Digital Commons Network^™

Boundaries And Bridges In Rangeland Social-Ecological Systems: Studies Of Collaboration, Innovation, And Information Flow, Gwendŵr R. Meredith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Public rangelands are managed by a mixture of federal, state, and local governments. Often, these groups are charged with managing adjacent lands that are part of the same greater landscape. To do this effectively, communication and collaboration is required. This dissertation examines federal, state, and local agencies’ level of communication through three projects.

The first project examined barriers to agencies adopting management tools from each other. I found that individuals within agencies were mainly staying within their own agency when seeking advice, so individuals were not communicating about tools or their findings across agencies. Furthermore, agency policies and fear of …

Recreation Resource Impacts In The Bear Lake Road Corridor Of Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, Usa: An Assessment Of Resource Conditions And Visitor Perceptions, Ashley L. D'Antonio

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Visitor use in parks and protected areas inevitably leads to resource impacts. In order to effectively manage for resource impacts, it is important for managers to not only understand ecological aspects of their system but sociological aspects as well. The two papers presented in this thesis used integrated approaches to better understand the current level of resource impacts within the Bear Lake Road Corridor of Rocky Mountain National Park and to explore visitor perceptions of these impacts. The first paper used traditional monitoring and assessment techniques, as well as recently developed methodologies, to determine the current level of resource impacts …

Proceedings Of The Fourth Western Black Bear Workshop, United States Department Of The Interior, National Park Service

Wildlife Conservation and Management

The status of black bears in North America ranges from pest to threatened. The species appears relatively secure throughout most parts of its range except the southeastern coastal plain; in this region a number of disjunct populations exist on primarily publicly owned lands. Concern over the status of Ursus americanus luteolus led to a petition to list this subspecies under the Endangered Species Act. The Endangered Species Act is arguably the most important wildlife legislation in recent years. However, applying this valuable, but young, untested, and evolving legislation to the black bear subspecies is judged unwarranted and premature because of …