|
Social & cultural costs of not planning |
| We realize how
much we value our forests especially when we see negative effects of not
planning for them. These include
parcelization & fragmentation,
trail problems,
boundary conflicts, and loss of hunting land. |
|
Parcelization &
Fragmentation |
| Lack of a forest plan that identifies social and cultural values
can easily lead to these forestlands becoming
parcelized and
fragmented. Once this happens, the quality of many forest based
activities suffers and these activities may be displaced altogether. |
|
Trails
|
It
becomes difficult to establish snowmobile, ATV trails, ski and bike
trails because a larger number of landowners must agree to
cooperate. (ex. Green Circle trail ) Furthermore trail
conflicts may arise as conflicting uses compete for trails that are
not well marked for specific uses. A well planned forest would
decrease these type of conflicts. Northern Wisconsin exemplifies
this with a recent debate on banning ATVs from some trails.
USDA Forest Service ATV policy
News article on ATV policy
News article on ATV policy interpretation conflict
|
|
Boundary
conflicts
|
| |
Gatherers and recreational users may be unsure of
where they may and may not go |
| |
Conflicts may arise as more people compete to use
forestland for different uses |
|
Hunting land
|
| It becomes difficult to find suitable hunting
areas because of smaller acreages and more users on less public
land. |
 |
One Wisconsin landowner survey
found that the more timberland owned, the more likely the owner is to permit public
use of the land. Only 11 percent of owners who hold between one and
19 acres allow public access. Conversely, 53 percent of owners
holding 500 or more acres permit public use.3 |
The Izaak Walton League�s Outdoor
Ethics Program Director Joshua Winchell says sprawl is not only a
hunting issue; it is the fundamental issue facing hunters today. |
| Part
of the reason for dwindling hunting lands is the increase in the
number of new homes in rural areas and how widely spread out they
are across the landscape. As development takes lands traditionally
available for hunting, it also creates added pressures on those
lands that remain. More hunters are forced to compete for
opportunities on fewer and fewer remaining lands.4 |
 |
| Planning for forests
can assure an adequate array of social and cultural needs are met.
When all stakeholders are involved in the planning process, their social
and cultural needs can be identified in the plan. Hiking and
biking trails can be expanded or maintained, hunting areas can be
protected, ATV and snowmobile areas can be identified, and the extent of
gathering forest materials can be defined. Having a plan and using it to
make land use decisions that affect forest-based activities that
residents have identified as being important, can help ensure continued
access to these activities. Countless Wisconsinites, both forest
owners and not, value the forests for a variety of social and cultural
reasons. Above were just a few examples of some of these reasons. |
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