What will it take for wilderness to support aquatic biodiversity?

A simplified, hypothetical series of responses to loss of fresh water biodiversity in a protected area, overlaid with a heuristic pathway (modified from Lynch et al. 2021b) that combines RAD with adaptive management.

Wilderness and similarly protected areas have great potential to preserve freshwater biodiversity for ecological function and socio-cultural benefit. In spite of this potential, freshwater ecosystems in some protected areas are being degraded by current and historical human activities and shifting climatic conditions.

Mandates to limit human intervention in designated wilderness and similarly protected areas limit the ability to remedy these negative circumstances and often result in accepting biodiversity loss by default.

The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework can help support management decisions in this context by prompting managers to more intentionally accept biodiversity loss or intervene to better support ecological and socio-culture values of a given protected area.

The existing literature provides limited information on the status of freshwater biodiversity in protected areas and little information to assist managers with difficult decisions around supporting freshwater biodiversity in protected areas. 

This is the only publication to comprehensively review the limitations and challenges associated with freshwater biodiversity conservation in U.S. protected areas and provide managers with a pathway for making difficult management decisions in this context. Through case studies, the scientists examine how managers have chosen to "resist, accept, or direct" freshwater systems to preserve and restore biodiversity to benefit the ecological and socio-cultural values of a given protected area for the benefit of the American public.

Active Forest Management—Returning Ecosystems to Health and Productivity

This study expands active, common-sense resource management through a transparent decision-making pathway. It provides wilderness managers with a decision tool that may help them balance intervention and restoration actions in aquatic habitats while mitigating biodiversity loss.

Expanding Access to Outdoor Recreation and Public Benefits

Clean lakes, rivers, and streams are vital to the outdoor recreation economy and the communities that depend on them. By using real-world case studies to preserve freshwater biodiversity, this research helps to ensure ecological, socio-cultural, and recreational values of protected waters will remain intact for the benefit of visitors to America's public lands.