Natural capital is of critical importance for biodiversity and people’s well-being. Studies indicate that understanding the connection between environmental health and human benefit (i.e., ecosystem services) can promote conservation-friendly decisions; however, many people don’t recognize the benefits they derive from nature, nor the way their decisions affect those benefits—and the consequences for our communities and economy. One method we have tested for educating people about ecosystem services and valuation is game-based learning. To help people understand their potential impact on ecosystem services, and how alternative decisions can have better or worse outcomes for people and nature, we created two social simulation games collectively called Tradeoff! Through an iterative design process and pilot testing in a number of locations with a variety of audiences, we have developed a set of learning principles for educational ecosystem service games.

Environmental Practice 00: 1–11 (2014)

The “six-pack” of hormone growth promoters used in feedlot cattle deserves closer investigation from researchers and policy makers. The potential effects of exposure to such compounds are of particular interest in the field of endocrine disruption, which focuses on the effects these compounds can have during sensitive developmental periods, rather than using a carcinogenesis model. Steroid hormones participate in a delicate balance during fetal development. Interference with that balance can lead to disruptions that manifest as health problems at birth and later in life. Although we need more studies of the effects of feedlot compounds on human and wildlife development, some industry and government literature leads consumers to conclude that all the data are in. Governmental reviews of the literature from the European Union (where hormone use is banned) and Australia (where hormones are used) reveal different attitudes and conclusions about the same body of research, and these differences may relate to a different understanding of the value of the endocrine-disruption model. It is important to approach examinations of the effects of trenbolone and other growth promoters without bias and to acknowledge that cattle growth promoter research in the context of endocrine disruption has just begun. The scientific jury is still out regarding whether introducing these compounds into the human food supply and ecosystems—research suggests that hormonally active feedlot effluent may harm wildlife—can be deleterious.

Shale gas development may involve trade-offs between energy development and benefits provided by natural ecosystems. However, current best management practices (BMPs) focus on mitigating localized ecological degradation. We review evidence for cumulative effects of natural gas development on brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and conclude that BMPs should account for potential watershed-scale effects in addition to localized influences. The challenge is to develop BMPs in the face of uncertainty in the predicted response of brook trout to landscape-scale disturbance caused by gas extraction. We propose a decision-analysis approach to formulating BMPs in the specific case of relatively undisturbed watersheds where there is consensus to maintain brook trout populations during gas development. The decision analysis was informed by existing empirical models that describe brook trout occupancy responses to landscape disturbance and set bounds on the uncertainty in the predicted responses to shale gas development. The decision analysis showed that a high efficiency of gas development (e.g., 1 well pad per square mile and 7 acres per pad) was critical to achieving a win-win solution characterized by maintaining brook trout and maximizing extraction of available gas. This finding was invariant to uncertainty in predicted response of brook trout to watershed-level disturbance. However, as the efficiency of gas development decreased, the optimal BMP depended on the predicted response, and there was considerable potential value in discriminating among predictive models through adaptive management or research. The proposed decision-analysis framework provides an opportunity to anticipate the cumulative effects of shale gas development, account for uncertainty, and inform management decisions at the appropriate spatial scales.

Environmental Practice 14:1–16 (2012)

Resource and environmental managers are increasingly facing problems characterized by high degrees of ecological and social complexity, uncertainty and indeterminacy, and conflicts over values and interests. Moreover, they are often faced with the need to generate positive change in dynamic social-ecological systems. Comprehensive, rational management approaches have often failed to respond effectively to these types of problems. In response, policy makers and managers are increasingly relying on social learning approaches, i.e., adaptive and participatory approaches that facilitate learning by the individuals and organizations involved in resource and environmental governance. In this article, we examine social learning outcomes from the participation of two community organizations in the environmental assessment (EA) of a proposal to expand the Red River Floodway, a 48-km channel that diverts floodwaters around Winnipeg, Canada. The research design was a qualitative, comparative case study involving a review of documents, semi-structured interviews, and direct observation at meetings, open houses, and public hearings. The study findings demonstrate how EA public involvement processes can provide excellent opportunities for single-loop learning in community organizations. Through their involvement, the organizations in question deepened their knowledge, honed their skills, and made substantive contributions to the assessment process. The findings also suggest that public involvement processes can result in double-loop social learning conducive to sustainability. An important catalyst for the double-loop experience in this case was the provision of intervener funding. The findings also shed light on the organizational structure variables essential to create capacity for social learning in community organizations.

Energy production presents numerous challenges to both industry and land managers across the globe. The recent development of unconventional (shale gas) plays around the world [US Energy Information Administration (USEIA), 2011] has brought attention to the potential for rapid change in affected landscapes and associated ecosystem services. While shale-gas development specifically has been the focus of recent research on how landscapes are changing (Drohan et al., 2012; Entrekin et al., 2011; Johnson, 2010), continued scientific investigation can lessen the resulting ecosystem disturbance across all energy infrastructure.

We removed plastic meso- and macro-litter (PML) during a beach clean-up practice on a protected Mediterranean sandy beach in central Italy from the high tide line to a berm half-way up the beach and from the berm to a sand dune the rest of the way up the beach. Plastic fragments, cotton buds, and expanded polystyrene (EPS) fragments were the most common categories constituting about 90% of total abundance. We separated sand from PML and found that the weight of the sand was about 14% of the total weight removed. Although our data may be affected by local factors, they have general implications for management actions. Environmental practitioners who develop projects in beach cleaning should pay attention when removing PML since a significant amount of sand could be unintentionally removed resulting in unnecessary material in landfills or other disposal, and over time potentially could significantly affect sandy beaches.

Environmental Practice 18: 242–246 (2016)

In his famous essay on “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Hardin (1968) derived predictions of environmental disaster from the proposition that people are entirely selfish by nature. The article has had two important effects. In regard to public policy, it has lent intellectual support to approaches based on Hardin's idea that natural resources can be sustained only if management responsibilities lie in a single place. Policymakers in many countries took this advice in one of two directions—giving responsibility to government agencies to act on behalf of all, or devolving responsibility to individual resource users in campaigns of privatization intended to empower markets.

San Diego County is attempting a proactive conservation planning effort to protect endangered, threatened, and other sensitive species at the landscape level. This plan is being completed under the State of California's Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) program. When completed, a series of individual Habitat Conservation Plans (HCPs) will provide a system of interconnected reserves designed and managed for biological conservation. The NCCP program has been the center of significant controversy since its inception, yet it has been touted as a national model. This paper explores some of the key lessons that have been learned during implementation of the largest and most complex HCP approved under the NCCP—the Multiple Species Conservation Program—since its adoption five years ago. The exploration of the successes and impediments faced by the Multiple Species Conservation Program should help others developing habitat conservation programs in their future efforts to protect endangered species and their habitats.

Environmental practitioners may find cooperative modeling an effective tool to address complex environmental management needs. The method involves convening a multidisciplinary team to collaboratively construct a system dynamics model. Advances in computational tools have made this technique increasingly effective because the process and the product allow individuals to better understand the complexity inherent in the system being studied. The authors describe four cooperative modeling projects and document some of the “lessons learned” from these experiences. Two of these projects were largely academic and team members were all professionals who agreed to work together to build a model. The other two teams were convened to contribute to water management processes. One of these emanated from a regional planning exercise and the team included professionals and volunteers from the public. The final project team presented includes professionals, members of the public, and government agency personnel. Like any multidisciplinary effort, the teams encountered communication challenges. The overarching lessons derived from these efforts are that teams can never pay too much attention to group dynamics and that the proximity to a “real” management decision does influence the cooperative modeling process. Recommendations to others embarking on a cooperative modeling effort include reviewing the literature regarding previous projects; establishing clear guidelines for team interaction early in the project; and remaining flexible, to allow the project to evolve.

Applying the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) to an island setting offers insight into whether and how standardization of subnational GPI models can adequately capture important local conditions and inform local policy. We argue in favor of localization and against scaling down national data and transferring valuation studies to Hawaii because of the state’s unique setting. To localize GPI to our context, we suggest (a) omitting some indicators that are not applicable to Hawaii; (b) expanding and discretizing the list of indicators to other important economic, environmental, and social changes; and (c) amending existing indicators to better reflect their contribution to Hawaii’s welfare. This would involve (a) improving local data on economic, social, and environmental changes; (b) building new indicators through a participatory process; and (c) conducting local valuation studies that accurately reflect the social value of the changes.

Environmental Practice 16: 1–12 (2014)

Low-income, minority residents of the Bayview Hunters Point (BVHP) community in San Francisco, California, face considerable environmental hazards. There are strong beliefs within the community that BVHP is a victim of environmental injustice, based on perceived political neglect concerning potential links between environmental hazards and disproportionately high rates of cancer and asthma. The Yosemite Watershed Restoration Project seeks to apply the well-demonstrated benefits of community-based monitoring to a struggle for environmental justice in BVHP. Community members participated in a water quality assessment at Yosemite Slough, gathering a baseline data set to be used as a reference for watershed restoration and identifying potential pollutant sources and health hazards that had otherwise been ignored. The effort highlighted key opportunities for inspiring action among disaffected community members as well as key obstacles in engaging the broader community. It has laid a foundation for future efforts that will continue to build the community's capacity to play an active role in achieving environmental justice in BVHP.

perhaps the most perplexing and difficult of environmental conflicts are the ones that last for long periods of time, resurface routinely, and seem to go on forever. governmental officials, stakeholders, and even interventionists describe these disputes as “a way of life,” “a long drawn–out affair,” and “still fighting the same fight for 20 years” (putnam and wondolleck, 2003). this type of conflict distinguishes itself from other disputes as being more divisive, involving more layers of agencies and social organizations, weaving in complex and overlapping issues, and typically fostering destructive and self–perpetuating patterns. these controversies often lead to violence, as exemplified in social conflicts over abortion and race relations, and in disputes currently ongoing in the middle east.

One of the consequences of state utility energy efficiency and renewable energy policies has been the expansion of clean energy programs conducted by local, nonprofit community organizations. These programs seek to increase deployment of renewable energy facilities on consumers' premises and reduce the amount of energy used by consumers. The success of community programs depends on the capabilities of the organizations implementing the programs. Managers of six large community-based clean energy programs in Arizona were interviewed regarding organizational capabilities related to carrying out clean energy programs. The Arizona organizations have developed proficiencies in education, recruitment, problem solving, coordination among parties, and innovation. Clean energy programs of the community organizations interviewed for this study are centered around trust, empowerment of stakeholders, partnerships, and social networks to recruit participants and volunteers and to learn about what other organizations are doing.

Environmental Practice 15:97–107 (2013)

This article provides an estimate of the amount of land that is paved for roads and parking facilities in typical urban areas, examines the full economic, social and environmental costs of this impervious surface, and discusses the amount of road and parking land area that can be considered optimal. The analysis indicates that, in a typical urban area, about three times as much land is devoted to roads and parking as to residential structures, and that per-capita road and parking facility areas vary significantly, depending on planning practices, with much higher rates in areas that have automobile-oriented transport systems and sprawled land use. It identifies current policies and planning practices that unintentionally contribute to economically excessive road and parking requirements, and provides specific recommendations for reducing the amount of land paved for transport facilities.

Environmental Practice 13:38–46 (2011)

Based on long-term fieldwork, we report a descriptive SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis performed by a public agency that manages a protected area (PA) system in a densely populated area (Rome, central Italy) to highlight the core limits in this PA's management effectiveness. The key result of the analysis is that the limits of the management effectiveness and the obstacle in setting improvement strategies can be basically derived from the hierarchical command-and-control government approach and from the adopted management model. The main hindrance to the implementation of a multilevel collaborative management appears to be the “institutional stickiness” of the managing public agency in shifting from its hierarchical government approach to a governance one. Having observed the presence of operational gaps among the best solutions in the scholarly mainstream, the governing capability of the managing authority, and what happens in the field, we suggest that an answer to aligning these factors could be the creation of more fluid conditions for bottom–up initiatives—for instance, by monitoring the multibenefits of PAs for local communities or by making available to the public the economic evaluation of public goods.

Environmental Practice 15:401–408 (2013)

Risk is generally defined as the probability of the occurrence of an event multiplied by the consequences, should the event occur. On brownfield projects, key risk areas include retroactive cleanup liability, regulatory compliance and permit approvals, and lender concerns about return on investment. These risks can generally be classified as inevitable, unlikely, or minimized/avoidable if managed properly. Contamination of environmental media such as soil, groundwater and surface water, and sediment has traditionally been the focus of environmental assessments of properties being considered for redevelopment. Significant costs and liabilities may also be associated with contaminated structures, hazardous building materials, residual wastes within the building system, and physical assets such as production equipment that is not part of the building system. Over the years, processes to assess and clean up contamination of environmental media have been developed. The American Society for Testing and Materials has developed standards of practice for screening property transactions and for conducting Phase I environmental site assessments and Phase II environmental site investigations. Most states have also developed programs and standards that address soil, sediment, and groundwater cleanup. While these programs and protocols have helped to facilitate the reuse of sites with contaminated environmental media, they do not comprehensively address the issues associated with wastes and contamination within the building environment. Conditions within the building environment must also be quantified before associated risks can be understood. The objective of this article is twofold. The first portion examines risk areas common to most brownfield projects where major structures are present. Next, a process of due diligence called the Building Decommissioning Assessment (BDA) is introduced. Developed for clients in the manufacturing sector, the BDA process defines a standard approach for conducting appropriate inquiry into building systems prior to redevelopment and reuse. The BDA complements, and in many cases can be performed in conjunction with, other pre-development investigations, including Phase I and II environmental site assessments, asbestos surveys, mold assessments, and property condition assessments. When applied properly, the six steps of the BDA yield information essential to quantifying risks associated with structures at brownfield sites. The second portion of the article examines two case studies where the BDA process has been implemented and, as a result, has revealed previously unknown environmental conditions, limited the liability of both the owner and financier of the property, and helped ensure compliance with applicable environmental programs.

Escherichia coli is a ubiquitous bacterium that lives commensally in the guts of most mammals, including man; however, some types of E. coli are pathogenic to humans, including the enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), of which E. coli 0157:H7 is the most well-known member. Escherichia coli 0157:H7 is a natural member of the gastrointestinal microflora of domestic ruminants (e.g., cattle, goats, sheep) and has been isolated from several wildlife species (e.g., deer, rabbits), and transmission may occur from any of these reservoirs. Although E. coli 0157:H7 is primarily thought of as a foodborne pathogen, recent outbreaks have demonstrated other important routes that lead to human exposure, such as contaminated water and dust. Because E. coli 0157:H7 represents a significant and widespread environmental health hazard, much effort has been directed toward the development of intervention strategies. Because of the relationship between ruminant animals, wildlife, and E. coli 0157:H7, many of the strategies have focused on reducing levels in live animals. In this review article, we examine this virulent pathogen and explore several of the recently developed pre-harvest intervention strategies (including pro-biotic and anti-pathogen strategies, as well as environmental/management changes) and their potential to reduce zoonotic transmission of E. coli 0157:H7 and other EHEC to man.

Phytoremediation, the use of plant systems for contaminant cleanup, is among the fastest growing areas of environmental remediation research, technology development, and implementation. The practice is facilitated by a number of plant adaptations. First, selected plant species can take up and accumulate certain metals in their shoots at levels that are toxic to ordinary plants (hyperaccumulation). The phenomenon is an evolutionary adaptation of specific plant species to natural metal enrichments; consequently, its occurrence is geographically restricted, and the plant species involved are highly specific with respect to types of metals tolerated. Other plant species can take up, metabolize and thereby detoxify certain organic contaminants in their shoots, or cause their transformations through substances released into their root zones (rhizospheres). The extent to which an organic contaminant may be translocated in plants is determined largely by its partitioning into lipid phases (its lipophilicity), while rhizo-sphere transformations are determined largely by types and amounts of plant exudations, and microbial populations that are stimulated by these exudates. Interactions between plant systems and contaminants that can facilitate phytoremediation are complex, and complicated further by strong influences of climate, particularly temperature, and matrix factors such as nature and reactivity of surfaces, pH, and oxidation-reduction statuses. The ways in which the various factors interact to render a contaminant more or less susceptible to phytoremediation are discussed, with the objective of providing information needed for decision making when considering phytoremediation for the cleanup of particular contaminants.

It is important to evaluate use of urban-proximate outdoor recreation sites by diverse groups and obtain visitor viewpoints about those sites. Of particular importance are day-use sites, which receive a large amount of use but little research emphasis. Managers of urban-proximate day-use sites can better manage with detailed specific information about participation patterns, site preferences, and visitor perceptions. Results are offered from visitor contact surveys conducted at day-use sites on four urban national forests in Southern California between 2001 and 2004, with a focus on areas where Latinos recreate. These data indicate many similarities among the Latino visitors to specific sites in four Southern California forests. There were commonalities in participation in outdoor recreation activities, the relative importance of site attributes, and perceptions reported about their recreation experiences. The results suggest that management decisions about serving these groups consider the range of activity options identified, that there is a consistent desire for facilities and amenities, and that the Latino visitors are likely to continue to recreate in these places and will tell others about it, probably leading to increased use by these respondent groups in the future.

Environmental Practice 11:263–269 (2009)