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Abstract
In the United States, national parks were established mainly for their scenic qualities with an emphasis on how they looked rather than how their natural systems worked. Natural conditions in Theodore Roosevelt National Park and Buffalo National River had been degraded by decades of livestock ranching and timber harvesting prior to their designation as units of the National Park System in the late 20th century. These ecosystems remained degraded and showed no progress toward recovering on their own. It became unrealistic to assume that the landscape’s natural diversity could recover without some purposeful ecological restoration. The removal of exotic plants and the reinstitution of fire have helped to set in motion the recovery of native plant communities in these two Midwestern wilderness areas.
Parent Publication
Keywords
wilderness,
biodiversity,
protected areas,
economics,
subsistence,
tourism,
traditional knowledge,
community involvement,
policy,
stewardship,
education,
spiritual values
Citation
Vequist, Gary. 2007. Ecological restoration of degraded wilderness ecosystems: Removing exotic plants and introducing prescribed fire to restore natural diversity in two National Park wilderness areas. In: Watson, Alan; Sproull, Janet; Dean, Liese, comps. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Eighth World Wilderness Congress symposium; September 30-October 6, 2005; Anchorage, AK. Proceedings RMRS-P-49. Fort Collins, CO: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. p. 506-509
