Treesearch

Good management requires good information. Monitoring provides this information when it is structured into the process of management, well designed and executed. As federal and state agencies strive to implement a management paradigm based on sustaining ecosystems, ecological information becomes a vital part of managing natural resources. Inventory and monitoring programs can be bewilderingly complex, involving philosophical, scientific, statistical, economic, administrative and practical issues. This article explores a few of these issues. I discuss the general role ecological monitoring...

Recreational use adversely affects the ecological integrity of wilderness. Wilderness managers face the challenge of keeping this loss of ecological integrity to minimal levels, a task that must be accomplished primarily through management of wilderness visitors. For the past 30 years, researchers have assisted managers by assessing problems associated with recreational use of wilderness and by identifying solutions to these problems. They have conducted empirical studies-the traditional scientific approach in which conclusions are derived from observation and experimentation. They also...

1. Experimental trampling was conducted in 18 vegetation types in five separate mountain regions in the United States. Each type was trampled 0-500 times and vegetation response was assessed 2 weeks and 1 year after trampling. 2. The response of vegetation to trampling is expressed in terms of three indices: resistance, tolerance and resilience. Resistance and tolerance are determined from the vegetation surviving 2 weeks and 1 year after trampling. respectively. Resilience compares the change over the remainder of the year with that during the first 2 weeks after trampling. 3. Plant...

Recent studies at the Leopold Institute have included analysis of use and user trends at the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Desolation Wilderness, Shining Rock Wilderness, the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Eagle Cap Wilderness. Some sociodemographics, like age, education, and the proportion of female visitors, have changed substantially without shifts in kinds of trips or preferences for conditions encountered. At the Eagle Cap Wilderness, visitors also showed a deeper commitment to wilderness and more purist attitudes toward appropriate...

The pilot test of a method to assess the ecological function of pathogens and insects in forests is reported. The analysis is a practical application of current ecosystem management theory.The influences of pathogens and insects on forest succession are measured by relating successional transition rates and types to conditions for pathogen and insect activities which are expected to lead to transitions. Results of this analysis provide means to better understand historic and current functions of pathogens and insects. They also provide a basis for predictions of future trends of pathogen...

Reviews mining laws and regulations and their application to mining in Western States. Describes prospecting, exploration, mine development and operation, and reclamation factors.

Disturbance profiles, indices based on both spatial and non-spatial statistics, are used to examine how small-scale disturbances and the resulting canopy gaps disrupt ecosystem patterns and processes in selected stands in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. The biological meaning of many indices remains undefined for small scale disturbance phenomena, but their disturbance profiles could eventually be used to assess current and desired forest conditions and suggest actions to meet specific management objectives. These profiles can be determined for plots representing desired conditions associated...

Forest health issues include the effects of fire suppression and grazing on forest stands, reduction in amount of old-growth forests, stand structural changes associated with even-aged management, .changes in structure of the landscape mosaic, loss of habitat for threatened species, and the introduction of exotic species. The consequences of these impacts can be evaluated using an ecological approach based on conservation biology and several subdivisions of ecology. These disciplines provide a basis for assessing how the forested landscape has been altered from, earlier conditions and for...

Forest health is an increasingly important concept in natural resource management. However, definition of forest health is difficult and dependent on human perspective. From a utilitarian perspective, forest health has been defined by the production of forest conditions which directly satisfy human needs. From an ecosystem-centered perspective, forest health has been defined by resilience, recurrence, persistence and biophysical processes which lead to sustainable ecological conditions. Definitions and understanding of forest health are also dependent on spatial scale, with increasing...

Provides an overview of extant desert tortoise literature, summarizing literature on taxonomy, morphology, genetics, and paleontology and paleoecology of the desert tortoise, as well as its general ecology. Literature on desert tortoise ecology encompasses distribution and habitat, burrows and dens, reproduction, growth, physiology, feeding and nutrition, mortality factors, and behavior. Information on habitat deterioration, management of tortoises, their legal status and tortoise husbandry is also included. The manuscript is a complete overview of existing literature, including peer-review...