Making the Forest a Factory: The Nature of Sustained Yield Forestry in New Mexico

自19世纪末建立森林保护区以来，美国林务局的做法和政策极大地改变了新墨西哥州北部黄松林的生态和依赖森林资源的农村的自给自足经济。这一研究项目的重点是在新墨西哥州卡森国家森林的埃尔里托地区实施一个持续产量木材生产单位。Elrito护林员在1947年辩称，用工业的、持续的产量林业取代自给自足的生产将恢复过度放牧的牧场，并改善当地的生计。初步研究表明，这两种结果都没有发生。生态学、山脉科学和保护地理学最近的研究认为，人类干预生态系统过程，产生农业多样化的景观，可以在支持生物多样性的同时，产生有益的当地经济成果。为了评估新墨西哥州北部工业林业的生态和经济影响，调查员将进行档案研究，以重建联邦土地管理之前的历史生态，以及1848年该领土被吞并后美国不承认的墨西哥当地土地授予的法律历史。这项工作为理解持续丰产林业带来的经济和生态变化提供了一种手段。为了评估当前林业实践的生态和经济影响，调查员将对森林和牧场管理进行比较研究。新墨西哥州北部的一些土地批出在美国的吞并下幸存下来，目前仍在进行自给自足的生产管理。这些比较将使调查者能够区分不同的土地利用做法和政策的经济和生态结果。调查者将通过对当前的牧场管理、营林和木材采伐做法进行人种学研究来比较两个地点。民族志方法将包括访谈、调查和参与者观察。调查员将评估在各种管理制度下运作的当地用户所获得的经济利益。在进行经济研究的同时，还将在2005年生长季进行生态评估和监测。比较研究的这一部分将对照生存制度对林业局管理制度进行评价。研究人员将评估各种管理策略的能力，以产生能够维持物种多样性的农业多样化景观，同时为依赖的当地社区提供经济自给自足。该项目将有助于生态学最近的理论扩展，认识到社会生产的农业景观对生物多样性的好处。这项研究将增加土地出让研究和地理学人类环境研究中的实证研究，这些研究探索农业多样性提供的社会和生态服务。该项目将促进有关新墨西哥州北部各种管理制度的生态和经济影响的科学知识，重点关注西南黄松林的生态和依赖森林资源的农村村庄的经济。该项目将影响替代管理战略，这些战略可能会克服该地区最近一段棘手的环境冲突历史。

Since the establishment of forest reserves in the late 19th century, the practices and policies of the United States Forest Service both have dramatically altered the ecology of ponderosa pine forests in northern New Mexico and the subsistence economy of rural villages dependent on forest resources. This research project focuses on the implementation of a sustained-yield timber production unit on the El Rito district in New Mexico's Carson National Forest. El Rito rangers argued in 1947 that replacing subsistence production with industrial, sustained yield forestry would restore overgrazed ranges and improve local livelihoods. Preliminary research indicates that neither outcome has occurred. Recent research in ecology, range science, and conservation geography posit that human intervention in ecosystem processes that produce agro-diverse landscapes can serve to support biodiversity while also producing beneficial local economic outcomes. To evaluate the ecological and economic impact of industrial forestry in northern New Mexico, the investigator will conduct archival research to reconstruct the historical ecology prior to federal lands management and the legal history of local Mexican land grants that were not recognized by the United States following the annexation of the territory in 1848. Such work offers a means to understand the economic and ecological changes wrought by sustained yield forestry. To evaluate the ecological and economic impacts of current forestry practices, the investigator will conduct a comparative study of forest and rangeland management. Some land grants in northern New Mexico survived the U.S. annexation and are still managed for subsistence production. These comparisons will enable the investigator to differentiate both economic and ecological outcomes between various land use practices and policies. The investigator will compare the sites by conducting ethnographic research of current range management, silvicultural, and timber harvesting practices. Ethnographic methods will include interviews, surveys and participant-observation. The investigator will evaluate the economic benefits accruing to local users operating within various management regimes. Concurrent with the economic research, an ecological assessment and monitoring program will be conducted during the 2005 growing season. This component of the comparative study will evaluate Forest Service management regimes against subsistence regimes. The investigator will assess the ability of various management strategies to produce agro-diverse landscapes capable of sustaining species diversity while also offering economic self-sufficiency to dependent local communities.This project will contribute to recent theoretical extensions in ecology that recognize the benefits to biodiversity of socially-produced agricultural landscapes. The research will add to empirical research in land grant studies, and human-environment studies in geography, that explore the social and ecological services provided by agrodiversity. The project will contribute to scientific knowledge related to the ecological and economic impacts of various management regimes in northern New Mexico forests by focusing both on the ecology of Southwestern ponderosa pine forests and the economy of rural villages dependent on forest resources. The project will influence alternative management strategies that could overcome a recent history of intractable environmental conflict in the region.