Treesearch

The Multi-species Baseline Initiative (MBI) is a collaborative of organizations which is conducting a comprehensive inventory for fisher (Martes pennanti) and other wildlife species across the Idaho Panhandle and adjacent mountain ranges. From 2010-2012, MBI partners established 112 forest carnivore bait stations to collect photographs and DNA from 22 wildlife species including fisher in the Purcell, Selkirk, and West Cabinet Mountains. We detected fisher at one bait station in the Selkirks and 32 bait stations in the West Cabinets. We did not detect fisher in the Purcells. We used...

Many species at high trophic levels are predicted to be impacted by shifts in habitat associated with climate change. While temperate coniferous forests are predicted to be one of the least affected ecosystems, the impact of shifting habitat on terrestrial carnivores that live within these ecosystems may depend on the dispersal rates of the species and the patchiness of the environment. Much of the Northern U.S. Rocky Mountains is comprised of high to moderate elevation mountain ranges separated by large river valleys, extensively used for agriculture. Connectivity among patches is...

Ecological systems often exhibit resilient states that are maintained through negative feedbacks. In ponderosa pine forests, fire historically represented the negative feedback mechanism that maintained ecosystem resilience; fire exclusion reduced that resilience, predisposing the transition to an alternative ecosystem state upon reintroduction of fire. We evaluated the effects of reintroduced frequent wildfire in unlogged, fire-excluded, ponderosa pine forest in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana, USA. Initial reintroduction of fire in 2003 reduced tree density and consumed surface...

Numerous scholars have argued that the terms environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy have been used in so many different ways and/or are so all-encompassing that they have very little useful meaning. However, despite the seemingly arbitrary and, at times, indiscriminate use of these terms, tremendous efforts have in fact been made to explicitly define and delineate the essential components of environmental literacy, ecological literacy, and ecoliteracy, and to firmly anchor their characterizations in deep theoretical and philosophical foundations. A driving purpose...

Recreation ecology - the study of the environmental consequences of outdoor recreation/nature-based tourism activities and their effective management - is an emerging field of global importance. A primary research generalization in this field, the use-impact relationship, is commonly described as curvilinear, with proportionally more impact from initial recreation/tourism use. This finding has formed the basis of visitor management strategies in parks, wilderness, and protected areas in many parts of the world. In this paper, however, we argue that the current generalization may be an...

American Indian tribes value pristine water sources that often originate in wilderness areas to support provisioning and cultural benefits. Based on interviews with four traditional leaders, this article focuses on the concept of living waters in ways that connect ecosystem service benefits to wilderness. Cultural knowledge connects indigenous water stewardship and protection of living waters throughout watersheds as threats increase due to climate change and development.

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northern Minnesota has a rich history of advocacy for protection as wilderness. In the 1950s, Sigurd Olsen best described the song of the wilderness in Minnesota's north country: "I have heard the singing in many places, but I seem to hear it best in the wilderness lake country of the Quetico-Superior, where travel is still by pack and canoe over the ancient trails of the Indians and the voyageurs" (Olson 1956, p. 6).

Studies have suggested that deep snow may limit fisher (Martes pennanti) distribution, and that fisher populations may in turn limit marten (Martes americana) distribution. We tested these hypotheses in the Northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho, a region which differs from previous study areas in its climate and relative fisher and marten abundance, but in which very little is known about their distributions. We hypothesized that due to the assumed disparity in abundance between the sympatric members of the Martes genus (i.e., much greater marten abundance than fisher) fishers would not limit...

The assumption that individual preferences are rational and consistent with standard economic theory is often appropriate, but may be optimistic if consumers are uncertain about either their preferences or how the market operates. Both sources of uncertainty may present themselves in lab experiments exploring the well-known disparity between individuals' willingness to accept and willingness to pay. This paper explores the role of value uncertainty in the observed disparity, and finds that providing subjects with a value learning opportunity can reduce the value disparity to insignificance.

Paired comparison (PC) choice experiments offer researchers and policy-makers an alternative nonmarket valuation method particularly apt when a ranking of the public's priorities across policy alternatives is paramount. Similar to contingent valuation, PC choice experiments estimate the total value associated with a specific environmental good or service. Similar to choice experiments, the questions posed to respondents are choices between alternatives. In contrast to both methods, respondents in PC choice experiments make choices between pairs of dissimilar alternatives including private...