Ecological health in the Crown of the Continent
Land management agencies are often mandated through policies and legislation
to maintain, preserve and restore healthy ecological systems. The term
health or integrity refers to the desired state of the ecosystem that
we are working to maintain or achieve. The desired state is context
specific, meaning that physical, biological, social and cultural features
of the ecosystem are evaluated for a defined landscape (Kay 1993). The
CCE represents the headwaters of three major drainage basins in North
America. Understanding the health of this system is significant as it
has implications on the health of ecosystems further down stream across
the North American Continent. Furthermore, the jurisdictional complexity
in the CCE, has resulted in numerous independent initiatives and approaches
to monitoring ecological health, yet many of the stresses and challenges
facing the CCE are similar and likely will require coordination beyond
jurisdictional boundaries. Land mangers would benefit from evaluating
the condition and patterns of change at the CCE scale. The agencies
within the CCE share a common desire for maintaining a healthy CCE.
