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Global reach of UNE research includes reintroduction of wolves

September 06, 2006

wolfpic.jpgGroundbreaking research by Professor David Brunckhorst from The University of New England has led – among other things – to the successful reintroduction of wolves on rangelands in the American States of Idaho and Montana.

Professor Brunckhorst is the Director of UNE’s Institute for Rural Futures (IRF) and the Director of the UNESCO Institute for Bioregional Resource Management. His work on “bioregional planning” developed in part from a land management and conservation project in South Australia’s Murray Riverland that involved collaborations across 9,000 square kilometers of grazing and public land representing nine different tenure types. The project, known as “Bookmark Biosphere”, was highlighted as a case study in Jared Diamond’s recent book Collapse.

This led to projects in Australia and overseas, including a cross-property grazing and conservation experiment on the New England Tablelands described in Re-inventing the Common (Federation Press, 2003) and a project with collaborating groups of ranchers and the US Bureaus of Land Management and National Forests in Idaho and Montana that involved the reintroduction of wolves.

“The Lava Lake Land and Livestock group in southern Idaho, for example, manages almost 760,000 acres of public and private land for sheep and cattle ranching, conservation, and river restoration,” Professor Brunckhorst said. “A component of the conservation and stream restoration has included reintroduction of the wolf – along with adopting new ways of managing livestock grazing to avoid the wolves.” (These management strategies include keeping stock in tight groups, giving them long grazing rotations, and protecting them at night with temporary electric fencing.)

“The wolves keep large native herbivores such as elk from ‘camping’ on – and degrading – stream-side vegetation,” he explained, “and, to everyone’s delight, livestock losses to wolves have been insignificant with the use of different grazing management techniques. However, some of the keys to success include good communication, planning, and clear rules of engagement designed – and upheld – by all the collaborating parties.”

Professor Brunckhorst recently visited some of the collaborating ranches. “The ranchers had adapted well to managing their stock differently,” he said, “and were pleased with the way their streams and wetlands were regenerating as a result of the reintroduction of wolves.”

Karen Launchbaugh, Professor of Rangeland Ecology and Management at the University of Idaho, and Dr Mike Scott, Leader of the Federal US Fish and Wildlife Service research program, said: “The Australian-based IRF and Professor Brunckhorst lead the world in this kind of truly groundbreaking research. Having searched far and wide, we know of no other visionary and insightful amalgamation of applied research into useable policy and practical application for our rangelands.”

The European Union and Canada, as well as the United States, are interested in another IRF innovation: the "eco-civic" methodology for delineating regional boundaries. This is a mapping technique that couples rural residents’ understanding of their “community of interest”, social interactions and local landscape with the ecological resource base of each region. This allows local and regional boundaries to be drawn around areas of highest collective interest to residents and communities while incorporating a common resource base.

The “communities of interest” component of an “eco-civic” regionalisation plan for NSW, developed at IRF, has already been used as input to a revision of NSW State electoral areas. “More effective local government areas nested in natural resource management and regional planning regions could also be designed,” Professor Brunckhorst said. “Canadian and European officials have recognised important implications in this scheme for designing more efficient and effective government service delivery in regional planning, natural resources management, and community services.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at September 6, 2006 04:37 PM