Session Description: Mountain environments are special places where National Parks, wilderness areas, nature preserves, isolate unique landscapes cause interesting coupled human-natural system problems. As potential harbingers of environmental change, it is crucial to understand the unique character of these regions. How do human-created boundaries affect the flow of common-pool resources from protected to non-protected areas? What are the connections between human and natural systems near protected areas? Much work has been done in mountain environments, mostly on landscape pattern change as a result of human activity. How do these special places exhibit coupled systems where human activity is also modified as a result of landscape? Are mountain systems different from other coupled human-natural systems? This panel session explores how mountain environments and protected environments interact with human systems and present researchers with unique opportunities to explore geographic concepts and theory.
