Treesearch

In 1966 the State Government of Jalisco conducted a review of the state’s forest sector. A new forest agenda resulted from this review, which led to a set of ground breaking actions creating a long term forest development program known as FIPRODEFO (Trust Fund for the Administration of the Forest Development Program of Jalisco). Among the relevant issues, the survey revealed the need to reclaim damaged forest land, strengthen silviculture programs for natural temperate forests, support commercial plantation efforts, update and improve forest industry infrastructure, and improve information...

Snags create nesting, foraging, and roosting habitat for a variety of wildlife species. Removal of snags through postfire salvage logging reduces the densities and size classes of snags remaining after wildfire. We determined important variables associated with annual persistence rates (the probability a snag remains standing from 1 year to the next) of large conifer snags (≥ 23 cm diameter breast height (dbh)). Our study sites were located within two wildfires in western Idaho (Foothills fire of 1992 and Star Gulch fire of 1994). Study sites in the Foothills were partially salvagelogged...

The Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) program is an international environmental science and education program involving scientists, teachers and students in the collection, analysis, and display of data used in environmental monitoring and research. Since its formation in 1994, students have collected over 11 million data points in Atmosphere, Hydrology, Soils, Land Cover/Biology and Phenology investigation areas. At present, over 14,000 schools in 106 countries participate in GLOBE (www.globe.gov). In 2003, GLOBE scientists, K-12 teachers and students,...

A snapshot of current air quality in the National Parks and Wilderness areas of the US is presented based on data from the 165 site Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments, or IMPROVE program, and other relevant air quality monitoring programs. This snapshot is provided using the VIEWS web service, an on-line web-based data warehouse, analysis, and delivery system for visibility and atmospheric aerosols. The relevance of these data to inform development of a proposed new program of Critical Loads and Levels will be discussed.

Following passage of the 1998 National Parks Omnibus Management Act (also known as the Thomas Bill), the National Park Service (NPS) secured funding through the Natural Resource Challenge (NRC) to promote scientifically sound management of parks, increase the scientific community’s involvement in providing needed information, and facilitate education to engage the public as partners in resource preservation. Two NRC programs, the park-based Research Learning Centers (RLCs) and the university-based Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units (CESUs), aim to meet the science needs of parks through...

Assessing the effects of management on streamflow and water quality in forested mountainous environments (FMEs) often involves the use of watershed modeling tools and techniques. Numerous models are available for this purpose, but to be useful to watershed managers a model must: 1) accurately predict management impacts, including cumulative watershed effects, 2) have program software that is readily accessible, preferably on the Internet, 3) be user friendly; 4) be well documented, and 5) be legally defendable in terms of the model's scientific basis, its' assumptions and limitations and...

Snowpack properties vary dramatically over a wide range of spatial scales, from crystal microstructure to regional snow climates. The driving forces of wind, energy balance, and precipitation interact with topography and vegetation to dominate snow depth variability at horizontal scales from 1 to 1000 m. This study uses land surface elevation, vegetation surface elevation, and snow depth data measured using airborne lidar at three sites in north-central Colorado. Fractal dimensions are estimated from the slope of a log-transformed variogram and demonstrate scale-invariant, fractal behavior...

Weather is the short-term variation in temperature, precipitation, humidity, wind and cloudiness. The long-term description of weather patterns is climate. Climate influences forest productivity, water runoff, and plant and animal diversity. Seasonal to inter-annual cli- . mate fluctuations can affect the abundance and quality of water resources, recreation and the demand for energy.

A general framework is presented for examining the effects of channel type and associated hydraulic roughness on salmonid spawning-gravel availability in mountain catchments. Digital elevation models are coupled with grain-size predictions to provide basin-scale assessments of the potential extent and spatial pattern of spawning gravels. To demonstrate both the model and the significance of hydraulic roughness, we present a scenario for optimizing the spatial extent of spawning gravels as a function of channel type in Pacific Northwest catchments. Predictions indicate that hydraulic...

Northern Goshawk (Accipiter gentilis) populations are suspected of declining due to forest management treatments that alter the range of environmental conditions beneficial to their reproduction and survival. To develop effective goshawk conservation strategies, information on intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence goshawk fitness is required. We reviewed the literature for information on factors that commonly limit avian populations, and were, therefore, potentially limiting goshawk populations. We evaluated the relative importance of these factors, and discussed how and at what...