Treesearch

An enduring paradox for the management of public lands is the need to accommodate increasing levels of human uses while reducing the environmental impacts of those uses. Historically, land management agencies used standard practices and principles of outdoor recreation management like recreation carrying capacity, limits of acceptable change, recreation opportunity spectrum, and scenery management system (Hendee et al. 1990, Manning 2010). But most of these principles are dated. This book provides a case study of integrated approach to understanding and planning for human uses in a large,...

The previous chapters in this book build on over three decades of work studying human-landscape interactions and associated conflicts, as well as policy related to protection of special places, wildland values, and human experiences. We believe that the approach recommended to the Forest Service in chapter 19 has merits beyond the region of Prince William Sound. Finally, through the course of putting this volume together, three interconnected themes emerged that are vital when managing for the sustainable use of wildlands. Those themes are as follows: • Sustainable use of management...

The Silvies Valley Ranch is an example of using local innovation to combat the global problem of incised streams on rangelands. Incised channels reduce the flow between water in the channel and water in the surrounding soils, which reduces the vegetation available for wildlife habitat and cattle forage. One of the ranch owners, Scott Campbell, a doctor of veterinary medicine, believes that stream incision is related to the decline of beaver populations; thus, the ranch’s approach to restoration includes efforts to mimic beavers’ influence on the system. He is using an extensive network of...

Following the grounding of the Exxon Valdez in 1989, a sustainable human use framework (human use framework) for Prince William Sound (PWS), AK was developed by the Chugach National Forest after concerns emerged about the social and environmental impacts of expanding human use due to cleanup activities and increased recreation visitation. A practical, issue-based process was used to develop an implementation strategy for integrating the complex social and ecological data contained in the human use framework and for making specific management and monitoring recommendations. The issue-based...

The critical zone (CZ), the dynamic living skin of the Earth, extends from the top of the vegetative canopy through the soil and down to fresh bedrock and the bottom of the groundwater. All humans live in and depend on the CZ. This zone has three co-evolving surfaces: the top of the vegetative canopy, the ground surface, and a deep subsurface below which Earth’s materials are unweathered. The network of nine CZ observatories supported by the US National Science Foundation has made advances in three broad areas of CZ research relating to the co-evolving surfaces. First, monitoring has...

Quantifying prey taken by Pacific Marten (Martes americana caurina) helps to understand local habitat requirements of the species. We collected 250 scat samples associated with at least 53 marten in a salvage-logged Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta)-Bitterbrush shrub (Purshia tridentata) forest in south-central Oregon. The frequency of occurrence of food items included 98.0% mammals, 36.0% arthropods, 23.2% birds, 9.2% plants, 2.0% hares and rabbits, and 0.8% reptiles. Among mammals, 72.4% were vole-sized and 47.2% squirrel-sized. Chipmunks (Neotamias spp., 27.6%) and ground squirrels...

Natural resource managers need up-to-date information about how people interact with public lands and the meanings these places hold for use in planning and decision-making. This case study explains the use of public participatory Geographic Information System (GIS) to generate and analyze spatial patterns of the uses and values people hold for the Browns Canyon National Monument in Colorado. Participants drew on maps and answered questions at both live community meetings and online sessions to develop a series of maps showing detailed responses to different types of resource uses and...

The diversity of aquatic ecosystems is being quickly reduced on many continents, warranting a closer examination of the consequences for ecological integrity and ecosystem services. Here we describe intermediate and final ecosystem services derived from aquatic biodiversity in forests. We include a summary of the factors framing the assembly of aquatic biodiversity in forests in natural systems and how they change with a variety of natural disturbances and human-derived stressors. We consider forested aquatic ecosystems as a multi-state portfolio, with diverse assemblages and life-history...

This study evaluated relationships between site or tree characteristics and below-ground materials in Douglas-fir forests of the Pacific Northwest. We core-sampled living roots, dead organic matter, and mineral fragments at three soil depths on a 300-sample grid at nine forested sites in western Washington and Oregon resulting in approximately 7200 samples. We explored relationships between materials across depths and at three scales—point, block and site—and examined the data to quantify the degree of spatial clustering. Mass of roots and organic matter declined with depth; there were no...

Smoke from fire can sharply reduce air quality by releasing particulate matter, one of the most dangerous types of air pollution for human health. A third of U.S. households have someone sensitive to smoke. Minimizing the amount and impact of smoke is a high priority for land managers and regulators. One tool for achieving that goal is prescribed fire. Prescribed fire can be controlled and planned carefully to minimize smoke impacts and warn communities in advance. It can also help reduce decades worth of vegetation buildup from past fire exclusion and help restore dry, fire-adapted...