Conservation in temperate river-floodplain forests: A comparative analysis of the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway and the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve

Intact river-floodplain forests are an endangered habitat type in the temperate zone. To improve understanding of how these systems can be protected, this study evaluates the experiences of two conservation reserves in river-floodplain systems: the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway (USA) and the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve (Germany). Using a framework based on ecosystem management, this study employs an ecological, a social, and an institutional analysis. The ecological analysis evaluates changes in forest structure and composition over the last 50 years, as well as differences across management types. It indicates that both systems have experienced a loss of early-successional communities and are experiencing a progression towards previously unseen stages of succession. Timber harvests appear to replace part of the disturbances historically provided by natural flooding. However, they are insufficient to renew early-successional communities and they may accelerate the encroachment of upland and exotic species. The social analysis examined newspaper coverage for both reserves over a 10 year period and found a shift towards more positive coverage and an increase in citations from reserve staff with time, suggesting the reserves are properly managing the human aspects of their respective system. Finally, an institutional analysis used an assessment based on common ecosystem management themes to evaluate how closely each reserve's structure corresponds with ideal ecosystem management. This analysis reveals that each reserve has inherent strengths, but that overall, both structure approximate ecosystem management relatively well and at similar levels. Overall, this study indicates that both reserves provide valid models for river-floodplain conservation, but that neither model is capable of protecting all stages of succession in the forests without a restoration of a more natural flood regime.