Treesearch

Conventional water quality standards have been successful in reducing the concentration of toxic substances in US waters. However, conventional standards are based on simple thresholds and are therefore poorly structured to address human-caused imbalances in dynamic, natural water quality parameters, such as nutrients, sediment, and temperature. A more applicable type of water quality standard-a "regime standard"- would describe desirable distributions of conditions over space and time within a stream network. By mandating the protection and restoration of the aquatic ecosystem dynamics...

Portable bedload traps (0.3 by 0.2 m opening) were developed for sampling coarse bedload transport in mountain gravel-bed rivers during wadable high flows. The 0.9 m long trailing net can capture about 20 kg of gravel and cobbles. Traps are positioned on ground plates anchored in the streambed to minimize disturbance of the streambed during sampling. This design permits sampling times of up to 1 h, overcoming short-term temporal variability issues. Bedload traps were tested in two streams and appear to collect representative samples of gravel bedload transport. Bedload rating and flow...

Throughout the United States there is interest in utilizing renewable fuel sources as an alternative to coal and nat-ural gas. This project was initiated to determine the availability of wood wastes and residues for use as fuel in ce-ment kilns and power plants located along the Colorado Front Range. Research was conducted through literature searches, phone surveys, personal communications, and public meetings to determine the types of wood wastes and residues generated. Four main sources were identified: municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris, primary and secondary wood...

Wildlife habitat modeling is increasingly important for managers who need to assess the effects of land management activities. We evaluated the performance of a spatially explicit deterministic habitat model (Arc-Habcap) that predicts habitat effectiveness for elk. We used five years of radio-telemetry locations of elk from Custer State Park (CSP), South Dakota, to test predicted habitat effectiveness by the model. Arc-Habcap forage and coverforage proximity components predicted elk distribution in CSP. However, the cover component failed to predict elk distribution in CSP. Habitat...

Markets and prices for logs vary widely across the West, fluctuating from place to place in response to regional variables and hauling costs. This fact sheet discusses those variables, locality of log markets, markets for low-value logs, and caveats to consider when using My Fuel Treatment Planner.Other publications in this series

These voices from the wilderness were compiled to illustrate some of the values of wilderness in Alaska. Wilderness visitors, non-native Alaska residents, and rural, native people can all have different perceptions of wilderness character, define wilderness differently, go to wilderness for different reasons, see different things when they are there, perceive wildness differently, and attach different importance to feelings of fear while in the wilderness, but they all find challenge in getting there, value wildlife as part of the wilderness, identify strongly with wilderness places, and...

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is the law that requires Federal agencies to consider the environmental impacts of their actions, involve the public in the decisionmaking process, and disclose information, starting at the initial stages of planning. This fact sheet discusses when you should consider economics in the NEPA process, when to do an analysis, whether or not to use an economist to conduct the analysis, and other statutes, such as the Clean Air Act, you should be aware of.Other publications in this series

The Interior West Forest Inventory and Analysis (IWFIA) program of the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, as part of its national Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) duties, conducted forest resource inventories of the Southwestern Region (Region 3) National Forests. This report presents highlights of the Tonto National Forest 1996 inventory including population estimates and summaries of commonly requested variables. Any trends or disturbances (such as fire) that have occurred after 1996 will be discussed in future reports of the Tonto National Forest.

The USFS Remote Sensing Applications Center (RSAC) and the USGS EROS Data Center (EDC) produce Burned Area Reflectance Classification (BARC) maps for use by Burned Area Emergency Rehabilitation (BAER) teams in rapid response to wildfires. BAER teams desire maps indicative of soil burn severity, but photosynthetic and nonphotosynthetic vegetation also influences the spectral properties of post-fire imagery. Our objective was to assess burn severity both remotely and on the ground at six 2003 wildfires. We analyzed fire-effects data from 34 field sites located across the full range of burn...

Nesting bald eagles habitat on Forest Service, need to balance habitat and recreational needs.