Treesearch

Functional connectivity, quantified using landscape genetics, can inform conservation through the identification of factors linking genetic structure to landscape mechanisms. We used breeding habitat metrics, landscape attributes and indices of grouse abundance, to compare fit between structural connectivity and genetic differentiation within five long‐established Sage Grouse Management Zones (MZ) I‐V using microsatellite genotypes from 6,844 Greater Sage‐Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) collected across their 10.7 million‐km2 range. We estimated structural connectivity using a circuit...

Flow and sediment transport dynamics in fluvial systems play critical roles in shaping river morphology, in the design and use of riverine infrastructure, and in the broader management of watersheds. However, these properties are often difficult to measure comprehensively. Previous work has suggested the use of proximal seismic signals resulting from flow and bed load transport to construct more complete records of these fluvial processes. We investigate a small (184 km2; < 20 m3/s), snowmelt-fed mountain river in the Northern Colorado Rocky Mountains during May-August 2015 to capture peak...

Heating from wildfires adds buoyancy to the overlying air, often producing plumes that vertically distribute fire emissions throughout the atmospheric column over the fire. The height of the rising wildfire plume is a complex function of the size of the wildfire, fire heat flux, plume geometry, and atmospheric conditions, which can make simulating plume rises difficult with coarser-scale atmospheric models. To determine the altitude of fire emission injection, several plume rise parameterizations have been developed in an effort estimate the height of the wildfire plume rise. Previous work...

Wood Turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) have experienced population declines across their North American range and are state-listed as threatened in Minnesota, USA. To improve our understanding of the current conservation status of one population in northeastern Minnesota, we: (1) performed a snapshot comparison of population structure and relative abundance in 1990 and 2015 using survey data at 12 sites; (2) estimated the population growth rate (λ) from 1997–2014 based on population monitoring data at six sites; (3) estimated change in abundance between 2016 and 2017 based on population...

Land cover classification provides valuable information for prioritizing management and conservation operations across large landscapes. Current regional scale land cover geospatial products within the United States have a spatial resolution that is too coarse to provide the necessary information for operations at the local and project scales. This paper describes a methodology that uses recent advances in spatial analysis software to create a land cover classification over a large region in the southeastern United States at a fine (1 m) spatial resolution. This methodology used image...

In response to large, severe wildfires in historically fire-adapted forests in the western US, policy initiatives, such as the USDA Forest Service’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP), seek to increase the pace and scale of ecological restoration. One required component of this program is collaborative adaptive management, in which monitoring data are used to iteratively evaluate and improve future management actions. Here, we assess the success of seven CFLRP treatments, implemented on 2,300 ha during the first three years of the Colorado Front Range Landscape...

In 2044 the United States is expected to be a majority-minority nation. Promoting participation in outdoor recreation among racial and ethnic minority populations has long been a challenge facing the contemporary recreation manager. In this article, we compare data from the US Forest Service National Visitor Use Monitoring program from 2010-2014 to US Census data from 2010 in order to examine whether there is disproportionate utilization of recreation resources on US Forest Service lands across the entire US Forest Service system. Our findings suggest an inequity gap wherein racial...

The 3 spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) subspecies in North America (i.e., northern spotted owl [S. o. caurina], California spotted owl [S. o. occidentalis], Mexican spotted owl [S. o. lucida]) have all experienced population declines over the past century due to habitat loss and fragmentation from logging. Now, the emerging influences of climate change, high-severity fire, and barred owl (Strix varia) invasion also appear to be synergistically and differentially affecting population trends of each subspecies. Our objective was to review the existing literature on the spotted owl to...

We replaced a control peat medium with up to 75% biochar on a volumetric basis in three different forms (powder, BC; pyrolyzed softwood pellets, PP; composite wood-biochar pellets, WP), and under two supplies of nitrogen fertilizer (20 or 80 mg N) subsequently grew seedlings with a comparable morphology to the control. Using gravimetric methods to determine irrigation frequency and exponential fertilization to ensure all treatments received the same amount of N at a given point in the growing cycle, we successfully replaced peat with 25% BC and up to 50% PP. Increasing the proportion of...

Biochar has emerged as a promising potential amendment of soilless nursery media for plant propagation. With this greenhouse study we used biochar to displace standard soilless nursery media at 4 rates (0, 15, 30, and 45% [v:v]) and then examined media chemistry, irrigation frequency, and the growth of 4 northern Rocky Mountain native plant species: Clarkia pulchella Pursh (Onagraceae), Festuca idahoensis Elmer (Poaceae), Gaillardia aristata Pursh (Asteraceae), and Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson (Pinaceae). For all 4 species, media electrical conductivity (EC) showed little variation...