Treesearch

Stream habitat restoration projects are popular, but can be expensive and difficult to evaluate. We describe inSALMO, an individual-based model designed to predict habitat effects on freshwater life stages (spawning through juvenile out-migration) of salmon. We applied inSALMO to Clear Creek, California, simulating the production of total and large (>5 cm FL) Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha out-migrants at a degraded and a restored site. The calibrated model reproduced observed redd locations and out-migrant timing and size. In simulations, the restored site had a much higher...

The Point Arena mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa nigra) is federally listed as an endangered subspecies that is restricted to a small geographic range in coastal Mendocino County, California. Management of this imperiled taxon requires accurate information on its demography and vital rates. We developed noninvasive survey methods, using hair snares to sample DNA and to estimate abundance and survival at two sites, Kinney Beach and Alder Creek, within Manchester State Park. We extracted DNA and genotyped 371 hair samples resulting in the identification of a total of 54 individuals during...

Secondary exposure of wildlife to pesticides has been well documented, yet exposure is typically associated with agricultural or wildland-urban interface areas. Wildlife in undeveloped areas is generally presumed free from risk. In 2009, a male fisher was found dead in the Sierra National Forest and subsequent necropsy revealed that the animal died of acute rodenticide poisoning. Follow-up testing revealed that 85% of fisher carcasses recovered by two research projects in the previous three years tested positive for rodenticides. Concern arose that exposure could predispose an animal to...

Active forest restoration in Hawaii’s Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge has produced a network of Acacia koa tree corridors and islands in deforested grasslands. Passive restoration by root suckering has potential to expand tree cover and close gaps between planted stands. This study documents rates of encroachment into grassland, clonal stand structure, and tree architecture. Data were collected from random replicate strip transects that started inside 23-year-old koa plantations and ended either in open grassland or in adjacent planted stands. For the former, sucker densities...

Between 1997 and 2009 a serious drought affected much of Australia. Whether reasoned or unintentional, water policy decisions closed the tap, turning much of the urban forest’s lifeline into a trickle. Green infrastructure became brown infrastructure, exposing its standing as a low priority relative to other consumptive sources. To share new solutions to water scarcity and urban forest management Greg McPherson, Robert Prince, Nelda Matheny and Larry Costello convened a symposium in conjunction with the 2011 ISA Annual Conference in Sydney, Australia. The articles in this recent special...

Outdoor recreation and tourism represents a major service by which the public identifies with and better understands natural resources, even to the extent that it can foster environmental stewardship (for example, see Winter and Chavez 2008). Yet, myriad threats to recreation and tourism exist which need to be addressed. Addressing these threats can be facilitated through application of a sustainability framework. Sustainability, including sustainable recreation and tourism, must consider three dimensions: economic, social, and environmental. These dimensions are interdependent and a...

The management of public land as venues for a wide variety of outdoor recreation interests is a highly complex professional field. Understanding of the relationship between the visitor, general public values, the natural resource base and the politics of management policies requires training, experience and savvy. Recreation planning for forest, park, preserve, wilderness, and wildlife habitat public lands is multi-dimensional and include an understanding of recreationist values and behaviors in nature-based settings; a mix of social science discipline (e.g., psychology ,social psychology,...

Wilderness is widely supported by the American public (Campaign for America’s Wilderness 2003) and provides myriad ecosystem services and other benefits (Schuster and others 2005, Williams and Watson 2007). Wilderness services and benefits deemed important to the public include use (such as recreation) and non-usevalues (such as scenery appreciation) (Brown and Alessa 2005). Protecting wilderness and its values as population and environmental changes evolve is a significant challenge (Hill 1994). Wilderness Areas near urban places (urban-proximate wilderness) are under elevated threat from...

Smoke from biomass fires makes up a substantial portion of global greenhouse gas, aerosol, and black carbon (GHG/A/BC) emissions. Understanding how fuel characteristics and conditions affect fire occurrence and extent, combustion dynamics, and fuel consumption is critical for making accurate, reliable estimates of emissions production at local, regional, national, and global scales. The type, amount, characteristics, and condition of wildland fuels affect combustion and emissions during wildland and prescribed fires. Description of fuel elements has focused on those needed for fire spread...

The role of water vapor, originated from the moisture content in vegetation, on the combustion process was investigated via simulating an opposed diffusion flame and a laminar premixed flame with pyrolysis gases as the fuel and air as the oxidizer. The fuel was mixed with water vapor, and the simulation was repeated for various water mole fractions. In both of the diffusion and premixed flames, the smaller the water mole fraction, the higher the maximum temperature. No reactions occurred when the water mole fraction was 0.65 or larger in the diffusion flame, and 0.70 or larger in the...