national demonstration area for ecosystem management.
The following background information is important for understanding the significance of this visit and its implications for SAMAB:
The White House this year established a Federal Ecosystem Management Task Force made up of assistant secretaries from 12 departments and agencies as well as representatives from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Office of Science and Technology Policy.
This task force is now implementing the ecosystem management recommendation contained in Vice President Albert Gore's National Performance Review. One of the most far-reaching environmental recommendations made by the Vice President was to develop "a proactive approach to ensuring a sustainable economy through ecosystem management."
The goal is to restore and maintain the health, sustainability, and biological diversity of ecosystems while supporting sustainable economies and communities.
The Task Force identified seven ecosystems where cooperative interagency activities were already under way in the field of ecosystem management. One of these was the Southern Appalachian highlands, where SAMAB has a strong record of interagency cooperation. All seven of these areas were seen as mature models for broader application of ecosystem management principles nationwide.
The survey team that visited the SAMAB region sought answers to two basic questions:
The USDA Forest Service and SAMAB served as join coordinators for the team's visit. The visit began in Atlanta July 11 with a meeting with various regional offices of the SAMAB partners and environmental groups. It ended at Knoxville July 15 with meetings with TVA and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
In between, the survey team met with various local groups, researchers, state government representatives, and other federal representatives.
The team will prepare a report to the White House Task Force. This report and reports from the six other survey teams will be used to map a national ecosystem management implementation plan for federal lands and federally managed programs. It is expected that this will lead to an integrated agency budget request for fiscal 1996 to fund ecosystem management activities.
SAMAB Executive Director Hubert Hinote said it appears there were two main lessons that were learned from the Southern Appalachian study: (1) An organization will be designated to coordinate and facilitate the initiative in each of the seven designated ecosystems, and (2) subsequent ecosystem management activities will be determined largely by the particular issue needing to be addressed. The issue will, in turn, determine the scale of response required.
Members of the team visiting Southern Appalachia were Diane Gelburd of the U.S. Soil Conservation Service, and Bill Sexton, of the U.S. Forest Service, who served as co-leaders of the team; other teams members were Susan Huke, Soil Conservation Service; Terry West, Forest Service; Ray Clark, President's Council on Environmental Quality; Ted Boling, Department of Justice; and John Dennis, U.S. Park Service.
The team focused on structural and process issues such as how to achieve more effective collaboration and how to facilitate public participation in ecosystem management initiatives. Local coordinators for the visit were Hinote, Charles Van Sickle of the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, and David Meriwether, of the Forest Service's Southern Region.
The other six study areas besides the Southern Appalachian highlands are the Anacostia River watershed, the Great Lakes (Lake Superior and Glacial Lake Chicago Crescent), the coastal Louisiana wetlands, the South Florida ecosystem, the Pacific Northwest forests, and Prince William Sound.
The Ecological Society of America held a joint meeting with several other groups in Knoxville August 7-11 with about 3,000 attending. One afternoon was devoted to the SAMAB program.
John Peine served as chairman for the SAMAB presentation. Executive Director Hubert Hinote gave an overview of the SAMAB program.
The SAMAB Executive Committee will meet September 22 at 10:00 a.m. at the TVA office in Norris, Tennessee.
SAMAB Asks Regional Leaders to Support Demonstration Briane Adams, chairman of the SAMAB Cooperative Executive Committee, made a presentation in Atlanta August 15 seeking support for a SAMAB regional demonstration of ecosystem management. He addressed the Natural Resource Leaders, representing federal agencies that have land management responsibilities in the southeastern United States.
The proposed demonstration would provide a number of tangible products plus a better understanding of ecological processes and how these are affected by environmental stress. It would also serve to strengthen the cooperative interaction of SAMAB's member agencies.
Adams called for the following actions by the Natural Resource Leaders, once stakeholders agree on the key issues:
Formation of an interagency team to refine the strategy, identify immediate and long-range needs, and create a multi-year budget.
Endorsement of data-sharing among the represented agencies and other SAMAB partners.
Commitment of specific FY95 resources (budget and/or staff) to support the initiative, along with commitment to a long-term process.
Participation in a collective briefing of regional heads of agencies, Washington agency officials, and national leaders in the Executive Branch and Congress.
Products expected from the proposed demonstration would include:
Identification of Best Management Practices as well as new management techniques derived from "adaptive management."
Improved data collection and dissemination.
Enhanced tools for decision makers, including GIS technology, graphic representations of the interactions between natural resources and their stressors, access to environmental and economic data bases, sample ordinances and guidelines aimed at protecting the environment while maintaining economic strength.
Hands-on training for decision-makers in the use of these tools.
Partnership models demonstrating effective cooperation among corporations, universities, planning districts, and non-government organizations.
Strategic options for "gateway communities" that want to benefit from economic growth but maintain a high-quality natural environment and protect their natural heritage.
An annual report documenting the status of special projects and the current condition of natural resources.
A compendium of information to be used in other regions of the country to improve land-use planning and resource management.
Adams said 10 recognized themes would be followed in the SAMAB demonstration. These are a multi-scale approach, the use of ecological rather than political boundaries, the maintenance of natural biodiversity, better use of existing data and collection of additional data to fill existing information gaps, monitoring to measure success or failure, use of adaptive management techniques, interagency cooperation, commitment to change (formation of an interagency committee), recognition of the fact that socioeconomic pressures influence ecological processes, and awareness of societal values in reaching ecosystem management goals.
The presentation was made in Chattanooga. It was an outgrowth of many months of effort within SAMAB to establish priorities and focus on the most important issues. This required a preliminary assessment of the condition of the ecosystem and the defining of various risk factors. EPA's Tom Nessmith laid much of the groundwork for Adams' presentation by making this preliminary assessment.
SAMAB is coordinating its demonstration proposal with an ecological assessment initiated by the Forest Service. Executive Committee member Charles Van Sickle and Forrest Carpenter of the Forest Service Regional Office in Atlanta are co-leaders responsible for this activity. SAMAB also is coordinating with other members of the cooperative; for example, EPA, which has taken prime responsibility for identifying and addressing environmental risks in the Southern Appalachian region.
The Forest Service has scheduled three forums to begin public involvement in its assessment process. These are as follow:
Thursday, August 25, 6:30 p.m. at the Sheraton Airport Inn in Roanoke, Virginia.
Saturday, August 27, 9 a.m., at Gainesville College, Gainesville, Georgia.
Ann Bartuska, newly appointed special assistant to the chief of the U.S. Forest Service, will be keynote speaker at the SAMAB Fall Conference November 14-17 at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
This was announced by Chuck Hunter of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who led planning for this year's conference.
Jack Ward Thomas, chief of the Forest Service, and Ron Pulliam, director of the National Biological Survey, have been invited to speak at dinner and luncheon functions.
The theme of the conference will be "Ecosystem Management: Crossing the Borders," the idea being that good ecosystem management requires crossing agency lines, state lines, and habitat lines.
Critical issues to be discussed fall in six categories: biodiversity: the impending crisis; water quality; air quality; land use degradation; cultural resources; and unsustainable development: the debate.
There will in addition to formal presentations be informal but facilitated discussion sessions to develop action plans for addressing these critical issues.
The keynote speaker, Ms. Bartuska, formerly directed the Forest Service ecosystem management program and more recently was on assignment to the National Biological Survey. She at one time was assigned to the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station at Asheville, North Carolina, where she headed the research program for the Forest Service input to NAPAP (National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program).
The fall conference has been a fixture on the SAMAB agenda since 1990. It provides a forum for addressing policy and management implications of environmental and cultural issues that affect ecosystem sustainability in the southeastern United States. It encourages interagency programs of research, education and action on environmental issues.
Further information about the fall conference may be obtained by calling Hunter at (404) 679-7130, or faxing inquiries to (404) 679-7081.
One of SAMAB's newest members, the National Biological Survey (NBS), will have a full-time person assigned to the Southern Appalachian region by September to develop data-sharing capabilities among the cooperative's agencies. NBS has funded the position for three years. TVA will provide this person with an office at its facilities in Norris, Tennessee.
D. Dean Bibles has been appointed as the new chair of the U.S. Man and Biosphere (MAB) National Committee, replacing Frank H. Talbot who resigned for health reasons.
Bibles is director of policy on land tenure in the U.S. Department of Interior and a special assistant to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Bibles has more than 37 years of land management experience with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
He has been active in promoting maintenance of biological diversity, expanding research on ecosystem management, and protecting historical and cultural resources.
Meanwhile, the national MAB has approved a strategic plan for the national Biosphere Reserve program. One result of this was creation of a Biosphere Reserve Directorate with SAMAB's Executive Director Hubert Hinote serving as acting chair.
Hinote said that one of the first priorities of the strategic plan is to complete the Biosphere Reserve network in the United States. Efforts are being made to strengthen developing MAB programs, using SAMAB as a model. To help accomplish this, another national workshop is planned for Biosphere Reserve managers and a new brochure will be printed by MAB.
Hinote said Bibles supports the effort to strengthen the land management thrust of the MAB program. He wants to improve linkages among the various Biosphere Reserve Units and between these units and the national MAB program. Bibles also is interested in expanding MAB's international role.
Two versions of a new SAMAB logo, approved by the Executive Committee, will be used in future SAMAB newsletters, on SAMAB stationery, and in other appropriate ways. The attractive, multicolored logos were designed and produced by Thomas Fairclough of Antista Design, Atlanta.
Executive Director Hubert Hinote said a new design for SAMAB stationery and the newsletter is being prepared and will incorporate the new logo. In time, the logo will be used in SAMAB exhibitry, brochures, and other materials.
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