Treesearch

Debate continues about how to best provide and protect outstanding opportunities for wilderness experiences (i.e., solitude, primitive recreation, and unconfined recreation), particularly in high-use destinations. This study explores what these experiences mean to wilderness stakeholders attending facilitated deliberations about the management of a high-use destination in the Three Sisters Wilderness, Oregon. We found that similar meanings, but diverse standards, are attributed to these experiential qualities of wilderness. Opportunities for these experiences exist, but achieving any one...

The effects of climate change are increasingly apparent and scientists from nearly every discipline are calling for more monitoring and research. Many have suggested that wilderness would be an excellent place to conduct such work because it has escaped many of the smaller-scale anthropogenic environmental insults that occur in other areas. Also, change in the distribution of species that live in the more extreme environments of wilderness might serve as an early warning of the effects from climate change. In short, climate change research is an opportunity to use wilderness as a benchmark...

According to the National Interagency Fire Center, between 1998 and 2008 there were on average 65,581 fires per year and an average of 6,114,135 acres burned each year in the United States. Rangelands in the western United States have been invaded by many annual weed species including cheatgrass, an introduced winter annual grass that produces large quantities of highly flammable fuel and has been one of the major causes of the increase in wildfire in the western United States. It is estimated that over 76 million acres are either infested with or susceptible to cheatgrass invasion...

The objectives of this project are to: examine seeding techniques for Wyoming big sagebrush; test seeding technology for native species, particularly native forbs; compare the ability of a modified rangeland drill and an experimental minimum-till drill to plant native seed species of diverse size and to reduce surface disturbance; apply and examine the use of USGS proposed monitoring protocols for gauging seeding success for both the short and long term; and provide plantings for long-term examination of livestock on diversity in native seedings.

Species of Braggia Gillette and Palmer (Hemiptera: Aphididae: Aphidinae: Aphidini) feed on various buckwheat, Eriogonum Michx. (Polygonaceae), species in western North America. Two new species, Braggia columbiana Pike n. sp. from Washington and Oregon and Braggia longicauda Pike n. sp. from Washington, Oregon, and northern California, are proposed. Descriptions, diagnoses, illustrations, mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 "barcode" sequences, a key to the species of Braggia, and notes on biology, distribution, and parasitoid associations are provided.

NRCS range-planting Conservation Practice standards are used to develop management recommendations for improving vegetation composition an productivity of grazed plant communities. Individual Conservation Practice recommendations are implemented within a Conservation-Management-System in areas where the existing plant-community attributes are insufficient to meet management goals for productivity and species composition, and where natural recovery toward a more desirable State is not expected to occur.

The diversity of uncultured Frankia populations in root nodules of Alnus oblongifolia trees geographically isolated on mountaintops of central Arizona was analyzed by comparative sequence analyses of nifH gene fragments. Sequences were retrieved from Frankia populations in nodules of four trees from each of three mountaintops (n = 162) and their levels of diversity compared using spatial genetic clustering methods and single-nucleotide or 1, 3, or 5% sequence divergence thresholds. With the single-nucleotide threshold level, 45 different sequences with significant differences between the...

There are few taxa more endangered than the Ethiopian Walia ibex. This wild mountain goat inhabits the Simen Mountains of Ethiopia and is known for its enormous backwards curving horns that exceed a meter in length on some males. Historically, hunting and habitat degradation endangered this ibex's persistence. Now this national symbol of Ethiopia is threatened by the small population dynamics of living in a very restricted patch of remaining habitat. In order to develop the best conservation plans and justify current conservation measures it is important to understand if the Walia ibex is...

A changing climate and fire regime shifts in the western United States have led to an increase in revegetation activities, in particular post-wildfire rehabilitation and the need for locally-adapted plant materials. Broadcast seeding is one of the most widely used post-wildfire emergency response treatments to minimize soil erosion, promote plant community recovery, and reduce non-native species invasions. However, these treatments can have negative ecological effects, due in part to the continued use of non-native species, although the use of native species has increased.

Mechanical mastication is increasingly prescribed for wildfire mitigation, yet little is known about the ecological impacts of this fuels treatment. Mastication shreds trees into woodchips as an alternative to tree thinning and burning the resulting slash, which can create soil disturbances that favor exotic plants. Previous research on mastication has not simultaneously considered both the responses of soil organisms and understory plant communities. We compared mastication to slash pile burning (both 6- months and 2.5-years post-treatment) and untreated controls in pinyon-juniper (Pinus...