Treesearch

This study examines the production and efficiency of wildland fire suppression effort. We estimate the effectiveness of suppression resource inputs to produce controlled fire lines that contain large wildland fires using stochastic frontier analysis. Determinants of inefficiency are identified and the effects of these determinants on the daily production of controlled fire line are examined. Results indicate that the use of bulldozers and fire engines increase the production of controlled fire line, while firefighter crews do not tend to contribute to controlled fire line production....

Much like other scientific endeavours, most fire research is conducted either within individual disciplines - fuels, physics, chemistry, ecology, modelling, and so forth - or, at best, across only two or three disciplines. This is primarily because fire scientists have particular areas of expertise and most collaborations are between scientists within that expertise. Although this approach often leads to significant discoveries, the lack of co-located, multi-scale measurements of pre-fire fuels, active fire processes and post-fire effects hinders our ability to tackle fundamental questions...

It is unlikely all male sage-grouse are detected during lek counts, which could complicate the use of lek counts as an index to population abundance. Understanding factors that influence detection probabilities will allow managers to more accurately estimate the number of males present on leks. We fitted 410 males with global positioning system and very high frequency transmitters, and uniquely identifiable legbands over 4 years in Carbon County, Wyoming. We counted male sage-grouse using commonly used lekcount protocols and evaluated variables associated with our ability to detect marked...

The role of fire-atmosphere coupling on fire behaviour is not well established, and to date few field observations have been made to investigate the interactions between fire spread and fire-induced winds. Therefore, comprehensive field observations are needed to better understand micrometeorological aspects of fire spread. To address this need, meteorological observations were made during the Prescribed Fire Combustion and Atmospheric Dynamics Research Experiment (RxCADRE) field campaign using a suite of meteorological instrumentation to measure both the ambient fire weather conditions...

Wildland fire radiant energy emission is one of the only measurements of combustion that can be made at wide spatial extents and high temporal and spatial resolutions. Furthermore, spatially and temporally explicit measurements are critical for making inferences about fire effects and useful for examining patterns of fire spread. In this study we describe our methods for capturing and analysing spatially and temporally explicit long-wave infrared (LWIR) imagery from the RxCADRE (Prescribed Fire Combustion and Atmospheric Dynamics Research Experiment) project and examine the usefulness of...

Quality of fish habitat at the scale of a single fish, at the metre resolution, which we defined here as microhabitat, has been primarily evaluated on short reaches, and their results have been extended through long river segments with methods that do not account for connectivity, a measure of the spatial distribution of habitat patches. However, recent investigations of quality of aquatic habitat at the stream segment scale, at hundredth of metre resolution macrohabitat, indicate that the spatial distribution of aquatic habitat quality and size is an important factor at the network scale....

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) has succeeded in shielding hundreds of species from extinction and improving species recovery over time. However, recovery for most species officially protected by the ESA - i.e., listed species - has been harder to achieve than initially envisioned. Threats to species are persistent and pervasive, funding has been insufficient, the distribution of money among listed species is highly uneven, and at least 10 times more species than are actually listed probably qualify for listing. Moreover, many listed species will require ongoing management for the...

This study tested the efficacy of environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling to delineate the distribution of bull trout Salvelinus confluentus in headwater streams in western Montana, U.S.A. Surveys proved fast, reliable and sensitive: 124 samples were collected across five basins by a single crew in c. 8days. Results were largely consistent with past electrofishing, but, in a basin where S. confluentus were known to be scarce, eDNA samples indicated that S. confluentus were more broadly distributed than previously thought.

Environmental DNA sampling (eDNA) has emerged as a powerful tool for detecting aquatic animals. Previous research suggests that eDNA methods are substantially more sensitive than traditional sampling. However, the factors influencing eDNA detection and the resulting sampling costs are still not well understood. Here we use multiple experiments to derive independent estimates of eDNA production rates and downstream persistence from brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) in streams. We use these estimates to parameterize models comparing the false negative detection rates of eDNA sampling and...

Woody biomass could be used to generate renewable bioenergy and bioproducts in the western U.S. and has the potential to offer environmental and societal benefits. The purpose of the Rocky Mountain Research Station-led Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) project is to research and develop technologies, approaches, and new science that will help to make this possible. Part one of this series (September/October 2014) addressed the economic and environmental challenges of the biomass supply chain, from the site of harvest to the bioenergy facility - from "cradle to gate." This...