Treesearch

The term "rangeland" is rather nebulous, and there is no single definition of rangeland that is universally accepted by land managers, scientists, or international bodies (Lund, 2007; Reeves and Mitchell, 2011). Dozens and possibly hundreds (Lund, 2007) of definitions and ideologies exist because various stakeholders often have unique objectives requiring different information. For the purpose of describing the role of remote sensing in a global context, it is, however, necessary to provide definitions to orient the reader. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations...

Wildlife managers need reliable methods to estimate large carnivore densities and population trends; yet large carnivores are elusive, difficult to detect, and occur at low densities making traditional approaches intractable. Recent advances in spatial capture-recapture (SCR) models have provided new approaches for monitoring trends in wildlife abundance and these methods are particularly applicable to large carnivores. We applied SCR models in a Bayesian framework to estimate mountain lion densities in the Bitterroot Mountains of west central Montana. We incorporate an existing resource...

The science of growing reforestation and conservation plants in containers has continually evolved, and three simple observations may greatly improve seedling quality. First, retaining stock in its original container for more than one growing season should be avoided. Second, strongly taprooted species now being grown as bareroot stock may be good candidates for container production. Third, miniplug seedlings that combine growth in containers followed by bareroot culturing may be a way to improve bareroot bed density and shorten production cycles. This paper was presented at a joint...

Deadwood dynamics play a key role in many forest ecosystems. Understanding the mechanisms involved in the accumulation and depletion of deadwood can enhance our understanding of fundamental processes such as carbon sequestration and disturbance regimes, allowing better predictions of future changes related to alternative management and climate scenarios. A conceptual framework for deadwood dynamics has been generally accepted but has not been broadly tested with empirical data. We used a large (n ¼ 6191) data set containing measurements of live and standing dead trees, and downed woody...

Raptors that inhabit sagebrush steppe and grassland ecosystems in the western United States may be threatened by continued loss and modification of their habitat due to energy development, conversion to agriculture, and human encroachment. Actions to protect these species are hampered by a lack of reliable data on such basic information as population size and density. We estimated density and abundance of nesting pairs of Ferruginous Hawks (Buteo regalis) and Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in sagebrush steppe and grassland regions of Wyoming, based on aerial line transect surveys of...

Ecological and land management applications would often benefit from maps of relative canopy cover of each species present within a pixel, instead of traditional remote-sensing based maps of either dominant species or percent canopy cover without regard to species composition. Widely used statistical models for remote sensing, such as randomForest (RF), support vector machines (SVM), and generalized linear regression (GLM), are problematic for this purpose as they often fail to properly predict the absence of a target species, especially in areas of high vegetation diversity, due to the...

Light-emitting diode (LED) technology shows promise for supplementing photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) in forest nurseries because of the potential reduction in energy consumption and an ability to supply discrete wavelengths to optimize seedling growth. Our objective was to examine the effects of light spectra supplied by LED and traditional high-pressure sodium (HPS) lamps on growth and physiology of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) and Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm.) seedlings. We used three latitudinal sources for each species: British...

Wildland fire is an important disturbance agent in the western US and globally. However, the natural role of fire has been disrupted in many regions due to the influence of human activities, which have the potential to either exclude or promote fire, resulting in a "fire deficit" or "fire surplus", respectively. In this study, we developed a model of expected area burned for the western US as a function of climate from 1984 to 2012.We then quantified departures from expected area burned to identify geographic regions with fire deficit or surplus. We developed our model of area burned as a...

The sagebrush steppe is a patchwork of species and subspecies occupying distinct environmental niches across the intermountain regions of western North America. These ecosystems face degradation from disturbances and exotic weeds. Using sagebrush seed that is matched to its appropriate niche is a critical component to successful restoration, improving habitat for the threatened greater sagegrouse and other species. The need for restoration is greatest in basin habitats composed of two subspecies: diploid basin big sagebrush (A. tridentata subsp. tridentata) and tetraploid Wyoming big...

This guide presents a classification of the Ecological Types of the eastern slope of the Wind River Range (WRR) on the Shoshone National Forest in west-central Wyoming. Ecological Types integrate vegetation and environmental characteristics, including climate, geology, landform, and soils, into a comprehensive ecosystem classification. The three objectives are: (1) complete field data collection, (2) simultaneously develop soil map unit components and Ecological Types, and (3) publish the ecological type classification such that it is compatible with the National Cooperative Soil Survey...