Treesearch

An integrated approach to understanding ecosystem service values in Wyoming and Montana, USA is presented. The assessment encompasses a major river basin, and includes a synthesis of existing data and research related to the natural system and separate data collection efforts regarding the social and economic importance of ecosystem services. A holistic look at the social-ecological system provides nuanced information about ecosystem service values and tradeoffs for the purpose of public land decision-making.The initial ecological assessment concluded that water resources were particularly...

Locations within forest fires that remain unburned or burn at low severity—known as fire refugia - are important components of contemporary burn mosaics, but their composition and structure at regional scales are poorly understood. Focusing on recent, large wildfires across the US Pacific Northwest (Oregon and Washington), our research objectives are to (1) classify fire refugia and burn severity based on relativized spectral change in Landsat time series; (2) quantify the pre-fire composition and structure of mapped fire refugia; (3) in forested areas, assess the relative abundance of...

Dormant seeds in the soil are an important contribution to the regenerative potential of an area. Understanding factors that affect seed bank dynamics in arid regions provides insight into how communities respond to disturbance and environmental change. We characterized seed banks in a Great Basin sagebrush steppe system, using field surveys and seed bank studies to compare 17 sites that differed in above-ground vegetation, fire history, and grazing use. We asked whether shrub cover, ground cover, climate, or disturbance history were predictive of seed densities, diversity, the presence of...

Pyrenophora semeniperda can infect nondormant Bromus tectorum seeds under optimal germination conditions, but most escape mortality. This reduces pathogen fitness relative to infection of dormant seeds, which are almost always killed. However, field experiments showed that a large proportion of seeds killed following inoculum addition were not accounted for as dormant seeds, but instead were likely nondormant seeds that would have germinated without inoculum addition. We hypothesized that widely fluctuating water availability to seeds would favor pathogenesis by delaying germination and...

Determining the extent of soil property changes following forest management activities (e.g., timber harvest, fuels abatement, site preparation) is an ongoing concern for land managers. Monitoring the long-term effects of various harvest operations and fuels treatment methods on soil physical properties and hydrologic function is critical to maintaining forest productivity. We document changes in detrimental soil disturbance (DSD) in harvest units located on the Kootenai National Forest that occurred over two decades. From 1992 through 2006, 251 harvest units on the Kootenai National...

We conducted this assessment to provide information on the current conditions of riparian and wetland ecosystems in reference to their natural range of variation on the Ashley National Forest during Forest Plan revision. We determined that riparian and wetland ecosystems have experienced numerous stressors that have influenced their current conditions, including reduced beaver activity, altered flow regimes, dams and diversions, livestock and wild ungulate grazing, and climate change. Some ecosystem characteristics, particularly channel and floodplain dynamics, appear to be more resistant...

Rangelands are increasingly urban, subdivided, and fragmented. About 62 percent of coterminous U.S. rangelands occur on private land and are at further risk for conversion. This Rangelands on the Edge (ROTE) project improves our understanding of the fate of rangelands from historical, present day, and future perspectives by describing human modification, fragmentation, and future residential growth projections for rangeland-dominated vegetation. Since pre-European settlement, some 340 million acres (over 34 percent) of rangelands, particularly in the Great Plains, have been converted to...

The Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, defines success in the wildland fire response environment as ìsafely achieving reasonable objectives with the least firefighter exposure necessary while enhancing stakeholder support for our management effortsî. However, persistent information and knowledge gaps challenge the agencyís ability to measure success in coming fire seasons. In this paper, we outline a roadmap to help fill these gaps, describing progress towards developing meaningful fire response key performance indicators (KPIs). We focus on characterizing suppression resource...

The planning units of the National Forest System are beginning to revise their existing land management plans using the 2012 Forest Service regulations. Ecological integrity is a central concept to the regulations. However, implementing the concept is challenging in light of climate change. Historical ecology, particularly the concept of natural range of variation, informs planning for ecological integrity and climate change. This report discusses a March 2016 workshop held for the Intermountain Region to address ecological integrity, NRV, and climate change, all high priority topics for...

The smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) is a cool-water fish species native to central North America. Widespread introductions and secondary spread outside of its historical range have led to new recreational fisheries and associated economic benefits in western United States, but have also resulted in a number of ecological impacts to recipient ecosystems, including threats to Pacific salmon. Management of introduced smallmouth bass populations, now and into the future, relies on accurate detection and monitoring of this species. To address this need, we developed an environmental DNA...