Treesearch

Snow that accumulates in high-elevation forested watersheds is an important source of water for downstream municipalities, industries, and agricultural activities. Streamflow and water storage impoundments in the drier regions of the western United States depend on snowmelt. Troendle (1983) estimated that almost 90 percent of the total annual water yields in the Rocky Mountain Region, which includes Arizona and New Mexico, are derived from snowmelt. One estimate indicates that as much as 5,103,630 acre-feet (6.3 billion cubic meters) of water can be in storage in the snowpacks prior to,...

Riparian ecosystems supply valuable resources in all landscapes, but especially in semiarid regions such as the Great Basin of the western United States. Over half of Great Basin streams are thought to be in poor ecological condition and further deterioration is of significant concern to stakeholders. A thorough understanding of how physical processes acting at multiple scales work independently and interactively to shape riparian communities is necessary for successful management and restoration. I investigated: 1) geomorphic influences on riparian vegetation pattern at the watershed...

Research on organizational safety and reliability largely has emphasized system-level structures and processes neglecting the more micro-level, social processes necessary to enact organizational safety. In this qualitative study we remedy this gap by exploring these processes in the context of wildland fire management. In particular, using interview data gathered from 28 individuals involved in wildland firefighting, we explore the validity of the idea that a deterrent to organizational safety is an inability to redirect ongoing actions once they are underway. The findings suggest four...

Many western native plant species occur in areas characterized by well-drained soils low in organic matter. Some drought-tolerant native plant species exhibit poor seed germination. It was hypothesized that traditional growing substrates high in organic matter may impede their germination; therefore, stratified seeds of roundleaf buffaloherry (Shepherdia rotundifolia) and silver buffaloberry (Shepherdia argentea) were sown in three substrates differing in organic matter and drainage properties. Seed flats were irrigated twice daily to container capacity, and held on a greenhouse bench for...

Surface fuels data are of critical importance for supporting fire incident management, risk assessment, and fuel management planning, but the development of surface fuels data can be expensive and time consuming. The data development process is extensive, generally beginning with acquisition of remotely sensed spatial data such as aerial photography or satellite imagery (Keane and others 2001). The spatial vegetation data are then crosswalked to a set of fire behavior fuel models that describe the available fuels (the burnable portions of the vegetation) (Anderson 1982, Scott and Burgan...

Reflecting on the links between intentions and outcomes is a key practice of a learning organization (Garvin 2000). The After-Action Review (AAR) is a formal reflection process intended to assist groups in capturing lessons learned from a task. AARs typically ask four questions regarding fire-response operations: (1) what did we set out to do, (2) what actually happened, (3) why is there a difference between the first two, and (4) what should we continue/what should we change? Since the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center sponsored training workshops on AARs for the fire community in...

If you were involved in the 2008 fire season in the West, you may have heard the term "Key Decision Log" or "KDL." This article describes the KDL concept, it's intent (past and present), how it was applied in 2008, and where the practice is heading.

Wildland fire management must balance the multiple objectives of protecting life, property, and resources; reducing hazardous fuels; and restoring ecosystems. These Federal policy imperatives, varied yet connected, must be met under an increasingly constrained budget. A key to management success is effectively exercising the full range of management flexibility in responding to wildland fire.

The concept of wilderness may trace its roots to the U.S., but a worldwide wilderness community has developed and is growing in strength, though with limited representation from Asia. With the primary purpose of protecting nature, wilderness designation can occur through legislation or policy development, but with similar outcomes of providing long-term protection and benefits for relatively intact ecosystems and the relationships people have with these places. In the Far East of Russia, the Kamchatka Peninsula is emerging as a nature-based vacation destination with federal and regional...

In the Far East of Russia, similar to many places in Asia, ecotourism and the environment are in transition. A science team, cooperating with the United Nations Development Programme project "Demonstrating Sustainable Conservation of Biological Diversity in Four Protected Territories in the Kamchatka Region, Russian Federation," is working to provide vital information to help guide regional sustainable development planning in a time of rapid change in globalization and visitation pressures. An emerging part of Russian society has been the managers in Russian industry that receive high...