Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Historic Downtown Streetscape Plan Price City, Utah, Patricia Beckert

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The idea of a small-town Main Street has profound meaning within the American culture that has prevailed for the past two centuries. Historically, Main Street serves as the beating heart of a community, a place where economic, social, cultural, and civic activities are centered (Francaviglia, 1996; Main Street America, n.d.). Since the beginning of the 19th century, many factors have led to the decline of Main Streets, and despite a variety of efforts from different stakeholders, that decline has only intensified in recent decades (Isenberg, 2008; Orvell, 2014 Howard, 2015). In 1980, after a three-year project conducted by the National …

Soil Health And Remediation For Urban Gardens In Utah, Melissa Chilinski

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Urban environments are at an increased risk of soil contamination and poor soil health due to anthropogenic causes. As healthy farmland is developed, new urban farmers and gardeners are often left growing food on unwanted land with unknown histories of previous use. Varied research and methods for obtaining healthy soils can cause new growers to make decisions that negatively impact soil health and fertility, or on the other hand, conflicting information can cause individuals to become unnecessarily fearful of common soil contaminants and their effect on human health. Common soil contaminants, like trace metals (often referred to as heavy metals) …

Report: Spatial Facilitation-Inhibition Effects On Vegetation Distribution And Their Associated Patterns, Daniel D'Alessio

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Changes in the spatial distribution of vegetation respond to variations in the production and transportation mechanisms of seeds at different locations subject to heterogeneities, often because of soil characteristics. In semi-arid environments, the competition for water and nutrients pushes the superficial plant’s roots to obtain scarce resources at long ranges. In this report, we assume that vegetation biomass interacts with itself in two different ways, facilitation and inhibition, depending on the relative distances. We present a 1-dimensional Integro-difference model to represent and study the emergence of patterns in the distribution of vegetation.

Private Land, Public Trust: Strategic Conservation Planning For Public Wildlife On Private Lands Through The Usfws Partners For Fish And Wildlife Program, Clint Wirick

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Law requires federal agencies to develop long-term strategic plans. Strategic plans define goals, objectives, and performance measures defining how the agencies and programs will reach their stated goals. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife (PFW) develops strategic plans every five years. Each individual state develops a plan for their respective state. Those state plans are compiled for the region and become part of Regional Comprehensive Strategic Plan. The current strategic plan expires in 2021. States will begin the strategic planning process in 2020. In Utah, PFW staff will also begin developing a strategic plan for the …

Modeling Lake Temperature Response To Climate Change In The Alaskan Arctic, Thomas Balkcom

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis study focuses on simulating lake temperature and ice duration for four lakes at the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research site, near the Toolik Field Station in Alaska. Model projections were driven by the representative global climate model outputs under different carbon emission scenarios. Results show that my simple lake model can reproduce historical lake temperature and ice duration observations, indicating the reliability of the model for future projections. Model projections show that JuneSeptember lake temperatures would increase by 4.3-5.8 °C from the historical period with most progressive carbon emission scenarios, but by 0.7-2.2 °C in the conservative scenarios. Results …

Assessing & Protecting Dark Night Skies In El Morro National Monument, Leslie Kobinsky

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Light pollution is causing the disappearance of dark night skies around the world. In the United States alone, 1/3 of people are unable to see the Milky Way where they live (Ramlagan, 2016). National Park Service sites contain some of the darkest skies in the country. Here at El Morro National Monument, these dark skies are a beautiful and healthy benefit to people in the local community and visitors traveling from afar. El Morro’s current park legislation does not include specific measures of protection for the night sky. This capstone project will create a baseline data set of night sky …

Assessing Beaver Dam Dynamics In The Logan-Little Bear Watershed, Connor Penrod

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper seeks to address a knowledge gap concerning how flood events impact beaver dams over time. To address this gap, I took four time-snapshots of beaver dams, mapping them across the Utah portion of the Logan-Little Bear watershed, from 2009 to 2016 to bookend a large flood event in 2011. I assessed dam status (intact, breached, or blown out) for each dam mapped to assess the impact of the large spring runoff on the dam status. Assessing dam status over time allowed me to assess the change in condition over time, from before to several years after, while also …

Towards Conjunctive Management Of Surface Water And Groundwater In The Mediterranean, Matthew Lagod

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

One of the fundamental principles of integrated water resources management is the interconnected nature of water in the hydrological cycle, including the interactions between surface water and groundwater. Although scientists have long recognized these interactions, in many cases they are not reflected in natural resources policies and management practices. As a result, the allocation of water resources by public authorities may not be optimal, and may furthermore lead to long-term degradation of water resources and the ecosystems they sustain. In response to this and to growing pressure on water resources from increasing human populations, water experts have developed a body …

Commuter Rail And The Landscape: Alternative Futures For Planning In Southeastern Box Elder County, C. Michael Gottfredson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This thesis analyzes the impact the FrontRunner commuter-rail service would have on Southeastern Box Elder County, Utah, using both anticipated future and alternative future scenarios created in a geographic information system (GIS). These alternative future scenarios include having the FrontRunner developed at anticipated stops and a transit-oriented development (TOD) scenario. Using techniques and methods developed by scholars in the bioregional planning field, these alternative future scenarios were compared against impact-data models addressing residential land-use suitability and landscape risk.

Outcomes: from this analysis, the TOD alternative future scenario had the least impact on landscape risk impact-data model. The TOD model …

A Framework For Assessing Natural Lands And Finding Common Ground In The Bear River Range, Scott Mccomb

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Forests, wetlands, grasslands, lakes and deserts make up the natural lands that humans and nature rely on. In the Bear River Range, these lands are becoming smaller and more disconnected due to residential and commercial development, agriculture, energy production and transportation corridors. In addition, natural lands are owned and managed by a variety of groups representing different values, priorities and traditions. For large-scale conservation to be successful, it needs to incorporate multiple priorities. The purpose of this study was to provide a process for identifying the remaining network of natural lands within the Bear River Range that indicate high ecological …

The Perception Of Utah Division Of Wildlife Resource’S Law Enforcement By Local, County And Municipal Law Enforcement Agencies, Wyatt Bubak

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Like most states throughout the nation, Utah’s population has continually grown since settlement. In 2014 Utah’s population was estimated at 2.95 million and between 2015-2016 Utah had the highest percentage growth rate of any state in the nation. This profound amount of growth can be attributed to many factors that are unique to Utah; two of which are the aesthetic and recreational opportunities available to Utah residents.

Due to population growth and urban sprawl, areas commonly patrolled by Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) conservation officers are now located closer to urban populations. Previously rural or backcountry areas are seeing …

Supplementation And Community Involvement As Drivers Of Salmon Recovery: Summer Chum Salmon (Oncorhynchus Keta) Populations In Union And Tahuya Rivers, Washington, United States, Seth M. Elsen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Between the 1970s and late 1990s, Summer Chum salmon abundance in the Hood Canal basin declined significantly to the point the population was listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (1999), with multiple subpopulations extirpated. The Hood Canal Salmon Enhancement Group, in partnership with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, developed and implemented a supplementation program to increase spawner abundance in the Union River so that supplementation could eventually take place in the Tahuya River, where Summer Chum had been extirpated. The program, which is only possible with intense volunteer efforts, reduced extinction risks for the Union River …

Seasonal Resource Selection And Habitat Treatment Use By A Fringe Population Of Greater Sage-Grouse, Rhett Boswell

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Movement and habitat selection by Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus uropasianus) is of great interest to wildlife managers tasked with applying conservation measures for this iconic western species. Current technology has created small and lightweight GPS (Global Positioning Systems) transmitters that can be attached to sage-grouse. Using GIS software and statistical programs such as Program R, land managers can analyze GPS location data to assess how sage-grouse are geospatially interacting with their habitats. Within the Panguitch Sage-Grouse Management Area (SGMA) thousands of acres of land have been restored or manipulated to enhance sage-grouse habitat; this usually involves removal of pinyon pine …

Stratigraphy Of The Middle Cambrian Lincoln Peak Formation And Evolution Of The House Range Embayment, Eastern Nevada, Ibrahim Zallum

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This study examined the Middle Cambrian (c. 500 MA) Lincoln Peak Formation and Patterson Pass Shale. The initial goal was to create a stratigraphic model for these units. This model was then compared to those from already studied units in western Utah, which combined with the Nevada units form the rock record of an ancient feature known as the House Range Embayment, which was an area of greater water depth superimposed on the continental shelf. This study found that the Nevada units exhibit a series of depositional sequences similar to those in western Utah, but at a lower resolution. This …

Community Supported Agriculture At Indian Creek Nature Center's Sugar Grove Farm: Sustainable Farming For Iowa, Erin Anzalone

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Agriculture is the largest revenue source for the state of Iowa and the state’s two priority crops are corn and soybeans. Farming practices that emphasize monoculture production of these crops can reduce biological diversity and habitat for all-important pollinators, and exacerbate runoff and erosion that sends nutrient-rich soil, herbicides, and pesticides into streams and rivers. The industrial agriculture model is lucrative now, but unsustainable for Iowa over the long run. Sugar Grove Farm, a subset of Indian Creek Nature Center (ICNC), plans to grow a variety of food crops on a large-scale, economically sustainable farm, and support low-income households in …

Management Of Predators, Prey, And Aviation Safety At Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland: Can Coyotes Help Reduce Deer Strike Hazards?, Robert Lewis

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

In the past 100 years, coyotes (Canis latrans) have expanded their range eastward. During their expansion, coyotes hybridized with gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the north and red wolves (Canis rufus) in the south. Coyotes were historically occupants of the plains, but now may be found in environments as varied as the sagebrush steppe, deserts, swamps, and inner cities. St. Mary’s County, MD, home to Naval Air Station Patuxent River (Pax River), was one of the last counties in the country to be colonized by coyotes. Pax River is a research and development/flight test and evaluation center, and houses numerous …

Inventory, Assessment And Preliminary Management Planning For Utah's Sovereign Land Along The Bear River, Matthew Coombs

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

ABSTRACT

Inventory, Assessment and Preliminary Management Planning for

Utah’s Sovereign Land along the Bear River

by

Matthew S. Coombs

Master of Science in Bioregional Planning

Utah State University, 2017

Major Professor: Richard E. Toth

Department: Environment and Society

The Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands (FFSL) is responsible for the management of state-owned sovereign land in Utah, which includes the bed and banks of the Bear River in Cache and Box Elder Counties. The purpose of this project is to provide relevant background information and data to support the future development of a comprehensive management plan for the …

The Role Of A Beaver In Shaping Stream Channel Complexity And Thermal Heterogeneity In A Central Oregon Stream, Florence Consolati Machen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

North American beaver (Castor canadensis) alter stream channel morphology, hydrologic processes, and instream temperature regimes, yet there are few data driven studies that investigate the effect of beaver on stream channel complexity and stream temperature regimes across multiple spatial and temporal scales. The use of beaver as a restoration tool is a method at the forefront of watershed restoration, however little is known about the implications of this restoration technique, particularly with regard to its ability to alter stream channel complexity and stream temperature. This thesis addresses two knowledge gaps with the following objectives: to quantify the role …

Recovering The Moca River: An Exploration Through Sustainable Strategies For Developing Countries, Marleny Santana Diaz

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Natural watercourses are being negatively affected by growing urbanization in different cities of the world. Within these circumstances the concept of river restoration has gained relevance, becoming a worldwide priority in water management. In developing countries, river restoration plans, conditioned by social and economic limitations, are mainly focused on a single approach, typically relying on short-term, low technology strategies.

In the long term, these strategies tend to fail because they usually avoid integral solutions that address the interconnected factors contributing to river degradation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop a framework of river restoration planning for developing …

Geomorphic Change Detection Using Multi-Beam Sonar, James Hensleigh

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The emergence of multi-beam echo sounders (MBES) as an applicable surveying technology in shallow water environments has expanded the extent of geomorphic change detection studies to include river environments that historically have not been possible to survey or only small portions have been surveyed. The high point densities and accuracy of MBES has the potential to create highly accurate digital elevation models (DEM). However, to properly use MBES data for DEM creation and subsequent analysis, it is essential to quantify and propagate uncertainty in surveyed points and surfaces derived from them through each phase of data collection and processing. Much …

Wildland Firefighter Smoke Exposure Study, George Anthony Broyles

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This report addresses exposure to smoke from wildland and prescribed fires encountered by wildland firefighters. Smoke from vegetation as well as off-gasses from equipment such as chain saws, pumps, and drip torches are accounted for. Section II provides an overview of industrial hygiene science and techniques. Section III is a discussion and literature review of the components in wildland smoke, and section IV identifies the health concerns associated with smoke inhalation and a review of the current literature on exposure to inhalation irritants. Section V covers research that has been done on wildland firefighter smoke exposure. Section VI is an …

Effects Of Flooding And Tamarisk Removal On Habitat For Sensitive Fish Species In The San Rafael River, Utah: Implications For Furture Restoration Efforts, Daniel Louis Keller

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Part I of this report is focused on assessment of habitat changes on the San Rafael River after the abnormally high water year in 2011. Having habitat data and aerial imagery collected in 2010 (pre-flood) provided an opportunity to assess how a flood of this magnitude changed river habitat. In 2011 we commissioned a second aerial flight of the San Rafael River to serve as post flood imagery, then used Geographic Information Systems (GIS, ArcMap 10) to analyze river changes due to tamarisk removal and flooding. Our tamarisk removal project appears to have increased the potential for spring floods to …

A Pre-Paving Baseline Inventory Of Vehicle-Related Mortality On Mule Deer Along, Seep Ridge Road, Book Cliffs, Utah, D. Alex Hansen

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Part I:

The Seep Ridge road is the major route used to access the Book Cliffs from Uintah County. For many years the County has expressed interest in paving the road in order to improve access to this remote portion of the County. In 2011 Uintah County received Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approval for the project and began construction on the road. There have been many concerns expressed concerning the Seep Ridge Road paving project, including impacts to mule deer. The Utah Division of Wildlife, sportsmen and conservation groups are concerned that upgrading the road may lead to a …

Software For Analyzing Municipal Water Data To Design Water Conservation Strategies, Adrian Patton Welsh

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Planning for drought and growth-induced water scarcity is a challenge confronting municipal water departments. When water shortages occur, demand management policies and programs are often implemented to encourage water conservation. Due to the nature of water resources and municipal water delivery systems, cities are concerned about meeting citizens’ water needs. A city can review water billing records to see how much water people use, but how do they know how much water people need? Standards and guidelines have been established for indoor water use (gallons/person/day), but the amount of water needed to irrigate outdoor landscapes is more variable, highly contextualized, …

Do Fee-Access Hunting Programs Conserve Wildlife Habitat? A Case Study Of Utah's Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit Program, Adam L. Perschon

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Landscapes in the American West are undergoing dramatic changes as land-use patterns shift to accommodate the region’s explosive population growth. Trends toward low-density settlement patterns, or exurban development, compound the problem by consuming a disproportionately large amount of land compared to the population they support. The result is the rapid conversion of the West’s most highly productive agricultural and range lands, many of which provide benefits to biodiversity that surpass those found in permanently protected areas. Ruralists, ranchers, and conservationists alike are seeking ways to protect these ecologically important private lands from future development. One method purported to mitigate rural …

Great Salt Lake Watershed: Its Role In Maintaining The Wetlands Of The Great Salt Lake, Danny C. White Jr.

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The following bioregional planning study is a direct result of the 2009- 2010 studio project initiated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The FWS contacted the study team and asked them to determine how the future growth and development of the Bear River Watershed would impact the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge (BRMBR). The study looked at all of the physical and biophysical systems within the Bear River Watershed to identify the issues that had an effect on the BRMBR.

It became apparent from the original project that the future of the BRMBR and other Great Salt …

The 3 Creeks Grazing Allotment: A Study Of Livestock Grazing Management Across Public And Privately Owned Land, Taylor M. Payne

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Livestock ranching is the most common use of public rangeland in the western United States (Gates, personal communication). The newly formed 3 Creeks Grazing Allotment which consists of 136,000 acres and has 29 permittees serves as an example of scientifically based public land management using grazing livestock as a management tool. It is believed that livestock grazing is the most underutilized tool in natural resource management (Hopkin, personal communication). The newly formed allotment will consolidate nine separate allotments into one management unit. This unit is holistically developed to sustain grazing livestock and rural economies while benefitting the range resources including …

Alternative Futures For The Upper Colorado River Ecosystem: Phase Ii, Temis G. Taylor

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Wildlife habitat and biodiversity in the Upper Colorado River Ecosystem are threatened by growth of urban areas, subdivision of rural lands, and exploitation of natural resources. The White-Yampa, Colorado Headwaters, and Gunnison River Watersheds within the region were investigated to discover areas supporting high biodiversity that would be possible candidates for conservation efforts by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Using an alternative futures planning process and principles of landscape ecology, development of energy of the resources in the region was found to be the primary driver for land use and impacts to wildlife habitat. Through application of geospatial modeling …

The Pliocene/Pleistocene Evolution Of The Western Snake River Plain Near Grand View Idaho, Meagan R. Deraps

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Western Snake River Plain provides us with a unique opportunity to study the evolution of basaltic volcanism. In addition to studying the horizontal variation at the surface of the plain, erosion by the Snake River also allows the study of the vertical variation. With the aid of a USGS EDMAP grant we mapped the Dorsey Butte quadrangle and southern half of the Little Joe Butte quadrangle at a scale of 1 :24,000. The quadrangles are located within both the Ada and Elmore counties of southwestern Idaho, approximately 30 km west of Mountain Home and 2 km north of Grand …

A Natural Channel Design To Restore The Greenwater River, Washington, Gregory J. Laurie

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Channelization of the Greenwater River has resulted in a loss of habitat for Chinook salmon, a species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In order to restore habitat for fish and other aquatic organisms, a design was developed to restore meanders to the original floodplain. The channel design process began at the watershed scale, and progressed down to the scale of the stream channel. A twelve-step design process was followed that considered the influence of watershed disturbances on channel forming processes. Trends in sediment yield were assessed using an existing landslide inventory, and changes in channel pattern were …