Human demographic trends and landscape level forest management in the northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens

The effects of landscape pattern on forest ecosystems have been a recent fo cus in forest science, Forest managers are increasingly considering landsca pe level processes in their management. Natural disturbance patterns provid e one baseline for such management, What has been largely ignored is the pa ttern of human habitation patterns (i,e,, housing), on landscapes. The obje ctive of this study is to discuss landscape level management options for th e northwest Wisconsin Pine Barrens based on both landscape ecology and the human demographics of the region. Using the 1990 U.S. Decennial Census we e xamined current housing density, seasonal housing unit concentration, histo ric housing density change and projected future housing densities, These da ta were related to land cover and land ownership data using a GIS. Housing density increase was particularly pronounced in the central Pine Barrens, a n area where seasonal housing units are common. Lakes and streams were more abundant in areas that exhibited highest growth. Within national forest la nds, 80% of the area contained no housing units, In contrast, only 12% of t he area in small private land ownership contained no housing. These results are integrated with previous studies of presettlement vegetation and lands cape change to discuss landscape level management suggestions for the Pine Barrens.