Social and Cultural Data in Landscape Ecology

Michelle Steen-Adams

Outline

• Applications of social and cultural data in landscape ecological investigations

• Conceptual Model

• Ways that human presence shapes landscape patterns

• Data and methods

I. Applications: Questions and problems social and cultural data can help resolve

• Basic research question: How have current landscape patterns developed?

• Applied questions: – Restoration

• Ecological significance of social processes and patterns

– Land use planning

II. Conceptual Model

Zev Naveh (1991)

Biophysical Sphere

Emergent Structural And Functional Characteristics

Human Sphere:Culture

Technology

III. Ways that human presence shapes landscape pattern

Distant Causes• Culture• Politics • Economics

– Transportation structures – Industry– Technology

Proximate Causes• Human settlement patterns

– Population – Land Ownership

• Land Use/ Forest management

• Historical dimension

Cultural Landscapes (vs. Natural landscapes)

• Definitions: landscape and culture• Frequent misperception of natural vs.

cultural landscape characteristics• Ways people influence landscape

structure– Changing dominance structure– Range extensions or truncations– Ruderal invasions– Soil alterations

Cultural theory in landscape ecology

• Culture structures landscapes (Nassauer 1995)

– Human perceptions of landscapes

– Cognition– Aesthetics/ values

• Landscapes structure culture (feedback loop)

Causes of Landscape Pattern: Culture

Kickapoo Valley, Wisconsin,Heasley and

Guries1998

Cultural drivers of landscape

change

Liberty Township, Vernon County,Wisconsin.Heasley and Guries1998

Cultural and Political causes of landscape pattern: Comparative landscape change

assessment

10 0 10 20 Kilometers

Canada

U.S.A.

Bad RiverReservation

Non-Industrial Private Area

Research Question and Hypothesis

• Question: – How do differing cultural and political conditions

explain distinct courses of landscape change?

• Hypothesis– Sites with cultural and political characteristics that

value intact forest conditions tend to retain intact forests;

– Sites with cultural and political characteristics that prioritize agricultural land uses tend to have agriculture-grassland or open land cover conditions.

Cultural comparison: Bad River Reservation

• Ojibwe woodland culture– Birch bark– Maple sugar– Hunting and fishing– Wild rice

Maple Sugar Camp

Preparing Birch Bark for Removal

Cultural comparison: off-Reservation area

• Yeoman farmer- Jeffersonian tradition

National Archives

Political comparison: Bad River Reservation

• Assimilation and acculturation policies– Dawes Act

(1887): allotment system

– Stumpage capital to establish farms

– Indian Agency• Bureau of Indian

Affairs Forestry Division– Pulpwood

management

Political comparison: off-Reservation area

• State programs– U.W. Agricultural

Experiment Station system

– Cooperation between local farmer and experts

• Federal programs– Agricultural

Stabilization and Conservation Service

– Farm Service Agency

Land Cover Transition Comparisons

Reservation Off-Reservation

0.000.050.100.150.200.250.300.35

Hemlock-Yellow Birch

to Ag-Grassland

Pine to Ag-Grassland

AspenPaper-Birch

to AspenPaper-Birch

Boreal toAspen

Paper-Birch

Hemlock-Yellow Birch

to AspenPaper-Birch

LowlandForest toAspen

Paper-Birch

Pine toAspen

Paper-BirchPro

po

rtio

n o

f su

b-r

egio

n Pre-Euro-American settlement- 1930 Transitions

0.000.050.100.150.200.250.300.350.40

Ag-Grassland toAg-Grassland

Aspen Paper-Birch to Ag-Grassland

Ag-Grassland toUpland Shurb-

Herb

Aspen Paper-Birch to Upland

Shrub-Herb

Aspen Paper-Birch to Aspen

Paper-Birch

Aspen Paper-Birch to BorealP

rop

ort

ion

of

sub

-reg

ion 1930- 1980s Transitions

Causes of Landscape Pattern: Settlement history

Eastern Upper

Peninsula, Michigan

Silbernagel et al.

1997

Causes of Landscape Pattern: Population, Industry, Transportation

South BerkshireBurgi et al. 2000

IV. Ways of measuring social-cultural influences on landscapes:

Data Sources

• Historic land surveys

• Remotely-sensed Imagery

• Census Data

• Questionnaires and Interviews

• Archival material

Historic Land Survey Data: Wisconsin Land Economic Inventory

• Purpose: Land inventory and planning

• Land uses– Agriculture– Urban

Remotely-sensed data: Aerial photographic imagery

• Wide availability– 1930s- present– Decadal intervals– Coverage: entire

U.S.

• Flexible to users’ needs and technical abilities

Data Source: Censuses

• U.S. Census– Timeframe: 1790- present– Spatial scales: Block, Tract, County– Data: population, occupation, income, age

• State Censuses

• Census of Agriculture

Data Source: Questionnaires

Medley et al. 1995

Landscape change with agricultural intensification…Ohio Medley et al. 1995

Change in owned and rented acreage?

Changes in acreage in row crops?

Rank importance of factors influencing management decisions

Archival Data

• Correspondence• Reports• Newspaper articles• Photographs, especially repeat

photographyData Repositories

– National Archives– Historical societies– Library collections– Museums

Key Points

• Many landscape ecological questions and applied problems require integrating social and cultural variables into the analysis.

• A conceptual foundation and body of research literature exists.

• Human presence shapes landscape pattern in multiple ways.

• Data and analytical techniques do exist to conduct this kind of research.