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Wildlife Management, Surface Mining, and Regional Planning
Author(s) -
NIEMAN THOMAS J.,
MERKIN ZINA R.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
growth and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.657
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1468-2257
pISSN - 0017-4815
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2257.1995.tb00178.x
Subject(s) - wildlife , habitat , land reclamation , environmental planning , environmental resource management , interim , geography , wildlife management , land use planning , wildlife corridor , land use , business , ecology , environmental science , archaeology , biology
Wildlife management, surface mining, and regional planning historically have had conflicting missions. The cooperative public/private venture which created the Robinson Forest and Cyprus‐Amax Wildlife Management Areas is presented as an example of how a regional perspective encourages a symbiotic relationship among these Functions. Wildlife management areas, as either an interim or final land use. are shown to incorporate development concepts which benefit the general public, the coal industry, and the environment. Examining the regional pattern or wildlife management areas and refuges confirms the appropriateness of the subject site for this use. It is suggested that the pattern of mined lands can be studied to identify other sites with potential to provide linkages between wildlife habitat areas and encourage reclamation of such sites to the “fish and wildlife” postmining land use. Such reclamation strategies should be pursued within a long‐term planning framework. More research is needed to recreate specific habitat types on drastically disturbed land and planning is needed to assure that sensitive habitats or species arc located away from zones likely to undergo future development. Use of geographic information systems to integrate existing environmental information could make such studies more effective.