Treesearch

Data were collected to determine the depth of influence of conditions created by clear-cut timber harvest on adjacent old-growth stands of coast redwood. Fourteen variables related to stand structure and composition, wildlife habitat, and physical environment exhibited significant correlation to distance from the timber harvest boundary. Results were applied to the core area model (Laurence and Yensen 1991) to determine the effective size of forest preserves, and to make recommendations on the size and function of buffer zones. The core area model was used to determine the effective size...

The Beartooth Butte Formation is found in many mountain ranges throughout central Montana and northern Wyoming. This study combines a variety of geologic data to provide a clearer understanding of the fossil fauna and environmental setting of this rock unit. Results show not all exposures of this unit are fossil-bearing and where present, faunal data vary significantly from locality to locality. Also, not all exposures of the Beartooth Butte Formation are the same age. Lastly, isotopic data show a consistent pattern of ancient salinity for this rock unit through time, suggesting a constant...

Whitebark pine is a keystone species in upper subalpine forests of the northern Rocky Mountains, Cascades, and Sierra Nevada that has been declining because of recent mountain pine beetle and exotic blister rust epidemics, coupled with advancing succession resulting from fire exclusion. Whitebark pine and Wilderness have a mutually beneficial relationship because 1) half of whitebark pine’s range is in wilderness, 2) many wildlife species depend on whitebark pine ecosystems, 3) whitebark pine forests have high recreation value, and 4) whitebark pine landscapes contain unique ecological...

The breadth and scope of human-caused environmental change is well-established; the distribution and abundance of species, the vegetation cover of the land, and the chemistry of the atmosphere have been altered substantially and globally. How can science in wilderness areas contribute to the analysis of human-caused change? We use nitrate losses from forests to evaluate this question. Determining the effects of past land-use change can be done straightforwardly; evaluating regional changes in the nitrogen cycle requires us to go farther in order to find useful comparisons; and no modern...

This paper provides an overview of the conference, which was held in Missoula, Montana, May 23 through 27, 1999.

An integrated program of ecosystem modeling and extensive field studies at Glacier and Olympic National Parks has quantified many of the ecological processes affected by climatic variability and disturbance. Models have successfully estimated snow distribution, annual watershed discharge, and stream temperature variation based on seven years of monitoring. Various climatic scenarios were applied with the models to examine potential future wilderness conditions. This modeling indicates that reduced net primary productivity and altered disturbance patterns can be expected in dry, east-side...

Wilderness is widely recognized as a valuable environment for scientific research, and it is generally assumed that this research will benefit the wilderness resource. But what if the research is of value only in understanding an ecosystem that has been extinct for 65 million years? What if thousands of pounds of material must be removed from the wilderness to conduct this research? In 1998, the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science excavated two sites within the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness—the first known paleontological excavations from a designated wilderness. This paper...

This paper summarizes the ecological effects of fenced habitat protection for the desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) at the Desert Tortoise Research Natural Area in the Mojave Desert. The following were higher inside than outside the natural area: (1) annual and perennial plant biomass, cover, diversity and dominance by natives, (2) soil seed biomass, (3) nocturnal rodent density and diversity, (4) breeding bird abundance and species richness, and (5) lizard abundance and species richness. The following were higher outside the natural area: (1) biomass of alien annual plants, and (2)...

Most wildlife research in North America has focused on a standard suite of questions, asked of a limited assemblage of economically important species and studied using a relatively limited set of techniques, study site characteristics and narrow time-frames. We describe why these factors are not necessarily conducive to conducting wildlife research in wilderness settings. As a consequence, the amount of wildlife research conducted in wilderness settings has historically been small and limited primarily to wilderness-dependent species. We further describe the reasons for this, recent trends...

Factors that limit successful revegetation of a subalpine site were studied through a combination of soil assays, greenhouse studies, and field manipulations. Campsite soils had higher available nitrogen, lower microbial community diversity, and lower seed bank density than undisturbed soils. In the greenhouse, there was no significant difference in plant growth on disturbed versus undisturbed soils. In the field, seedling establishment patterns did not vary between experimental plots with five different soil treatments (ranging from a control to a compost and inoculum amendment). Addition...