Alan Watson - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Alan Watson

Journal of Forestry, May 9, 2016

Notes, 2011

... Watson, Alan; Murrieta-Saldivar, Joaquin; McBride, Brooke 2011. Science and stewardship to pr... more ... Watson, Alan; Murrieta-Saldivar, Joaquin; McBride, Brooke 2011. Science and stewardship to protect and sustain wilderness values: Ninth World Wilderness Congress symposium; November 6-13, 2009; Merida, Yucatan, Mexico. Proceedings RMRS-P-64. Fort Collins, CO: US ...

Remote Sensing

South Asia, one of the most important food producing regions in the world, is facing a significan... more South Asia, one of the most important food producing regions in the world, is facing a significant threat to food grain production under the influence of extreme high temperatures. Furthermore, the probability of simultaneous trends in extreme precipitation patterns and extreme heat conditions, which can have compounding effects on crops, is a likelihood in South Asia. In this study, we found complex relationships between extreme heat and precipitation patterns, as well as compound effects on major crops (rice and wheat) in South Asia. We also employed event coincidence analysis (ECA) to quantify the likelihood of simultaneous temperature and crop extremes. We used the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) as the primary data to evaluate the distinct responses of major crops to weather extremes. Our results suggest that while the probability of simultaneous extreme events is small, most regions of South Asia (more than half) have experienced extreme events. The regulatory effect of precip...

The GeoJournal Library, 2009

Watson became intimately involved in Circumpolar North wilderness research issues. Dr. Lilian Ale... more Watson became intimately involved in Circumpolar North wilderness research issues. Dr. Lilian Alessa recently received her Ph.D. degree from the University of British Columbia, Canada, and is an Assistant Professor of Biology (Anchorage) and cross-appointed with the School of Natural Resources (Fairbanks) at the University of Alaska. She is an Interdisciplinary Scientist with a combined background in biology, sociology, and cognition. Dr. Alessa's current research foci span three areas: (1) Integrated coastal zone management, specifically looking at the biological cost of small-scale human activities, such as recreation and tourism in the marine protected areas and their mitigation using education; (2) The role of uncertainty and culture in perceiving and managing natural environments; and (3) The effects of chlorinated fatty acids on cells of organisms living in cold environments. She sits on the Board of Directors for the Arctic Research Consortium (www.arcus.org) and is the cofounder (with Alan Watson) of the University of Alaska Center for Wild Lands and Waters. Dr. Alessa works internationally with resource managers, researchers, and industry. Janet Sproull is a Project Coordinator at the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute. Ms. Sproull co-coordinated technical symposia for the 6 th and 7 th World Wilderness Congresses (India and South Africa) and assisted with compilation of Congress Proceedings. As a dedicated conservationist, Ms. Sproull donates her time and expertise to several community organizations, including: local land trust, Save Open Space (SOS); the Missoula Parks, Recreation and Urban Forestry Board; and the Mount Jumbo Advisory Committee. Grant writing efforts by Ms. Sproull in 2001 have provided funding for improvements at City Wetlands Parks, and also for activation of an Integrated Pest Management Plan for two SOS conservation easements.

The protection of relatively pristine areas in Brazil provides a great opportunity to recognize t... more The protection of relatively pristine areas in Brazil provides a great opportunity to recognize the values of natural ecosystems. At the same time, it provides opportunities for economic development. The growing interest in these areas in Brazil has stimulated techniques for management and research to study the consequences of human activities on the natural environment and the experience of visitors. Protection of the values received from these areas in relation to ecological and social conditions and threats to those values and conditions are priority research topics in Brazil. In the year 2003, a Symposium, "Protecting and restoring relationships between humans and wilderness landscapes," was held in Piracicaba-SP, Brazil. At this meeting a range of protected area issues were discussed; all of them outcomes of actual studies in protected areas and related to defining and protecting the human relationships with natural environments. Participants identified threats, values and attributes of protected areas that could help to guide ecological and social research and monitoring. They used a basic matrix of wilderness attributes and threats used previously at the Leopold Institute. The results reflect, in a way, the situation of other undeveloped countries where the mains threats are related to illegal extraction of wood, traffic in wild animals and inadequate agricultural practices.

Environmental Management, 2007

Many public land management agencies are committed to understanding and protecting recreation vis... more Many public land management agencies are committed to understanding and protecting recreation visitor experiences. Parks Canada is deeply committed to that objective for visitors to Canada's National Parks. This 2004 study, informed by a 2003 qualitative study of visitor experiences and influences on those experiences at Auyuittuq National Park in Nunavut, worked to bring 50 potential elements of visitor experiences down to five articulated dimensions of the experience that is currently being received at this remote eastern arctic park. A hypothesized set of 17 influences on experiences, also reduced to just two factors with similar response patterns, and with some items that did not flow into the two factors, were used in a regression analysis to understand the relationship between experiences and factors of influence. A sample of 61.8% (84) of the total recreation visitor population 16 years of age or older was surveyed during deregistration after the trip. Knowledge about the dimensions of the experiences currently received and factors of influence on those experiences can be used to guide selection of indicators for describing objectives and prescribing monitoring protocol. Keywords Limits of acceptable change Á Recreation Á Social indicators Á Wilderness Á Parks management Á Visitor experiences Á Factors of influence ''The World can tell us everything we want to know. The only problem for the World is that it doesn't have a voice. But the World's indicators are there. They are always talking to us.'' Quitsak Tarkiasuk (in McDonald and others 1997) Indicator Development for Monitoring For complex systems it is inherently difficult to understand linkages, forces of change, and outcomes. Therefore, both complex social and ecological systems are often studied and influences exerted in a way that focuses on a small number of attributes, or indicators, of those systems that are more confidently understood. These indicators are a key concept in modern policy development and evaluation of both human and nonhuman influences on these systems. Simple schemes to overcome the intrinsic complexity of most ecological systems have proven inadequate and untrustworthy (Kelly and Harwell 1990). Frønes (2007) suggests that the more complex the indicators, the stronger their power. Many monitoring programs, however, often

Our Wilderness Act in the United States, passed in 1964, provides a fairly distinct definition of... more Our Wilderness Act in the United States, passed in 1964, provides a fairly distinct definition of wilderness for the part of society that was successful in parlaying their values, recreation motivations, and political influence into an extremely effective, world-recognized conservation program. But relationships with our National Wilderness Preservation System extend well beyond the typical recreation visitor we might encounter in these areas. For example, due to growing recognition of the downstream importance of protected headwaters of important rivers, and the need for climate change adaptive planning to protect the flow of benefits to humans from protected nature, wilderness science takes on new meaning to our society. In other words, not all relational aspects between wild places and some segments of U.S. society (particularly indigenous peoples) are described well in the 1964 Wilderness Act. To some degree, Alaskan wilderness areas do take into account rural peoples' right...

Forest Service Research Data Archive

While there is a long history of research on factors influencing wilderness recreation visitor ex... more While there is a long history of research on factors influencing wilderness recreation visitor experiences, there has been little focused research to understand the experiences of users visiting wilderness under legislative special provisions or the impact of these special provisions on wilderness recreation visitors. There are some exceptions. For example, contrasting motorboat user and canoeist experiences and their impacts on each other in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness were topics of research even before the Wilderness Act was passed. Livestock grazing in wilderness is a particular kind of commercial special provision which impacts visitor experiences and has been studied in Colorado wildernesses. River floaters in at least one Idaho Wilderness can encounter motorized jet boats (a special provision use).We know these are often negative encounters for floaters. We commonly approach the jet boat user as a nonconforming user and thus a source of the conflict rather than ...

A common justification for developing ecotourism opportunities within protected areas is that it ... more A common justification for developing ecotourism opportunities within protected areas is that it helps to secure long-term conservation of wildlife and habitats and contributes to local socioeconomic development. Since establishment of Russia's first protected area in 1916, Russia has developed the world's largest system of strictly protected nature reserves (zapovedniks) and sanctuaries (zakazniks). Most tourism had been prevented in these areas until federal law changed to permit educational tourism. Russian nature-reserve administrators hope it will lead to greater public involvement and public and financial support. Because little is known about the attitudes of local community residents and visitors in Russia toward protected areas, conservation efforts, and tourism practices, the present study describes stakeholders' attitudes and knowledge in the South-Kamchatka Sanctuary, in Far East Russia. A positive evaluation of the purposes of the protected area, both by vis...

National forest trail users in four geographical regions of the United States are described based... more National forest trail users in four geographical regions of the United States are described based on participation in clusters of recreation activities. Visitors are classified into day hiking, undeveloped recreation, and two developed camping and hiking activity clusters for the Appalachian, Pacific, Rocky Mountain, and Southwestern regions. Distance and time traveled to national forest sites from home varied for activity clusters. Length of time at the site varied across activity clusters. Recreation activities combined with home range allows for assessing relative availability of, and demand for, different types of place-related opportunities and experiences users seek within a particular region.

Despite the generally accepted need for understanding social vulnerability within the context of ... more Despite the generally accepted need for understanding social vulnerability within the context of USDA Forest Service planning and management, there is a lack of structured approaches available to practitioners to gain such an understanding. This social vulnerability protocol provides a step-by-step manual for engaging the public about ecosystem service tradeoffs and the drivers of change considered influential to the continued provision of important ecosystem services. This protocol provides a rigorous social science approach for implementation alongside common public engagement practices such as listening sessions, open houses, and focus groups. The approach includes a fun, thought-provoking exercise to be completed during the public engagement process, and we suggest that the approach can be implemented within the context of already busy work schedules and without outside expertise. This protocol, which is based on the social science method known as Q-methodology, includes guidance from the initial step of describing the decisionmaking context to the final steps of analysis and interpretation. The final results include multiple perspectives held by the public, and the perspectives are conveyed through engaging and understandable illustrations. The knowledge created through implementation of this protocol can inform both natural resource decisionmaking and public relations.

, forest and riparian ecosystems on mixed-ownership federal lands adjacent to the Crow Indian Res... more , forest and riparian ecosystems on mixed-ownership federal lands adjacent to the Crow Indian Reservation: Developing a protective shield for sustainability of the environment and culture from the impacts of climaterelated disturbance. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-410.

Journal of Leisure Research, 2008

Research at the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in Montana explored differences in recreation vis... more Research at the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in Montana explored differences in recreation visitors' attitudes towards the use of management-ignited prescribed fires in the wilderness. A mail-back survey of visitors (n = 291) during the 2004 season revealed that over half of visitors would accept prescribed fires in wilderness. This support did not vary by ignition purpose: (a) to restore the natural role of fire or (b) to reduce hazardous fuels and potential for fire escaping to non-wilderness lands. Local visitors, however, were significantly more accepting of prescribed fires than non-local visitors across both ignition purposes. A smaller proportion of visitors than was expected considered the presence of natural fire undesirable.

Ecosystem Services, 2018

An integrated approach to understanding ecosystem service values in Wyoming and Montana, USA is p... more An integrated approach to understanding ecosystem service values in Wyoming and Montana, USA is presented. The assessment encompasses a major river basin, and includes a synthesis of existing data and research related to the natural system and separate data collection efforts regarding the social and economic importance of ecosystem services. A holistic look at the social-ecological system provides nuanced information about ecosystem service values and tradeoffs for the purpose of public land decision-making. The initial ecological assessment concluded that water resources were particularly vulnerable, which guided the social and economic assessments. The social assessment applied Q-methodology, ultimately identifying and exploring four archetypes regarding views on the importance of 34 ecosystem services, which were dubbed "environmental", "agricultural", "Native American", and "recreation". The economic assessment applied choice modeling to understand non-market values of ecosystem services (i.e., agricultural community, aquatic biodiversity, river angling, and motorized winter recreation), and latent class analysis provided insight into preference heterogeneity previously indicated in the social assessment. The structured approach can inform natural resource decision-making by including several different perspectives, integrating multiple spatial scales, highlighting particular ecosystem services as relevant within the context of many ecosystem services, and facilitating relations between the public and natural resource stewards.