Regulated Streamflow And Warmwater Stream Fish

Natural resource agencies in the eastern United States face continued pressure to develop and defend recommendations for Irving aquatic resources in warm water streams and rivers. These demands are expected to increase markedly during the next several years as many hydropower projects undergo Federal relicensing. In surveys conducted to identify the stream research and assessment needs of Southeastern State and Federal agencies (Crance 1988) and of the Southeastern field offices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Henriksen 1988), the most prominent issue related to warmwater streams appeared to be streamflow regulation associated with new hydropower development and the relicensing of existing facilities. Rapidly fluctuating flows, periodic dewatering, low flows, and reduced quality and quantity of habitat were the specific effects considered to be the most pervasive and significant threats to fish in warmwater streams and rivers.

Ecosystem management has emerged in the past several years as the new paradigm for managing public and private land. It combines the principles of ecosystem-level ecology with the policy requirements of resource and public land management. This collection of selected readings will serve as an introduction to the concepts of biological diversity, ecological process, biotic integrity, and ecological sustainability that underlie ecosystem management.

Environmental Analysis reviews information gathered during NEPA assessments, summarizes the state of the art in methods and approaches, and defines future opportunities and new approaches required to link high-quality science to the decision-making process. Individual chapters address the process itself, present examples of recent experience with ecological impact assessment, evaluate social impact assessment and the important role the public must play, discuss the difficult challenge of assessing cumulative effects of multiple impacts, consider the regional and global implications of NEPA, and examine the important role of follow-up studies in the process. The authors of the 59 individual papers comprising this book represent the major sectors that have been key participants in the decision-making process from the beginning. These sectors include academia, national laboratories, federal agencies, state agencies, private industry, and foreign nations. Environmental Analysis will be interesting reading for environmental scientists, engineers, policy makers, and lawyers in government and academia; private consultants; and non-government environmental organizations.