Risk to Maintenance-Dependent Species from Orthodoxy
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RISK TO MAINTENANCE-DEPENDENT SPECIES FROM ORTHODOXY IN SPECIES-BASED LAND-USE REGULATION by ADAM P. NOVICK A THESIS Presented to the Environmental Studies Program and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science June 2013 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Student: Adam P. Novick Title: Risk to Maintenance-Dependent Species from Orthodoxy in Species-Based Land-Use Regulation This thesis has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science degree in the Environmental Studies Program by: Ted Toadvine Chairperson Richard D. Margerum Member Patrick T. Hurley Member and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research and Innovation; Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2013 ii © 2013 Adam P. Novick This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (United States) License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). iii THESIS ABSTRACT Adam P. Novick Master of Science Environmental Studies Program June 2013 Title: Risk to Maintenance-Dependent Species from Orthodoxy in Species-Based Land-Use Regulation I theorize and offer some evidence that humans inadvertently risk exacerbating the loss of maintenance-dependent species on private land by using species-based land-use regulation to seek other benefits. Drawing evidence primarily from the US, I argue that such regulation poses a risk to maintenance-dependent species, that humans routinely disregard this risk, and that this disregard widely serves to defend the power of individuals and organizations to use such regulation to seek other benefits. I suggest this implies that with constraints on public funding, humans might improve the survival of some species by clarifying the purpose of such regulation and considering openly refraining from such regulation for some species. I also suggest such change might depend on articulating the issue as whether the survival of a species could ever depend on individuals having a right to conserve or maintain it without selectively incurring harm from regulation intended to save it. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Adam P. Novick GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Oregon State University, Corvallis Harvard University, Cambridge, MA DEGREES AWARDED: Master of Science, Environmental Studies Program, 2013, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, General Science, 1979, University of Oregon GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Graduate Research Fellowship, Property and Environment Research Center, 2008 Colloquium Fellowship, Property and Environment Research Center and The Liberty Fund, 2008 Travel awards, Barker Foundation, 2006 and 2007 Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2004–2006 Landowner Incentive Program, US Fish and Wildlife Service, 2002 Habitat management assistance, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, 2001 Private Landowner Stewardship Award (“for leadership in the conservation of oak savanna habitats”), Oregon chapter of The Wildlife Society, 2000 Fish and Wildlife Steward Award, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Oregon Department of Forestry, 1999 PUBLICATIONS: Novick, Adam P. 2013. “Streaked Horned Lark and a Special Rule under ESA §4(d): A Case Study of Federal Efforts to Address Regulatory Risk to Maintenance-Dependent Species on Private Land.” 84th Annual Meeting of the Northwest Scientific Association with the Cascadia Prairie-Oak v Partnership and Northwest Lichenologists, 64. http://www.northwestscience .org/Resources/Final%20Annual%20Meeting%20Abstracts%20and%20Progr ams/2013%20NWSA%20Program%20and%20Abstracts.pdf. ———. 2011. “Benton County’s Prairie Species Habitat Conservation Plan: Signposts for the Future of Species-Based Land-Use Regulation?” The 2011 Annual Meeting of the Oregon Chapter of The Wildlife Society: Emerging Environmental Issues and the Role of Wildlife Science, 28, http://hdl.handle .net/1794/11006. ———. 2009. “Portrait of a Nature-Society Hybrid.” Environmental Philosophy 7 (2): cover, 95–97. ———. 2009. “Risk to Maintenance-Dependent Species on Private Land from Orthodoxy in Governmental Regulation of Incidental Harm to Species: A Political Ecology of the Willamette Valley’s Oak Savanna.” The 2009 Annual Meeting of the Oregon Chapter of The Wildlife Society: Emerging Environmental Issues and the Role of Wildlife Science, 13–14. http://wildlife .org/oregon/sites/wildlife.org.oregon/files/images/2009conferenceprogram web.pdf. ———. 2007. “A War of Musical Chairs: What Have We Done to Leopold’s Land Ethic? (And What Else Can We Do?).” The 2007 Joint Annual Meeting of the Oregon Chapter of the Wildlife Society and the Washington Chapter of the Wildlife Society: Connected by Fire and Water: Wildlife, Landscapes, and People, 38. http://wildlife.org/oregon/sites/wildlife.org.oregon/files/images /2007%20TWS%20PROGRAM%20final.pdf. ———. 2007. “Leopold’s Second Prescription: A Review of Aldo Leopold’s Work Highlights a Lifetime of Critical Interdisciplinary Inquiry Beside an Idealistic Land Ethic.” 9th Annual Environmental Joint Campus Conference: Linking People, Policy, and Science, 2. http://envs.uoregon.edu/downloads /JCC%20Abstracts_5_17_07.pdf. ———. 2006. Review of Correction Lines: Essays on Land, Leopold, and Conservation by Curt Meine. Environment 48 (2): 41; 48 (4): 45. ———. 2004. “Dark Cloud, Silver Lining: Dispelling Regulatory Disincentives Might Help Habitat and Landowners Alike.” Published simultaneously in Ecotone (University of Oregon) Winter: 3–4 and Update (Oregon Small Woodlands Association) 24 (7): 9+. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Conservation planning is not for the faint of heart. (Noss, O’Connell, and Murphy 1997, xiii) I could not have completed this work without the generous help and encouragement of others. Above all, I thank Ted Toadvine, whose interest, insights, encouragement, faith, and patience brought sunlight to a sometimes dark and stormy path. I thank Rich Margerum and Patrick Hurley for the opportunity to undertake this work, for their patience in allowing me to pursue it, and for key guidance. I especially thank Patrick for suggesting I take these questions to graduate school and for referring me to work by Zimmerer (2000); and Rich for suggesting one sometimes needs to spiral into a topic. I thank former committee members Rob Ribe and Peter Walker for essential early guidance. I am particularly grateful to Peter for introducing me to political ecology, pointing me to Leach and Mearns (1996a), and suggesting that I would “need to do a lot of reading”. I likewise thank Alan Dickman, the University of Oregon Graduate School, and the Environmental Studies Program for the opportunity to pursue this work and for their extraordinary consideration and support in allowing me additional time to complete it, and Gayla WardWell, for her long faith and encouragement. I thank the US Fish and Wildlife Service for financial support for research that contributed to this work (under grant 005-4279S-WILDLIFE). The views I present here are solely mine, and I am solely responsible for any errors. For all whose views I question in this work, I deeply honor their concern for our environment and natural heritage. I share the widespread view that we humans are at vii imminent peril of destroying our environment through market failure, and that our own fate will likely depend upon greatly expanding mutual controls to limit destruction of the environment through human action. In questioning any views here, I seek only to prevent our species from inadvertently sacrificing others in the name of saving them, at least not without recognizing what we are doing. I also acknowledge that anyone’s views may have changed. I offer additional acknowledgments in appendix C. DISCLAIMER I am not an attorney. This work presents scholarly research and should not be interpreted as legal advice. Anyone seeking to employ or otherwise rely on any interpretations of law herein should first seek legal counsel. viii I dedicate this work to early disequilibrium ecologist Henry Allan Gleason (1882–1975). ix TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1. Overview of My Argument............................................................................ 1 2. The Structure of My Argument...................................................................... 3 3. Research Questions ....................................................................................... 5 4. Methods: Sources and Uses of Evidence........................................................ 6 5. Suppositions and Delimitations...................................................................... 7 5.1. Species-Based Land-Use Regulation..................................................... 8 5.2. Regulation Intended to Improve the Survival of Species........................ 8 5.3. Maintenance-Dependent Species........................................................... 9 5.4. Terrestrial Species................................................................................. 10 5.5. Private Land.......................................................................................... 10 5.6. Potential Insufficiency of Voluntary Conservation and Maintenance..... 11 5.7. Uncertainty of Risk to Species from Species-Based Land-Use Regulation ..................................................................................................