near a potential catastrophe, one not of their choosing, to prove that local stress has 

 reduced or will reduce group life expectancy. In a human society where damage is 

 seen as having an environmental as well as a human value dimension, it is important 

 to minimize risk— at high cost— because we are human. 



The faster that change is made through industrial development, power and utility 

 lines, offshore development and so on, the less are the managerial opportunities — 

 either to discover or execute controlling processes to keep the ecosystem on course, 

 in some biomes natural change is very slow. To move a community through 

 management to some more desirable stage of succession is very expensive or nearly 

 impossible. 



it is virtually impossible to jump a state of succession. Managerial efforts, though 

 well-intended and well-funded, may not succeed. For example, certain soil and root 

 structures are needed before certain plants will survive. Planting and caring for plants 

 may not assure their survival if the right conditions.do not exist. The soil must have 

 achieved a particular stage largely through a series of complex plant, water, animal, 

 moisture, temperature, and chemical interactions. Like human healing, land healing 

 cannot be bought. The development of an ecosystem may be enhanced, but there are 

 limits. Humans must wait. Waiting, while change and risks seem to accelerate, is not 

 pleasant; it produces fear in those concerned for themselves and their children. 



The Earth seems more finite now that people have traveled to the moon. This 

 realization raises questions about the concept of mitigation based on replacement. A 

 wildlife area is lost; it is replaced elsewhere. This concept grows out of an earlier view 

 that land and energy were inexhaustible. 1 n looking at sites for dams, it is clear there 

 is a limited number of sites. Dams have already been built on many of the better ones 

 and are proposed for many others. No matter how desirable are the benefits from the 

 dams fishery recreation, electricity, water supplies we shall use up all the feasible 

 sites. In very much the same vein, there is only a limited amount of land on which 

 food can be cost-efficiently produced for people. 



Indeed, all land is not equal, in recent court proceedings involving flooding from a 

 planned dam project, "acres" were in question, rather than "functional acres." 

 Mitigation would have somehow replaced acres for acres. In the particular case, the 

 flooded area was the nesting and brood site for a vigorous wild turkey population. 

 Although thousands of acres inhabited by turkeys would not be inundated, the key 

 areas were to be flooded. They were the heartland for the turkey population. 

 Mitigation action, if it were possible, would somehow have to replace in like kind and 

 amount areas for nesting adjacent to brooding areas (with high insect populations) 

 near mature hardwood forests. Not only the anunini of land for mitigation is crucial. 

 Other factors such as the sequence and the ivana^^enieni and the dependabilil\ (risk) 

 in reproduction over time are all interactive. 



In the following chapters there emerges a complex tale of other interactions. Some 

 ecosystems are purposely injured (Figure 2). Damage is experienced by some 

 people benefits by others. The long-term question for national policy, laws, and 

 public processes is for how to assure that there is a net, long-term benefit. Some 

 damage is inevitable in any major action involving the land, water or air. Balancing 

 the 'total, weighted risks, benefits and costs is the challenge for the future. The 

 complexity of the problem can only be matched with computer assistance. 



There are already means to characterize ecosystems and their processes and indices 

 to their value to humans. Computers can provide a look at the likely changes that will 

 occur if a particular complex action is taken (e.g., building a power generation 

 facility and transmitting its product across the land). OBS has supported a program 

 to locate powerlines to minimize ecosystem damage. There is no one best place, no 

 best action; there is only the least had place or action. All actions modify ecosystems 

 or have costs. Attaining the bad and least costs are the emerging concepts for 

 management and mitigation. 



Often, no action is the best action. Ecosystem managers may have to spend great 

 amounts of agency and personal time and energy to prevent action. Wilderness 



168 



