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Influence of biophysical factors and differences in Ojibwe reservation versus Euro-American social histories on forest landscape change in northern Wisconsin, USA

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Abstract

Landscape ecology studies have demonstrated that past modifications of the landscape frequently influence its structure, highlighting the utility of integrating historical perspectives from the fields of historical ecology and environmental history. Yet questions remain for historically-informed landscape ecology, especially the relative influence of social factors, compared to biophysical factors, on long-term land-cover change. Moreover, methods are needed to more effectively link history to ecology, specifically to illuminate the underlying political, economic, and cultural forces that influence heterogeneous human drivers of land-cover change. In northern Wisconsin, USA, we assess the magnitude of human historical forces, relative to biophysical factors, on land-cover change of a landscape dominated by eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) forest before Euro-American settlement. First, we characterize land-cover transitions of pine-dominant sites over three intervals (1860–1931; 1931–1951; 1951–1987). Transition analysis shows that white pine was replaced by secondary successional forest communities and agricultural land-covers. Second, we assess the relative influence of a socio-historical variable (“on-/off-Indian reservation”), soil texture (clay and sand), and elevation on land-cover transition. On the Lake Superior clay plain, models that combine socio-historical and biophysical variables best explain long-term land-cover change. The socio-historical variable dominates: the magnitude and rate of land-cover change differs among regions exposed to contrasting human histories. Third, we developed an integrative environmental history-landscape ecology approach, thereby facilitating linkage of observed land-cover transitions to broader political, economic, and cultural forces. These results are relevant to other landscape investigations that integrate history and ecology.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to S. Schultz, C. Yanger, D. Templar, and P. Weum for photograph analysis; to U. Gafvert and K. Hop for aerial photography consultation; to T. Hawbaker for orthorectification consultation; to P. Weum for WLEI classification and GIS assistance; to M. Adams for cartographic and database support; and to two anonymous reviewers and the coordinating editor for valuable manuscript comments. We thank the U.W.-Madison Forest Landscape Ecology Lab, especially T. Sickley and B. DeZonia; the Bad River Band of Ojibwe, especially the Bad River Natural Resources Department; M. Dallman and B. Sapper of The Nature Conservancy Chequamegon Bay office; and T. Piikkila of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Research support was provided by National Science Foundation IGERT Grant 9870703 (Human Dimensions of Social and Aquatic Systems Interactions), a USDA McIntire-Stennis research grant to N. Langston, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Forestry and Science Services to D. Mladenoff, a USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) Hatch project grant to J. Zhu and the University of New England.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Studies, University of New England, 11 Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, ME, 04005, USA

    Michelle M. Steen-Adams

  2. Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1630 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    David J. Mladenoff, Nancy E. Langston & Feng Liu

  3. Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 550 North Park Street, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Nancy E. Langston

  4. Department of Statistics and Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1300 University Avenue, Madison, WI, 53706, USA

    Jun Zhu

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  1. Michelle M. Steen-Adams
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Correspondence to Michelle M. Steen-Adams.

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Steen-Adams, M.M., Mladenoff, D.J., Langston, N.E. et al. Influence of biophysical factors and differences in Ojibwe reservation versus Euro-American social histories on forest landscape change in northern Wisconsin, USA. Landscape Ecol 26, 1165–1178 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-011-9630-2

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