Treesearch

Wildfire risk has risen significantly due to climate change and the increase in housing development in the wildland urban interface (WUI), making household participation in fuel reduction crucial. However, homeowners’ perceived wildfire risk may diverge from professionals’ objective assessments. We use a choice experiment survey of Arizona homeowners in WUI areas to compare how willingness to pay (WTP) for public and private fuel reduction programs aligns with self-assessed versus professionally determined wildfire risk. Results show that while homeowners’ WTP for fuel reduction is...

The gas and tar composition of a wildland fire diffusion flame from longleaf pine needles is currently relatively unmeasured and more data are needed to fill in the gap between pyrolysis data and smoke plume data, thus improving physical and chemical modeling of wildland smoke formation. A pilot experiment to measure light gas and tar composition of such a flame is described for three flame zones: persistent flame (flame base), intermittent flame, and smoke plume. Flame gases from 24 experimental fires were collected in canisters and analyzed for CO2, CO, H2, CH4, and C2 to C7 hydrocarbon...

Our analysis of 61 versions of the Great Basin (GB) Indigenous oral-history narrative, Theft of Pine Nuts , provides valuable new paleoecological insights into late Pleistocene (LP) and Holocene biogeography of pinyon pine ( Pinus monophylla ). Pinyon homelands indicated by Indigenous sources were located not only within the current pinyon distribution but also north of the known range, in northern California and Nevada, southern Oregon and Idaho, and western Wyoming. These extramarginal pinyon locations corroborate and expand a Western science hypothesis that proposed LP or Early Holocene...

As attention to valley‐bottom or Stage‐0 restoration increases, direct attempts to evaluate its effects on highly valued salmonid fishes remain rare. We evaluated a valley‐bottom restoration project at Whychus Creek, Oregon, by simulating its effects on the abundance of both resident trout (native Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and introduced Brown Trout Salmo trutta ) that currently occupy the site and anadromous Chinook Salmon O. tshawytscha that historically occupied the site. Specifically, we compared results from a spatially explicit, individual‐based model for pre‐restoration...

Extensive threats to ecosystems and a diversity of motivations for environmental care have driven a growing environmental stewardship movement. The impact of this movement has the potential to be large, but the defining features are poorly characterized. As a result, the contributions of many civic groups that care for the environment may be unrecognized. We develop an understanding of the network of environmental stewardship groups (ESGs) on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi, in order to identify approaches to support effective, efficient, and equitable local environmental stewardship. To do this, we...

Fuel breaks, areas where vegetation has been modified or removed, are a common feature on national forests in southern California and elsewhere. They provide accessible locations for ground-based firefighters to perform fire-suppression activities. However, the cost to maintain nearly 4,000 miles of fuel breaks in southern California exceeds available funding, and the effectiveness of the fuel breaks varies. From 2012–2016, the Adaptive Management Services Enterprise Team (AMSET) developed and applied a process to the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres, and San Bernardino National Forests to...

Spruce beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis (Kirby) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is the most significant pest of spruce, Picea spp. (Pinales: Pinaceae), in western North America. Several doses of 3-methylcyclohex-2-en-1-one (MCH), the primary antiaggregation pheromone of D. rufipennis, alone and combined with non-host volatiles have been demonstrated effective for Picea protection. Herein, we evaluate the effects of MCH dose on D. rufipennis captures in baited trapping assays in Alaska and Colorado, United States. Twenty-five, 12-unit, multiple-funnel traps were baited with a D. rufipennis lure...

Large wood (LW) entrainment and transport observations of naturally occurring wood in rivers are critical for understanding wood dynamics. However, they remain limited and sparse, primarily originating from single-site studies. As a result, broader spatial or temporal variability of wood dynamics may not be adequately captured. We compiled a database of tracked, natural pieces of wood from 11 low-order and relatively steep streams in the Chilean Andes, Swiss Alps, United Kingdom and United States. From decades to single-year studies, we gathered 59,739 observations of tracked wood, which...

Several hypotheses attempt to explain why bats collide with wind turbines. One recent hypothesis is that collisions result from bats scent marking turbines and that scent-marked turbines produce odor plumes that attract bats. This olfaction hypothesis is intriguing, but currently lacks the ecological context required to assess its plausibility. To provide context, we review when we expect Northern Hoary Bats and Mexican Free-tailed Bats to scent mark under natural conditions, and determine if our findings align with observations of bats interacting with wind turbines. We then consider the...

Technology for the acoustic detection of animals has advanced rapidly over the past few decades. Due to ease of use, consistency, and safety, acoustic methods are particularly useful for science applications that engage the public. In this study, we evaluated the technological and educational trade-offs between 2 acoustic bat detectors in a participatory science application along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Arizona. Both devices were deployed simultaneously by commercial river guides in parallel with sampling insect prey for 1 h at dusk on 48 dates between April and October...