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Social and Behavioral Sciences

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University of Nebraska - Lincoln

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2004

North Dakota

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

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"This Strange White World" Race And Place In Era Bell Thompson's American Daughter, Michael K. Johnson Apr 2004

"This Strange White World" Race And Place In Era Bell Thompson's American Daughter, Michael K. Johnson

Great Plains Quarterly

Aboard a train heading out of Minneapolis toward frontier North Dakota, Era Bell Thompson in her autobiography American Daughter (1946) describes a landscape that grows steadily bleaker with each mile farther west: "Suddenly there was snow-miles and miles of dull, white snow, stretching out to meet the heavy, gray sky; deep banks of snow drifted against wooden snow fences .... All day long we rode through the silent fields of snow, a cold depression spreading over us." Thompson's realistic winter landscape descriptions also allegorically represent the social situation of herself and her family. The phrase "this strange white world," which …


Temporal Effects Of Grazing Regimes On Non-Game Birds In North Dakota Grasslands, Eric D. Salo, Kenneth F. Higgins, William T. Barker, Kristel K. Bakker, Kent C. Jensen Jan 2004

Temporal Effects Of Grazing Regimes On Non-Game Birds In North Dakota Grasslands, Eric D. Salo, Kenneth F. Higgins, William T. Barker, Kristel K. Bakker, Kent C. Jensen

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Grazing occurred naturally in the northern Great Plains and influenced many natural processes in grassland ecosystems, including the habitat selection of breeding birds. Grazing, mainly for livestock production, is still an important land use practice and is one that impacts millions of hectares on both public and private land in the United States. To better understand how long-term grazing treatments affect non-game breeding birds, a study was conducted at the Central Grasslands Research Extension Center (CGREC) in south-central North Dakota during 2001 and 2002 and results were compared to two earlier studies, one in native prairie and the other in …


Grazing Intensity Effects On Vegetation, Livestock And Non-Game Birds In North Dakota Mixed-Grass Prairie, Eric D. Salo, Kenneth F. Higgins, Bob D. Patton, Kristel K. Bakker, William T. Barker, Brian Kreft, Paul E. Nyren Jan 2004

Grazing Intensity Effects On Vegetation, Livestock And Non-Game Birds In North Dakota Mixed-Grass Prairie, Eric D. Salo, Kenneth F. Higgins, Bob D. Patton, Kristel K. Bakker, William T. Barker, Brian Kreft, Paul E. Nyren

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

We conducted studies in native prairie mixed-grass pastures in south~central North Dakota (U.S.A.) during 1989- 2003 to determine how different grazing intensities affected structural characteristics of vegetation, livestock production and the occurrence and density of grassland birds. Generally, as grazing treatment intensity increased from light to extreme, mean vegetation structural values decreased for visual obstruction readings, tallest plants of grasses, forbs, and shrubs, and litter depth. Nineteen species of non-game birds were detected during 2001 and 2002. Overall breeding bird densities were negatively affected by increasing levels of grazing intensity in mixed-grass prairie. Claycolored sparrows (Spizella pallida), grasshopper …


Analyis Of Predator Movement In Prairie Landscapes With Contrasting Grassland Composition, Michael L. Phillips, William R. Clark, Sarah M. Nusser, Marsha A. Sovada, Raymond J. Greenwood Jan 2004

Analyis Of Predator Movement In Prairie Landscapes With Contrasting Grassland Composition, Michael L. Phillips, William R. Clark, Sarah M. Nusser, Marsha A. Sovada, Raymond J. Greenwood

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Mammalian predation influences waterfowl breeding success in the U.S. northern Great Plains, yet little is known about the influence of the landscape on the ability of predators to find waterfowl nests. We used radiotelemetry to record nightly movements of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) in two 41.4-km2 study areas in North Dakota. Study areas contained either 15–20% grassland (low grassland composition) or 45–55% grassland (high grassland composition). Grasslands included planted cover, pastureland, and hayland. We predicted that the type and composition of cover types in the landscape would influence both predator …


Effects Of Distance From Cattle Water Developments On Grassland Birds, Andrea L. Fontaine, Patricia L. Kennedy, Douglas H. Johnson Jan 2004

Effects Of Distance From Cattle Water Developments On Grassland Birds, Andrea L. Fontaine, Patricia L. Kennedy, Douglas H. Johnson

USGS Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center

Many North American grassland bird populations appear to be declining, which may be due to changes in grazing regimes on their breeding areas. Establishment of water developments and confining cattle (Bos taurus L.) to small pastures often minimizes spatial heterogeneity of cattle forage consumption, which may lead to uniformity in vegetative structure. This increased uniformity may provide suitable habitat for some bird species but not others. We assessed how cattle use, vegetative structure, and bird population densities varied with increasing distance from water developments (0-800 m) on the Little Missouri National Grassland (LMNG) in North Dakota. Lark buntings ( …


Could The Area-Sensitivity Of Some Grassland Birds Be Affected By Landscape Composition?, David Joseph Horn, Rolf R. Koford Jan 2004

Could The Area-Sensitivity Of Some Grassland Birds Be Affected By Landscape Composition?, David Joseph Horn, Rolf R. Koford

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Several grassland bird species have been shown to be area sensitive. This area sensitivity occurs when a species' frequency of occurrence, or relative abundance, tends to be lower in smaller fields. The detection of area sensitivity, however, is not consistent among studies because a species may exhibit area sensitivity in one study, but not in another. We tested the hypothesis that a species' area sensitivity varies depending on the amount of grassland in the landscape. The study took place in central North Dakota during the 1996 and 1997 breeding seasons on 46 fields enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). …