Treesearch

Cultural Resource Specialists function as interpreters of past and present human behavior through the analysis of cultural/natural resources vital to human ecological sustainability. When developing short and long-term preservation strategies for cultural resources, it is more current and innovative for Cultural Resource Specialists to think of past human populations as occupiers of broad ranges of landscapes and not limit our interpretive spheres of preservation and conservation to site-specific locales only. Cutting edge Cultural Resource Specialists are expanding their knowledge through...

Migration stopover resources, particularly riparian habitats, are critically important to landbirds migrating across the arid southwestern region of North America. To explore the effects of species biogeography and habitat affinity on spring migration patterns, we synthesized existing bird abundance and capture data collected in riparian habitats of the borderlands region of the U.S. and Mexico. We determined the importance of geographic factors (longitude and latitude) in explaining variation in abundances and capture rates of 32 long-distance and three short-distance migrant species....

Some fires can be beneficial to soils but, if a fire is sufficiently intense, soil can be irreversible altered. We measured soil temperatures and heat fluxes at several soil depths before, during, and after a controlled surface burn at Manitou Experimental Forest (southern Colorado, USA) to evaluate its effects on the soil's thermophysical properties (thermal conductivity and volumetric specific heat capacity). During the burn the soil was heated to over 400°C at a depth of 0.02 m and to almost 100°C at 0.30 m. Relatively high temperatures persisted for several hours to days even over 1 m...

Range, wildlife, watershed, and recreation research in the Intermountain region is a relatively young science. Most early research was initiated to rectify problems resulting from overgrazing that resulted in a deterioration of range and watershed resources. Thus, restoration measures were closely aligned to range and watershed disciplines.

The rangeland in the Intermountain West urgently required a scientific basis for its management, especially after the great mid-1800's livestock buildup, and then the plant die-off following the severe winters and droughts of the late 1800's (Stoddart and others 1975). After examining the Western ranges, Jared G. Smith (1895), an agrostologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wrote that the perennial species were being overgrazed and were disappearing and were being replaced by weedy annuals. He maintained that no more livestock should be put on an area than could safely be carried...

Fire, other disturbances, physical setting, weather, and climate shape the structure and function of forests throughout the Western United States. More than 80 years of fire research have shown that physical setting, fuels, and weather combine to determine wildfire intensity (the rate at which it consumes fuel) and severity (the effect fire has on vegetation, soils, buildings, watersheds, and so forth). As a result of fire exclusion, timber harvesting, and livestock grazing, millions of acres of forestlands (mainly in dry forests dominated by ponderosa pine and/or Douglas-fir) contain a...

Efficiency of harvest, overstory regrowth, and regeneration establishment are compared among 12 even- and uneven-aged regeneration cuttings installed in 1984 in subalpine Engelmann spruce and lodgepole pine forests on the Fraser Experimental Forest in central Colorado. Individual tree selection and overstory removal prescriptions were much less efficient to log than two- or three-step shelterwood cuts, clearcuts, or group selection cuts. Considerable overstory growth has occurred in all treatments, but most noticeably in the spruce-fir shelterwood and lodgepole pine uneven-aged treatments....

The National Forest Management Act of 1976 mandates that a site’s productive capacity must be protected on federally managed lands. Monitoring the effects of management on a site’s productive capacity is not easy, and in 1989 a national program of Long-Term Soil Productivity (LTSP) research was established to assist National Forests toward this end. The LTSP program focuses on disturbances associated with timber harvest, but findings apply to any activities altering vegetation or soil. LTSP centers on core experiments that manipulate site organic matter, soil porosity, and the complexity...

This work, in three volumes, provides background on philosophy, processes, plant materials selection, site preparation, and seed and seeding equipment for revegetating disturbed rangelands, emphasizing use of native species. The 29 chapters include guidelines for planning, conducting, and managing, and contain a compilation of rangeland revegetation research conducted over the last several decades to aid practitioners in reestablishing healthy communities and curbing the spread of invasive species. Volume 1 contains the first 17 chapters plus the index.

This work, in three volumes, provides background on philosophy, processes, plant materials selection, site preparation, and seed and seeding equipment for revegetating disturbed rangelands, emphasizing use of native species. The 29 chapters include guidelines for planning, conducting, and managing, and contain a compilation of rangeland revegetation research conducted over the last several decades to aid practitioners in reestablishing healthy communities and curbing the spread of invasive species. Volume 2 contains chapters 18-23 plus the index.