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- Info
Conducting regional environmental assessments: the Southern Appalachian experience
| Author: |
Berish, Cory W.; Durbrow, B. Richard; Harrison, James, E. [and others] |
| Date: |
1998 |
| Periodical: |
In: Peine, J.D.ed., Ecosystem management for sustainability. New York: Lewis Publishers |
| Abstract: |
Over the last 25 years states, working partnerships among numerous federal and state agencies and local organizations, have made tremendous strides in cleaning up our environment. The focus of these efforts has been on reducing many sources of terrestrial, water, and air pollution (EPA 1992). But, as declines in neotropical migratory bird populations (DeGraaf and Rappole 1995) and many aquatic species (Etnier and Starnes 1991) demonstrate, traditional environmental regulation strategies alone simply cannot assure the protection of ecological integrity. Large-scale disturbances on ecosystems often demonstrate fairly uniform responses which allow identification of distress to ecosystems (Rapport et al. 1985). Ecological integrity, in this respect, can be defined as the ability of a living system to recover by resembling the preexisting state after disturbance to the ecosystem (Regier 1993). |
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