34 Planning land
nature and natural resources. Soil, biodiversity, rivers, forests, game, nature as
a whole, and much more, require conservation planning from local project to
mega-project. Big money and massive land areas are involved.
Consider nature’s richness or biodiversity. For society, this provides many
ecosystem services (nature’s services), such as soil erosion control and pollination
forfood production, a range of extractable products including medicines and
foods, and intrinsic values such as aesthetics, nature recreation, and inspiration
(Wilson1992,NossandCooperider1994,Lindenmayerand Burgman2005).The
phrase, ‘‘extinction is forever,” also underlines the importance of biodiversity.
Rare and representative natural communities, as well as rare and representative
species, are to be conserved. Rare species are subdivided into various categories,
such as endangered/threatened, and rare at global, national, state/province, and
local town/county levels. Conservation of all of these biodiversity categories is
planned for, though efforts are highly uneven around the world. One type of rare
species is not considered, the non-native species. Usually this is a new immigrant,
and the concern is that it may become an invader that could degrade a natural
community.
The urban region differs in two important ways from other areas. First it
contains a high human density with intense diverse human activities on the
land, which threaten the persistence of any sensitive species or natural commu-
nity present. Second, outward urbanization from a city is widespread and often
rapid, which, especially in the case of sprawl, further threatens rare species in
the region. These two issues of human density and human expansion highlight
a conservation-planning problem for urban regions and society.
How much effort should be placed into protecting an existing rare native
species in an urban region? If the species or natural community is globally or
nationally rare, conservation is important, even though the long-term probabil-
ity of success for the species at that location may be low (Beatley1994). The rare
species might persist, and later spread to a more promising location(s) outside
theurban region. If rarity of the species is at a finer scale, such as a town or
county, local efforts to protect it are appropriate. But society as a whole would
better put its finite conservation efforts elsewhere.Types of conservation
Nowconsider the big conservation picture. Planning and management
forlots of critical resources fall under this umbrella. Soil conservation involves
planting native and sometimes tough non-native plants, along with a range of
soil modifications and treatments, to control water and wind erosion which
occurs over extensive areas of land. Forest resource conservation focuses on
minimizing wildfire, soil erosion, road construction, and overcutting, plus
addressing lots of other uses including recreation and water supply. Game or