Who Cares about Conifer Encroachment?
Brunson, Mark*,1, Shindler, Bruce2, 1 Dept. of Environment & Society, Logan, UT2 Dept. of Forest Resources, Corvallis, OR ABSTRACT- Increasingly range managers are concerned about the encroachment of conifer-dominated systems into areas previously occupied by grassland or shrub-steppe communities. The impacts of this phenomenon, which is occurring across North American rangelands, include reduced streamflow and water availability, increasing fuel loads and fire hazards, and loss of habitat for rare or declining wildlife and plant species. Therefore land managers devote more and more effort to restoration and fuels-reduction projects that entail using prescribed fire or mechanical treatments to reduce conifer densities and/or remove conifers altogether. Even though it may achieve management objectives, such activities cannot succeed on publicly owned lands unless citizens agree they are needed and that the benefits to society outweigh the costs. Studies of citizen responses to natural r
