ASSESSMENT AND PREDICTION OF EFFECTS OF 



ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS ON FISH AND 



WILDLIFE HABITAT: OVERVIEW 



Kenneth Cummins and Rosanna Mattingly 



INTRODUCTION 



General Purpose of Overview 



Environmental research has recently been defined as "scientific activity undertaken 

 with the primary aim of maintaining, restoring, or improving the environment, or for 

 predicting changes in the environment."' Such investigations may be conceptual, 

 empirical, or developmental in nature, and may pertain to either man-made or 

 natural systems. The past decade, largely because of the National Environmental 

 Policy Act (NEPA), has witnessed effects of a national commitment to environmental 

 management. An overview of environmental assessment and prediction is provided 

 in the following, which includes: (1) a survey of commonly used methods of 

 assessment and prediction, (2) an examination of ways in which these methods have 

 been used and evaluation of their effectiveness, and (3) a review of the decade of the 

 seventies with reference to ability to adequately manage fish and wildlife resources 

 particularly via habitat protection and/ or alteration. Specific areas are reviewed 

 (wetland ecosystems — Larson; biotoxicology — Gillett and Mount) and presented in 

 detail (instream flow assessment — Stalnaker; the systems approach to environmental 

 management — Holling and Patten) in subsequent sections. 



Need for Protection and Management of Animals and Their Habitats 



Animals and their habitats require protection and management for a variety of 

 reasons, among which is the continued harvest of species of economic value. Because 

 species alive today provide a repository for valuable raw materials (e.g., genetic 

 stock, biomass), protection could allow future generations an option to utilize species 

 in ways not yet envisioned. 



Modification or loss of habitat, primarily from economic development of natural 

 environments has been a principal destructive factor in species extinctions. ^ 

 Although extinctions are inevitable on the geologic time scale, and, in that time, 

 periods of vast extinction have occurred, the observed (and predicted) rate of 

 extinction is believed to have accelerated, primarily because of loss of appropriate 

 habitat due to man's activities. One of innumerable examples is that pre-settlement 

 flood plain forests along the Missouri River were extensive and included frequent 

 mature stands, but flood-plain forest coverage declined from 76% in 1826 to 13% in 



The Authors: Dr. Kenneth Cummins, Professor of Fisheries at Oregon State University, has conducted 

 research and taught in the field of aquatic ecology at Northwestern, Pittsburgh, and Michigan State 

 Universities. He served as Chairman of the Institute of Ecology Advisory Committee to the National 

 Commission on Water Quality and is Aquatic Editor, Ecological Society of America. 



Rosanna Mattingly is a Graduate Research Assistant with research and teaching experience at Michigan 

 State and Oregon State Universities. She has published on point and nonpoint source pollution-related 

 changes in a river ecosystem. 



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