Elwha: Value of a River. Managing Risk in the Pacific Northwest.

详细信息   

• 作者：Johnson ; Philip R.S.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2013
• 毕业院校：Yale University
• Department：Forestry and Environmental Studies.
• ISBN：9781303297403
• CBH：3571943
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：31499569
• Pages：597

文摘

The broad goal of this dissertation research is to help understand how societies can balance environmental and human needs while avoiding natural resource and economic collapse. Using a case study set in the north Olympic Peninsula region of western Washington State in the Pacific Northwest,an investigation is offered to explore why some societies dependent upon natural resources succeed while others fail. Special emphasis was directed to events in the Elwha River Basin and nearby Port Angeles area where intensive fisheries,power generation and timber activities have overlapped for several decades. The studys central research question asked to what extent specific social and cultural factors shaped decision-making strategies relating to natural resource use and treatment of the environment over time. A land of mountains,rivers and rainforests,the Olympic Peninsula lies between the Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound. Formerly home to several native runs of salmon and trout,the Elwha River was endowed with a fisheries rare among streams its size south of Alaska. In the early twentieth century,a power developer completed two dams on the lower river. The projects---which are now being dismantled---provided electrical energy to create a regional timber and pulp mill economy. They also contributed to the loss of native fisheries and ecosystem integrity,the disruption of subsistence Native groups---specifically the Elwha Klallam---and the viability of recreational and commercial fishing. The study assessed legal,scientific and technological factors that drove a diverse set of exploitation and preservation choices among groups reliant upon natural resources. These included treatment of how societies attempt to regulate or guide their exploitative behavior,the interplay of groups competing for resource dominance,considerations of equity and fair play among different users,the application of technology and science to resource management and the role of legal institutions and laws in adjudicating access and control to resources. An integrated policy sciences and risk studies methodological framework guided and structured the research project. The analysis employed an interdisciplinary approach that treated and relied upon various disciplines and scholarship across the natural and social sciences. These included ecology,environmental science and fisheries biology； and anthropology,ethnology,law and sociology. A narrative analytical history encompassed a range of actors organized into seven story parts. Each part,comprised of chapters that profile different perspectives and standpoints,assessed how and why resources were valued and used,and by whom. Main characters include Native groups---especially the Klallam peoples dwelling on the north Olympic Peninsula---immigrant settlers,industrial and commercial interests,governmental entities,regulatory officials and individual advocates. From each groups experience,lessons were drawn relating to the theme of risk. Over time,human groups have developed the term risk as a reference to their means of survival---a package of tools used in an effort to exist and thrive as they attempt to build cultural and economic systems. The study of risk facilitates a comprehensive assessment of the strategies,methods and techniques these groups have used to avoid natural resource and social collapse. In this interrelated way,the use of risk is especially concerned with conditions where uncertain elements can pose a threat to desired objectives,where outcomes are not predetermined but rather are subject to possibility. This describes a formal attempt by societies to acknowledge and handle the all too real chance of critical things going wrong that could undermine important aspects of their existence. Key outcomes of the analysis found lessons or principles that emerged from the core experience of societies on the north Olympic Peninsula over the past 150 years. These may have bearing beyond the Elwha River story and include the need to 1) align cultural imperatives with ecological imperatives； 2) prepare for the possibility of a breakdown in societal or ecosystem functioning caused by natural or human-derived events； 3) probe for inequities wherever decision making involves addressing competing interests； 4) make use of foresight,scrutiny and vigilance to minimize the unintended consequences of technology； 5) support sustained scientific endeavor to inform the protection of long-term public interests； and 6) consider the perspective and knowledge of individuals and communities directly experiencing outcomes of interest. In addition,successful societal groups had developed distinct attributes including: 1) cultural systems to guide and shape relationships with and attitudes toward nature and natural resources； 2) civic participation and direct engagement in regulatory or risk management systems at local and regional levels； 3) adaptive social and governing mechanisms to consider and incorporate non-conventional or otherwise counter-establishment forms of information and experience； and 4) reverential attitudes and perspectives toward natural systems.