Excerpt from Ecological-Economic Modeling in the Cache River Basin: The Challenge of Ecological-Economic Modeling on a Watershed Basin, a Potential Framework for Sustainable Development; Final Report, Submitted to the Illinois Field Office of the Nature Conservancy The Cache River watershed encompasses a km? Area of 5 southern Illinois counties (alexander, Johnson, Massac, Pulaski, and Union). The watershed, located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers is at the juncture of four physiographic provinces; Central Lowlands, Interior Low Plateau, Coastal Plain, and Ozark Plateau. Given the establishment of the Cache River bioreserve in parts of these counties and the need to assess the ecological and economic effects of changing land use patterns in and around the bioreserve, we developed a framework for integrating economic and ecological concerns in the formulation and evaluation of land use alternatives in a predominantly rural watershed. The challenges of economic development and natural community restoration in the Cache River bioreserve include (1) identifying in a diversified, although sparse, regional economy, economic development opportunities in the watershed that will replace or enhance economic activity after establishment of the bioreserve, and (2) proposing alternative land use scenarios outside the core area that are ecologically compatible with preservation of natural communities throughout the watershed. The framework incorporates an evaluation of a bioreserve with a core area containing a critical ecological resource that must be protected and/or restored. For the Cache River bioreserve, this resource is wetland and forest communities within a ha. Core area where The Nature Conservancy, u.s. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.