Environmental Policy Commons^™

Guiding Growth: A Survey Of Tax Incentives, New England Environmental Finance Center, Muskie School Of Public Service

Legislation

Current development patterns and increased tax pressures in local municipalities combine to harm both Maine’s natural resources and its quality of life. Previous initiatives such as the implementation of zoning laws did not fully result in the desired outcomes. Zoning laws were often too flexible and often did not resist market and political pressures to change zoning regulations to allow development with possible economic growth. A sound taxation system or fee structure may be the solution to slow down development in natural areas and direct it towards areas appropriate for growth.

To protect Maine’s natural resources more successfully from future …

Reducing Automobile Emissions In Southern California: The Dance Of Public Policies And Technological Fixes, Rudi Volti

Pitzer Faculty Publications and Research

For many years I have taught at a small liberal arts college in Southern California. When first-year students arrived at the college in the early 1970s, they settled into the usual things that occupy freshmen. A few weeks would go by, and then they would make a remarkable discovery: tall mountains would appear to the north as autumn weather dissipated the heavy blanket of smog that had obscured them. Today, the air is not perfectly clear in September, but students are aware of the mountains from the day they move into the dormitories. The region's partial victory over smog illustrates …

The Wildlands Project Outside North America, David Johns

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Wildlands Project seeks to create a connected system of protected areas across North America that will ensure the survival of all native species, including top predators and wideranging species, in the context of fully functioning ecosystems. Core protected areas are designated based on the biological needs of key species and the requirements of critical ecological processes. To work they must have, or will be restored to have, those attributes traditionally ascribed to wilderness. Some critics argue that The Wildlands Project model is inapplicable to other parts of the world, especially the developing world. The inapplicability is based on nonbiological …

Our Real Challenge: Managing Ourselves Instead Of Nature, David Johns

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

As cultural animals we create meaning and order. Stories are the primary means our species uses to do this. Stories that rise to the level of myth exert powerful effects on behavior. The dominant myths that explain our relationship to the natural word have two serious failings: our self-importance and a superficial and simplified image of who we are. These stories obscure more than they enlighten, thereby preventing us from addressing the causes of the current extinction crisis. Conservationists can and must fashion new stories that take account of our disproportionate impact on the Earth and its origins in our …

Conclusion, L. David Mech, Luigi Boitani

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

WOLVES CAN LIVE almost anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, and almost everywhere they do, they are an issue. In the vast emptiness of the northern tundra or the Arabian desert, on the outskirts of a European town or in the safety of an American national park, in meager agricultural lands in India or mountains in rich Norway or Switzerland, wolves always attract people's attention. Wolves form a key part of many ecosystems, and they are considered charismatic creatures by most human cultures. Thus they polarize public opinion and make headlines year after year.

If we look back 6o years to …

Action Education In Land Use Decisions: Student Views On Urbanization And Farmland Loss, Mindi Schneider, Charles A. Francis, Dick Esseks

CARI Extension and Education Materials for Sustainable Agriculture

Loss of prime farmland is a serious concern in the United States and around the globe. With rapid urban population increases, the activities and perceived needs of concentrated groups of people result in the swallowing of some of the most fertile lands in this country. Today we have just under 2 acres of productive farmland per person in the United States. Given the current population growth rate due to births and immigration, plus the present rate of farmland loss, World Watch Institute estimates that we will have about 0.6 acres or one-third as much farmland available per person by 2055--a …

Megapode Newsletter 17(1)-21(2) (2003-2008), World Pheasant Association, Birdlife International, Ssc Megapode Specialist Group

Galliformes Specialist Group and Affiliated Societies: Newsletters

Volume 17, Number 1 (April 2003)

Editors: René W. R. J. Dekker and Darryl N. Jones

Viable population of Bruijn's Brush-turkey Aepypodius bruijnii discovered, Iwein Mauro

A new, a forgotten and a lost specimen of Bruijn's Brush-turkey Aepypodius bruijnii, C. W. Moeliker, C. J. Heij, J. N. J. Post, and E. J. O. Kompanje

Successful synanthropy in an Australian megapode, Darryl N. Jones

Monitoring the Nicobar megapode Megapodius nicobariensis: Phase I, Current status and conservation of the Nicobar megapode Megapodius nicobariensis, K. Sivakumar

Megapode Genetics Project proposal, Gillian C. Baker

Polynesian megapode Megapodius pritchardii status survey on …

Introduction, L. David Mech, Luigi Boitani

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

THE WOLF IS TRULY a special animal. As the most widely distributed of all land mammals, the wolf, formally the gray wolf (Canis lupus), is also one of the most adaptable. It inhabits all the vegetation types of the Northern Hemisphere and preys on all the large mammals living there. It also feeds on all the other animals in its environment, scavenges, and can even eat fruits and berries. Wolves frequent forests and prairies, tundra, barren ground, mountains, deserts, and swamps. Some wolves even visit large cities, and, of course, the wolf's domesticated version, the dog, thrives in …

Wolves And Humans, Steven H. Fritts, Robert O. Stephenson, Robert D. Hayes, Luigi Boitani

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

TRY TO IMAGINE a small group of wolves sitting at a table engaged in vigorous debate. These wolves are from various parts of the globe and are perhaps a bit more scholarly than most. In fact, they are especially knowledgeable about the biology of that notorious two-legged species, Homo sapiens. They have been brought together to document their relationship with humans over the last several millennia. Pause for a few moments and consider what they might say ...

Perhaps the wolves' discussion would chronicle the evils of the human species, including details of atrocities committed against lupine ancestors down …

Wolf Population Dynamics, Todd K. Fuller, L. David Mech, Jean Fitts Cochrane

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

A LARGE, DARK WOLF poked his nose out of the pines in Yellowstone National Park as he thrust a broad foot deep into the snow and plowed ahead. Soon a second animal appeared, then another, and a fourth. A few minutes later, a pack of thirteen lanky wolves had filed out of the pines and onto the open hillside.

Wolf packs are the main social units of a wolf population. As numbers of wolves in packs change, so too, then, does the wolf population (Rausch 1967). Trying to understand the factors and mechanisms that affect these changes is what the …

Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, And Conservation: Photo Section Ii, Douglas W. Smith, L. David Mech, Isaac Babcock, Melissa Mccaw

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Adult wolves are very attentive to the pups. Both parents feed and care for them. Any older siblings similarly participate in pup care and feeding. Kin selection is probably the best explanation for the latter behavior. Top: Photograph by Isaac Babcock. Bottom: Photograph by L. David Mech.

Wolves: Behavior, Ecology, And Conservation: Photo Section I, Douglas W. Smith, Rolf Peterson, L. David Mech, Barron Crawford

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Wolves in Yellowstone National Park's restored population often must compete with grizzly bears at the carcasses of their kills. Especially after their first feeding at a kill, wolves tend to relinquish their kills to bears. Photograph by Doug Smith.

Elk are one of the most common prey of wolves in the northern Rocky Mountains of North America, primarily because in most areas they tend to outnumber other prey. This large bull standing his ground escaped this pack. Photograph by Doug Smith.

Reconstructing Climate Policy: Beyond Kyoto, Jonathan B. Wiener, Richard B. Stewart

Faculty Scholarship

In their comprehensive analysis of the Kyoto Protocol and climate policy, Richard B. Stewart and Jonathan B. Wiener examine the current impasse in climate policy and the potential steps nations can take to reduce greenhouse gases. They summarize the current state of information regarding the extent of global warming that would be caused by increasing uncontrolled greenhouse gas emissions. They explain why participation by all major greenhouse gas-emitting countries is essential to curb future greenhouse gas emissions and also note the significant obstacles to obtaining such participation.

Stewart and Wiener argue it is in the national interest of the United …

Perspectives On Economic Analyses For High Level Waste Disposal, Helen R. Neill, Robert H. Neill

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Research

There are both internal and external pressures on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to reduce costs of disposal and still maintain radiation protection to both present and future generations. The question arises whether both of these goals are attainable.