Ecological Analysis of the US Forest Service's RARE-II Sites

摘要

A methodology has been developed and applied to measure the ecological quality of land areas being evaluated as potential wilderness areas under the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service's Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE-II) Program. Four major parameters were chosen to quantify land areas located anywhere in the conterminous United States. These are: (1) vegetation - the principal vegetation communities within each area; (2) avian communities - the kinds and abundance of birds inhabiting an area and the quality of habitat provided by an area; (3) mammal communities - the species of mammals inhabiting an area; and (4) endangered or threatened species - the occurrence of species and whether or not the area provides critical habitat. The results are shown for the Douglas-fir ecoregion of the United States and are used in a conflict matrix to segregate identified tracts according to their ecological ratings and energy and mineral resource ratings. (ERA citation 05:029620)