Treesearch

American marten (Martes americana), fisher (M. pennanti), wolverine (Gulo gulo), and lynx (Lynx lynx) are forest carnivores believed threatened by disturbance of late-successional forests. To manage forested ecosystems for these species, effective methods for their detection must be available. Recently, the U.S. Forest Service proposed standardized survey procedures for the detection of forest carnivores; this report presents the first critical assessment of these protocols. We compared dual-sensor remote cameras and soot-coated open and covered track plates in the same study areas over an...

We examined characteristics of den structures and den sites used by female American marten (Martes americana) for natal and maternal dens in the Sierra Madre Range, Wyoming. During 1988-95, we located 18 natal dens (parturition sites) and 97 maternal dens (sites where kits were present exclusive of parturition) used by 10 female marten. Important den structures included rock crevices (28%), snags (25%), red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) middens (19%), and logs (16%). Resource selection function (RSF) analysis showed that an individual selection model provided a significantly better...

The Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (TCEF) is a 9,125 acre experimental forest located in the western portion of the Little Belt Mountains. The TCEF was established as an experimental forest in 1961 for the development of management techniques for harvesting lodgepole pine while maintaining soil stability. The research emphasis was expanded in 1991 to develop and evaluate ecosystem-based treatments for sustaining productivity and biodiversity of lodgepole pine forests and watersheds. Water related issues are still of high concern, however, through ecosystem-based management, all...

The essential role of fire in sustaining ecosystems has recently been formally recognized. It is specifically addressed in several new national policy documents. In the Federal Wildland Fire Policy and Program Review's Implementation Action Plan (US Department of Interior and U.S. Department of Agriculture 1996). federal land managers expect to implement a several-fold increase in the use of prescribed fire to restore and maintain key ecosystems. In his February. 1997 speech addressing the need to "fight fire with fire." Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt described the need to integrate...

The exclusion of fire from ecosystems to which it was a frequent visitor has produced profound alterations in historic ecological conditions; therefore, fire must be an integral component of ecosystem management. That was the overwhelming message conveyed by speakers at the symposium, Fire for Restoration of Communities and Ecosystems. Speakers from land management agencies and academia addressed both the conceptual and practical bases for using prescribed fire to re store degraded or highly altered forest-dominated ecosystems. The ecological as well as the social and political complexity...

An environmental analysis has been prepared which describes and evaluates the management alternatives for the timber harvest and burning within the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (TCEF) project area. The project area lies within the headwaters of the Tenderfoot drainage of the Lewis and Clark National Forest (Map 1-1 of EA). The purpose of this biological assessment is to review the possible effects of the preferred alternative on endangered, threatened, proposed and candidate species and their habitats in order to determine whether or not a "may adversely affect" situation exists.

Our wilderness and alpine ecosystem areas are a unique resource. While these areas are in remote locations they are not isolated from long-range atmospheric transport. The increase in regional air pollution sources may expose them to anthropogenic pollutants. The Clean Air Act of 1990, as amended, charges the Federal Land Manager (FLM) with the affirmative responsibility to protect air quality related values (AQRVs) in Class I wilderness areas from adverse human-caused air pollution impacts. Class I areas are wildernesses larger than 5000 acres (including later expansions) that existed as...

The majority of Class I wilderness areas in Region 2 is high-elevation wilderness. Management of these areas is also regulated by the Wilderness Act of 1964, which states that these areas should be managed such that humans cause little if any impact. When considered in concert with the Clean Air Act, this implies that an adverse impact in a wilderness area is any unnatural change, regardless of whether it may be perceived by humans as positive or negative. With this in mind, the Terrestrial Ecosystems Group proceeded to identify sensitive receptors and LACs in support of our efforts to...

Kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka lacustrine sockeye salmon) spawned in groundwater upwelling in the North Fork of the Payette River, Idaho. Intragravel water temperatures in groundwater-influenced redds exceeded surface flow water temperature by 2.4–2.6°C. In redds without groundwater influence, intragravel and water column temperatures did not differ by more than 0.2°C. Although redds constructed in upwelling sites contained significantly more fine sediments (

We used radiotelemetry and underwater observation to assess fall and winter movements and habitat use by bull trout Salvelinus confluentus and westslope cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi in two headwater streams in the Bitterroot River drainage, Montana, that varied markedly in habitat availability and stream ice conditions. Bull trout and cutthroat trout made extensive (>1 km) downstream overwintering movements with declining temperature in the fall. Most fish remained stationary for the remainder of the study (until late February), but some fish made additional downstream...