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Environment General Courses (ENVIRON)

graduate level, taught in Durham

298.72 Science and Values in Lake Erie Ecosystem Management (3 credits)
Fall, 2006 (Mon, Wed, 11.40-12.55)

Instructor: Richard M. Anderson

Better ecosystem health is a natural objective in ecosystem management.  However, in order to formulate sound public policy, such rhetorically powerful concepts must be spelled out.  Any attempt at defining ecosystem health will inevitably include—in addition to science—socioeconomic considerations, public perceptions, and human values.  Thus, attempts to implement the ecosystem health concept inevitably face the crucial problem of priority setting among conflicting societal goals.  How do we do this?

This issue will be explored in the context of case studies in Lake Erie ecosystem management.  Lake Erie is the shallowest, warmest, and most fertile of the five great lakes.  It is considered perhaps the most abundant walleye fishery in the world, already valued at $U.S. 485 million over 25 years ago.  Prized commercially, as well as for sport, walleye have rebounded since the 1970s, but many are worried that a recent large total allowable catch set by fishery managers based on the large year class of 2003 is too risky.  With its fertile soils, Lake Erie is exposed to the greatest stress from agriculture and urbanization.  Seventeen metropolitan areas of over 50,000 in population are located within its basin.  Yet a 2004 multibillion dollar great lakes cleanup plan proposed in the U.S. Congress is in jeopardy of not being passed.  Meanwhile, the invasion of exotic species such as zebra and quagga mussels since the mid-1980s has altered the trophic nature and balance of the lake.  One result is that cultural eutrophication is less of an issue, yet summer anoxia in the shallow central basin continues.  Due to the large changes that have taken place in Lake Erie, a broad range of ecosystem management issues are open to citizen input in the context of maintaining consistency with ecological principles and the goals of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between the US and Canada first signed in 1987, and now under review.

Issues of science and values will be presented in lectures by the instructor and guest lecturers, organized for the most part around the historical and contemporary issues of control of phosphorus loadings to the Lake Erie ecosystem.  Examples from other systems will be included.  Decision analytic approaches to addresses the complementary roles of science and values will be introduced.  Goals of the course are:

  • To learn to recognize and distinguish the roles of scientific facts and public values in complex public policy contexts.
  • To be able to evaluate the quality and maturity and limitations of the science applicable to complex public policy contexts.
  • To learn to synthesize available science with public values and make and defend policy recommendations on these bases in complex public policy contexts.

 

Students will contribute through the following activities, among others:

  • Preparation, presentation, and defense of a 2-page memo on a complex Lake Erie management issue, with a limited preparation period
  • Student-led, in-class group discussion of current challenges in Lake Erie management
  • A midterm exam that will emphasize qualitative knowledge of Lake Erie science issues and ability to communicate them to diverse audiences
  • In depth case study of a Lake Erie management issue of student’s choice (subject to instructor approval), to be presented in PowerPoint presentation and final written report.

 

Potential Reading List

Anderson, R.M., B.F. Hobbs, J.F. Koonce, and A.B. Locci.  2001.  Using decision analysis to choose phosphorus targets for Lake Erie.  Environmental Management 27(2): 235-252.

Botts, L., and P. Muldoon.  2005.  Evolution of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.  Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, Michigan.

Callicott, J.B.  1995.  A review of some problems with the concept of ecosystem health.  Ecosystem Health 1: 101-112.

Great Lakes Regional Collaboration (GLRC).  2005.  Final Report: Great Lakes Collaboration Regional Strategy to Restore and Protect the Great Lakes.  http://www.glrc.us/.

Gregory, R.S.  2002.  Incorporating value trade-offs into community-based environmental risk decisions.  Environmental Values 11(4): 461-488.

Grumbine, R.E.  1994.  What is ecosystem management?  Conservation Biology 8(1): 27-38.

Maguire, L.A.  2004.  What can decision analysis do for invasive species management?  Risk Analysis 24(4): 859-868.

McGucken, W.  2000.  Lake Erie rehabilitated: Controlling cultural eutrophication, 1960s-1990s.  The University of Akron Press, Akron, Ohio.

Schmidt, J. C., R. H. Webb, R. A. Valdez, G. Richard Marzolf, and L. E. Stevens.  1998.  Science and values in river restoration in the Grand Canyon.  Bioscience 48(9): 735-747.

Taylor, J.C., and J.L. Roach.  2005.  Ocean shipping in the Great Lakes: Transportation cost increases that would result from a cessation of ocean vessel shipping.  Grand Rapids, Michigan.  (for the report directly>)

 

 
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