Treesearch

Sand shinnery is codominated by oak shrubs and mid and tallgrasses; the grasses are usually taller than the oaks. The shrubs are the small, visible shoots of massive underground stem systems, which are hundreds or thousands of years old. Sand shinnery occupies 5 to 7 M acres in western Oklahoma, western Texas, and southeastern New Mexico. This area is a decrease from the original due to land clearing for agriculture and eradication of oak to improve livestock-grazing. Oak control is controversial because it can open sandy soils to wind erosion and can conflict with wildlife-habitat...

To define the faunal context within which local and regional resource management decisions are made, conservation of biological diversity requires an understanding of regional species occurrence patterns. Our study focused on the Southern Rocky Mountains of New Mexico and included the San Juan, the Sangre de Cristo, and the Jemez Mountains. Across this region, we quantified patterns of species richness and faunal diversity based on reported and predicted occurrences for birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and butterflies across this region. Specific hypotheses related to the origin...

This publication was prepared in response to a need expressed by southwestern agencies and organizations for a comprehensive assessment of the population status, history, biology, ecology, habitats, threats, and conservation of the southwestern willow flycatcher (Empidonax traillii extimus). The southwestern willow flycatcher was federally listed as an Endangered subspecies in 1995. A team of flycatcher experts from multiple agencies and organizations identified components of the publication, wrote chapters, and cooperatively assembled management recommendations and research needs. We hope...

This report documents the general trends in fisheries and aquatic resources for the nation as required by the Renewable Resources Planning Act (RPA) of 1974. The report highlights major trends in water quality, specific fish populations, resource utilization, and imperiled aquatic fauna. Relationships between land use, water quality, and aquatic species conditions are explored. An analysis is provided of a multi-state information sharing initiative (MARIS) that the Forest Service has initiated, along with recommendations for the future. The data for the report came primarily from existing...

The USDA Forest Service recently developed and adopted a code of ethical conduct for scientific research and development. The code addresses issues related to research misconduct, such as fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism in proposing, performing, or reviewing research or in reporting research results, as well as issues related to professional misconduct, such as authorship practices, conflict of interest, and responsible treatment of data and resources.The adoption of a code of scientific ethics is expected to foster fairness, accuracy, and integrity in the conduct and reporting...

A familiar version of the “jobs versus the environment” argument asserts that wilderness areas limit economic growth by locking up potentially productive natural resources. Analysis of the development paths of rural Western counties shows that this is unlikely: the presence of Wilderness is correlated with income, employment and population growth. Similarly, Wilderness seems to be a catalyst promoting the transition from stagnating extractive economies to relatively competitive amenity economies. As the relationship between local economies and the environment shifts from a reliance on...

Bird censuses were taken on 11 study plots along an elevational gradient ranging from 5,250 to 11,400 feet. Each plot represented a different vegetative type or zone: shadscale, shadscale-Wyoming big sagebrush, Wyoming big sagebrush, Wyoming big sagebrush-pinyon/juniper, pinyon/juniper, pinyon/juniper-mountain big sagebrush, mountain big sagebrush, mountain big sagebrush-mixed conifer, mixed conifer, mixed conifer-alpine, and alpine. Eighty-nine bird species were observed. The total number of birds and bird species followed a skewed bell-shaped distribution. Some birds were quite narrow in...

Two empirical methods for rating susceptibility of mountain pine beetle attack in ponderosa pine were evaluated. The methods were compared to stand data modeled to objectively rate each sampled stand for susceptibly to bark-beetle attack. Data on bark-beetle attacks, from a survey of 45 sites throughout the Colorado Plateau, were modeled using logistic regression to estimate the probability of attack on individual trees from tree and stand variables. The logistic model allowed flexibility to easily scale results up to a stand level for comparison to the empirical methods. The empirical...

The cultural roots and images of the Finnish wilderness lie in its use as a source of livelihood practiced in southern and central Finland during the Middle Ages. There are statutory wilderness areas in Finland, but Finnish people consider many other areas as wilderness. It is important for management of the areas, statutory wilderness areas and the other wilderness-like areas to determine what are the features that make an area wilderness, how these areas are used and appreciated by Finnish people. Questionnaires and landscape rankings were used to determine that. Old virgin forests and...

Stapp (1998) recently argued that it was premature to characterize prairie dogs (Cynomys spp.) as keystone species. In particular, Stapp directed much of his criticism at a paper some of us wrote (Miller et al. 1994). He mistakenly interprets the main objective of our paper as providing evidence that prairie dogs are keystone species. Rather, the purpose of that paper was to outline an integrated strategy for conserving prairie dogs, and the theme was legal protection, habitat preservation, education, and economic incentives. It was presented in the context of prairie dog management...