Human Influences on Forest Ecosystems: The Southern Wildland Urban Interface Assessment
Abstract
As populations expand in the South, human influences on southern forests are increasing. As a result, the goods, services, and management of its forests are changing. Such areas of rapid change commonly are referred to as the wildland-urban interface. Although the interface has been variously defined, perhaps the most common definition is that of an area of urban sprawl where homes and other development press against the boundaries of public or private wildlands or rural areas. From a natural resource perspective, the interface is an area where increased human influence and land use conversion are changing natural resource benefits and management.
Wildland fires that threaten lives and property are perhaps the most obvious problem facing residents in the wildland-urban interface, although there are other equally important issues. For example, as the number of private forest landowners in the South increases, ownership tract size decreases. As a result, managing small-scale tracts for a variety of management objectives becomes problematic. Other examples include watershed management and protection, nonnative species proliferation, forest health concerns, wildlife management and conservation, and increased recreation demand. Natural resource professionals currently have limited skills, information, and tools necessary to address the challenges of managing resources in the wildland-urban interface. Local policymakers, planners, and homeowners need scientific information packaged in user-friendly, easily accessible formats for informed decisionmaking.
The Southern Research Station and the Southern Region of the USDA Forest Service, in cooperation with the Southern Group of State Foresters, conducted an assessment to identify and better understand factors driving social and ecological changes within the wildland-urban interface, as well as the consequences of such changes. The Assessment considers a geographical area that includes 13 southern States from Virginia to Texas. Although the South differs in many ways from other regions--in climate, vegetation, land ownership, and culture--most of the broad findings of this Assessment will be applicable to other regions of the United States and around the world.
The primary contributors to this Assessment are recognized authorities from Federal agencies and university faculties. Before compiling the Assessment, the Assessment team held 12 focus groups in 6 southern communities that are experiencing rapid growth. The groups helped identify important issues and needs common to the wildland-urban interface and validated the overall findings of the Assessment.
Chapter topics include population and demographic trends; economic and tax issues; land use planning and policy; urban effects on forest ecosystems; challenges for forest resource management and conservation; social consequences of change; fire; and themes, research, and information needs for the wildland-urban interface. Throughout each chapter, currently available tools, research findings, and information on wildland-urban interface topics are examined. Suggestions for new research, education, and management options are also presented.
