Learning from the sound: Introducing this place and this volume

Abstract

An enduring paradox for the management of public lands is the need to accommodate increasing levels of human uses while reducing the environmental impacts of those uses. Historically, land management agencies used standard practices and principles of outdoor recreation management like recreation carrying capacity, limits of acceptable change, recreation opportunity spectrum, and scenery management system (Hendee et al. 1990, Manning 2010). But most of these principles are dated. This book provides a case study of integrated approach to understanding and planning for human uses in a large, natural ecosystem: Prince William Sound in Southcentral Alaska. It provides an ideal case study because it is a relatively intact wildland setting with few managing agencies, communities and private companies. Due to the grounding of the Exxon Valdez and the ensuing environmental and socioeconomic disaster, a multitude of studies were conducted to help track environmental changes, human travel and use patterns, and the status of “injured” resources in the Sound. This volume presents summaries of many of these studies and shows how the results were used in the Sound in an integrated and sustainable way. While this has been an evolving and exploratory effort, we believe it meets many objectives of sustainable human use planning, and offers lessons for public land management agencies and stakeholders to use in future planning efforts.

Citation

Poe, Aaron J.; Gimblett, Randy; Blahna, Dale J. 2017. Learning from the sound: Introducing this place and this volume. In: Poe, Aaron J; Gimblett, Randy, eds. Sustaining wildlands: Integrating science and community in Prince William Sound. Tucson, AZ: The University of Arizona Press. XIII-XXVII. Introduction.