Watershed Conservation Plan - Destination Erie

"Little Ice Age"), and the validity of some explanations for environmental changes in our local streams
noted by nineteenth century historians in Erie County may need to be reconsidered in light of recent
research on climate change during the last millennium. Lacking specific data on how the Little Ice Age
affected our climate locally, it may not be safe to assume that local climatic variations were similar to
what occurred in other areas (cf. Soon and Baliunas 2003).
Decades of modern ecological research have demonstrated that ecosystems evolve within a dynamic
interplay of natural disturbances of widely varying frequency and intensity. Ecologists have discovered
that so-called "steady state" conditions of ecosystems (such as a "climax" old-growth forest) are
somewhat illusory, and that disturbances mediate continuous re-adjustment of "equilibrium" states.
Disturbances are now known to be vital processes that are essential to the maintenance of biodiversity in
ecosystems. Furthermore, some land management practices long practiced by conservationists, such as
fire suppression, are now known to not be the best courses of action to protect natural resources. And
most importantly, we consider land management practices that incorporate sustainable use of natural
resources (to satisfy human economic needs) to be compatible with our goals for conservation, and will
be an important element considered as specific planning objectives are developed.
For conservation planning purposes in this document, it will be assumed that disturbances attributed
to native American people who inhabited this area prior to the European incursion, are part of the
landscape