The Landscape Scenarios

Your experience with this book and the success of this course largely will revolve around and depend upon the landscape scenarios. These are where you will work on many of the problems and questions embedded in the chapters, to help you work through and "experience" the materials presented. Get to know your scenario thoroughly in every aspect: ecologically, socioeconomically, politically, and geographically.

Three landscape scenarios follow. All of them are equally challenging, and they all address the same basic problems.

• The ROLE Model is set in a midwestern/ northeastern landscape of mixed industrial and agricultural land use.

• SnowPACT is set in the intermountain West, with large private and public ownerships and associated conflicts of changing uses.

• PDQ Revival is set in the humid Southeast, is influenced by a major military base, and captures the changing sociopolitical climate of that region.

Your instructor will inform you which scenario(s) to use. As you read the assigned scenario, begin to digest its richness and complexities. Study the maps, look at the photographs, and get a good feel for the landscape. Begin to "inhabit" the place and become part it. You will refer to the scenario throughout the course and use it as a reference source for detailed information. In the chapters that follow, you will use your growing scientific knowledge base, combined with processes and techniques we will cover, to address and explore many challenging questions and issues to be addressed in this place. Dive in and have fun!

Note that each scenario contains names of individuals who play various roles in those systems. All names are fictitious, and any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

The ROLE Model

Just 6 months ago, an unprecedented event occurred in the area known as Round Lake (Figure 1.1). Representatives of communities, agencies, and interest groups stood together before a press conference and read the following statement:

An old adage says, "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." We can paraphrase by saying today is the first day of the rest of the Round Lake Ecosystem's life. We are here today to sign an agreement that dedicates the people, agencies, and resources of our area to a new style of managing our natural resources and environment. We pledge to work together to assure that the qualities we love and need—clean water, clean air, abundant and diverse wildlife and fish, healthy land, and productive farms and forests—will continue and prosper through time and space.

We have chosen to call this initiative the Round Lake Ecosystem Model—or ROLE Model—because we believe this effort can truly be a model for ourselves and the rest of the nation. We know that the ways of the past, which have fragmented land and communities and have pitted neighbor against neighbor, cannot continue. We all have too much to lose by those behaviors. And we have so much to gain by working together, using reason, and seeking win-win solutions to issues.

We often talk about being role models. We know that our children will behave as they see us behave, so we try to be honest, just, and forgiving within our families. We know that as responsible members of the public community, we must establish rules and procedures that are fair, open, and respectful of others. To these roles and role models, today we add the necessity of treating the land and its resources with the same care and respect that we extend to other humans. We recognize that we depend on the health and productivity of our lands to provide us the essentials of life—air, water, soil, plants, and animals— and also the beauty and comfort that nurtures our character.

Today we begin a long, difficult, and expensive journey, but a journey that we know will take us where we want to go. We are confident the people of the Round Lake ecosystem want to take this journey. We are proud that our citizens, businesses, agencies, and community groups are leading themselves and the nation in becoming the ROLE Model!

THE ROLE MODEL AGREEMENT

The Round Lake Ecosystem Model Agreement is a simple document with profound implications. Most importantly, it establishes the Round Lake Ecosystem Team as a broadly based coalition of representatives of all groups that wish to join. It has an initial 10-year charter, with the expectation that it will be renewed continuously and become a leading focus for community planning and action.

The state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), through its secretary, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, through its regional director, have committed their resources to provide the base operations for the team. Each agency has agreed to assign one professional to coordinate the team's work for the next 5 years—commitments that were considered essential (and inspirational). In addition, each agency has agreed to assign its most senior local staff person to serve on the team. These are the DNR's District Director, Margaret Staples, and the Bingham National Wildlife Refuge manager, Oliver Adams. And, of course, these agencies have pledged the support of their staff and physical resources to help along the way.

All signatories to the agreement are automatically members of the team, and a subset has been elected by the members to comprise the Steering Committee. The list is impressive (Steering Committee members are noted by an asterisk):

ROLE Model Members

Benson City Council*

Bingham National Wildlife Refuge*

Crawford County Planning Commission*

Cranberry Growers' Association*

Cranberry Marsh Audubon Society

Crawford County Grange*

Department of Natural Resources*

Friends of Round Lake

Hardwood Lumber Manufacturers' Association

Hunters for Waterfowl*

Lake City Council*

League of Women Voters

Little Lake Shoreline Association

Mid-State Outdoor Writers Association

Northeast Power Company*

Penowa Indian Nation*

Round Lake Area Chamber of Commerce*

Round Lake Forest Landowners Association*

Society for North American Plants (SNAP)

Truman National Forest*

Trust for Land Conservation...