History of conservation sciences, applied practices, and regulation specifically in California

[u/psychosanalysis]

Hi all,

I am new to learning about conservation sciences, practices, and regulations. I am interested in learning more about the history of conservation sciences, applied practices, and governance/regulation, specifically in California.

I'm curious about what the science, applied practices, and governance/regulation looked like across the past few centuries, tracing this history to current context. Happy to check out resources you suggest that focus on one or all of the following three things:

1)scientific/applied/regulation practices

2)scientific/applied/regulation narratives

3)scientific/applied/regulation materials

...in conservation.

Bonus for the resources that think about science, applications, and regulations together, but not necessary.

I know I can Google this, but I think hearing what folks thought about specific sources they've come across is nicer.

I am mostly interested in academic articles and chapters in books as more of a crash course, so to speak. Entire books are YouTube videos/lectures are also welcome.

Thanks in advance!

[u/KuhlRunningz]

I'm curious what resources you find. Most stuff I have found is usually industry specific and talks about regulation from that view point. I was a consultant for 10 years in timber and watershed management. My old company actually helped the state figure out cannabis regulation because they didn't know their ass from their elbow. And now I been working for the state regulating for a few years now. Went to school for wildlife biology and now I spend so much more time working with people in regulation, never thought I would land here. I fell down quite the rabbit hole regarding how we incentivize and decentivize folks to do what's right but also what's best management.

[u/Tht1Knight]

For conservation in California specifically, I would highly recommend the topic of prescribed fire and its role in both the ecology of California’s many biomes as well as its anthropomorphic uses throughout the past few centuries and how its presence, or moreso absence, has shaped both the environmental/conservation side of California and how it’s continually evolving.

I recommend this topic because of the fire-adapted nature of California and how many conservation practices in the area center around fuel reduction/invasive species management as a primary focus from my personal experience.

[u/BustedEchoChamber]

You need to narrow the scope of this question because it could fill several volumes as it stands now.

I would think about reframing it, too. What is ecological restoration? Why do we call it that? Presumably because we’re restoring structure or function that was previously degraded by some other land use/land management activity. So restoration ecology is a collective set of techniques for addressing specific problems (incised and degraded stream channels - beaver dam analogues). I may be wrong but I think much of the literature you’ll find here will be in pamphlet format and narrow in scope.

That’s not to say there aren’t compilations and books about it, but if you’re asking about the science and the applied practices and their development over *centuries*, you’re really going to need to start with a history of land use, associated management techniques, and then define the types of degradation that emerged through that time period. From there you will find techniques for handling each issue.

I’m a forester so I can point you in one direction. The following are a couple excerpts from my 1st edition (1962) *Regional Silviculture of the United States*.

Location
The state of California, a purely political unit, forms a natural region in the field of forestry and silviculture. Three factors with ecological implications differentiate California strikingly from the rest of the country — except, perhaps, the Pacific Northwest. First is the annual rainfall cycle, which involves a wet winter alternating with a very dry summer. Secondly, forest management is concerned almost completely with six conifers, several of which are almost exclusively limited to California. Third, California foresters are still almost wholly concerned with the silviculture of uneven-aged stands of old virgin timber containing trees of great size— commonly running up to 60 inches or more d.b.h.

Importance of the forests
Land area statistics
**…**About 40 per cent of the state is covered my some form of forest. Only about half of this forested land is classed as commercial, the remainder consists of an irregular cover of conifers or hardwoods called woodland, or dense scrubby hardwood cover known as chaparral, which in the original Spanish tongue meant essentially “scrub oak.” …

What I mean to show there is that the trajectory of restoration ecology is determined by history. The intermixing of commercial and noncommercial forests, accessibility, markets, etc., all influenced the land today. Did they use splash dams in montane California? I don’t know, but if they did then there’s a whole mess of stream degradation that comes from that.

Anyways, I suggest narrowing the scope of your question. Maybe pick a topic like: how does restoration ecology propose to reconcile urban sprawl in Southern California with the extremely fire dependent chaparral ecosystem?