Doctoral Dissertation Research: Managing Ecological and Cultural Value on Rural Lands

农村土地管理一直是美国的一个重要话题，因为联邦政府和其他土地所有者一直在寻求平衡农村土地和资源的经济价值与保护我们的自然和文化遗产。由于对农村土地的环境和遗产价值的相互矛盾的理解，以及非营利组织和公众对土地管理实践的参与增加，这些问题只会变得更加重要和复杂。这个项目训练学生使用经验、科学数据收集和分析的方法，探讨土地管理者如何平衡这些无数的优先事项，以改善公众参与土地管理规划的过程。除了为人类学研究生的培训提供资金外，该项目还将通过向投资于寻找更有效的土地管理方法、改进政策和实践以及促进环境、文化和经济可持续性的组织广泛传播其研究结果，增进科学理解。加州大学伯克利分校的博士生Julia Sizek在Daniel Fisher博士的指导下，将探索影响农村土地管理政策和实践变化的因素。这项研究是在加州东南部的莫哈韦沙漠进行的，该地区作为生态价值和印第安人、家园和军事历史的遗址，越来越受到关注。该地区目前正在为两个新的国家纪念碑（莫哈韦小径国家纪念碑和城堡山国家纪念碑，成立于2016年）进行土地管理规划，但也包含一个有争议的国家公园管理局单位：莫哈韦国家保护区，成立于1994年。通过研究环境和美洲原住民组织成员如何参与土地管理规划和理解沙漠的价值，本研究将揭示荒漠土地的文化和生态价值，以及这如何影响土地管理的优先事项。这项研究还将跟踪私人和公共拥有的保护区的土地管理者，看看土地管理实践（例如使用规定、围栏建设、小径建设、补种、标志）如何随着对沙漠生态的理解以及历史和文化研究的程度变得更加准确而在沙漠中发生变化。将通过与有关专家面谈、分析旨在使公众参与规划过程的环境事件以及实地考察生态恢复和沙漠保护地区来收集关于了解沙漠和科学进展的数据。该项目将推动关于环境不确定条件下土地和治理的理论辩论，以及土地保护实践异质性的影响。研究结果将与莫哈韦沙漠和其他地方发生的景观尺度的环境规划过程有关，也将表明对沙漠环境价值的看法如何变化以及对土地管理产生什么影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Rural land management has always been an important topic in the United States as the Federal Government and other landowners have sought to balance economic value of rural lands and resources with the preservation of our natural and cultural heritage. These issues have only grown more significant and complex because of conflicting understandings about the environmental and heritage value of rural lands as well as increased participation of non-profits and the public in land management practices. This project, which trains a student in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, asks how land managers balance these myriad priorities to improve processes of public involvement in land management planning. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology, the project would enhance scientific understanding by broadly disseminating its findings to organizations invested in discovering more effective means of navigating land management, improving policies and practices, and promoting environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability.Doctoral student Julia Sizek, supervised by Dr. Daniel Fisher at the University of California-Berkeley, will explore what factors influence shifts in land management policies and practices on rural lands. Research conducted in Southeastern California's Mojave Desert, an area gaining increasing visibility as both a place of ecological value and a site of Native American, homesteading, and military history. This region is currently in the process of land management planning for two new national monuments (Mojave Trails National Monument and Castle Mountains National Monuments, established 2016), but also contains a contentious National Park Service unit: the Mojave National Preserve, established in 1994. By studying how members of environmental and Native American organizations participate in land management planning and understand the value of the desert, this research will reveal the cultural and ecological value of desert lands as understood today, and how this affects land management priorities. This research will also follow land managers on privately and publicly-held conservation lands, seeing how land management practices (e.g. use regulations, fence-building, trail-building, reseeding, signage) are changing in the desert as understandings of desert ecology and the extent of historical and cultural research are becoming more accurate. Data about understandings of the desert and scientific advances will be collected through interviews with relevant experts, analysis of environmental events aimed at public participation in planning processes, and site visits to areas of ecological restoration and desert protection. The project will advance theoretical debates about land and governance under conditions of environmental uncertainty, and the effects of heterogeneity in land conservation practices. Research results will be relevant to landscape-scale environmental planning processes happening in the Mojave Desert and elsewhere, and will also show how perceptions of the environmental value of the desert are shifting and with what effects for land management.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.