Treesearch

The present status of species and habitats in Finnish wilderness areas is largely a consequence of past administrative, use, and management traditions in northern Finland. The existing wilderness legislation sets a framework for management, but historical uses and administrative decisions have influenced many prevailing practices. In addition, management of many uses is complicated by overarching legislation. The present wilderness legislation is a tradeoff between conservation aspects and both traditional and modern use forms, including reindeer herding, hunting, fishing, berry picking,...

Intensive technogenous invasion in the West Siberian Arctic during the last two decades in connection with gas and oil exploration, along with the constant growth of domestic reindeer herds, has caused dramatic changes in arctic ecosystems. Loss of biodiversity on the species level has not yet been documented in the region on a whole, but changes in ecosystems in intensively exploited areas are obvious. The absence of some plant species and the disappearance of rare bird species surrounding the Bovanenkovo Gas Field in central Yamal is likely the result of technogenous destruction of their...

Iceland is sparsely populated with towns and farms mostly restricted to coastal lowlands. The country’s ca 50,000 km2 (19,000 mi2) interior is an uninhabited highland with isolated mountains and large glaciers. At present, only a small part of Iceland’s rich geothermal and hydroelectric resources have been harnessed, but if political commitments to largescale hydroelectric projects are realized, they will transform the central highland wilderness. Over the last 3 years, opposition to these plans has fueled the most bitter environmental conflict yet to arise in Iceland. To reduce such...

The common idiom of Alaska as “The Last Frontier” suggests that the relative remoteness and unsettled character of Alaska create a unique Alaskan identity, one that is both a “frontier” and the “last” of its kind. The frontier idiom portrays the place and people of Alaska as exceptional or different from the places and people who reside in the Lower Forty- Eight States, especially in regard to human perception and interaction with the surrounding landscape. The notion that Alaska represents the “last frontier” leads to what may be called the “Alaska exceptionality” hypothesis, the idea...

There are several important factors related to political conflict associated with arctic wilderness areas: scientific studies, economic interests, ethnic identities, geographic differences, and national histories. How groups with an interest in these wilderness areas inject their values into these factors stimulates political debate with each other and with stewarding agency officials. Analyzing the mixed currents of scientific, economic, ethnic, geographic, and historical values of user groups can help officials better appreciate the politics of managing wilderness areas. This work also...

Before the Siberian Arctic was incorporated into the Russian Empire, it had been inhabited by small numbers of indigenous peoples. The first Russian settlers came to Siberia in the 16th century. The northern areas of Siberia had not been subjected to extreme anthropogenic influences before the Norilsk Industrial Complex started to be built in 1935. Negative anthropogenic impacts on nature became apparent after the end of World War II. During Stalin’s rule, the idea of nature transformation in the interest of humans was proclaimed. It led to widespread “ecological cruelty.” Newcomers from...

The Northwest Territories Protected Areas Strategy (NWT PAS), approved in 1999, presents a unique community-driven approach to establishing a network of protected areas in the North. The NWT PAS arose from increasing resource development pressures in the Northwest Territories and is being implemented in the context of the land claim and treaty processes. Aboriginal communities in the Northwest Territories are using the NWT PAS planning process to identify protected areas that represent their values and meanings of wilderness. This is resulting in a shift in emphasis from tourism, recreation...

Culture counts in the protection of wilderness! Culture can be defined as the shared products of a given society: its values, norms, knowledge, and ideals, as well as its material goods. If history reveals nothing else, it teaches us that the norms, values, ideals, and language of a society are what defines wilderness. What one society calls wilderness, another society calls home. Such cross-cultural differences in understanding what constitutes wilderness over time is well documented in literature. Recognizing the historical variation between cultural groups is an essential first step in...

In the American lexicon, the concept of wilderness has become formalized through the Wilderness Act of 1964, and thus it has been defined in legal terms as a land designation. Yet wilderness, just as beauty, remains in the eye of the beholder, and how individuals experience wilderness varies both within cultures, as well as between cultures. As pressures for resource extraction, tourism, and related commercial development spread northward into the Arctic, those living in the more intensively developed lower latitudes may perceive the Arctic as a last remaining portion of the Earth, where...

We studied nest site selection and nesting success in Black-chinned Hummingbirds (Archilochus alexandri) along the middle Rio Grande, New Mexico. The study was conducted in association with an exotic woody plant removal program to determine whether the removal of exotic plants would affect wildlife populations and nesting success, either positively or negatively. Point counts and nest searches were conducted for all bird species at sixteen 50-acre sites in four counties along the middle Rio Grande in 2000 and 2001. Over 100 nests of Black-chinned Hummingbirds were found during the pre-treat...