Treesearch

This study examines community incentives to participate in donor-sponsored community forestry initiatives using the case of a multi-year biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihood project in West Africa sponsored by the U.S. Agency for International Development. In this project, communities established community forests and prohibited most extractive uses to promote forest biodiversity conservation, receiving livelihood and water infrastructure investments in return. I assess whether livelihood investments are an effective incentive-based conservation strategy for community...

The USDA Forest Service received $5.447 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021, providing substantial funding to support implementation of the agency’s 2022 Wildfire Crisis Strategy between fiscal years 2022 and 2026. This article examines how the agency might enhance local job creation and equity while conducting wildfire risk reduction and ecosystem restoration under the strategy using these funds. It does this by drawing on five key findings from a socioeconomic assessment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) that are applicable today....

Outdoor programs operating on U.S. public lands introduce a range of activities, settings, and therapies for veterans experiencing posttraumatic stress, injuries, or disabilities. The extent to which these programs serve diverse veteran populations is not well understood in terms of race, ethnicity, age, gender, ability, or socioeconomic status. Since governmental agencies are increasingly required to foster diversity, equity, and inclusivity, this presents a knowledge gap with policy implications. We paired a thematic analysis of interviews with outdoor professionals with a content...

We examine how forest taxation should be designed when tax revenues are used to finance expenditures on wildfire risk mitigation and when forest carbon storage has value. A model is solved sequentially in two stages by a forest tax planner and a representative private landowner. Our results show that neither an acre-based fee nor a unit-based harvest tax is able to incentivize the same levels of sequestration as a carbon price. However, a neutral tax like the acre-based fee is preferred when the external benefits of carbon sequestration are captured by the private landowner.

Context: An increase in the number and availability of datasets cataloging invasive plant distributions offers opportunities to expand our understanding, monitoring, and management of invasives across spatial scales. These datasets, created using on-theground observations and modeling techniques, are made both for and by researchers and managers.Objectives: The large number and variety of data types and associated datasets can be difficult to navigate, require high levels of data literacy, and can overwhelm the intended end-users. By providing a synthesis of available data types and...

Biomass estimates for shrub-dominated ecosystems in southern California have been generated at national and statewide extents. However, existing data tend to underestimate biomass in shrub vegetation types are limited to one point in time, or estimate aboveground live biomass only. In this study, we extended our previously developed estimates of aboveground live biomass (AGLBM) based on the empirical relationship of plot-based field biomass measurements to Landsat normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and multiple environmental factors to include other vegetative pools of biomass....

Recolonization of the Cascade Range in southern British Columbia, Canada, and Washington, USA, by wolverines (Gulo gulo (L., 1758)) is an ongoing process whose ultimate outcome is unknown. A reliable species distribution model for the wolverine in the Cascades (i.e., their first-order habitat selection) is urgently needed to help inform management and conservation strategies. Using Argos location data obtained on 10 resident adult wolverines (six females, four males) from 2008 to 2016, we generated a multi-covariate species distribution model for the wolverine in the Cascades. Our final...

Aim: Biodiversity changes can occur gradually or as distinct jumps as species distributions end and others begin. However, comprehensive assessments of freshwater biodiversity and how assemblages change along a continuum have been hindered by the connectivity and networked nature of streams and their large numbers of rare and cryptic species found there. We hypothesize that the boundary where fish distributions end marks an ecological shift in freshwater assemblages and could unify stream concepts.Location: Trask River watershed, Oregon, USA, temperate North America.Taxon: Fishes, amphibian...

The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) to assess aquatic biodiversity is a growing field with great potential for monitoring and managing threatened species, likefreshwater mussel (Unionidae) populations. Freshwater mussels are globally imperiled and serve essential roles in aquatic systems as a food source and as anatural water filter making their management essential for ecosystem health. Unfortunately, mussel populations are often understudied, and challenges exist toaccurately and efficiently describe the full suite of species present. Multispecies eDNA approaches may also be more...

Community science initiatives offer a powerful mechanism for obtaining large numbers of occurrence records over broad geographic areas for target species. In January 2020, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) initiated a statewide community science monitoring initiative to improve our knowledge of the distribution of Terrapene carolina (Eastern Box Turtle). The program received 6,045 verified and 2,681 unverified T. carolina observations between 01 Jan 2020 and 31 Dec 2021, respectively, including 5 county records for Terrapene carolina.