Treesearch

Background - Modern land management faces unprecedented uncertainty regarding future climates, novel disturbance regimes, and unanticipated ecological feedbacks. Mitigating this uncertainty requires a cohesive landscape management strategy that utilizes multiple methods to optimize benefits while hedging risks amidst uncertain futures. We used a process-based landscape simulation model (LANDIS-II) to forecast forest management, growth, climate effects, and future wildfire dynamics, and we distilled results using a decision support tool allowing us to examine tradeoffs between alternative...

Natural resource agencies are frequently tasked with monitoring populations of at-risk species to ensure management activities do not negatively affect the viability of wildlife populations. Typically, these monitoring efforts evaluate trends in a population’s abundance, occupancy, or geographic distribution. Often, surveys provide local information, but results are generally not incorporated into broad-scale monitoring efforts that focus on range-wide population changes due to their variable nature in both spatial extent and effort. We investigated whether aggregating these local (hereafte...

The Tricolored Bat (Perimyotis subflavus) has suffered significant population declines in much of its geographic range due to white-nose syndrome (WNS). Our aim was to describe the torpor patterns of tricolored bats within the southeastern United States to further our understanding of their winter ecology and potential susceptibility to WNS in currently unimpacted areas based on data from bats in both a WNS-affected hibernaculum and an unaffected hibernaculum. We placed temperature-sensitive radio transmitters on tricolored bats in a site in northwestern South Carolina that was WNS-positive...

We present a mixed integer programming model for prioritizing fuel treatments within a landscape fuel break network to maximize protection against wildfires, measured by the total fire size reduction or the sum of Wildland Urban Interface areas avoided from burning. This model uses a large dataset of simulated wildfires in a large landscape to inform fuel break treatment decisions. Its mathematical formulation is concise and computationally efficient, allowing for customization and expansion to address more complex and challenging fuel break management problems in diverse landscapes. We...

To address impacts of climate change and other stressors on stream ecosystems, managers must prioritize resources and locations for conservation actions to facilitate effective cross-boundary solutions. Through a science management partnership, we co-produced a spatially explicit landscape assessment framework for cold-water fish habitat and riparian corridors in three large watersheds of the southwestern United States. Using literature review and stakeholder workshops, we developed indicators of vulnerability and built spatial datasets depicting areas of low to high vulnerability based on...

This study explores wildfire risk and preparedness among mobile home park residents in Leadville, Colorado - a town of 2,633 residents within the wildland-urban interface (WUI) of Lake County, Colorado, a region at increasingly high risk for wildfire. Residents in mobile home parks are socially vulnerable to disasters and their manufactured homes are highly susceptible to fire. Although mobile home parks are a critical form of affordable housing, their wildfire risk and their residents’ preparedness for wildfires are understudied. This multi-methods project - conducted in partnership with...

Spreading fleabane is widely distributed throughout the western United States and northwestern Mexico (Nesom 2015) and is most widespread in the interior West (Cronquist et al. 1994). Populations occur in British Columbia and Alberta south through all states west of North Dakota and Texas. In Mexico, populations occur in Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Sonora, and likely in the more southern states (Nesom 2006). In the United States, distribution is limited at the eastern edge of its range with populations occurring only in the western parts of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas,...

Green social prescriptions (GSPs) are interventions designed to combat sedentary behavior and preventable diseases by leveraging the benefits of nature-based physical activity. As these programs are still evolving, there is limited data regarding the likelihood of participation from an international perspective. This study examined factors influencing participation likelihood in GSPs across various geographic contexts, levels of greenness, nature-relatedness, well-being, and socio-demographic variables. We conducted an online, cross-sectional survey with 2,467 participants from Australia,...

White-nose syndrome (WNS) has caused dramatic population declines in several bat species, including the Tricolored Bat (Perimyotis subflavus). Several studies have documented bats using colder roosting temperatures after infection; however, this strategy may have costs such as increased freezing risks or greater predation risks and it is unknown when during hibernation bats begin to utilize these colder temperatures. Our aim was to examine Tricolored Bat roost locations in a WNS-positive site in relation to roost microclimate and other environmental conditions throughout the hibernation...

The Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) occurs in Texas as a rare resident in the Guadalupe and Davis Mountains of the Trans-Pecos ecoregion. Otherwise it occurs only as an irruptive visitor primarily during the fall, winter and spring months in the northern two-thirds of the state. Researchers have identified eleven distinctive Red Crossbill forms in North America based on the structure of their flight calls. Each of these “call types” occupies a core range in North America. Red Crossbills depend on various conifer seeds as a primary food source, and during years of poor seed production can...