Treesearch

Due to increasing interest in public land recreation and efforts to control federal government spending, recreation services on public lands may not be adequate to meet future demands. Rather than continue to rely entirely on appropriated funding, the U.S. Congress authorized a Recreation Fee Demonstration Program in 1996 to examine the feasibility of generating funds from users for the operation, maintenance, and improvement of public recreation areas, including wilderness areas. Under this program, federal land managers around the country have initiated fee projects such as charges for...

The mechanistic, spatially-explicit fire succession model, Fire-BGC (a Fire BioGeoChemical succession model) was used to investigate long-term trends in landscape pattern under historical and future fire regimes and present and future climate regimes for two 46 000 ha landscapes in Glacier National Park, Montana, USA. Fire-BGC has two spatial and temporal resolutions in the simulation architecture where ecological processes that act at a landscape level, such as fire, are simulated annually from information contained in spatial data layers, while stand-level processes such as photosynthesis...

This report presents and analyzes findings from two surveys conducted in 1999 and 2000 regarding public attitudes toward the application of recreation use fees on National Forest lands in the states of Oregon and Washington. Under authority granted by Congress in 1996 through the creation of the Recreation Fee Demonstration Program (RFDP), the Pacific Northwest Region (Region 6) of the USDA Forest Service has experimented with a series of user fees at trailheads, visitor centers, campgrounds, and other recreation sites since 1997. The study examines the responses toward recreation user...

During summer of 1994, 328 0.1 ha circular plots were sampled to determine the volume of coarse woody debris (CWD) and standing dead density and basal area in 53 mature or older Pinus ponderosa stands in the Front Range and Southwestern mountains of Colorado. Standing dead volume was estimated using height derived from living trees in the plots. Generally, CWD amounts were lower in these forests than have been reported for Pinus ponderosa forests in Arizona and New Mexico and other forest types in North America. Mean volume for all plots was 15.9 m3/ha ± 20.85 SD. Mass, estimated from...

We use mathematical programming to explore long-term equilibrium population distribution and abundance effects arising from a single-patch reaction-diffusion model when ecological factors limit carrying capacity at two different spatial scales. Both homogeneous and heterogeneous habitat patches are investigated under passive diffusion conditions. Capacity limits, reproduction and dispersal rates, and habitat preferences are individually varied. 2. When landscape-scale habitat factors are strongly limiting, and reproduction and dispersal processes are less so, suitable population arrangement...

This paper discusses projections of emerging geographic areas of concern with regard to forest and rangeland condition, as indicated by a model based on a set of independent econometric production functions for condition indicators at the national scale. These production functions reflect two special characteristics: (1) the independence of ecological systems from human control, and (2) the broad scale spatial nature of environmental and ecological processes. The emphasis in this paper is the model projections themselves, which are presented and discussed using national-scale maps.

Depending on the agency, discipline, or audience, assessments supply data and information to address relevant policy questions and to help make decisions (Streets 1989, Thorton et al. 1994). Data collected in assessments estimate, measure, appraise, rate, characterize, or describe various resource conditions. If properly executed, assessment processes can draw conclusions and make recommendations on how to manage natural resources (Deuel and D' Aloia 1995). Assessments range from those required by the Resources Planning Act (national), to describing stand conditions (site) prior to...

Uneven-aged silviculture is used infrequently in the Northern Rocky Mountains. Because of wildlife, watershed, or scenic issues it is often preferred for managing many stands. While it has been applied in the ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests it has had limited application in the grand fir (Abies grandis)-westem redcedar (Thuja plicate)-westem hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla) forests. To supply information for making more informed decisions on using UI).even-aged silviculture in forests dominated by shade-tolerant species, a study was initiated in 1984 in northern Idaho. Twenty-seven...

Depending on the agency, discipline, or audience, assessments supply data and information to address relevant policy questions and to help make decisions. If properly executed, assessment processes can draw conclusions and make recommendations on how to manage natural resources. Assessments, especially large ones, can be easily influenced by internal and external forces. Completing a design prior to collecting data is the most efficient and logical way of conducting assessments. The most important step in the assessment process is to define the assessment problems or questions that address...

In many western Montana ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) stands, fire suppression and past selective logging of large trees have resulted in conditions favoring succession to dense stands of shade-tolerant, but insect- and disease-prone Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Stand thinning and understory prescribed burning have been proposed as surrogates for pre-Euro-American settlement ecological processes and as potential treatments to improve declining forest condition and reduce the probability of severe wildfire. To test the effectiveness of these silvicultural techniques on overstory...