The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE), a swath of land spanning Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana, is one of the largest intact ecosystems on Earth — and it’s changing fast. Wildfires have altered the landscape and land managers now have a choice: continue managing the land as they always have or find new ways to help the ecosystem adapt. 

New CIRES research published in Ecology and Society surveyed how land managers are responding to ecological change. Led by CIRES postdoctoral researcher Silvia Olvera-Hernandez, Fellow Katherine Siegel, and CU Boulder associate professor Laura Dee, the study interviewed 20 GYE land managers across federal agencies and one nonprofit to understand how they are responding to the changing landscape. 

They found most managers want to increase landscape resilience — foster ecosystems that will continue even as the climate changes — but most face job-related barriers to enacting change, like letting wildfires burn or planting new species. 

The researchers used Resist - Accept - Direct (RAD), a framework developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and National Park Service to support land managers in decision-making as they respond to ecological changes like wildfire, invasive species, and climate change:

• Resist change to maintain historical conditions
• Accept autonomous ecosystem shifts
• Direct change toward preferred new conditions

The study found most managers live in the “Resist” and “Accept” space, yet “Direct” is where change happens. Work guided by 20-year-old land management plans is one reason managers struggle to explore new approaches. The study shows that preserving the GYE is more complicated than researchers previously thought. 

“Managers face real barriers to adapting to ecological change,” Olvera-Hernandez said. “RAD helps clarify their priorities, while a portfolio of RAD strategies could support collaboration among agencies with different mandates to work toward shared goals.”