Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Effect Of Consumerism And Regulation On Household Solid Waste Management In The United States And Germany: A Comparative Study, Amir Vafa

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Private household recycling is a significant aspect of consumerism in economically developed countries and the inevitable question of household waste management has gained more importance among municipalities in recent years. The present study examined the effect of regulation on household solid waste management. Within a comparative, qualitative framework, the study explored and evaluated the pro-regulatory effects in Germany and the anti-regulatory policies in the United States by means of comparing two similar communities, Lincoln, Nebraska and Augsburg, Germany. By examining the present legislations, official documents, legal and operational procedures, and other relevant artifacts, laws, regulations and the degree of their …

Droughtscape- Fall 2009, Kelly Smith

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

Drought Monitor Forum to be in Austin, Oct. 7-8

El Niño Likely to Bring More Needed Precipitation

NDMC Welcomes Visiting Chinese Scientist

TX, CA Feeling Worst of Impacts

Grant to Bring Climate Change Ed to Teachers

Speaking of Drought ...

NDMC Takes Message Across Nebraska and World

Droughtscape- Summer 2009, Kelly Smith

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

U.S. Drought Monitor Forum, 2009

El Niño Could Bring Wet Winter After Hot Summer

Around the World

Agriculture Hit Hard in California, Texas

Predictable Patterns in Missouri River Basin?

Seeking Low-Flow Effects in Colorado, Southeast

VegDRI Began Coast-to-Coast Coverage in May

Nebraska Wind Power: A Comparitive Study Of Knowledge And Attitudes, Cameron Helgren

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Abstract The goal of this project is to assess the knowledge and attitudes of Nebraskans on the issue of wind power. The point of this research is to learn whether the presence of wind power has a positive effect on a person’s knowledge about and attitudes toward wind power and wind turbines. Using mail surveys, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from the towns of Pierce and Ainsworth Nebraska. The surveys aided in seeing patterns of knowledge about wind power and wind turbines and positive and negative attitudes and major concerns regarding wind power.

Applications And Potentials For Biogenic Methane Recovery Operations In Nebraska Agriculture, Industry, And Economic Development, David Micheal Dingman

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

ABSTRACT: This thesis report illustrates the applications and potentials of biogenic methane recovery in Nebraska’s agricultural and industrial sectors and as a means for increasing sustainable economic development in the state’s rural communities. As the nation moves toward a new green economy, biogenic methane recovery as a waste management strategy and renewable energy resource presents significant opportunities for Nebraska to be a national and world leader in agricultural and industrial innovation, advanced research and development of renewable energy technology, and generation of new product markets. Nebraska’s agricultural economy provides a distinct advantage to the state for supporting methane recovery operations …

Droughtscape- Spring 2009, Kelly Smith

Droughtscape, Quarterly Newsletter of NDMC, 2007-

U.S. Drought Monitor Publishes Map 500!

Weakening La Niña May Mean Relief for Texas

Upcoming Workshops

Drought Impacts Worst in California, Texas

CoCoRaHS to Request Drought Impact Data, Too

NDMC Adds Researcher

K-12 Students Learn About Drought

A System For Estimating Bowen Ratio And Evaporation From Waste Lagoons, Arturo I. Quintanar, Rezaul Mahmood, John H. Loughrin, Nanh Lovanh, Monica V. Motley

HPRCC Personnel Publications

A low‐cost system was deployed above a swine waste lagoon to obtain estimates of Bowen ratios and characterize lagoon temperatures. The system consisted of humidity and temperature sensors and anemometers deployed above the lagoon, water temperature sensors, and a meteorological station located by the lagoon. To evaluate the system, data was analyzed from the 25th through 28th June 2007. Bowen ratios showed diurnal behavior near the lagoon surface characterized by negative values during day and positive ones at night. Latent (evaporation) and sensible heat fluxes were towards the atmosphere and the lagoon, respectively for most of the day. A diurnal …

A Comprehensive Guide To Fuel Management Practices For Dry Mixed Conifer Forests In The Northwestern United States, Theresa B. Jain, Michael Battaglia, Han-Sup Han, Russell T. Graham, Jeremy S. Fried, Christopher R. Keyes, Jonathan Sandquist

JFSP Research Project Reports

This guide describes the benefits, opportunities, and trade-offs concerning fuel treatments in the dry mixed conifer forests of northern California and the Klamath Mountains, Pacific Northwest Interior, northern and central Rocky Mountains, and Utah. Multiple interacting disturbances and diverse physical settings have created a forest mosaic with historically low- to mixed-severity fire regimes. Analysis of forest inventory data found nearly 80 percent of these forests rate hazardous by at least one measure and 20 to 30 percent rate hazardous by multiple measures. Modeled mechanical treatments designed to mimic what is typically implemented, such as thinning, are effective on less than …

A Comparison Of Fire Severity Patterns In The Late 19th And Early 21st Century In A Mixed Conifer Forest Landscape In The Southern Cascades, Alan H. Taylor, Carl N. Skinner, Becky Estes

JFSP Research Project Reports

The extent and severity of fires in the United States during the last decade has been remarkable. Since 2002, there has been seven years (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012) when over 2.8 million ha have burned, more than twice the previous decade. The extent of recent fire activity has increased risks to lives and property (Cohen 2008; , biodiversity and species-at-risk (Spies et al. 2006), the timber value of forests (Butry et al. 2001) and forests as a carbon sink (Hurteau et al. 2008, 2011). Although one driver of the increase in fire extent, at least in western …

Validation Of Smoke Transport Models With Airborne And Lidar Experiments, Shawn P. Urbanski, Wei Min Hao, Vladimir Kovalev

JFSP Research Project Reports

This document reports our success in achieving the objectives and accomplishing the deliverables proposed in the project “Validation of Smoke Transport Models with Airborne and Lidar Experiments”. This final report is divided into four sections. Section 1, the Background, describes the purpose of the project and summarizes the project objectives and how accomplishment of these objectives addresses the original research solicitation JFSP AFP-2008-1, Task 6. The Background section also provides relates the project purpose material on smoke dispersion and air quality forecasting systems. The goal of Section 2 is to illustrate how the accomplished tasks contribute towards the project objective …

A Synthesis Of Post-Fire Road Treatments For Baer Teams: Methods, Treatment Effectiveness, And Decisionmaking Tools For Rehabilitation, Randy B. Foltz, Peter R. Robiochaud, Hakjun Rhee

JFSP Research Project Reports

We synthesized post-fire road treatment information to assist BAER specialists in making road rehabilitation decisions. We developed a questionnaire; conducted 30 interviews of BAER team engineers and hydrologists; acquired and analyzed gray literature and other relevant publications; and reviewed road rehabilitation procedures and analysis tools. Post-fire road treatments are implemented if the values at risk warrant the treatment and based on regional characteristics, including the timing of first damaging storm and window of implementation. Post-fire peak flow estimation is important when selecting road treatments. Interview results indicate that USGS methods are used for larger watersheds (>5 mi2) and NRCS …

Delivery And Demonstration Of Surface Wind Simulation Tool For Fire Management Decision Support, Mark Finney, Larry Bradshaw, Bret Butler

JFSP Research Project Reports

One major source of uncertainty in fire behavior predictions is the spatial variation in winds blowing over mountainous terrain. Fire managers have not had access to “real time” predictions of surface wind flow. With the generous support of the JFSP and additional funding from several USDA Forest Service sources a wind simulation tool has been developed and tested. This project had three primary objectives: 1. Support wildland fire incident management teams with surface wind flow simulations. 2. Validate, improve and document the utility of gridded wind as a fire management decision support tool. 3. Produce technical documentation, including a user’s …

Characterizing Lessons Learned From Federal Biomass Removal Projects, Dennia R. Becker, Dalia Abbas, Kathleen E. Halvorsen, Pamela J. Jakes, Sarah M. Mccaffrey, Cassandra Moseley

JFSP Research Project Reports

The idea of offsetting the costs of wildfire hazardous fuels reduction treatments by selling the biomass removed is appealing. There are however challenges to biomass utilization that impedes progress. For instance, the lack of biomass processing capacity may impede progress in some regions, while in other regions an inconsistent supply of biomass available for wood products markets limits private investment. Despite efforts to increase biomass utilization, uncertainty exists of regarding the characteristics necessary to stimulate biomass utilization, effectiveness of agency and local efforts, and the role of partnerships in building the types of capacity necessary to expedite biomass removal. The …

Creating Stand-Level Prescriptions That Integrate Ecological And Fuel Management Objectives Across The Eastern Cascades – A Workshop, John F. Lehmkuhl, Sue Livingston, Karl Halupka, Eric Knapp, John Bailey, Bill Gaines

JFSP Research Project Reports

The primary goal of this workshop was to develop a range of fuel reduction prescriptions that integrate fuel and ecological objectives specifically related to northern spotted owl (NSO) conservation in dry forests of the Cascade Range in eastern Washington and Oregon and northern California. The workshop was held at the Eagle Crest Resort, Redmond, Oregon, from October 13-15, 2009. Over 200 managers and scientists attended from California, Oregon, and Washington. Most (82%) of the 194 people who formally registered for the workshop worked for federal land management, research, or regulatory agencies. The rest were a mix of university faculty and …

Development And Delivery Of Version 2 Of The Fire And Fuels Extension To The Forest Vegetation Simulator, Nicholas Crookston, Stephanie Rebain, Elizabeth Reinhardt, Gary Dixon

JFSP Research Project Reports

This project provided for an improved version of the Fire and Fuels Extension to the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FFE-FVS), a program whose original development was largely financed by the JFSP. The program is widely used by JFSP member agencies and several JFSP-sponsored research projects to support analysis at the stand to large landscape spatial scales. New research results rendered version 1 obsolete and experience with the model demonstrated that some parts of it needed to be improved. Equally important are issues regarding support, training, and system usability. We conducted 42 on-site training sessions over the last 4 years and also …

Does Prescribed Burning In Southern Forests Release Significant Amounts Of Mercury To The Atmosphere?, Thomas A. Waldrop, Mac A. Callahn, John A. Stanturf

JFSP Research Project Reports

Mercury (Hg) emissions from prescribed fire present a potential impact on air quality that could motivate regulators to further restrict prescribed burning. Atmospheric deposition of Hg (originating from industrial sources) to forests is well documented, and the prescribed burning of two to four million acres per year in the South recycles an unknown (but potentially significant) amount of Hg into the atmosphere and surface waters by volatilization and post-fire runoff. This and other environmental concerns present a significant challenge to local land managers who use prescribed fire. Our objectives were (1) to estimate local and South-wide emission of Hg due …

Effect Of Mechanical Mastication Followed By Prescribed Fire On Mycorrhizas And Hypogeous Fungi In Mixed Hardwood Chaparral, Darlene Southworth, Jennifer Gibson, Jessica Donohue, Jonathan Frank, Kate Wagner, Jason Lambert, Acacia Baldner

JFSP Research Project Reports

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of mechanical mastication followed by prescribed fire on mycorrhizal fungi and hypogeous sporocarps. A dense fire-prone mixed hardwood-conifer chaparral comprises a significant component of vegetation at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Prescribed burns, as fuel reduction treatments, are limited by air quality restrictions and narrow climatic conditions appropriate for burnings. Brush mastication is a fast and inexpensive tool commonly used by land managers to reduce ladder fuels. However, a dense layer of chipped debris remains, which, when burned, heats the soil more than ladder fuels. The upper layers of mineral soil …

Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Biological Soil Crusts And Their Subsequent Recovery In A Great Basin Juniper Woodland, Steven D. Warren, Larry L. St.Clair, Jeffrey R. Johansen, Paul Kugrens

JFSP Research Project Reports

A prescribed burn was conducted in a juniper woodland approximately 40 km south of Tooele, Utah on 05 October 2006. Conditions were sub-optimal, and the fire did not encroach into mid- or late-successional areas; only the early-successional area burned successfully. This study evaluated the effects of the prescribed burn on biological soil crusts that occupy the soil surface and are important for soil stability, soil nutrient cycling, and the germination and survival of vascular plants. Biological soil crusts are composed primarily of cyanobacteria, green algae, lichens and mosses. Mosses were rare under juniper trees, so the effects of the fire …

Effects Of Fuels/Fire Risk Reduction Treatments Using Hydro-Mow Or Thinning On Pinyon-Juniper Ecosystem Components Within The Wildland-Urbaninterface., Gerard J. Gottfried, Steven T. Overby, Philip A. Kemp, Cara Macmillan

JFSP Research Project Reports

Pinyon-juniper woodlands are a dominant vegetation type throughout the Interior West on lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the USDI Bureau of Land Management. The woodlands have traditionally been viewed as having a low risk of wildfires because of the lack of a continuous and dense ground cover and low tree stand densities. However, stand densities are often high and are increasing in many areas and wildfires, often resulting in loss of lives and property, will occur under conditions of low humidity, high temperatures and wind speeds, and an ignition source. Woodlands commonly surround or are adjacent to …

Synthesis Of Knowledge On The Effects Of Fire And Fire Surrogates On Wildlife In U.S. Dry Forests, Patricia L. Kennedy, Joseph B. Fontaine

JFSP Research Project Reports

Dry forests throughout the United States are fire-dependent ecosystems, and much attention has been given to restoring their ecological function. As such, land managers often are tasked with reintroducing fire via prescribed fire, wildland fire use, and fire-surrogate treatments such as thinning and mastication. During planning, managers frequently are expected to anticipate effects of management actions on wildlife species. This document represents a synthesis of existing knowledge on wildlife responses to fire and fire-surrogate treatments, presented in a useful, management-relevant format. Based on scoping meetings and dialogue with public lands managers from throughout the United States, we provide detailed, species-level, …

Synthesis Of Knowledge On The Effects Of Fire And Thinning Treatments On Understory Vegetation In U.S. Dry Forests, Anne M. Bartuszevige, Patricia L. Kennedy

JFSP Research Project Reports

A century of fire exclusion in dry forests across the United States has resulted in high fuel loads and increasing dominance by fire-intolerant vegetation. Federal, state, and private agencies have adopted a goal of managing forests to reduce the risk of high-severity wildfire. Forest managers use a variety of tools to create desired conditions within forests; the most common are prescribed fire and mechanical thinning. These two treatments may be used separately or in combination, depending on restoration goals for the forest stand. Before these treatments can be applied, managers must justify their choice by documenting the effects of the …

Enhancing Western Managers’ Knowledge And Use Of Available Economic And Financial Biomass Information And Tools, Todd A. Morgan, Kenneth Skog, Greg Jones, Woodam Chung, Henry Spelter, John Baldridge, Jason Brandt, Dan Loeffler, Jon Songster

JFSP Research Project Reports

The Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) sponsored this study to enhance the ability of federal land managers to understand and deal with the economic and financial aspects of woody biomass removal as a component of fire hazard reduction treatments. The study objectives were to synthesize the body of economic and financial information and tools currently available to federal land managers in the West, identify managers’ information needs and disconnects from available information, and fill the gaps between existing information and tools versus managers’ awareness of available information and access to tools. The methods used for this study included 1) preparing …

Epidemic Southern Pine Beetle Attacks: A Problem Of Fuel-Loading Or An Opportunity For Management?, Thomas A. Waldrop, G. Geoffrey Wang, Knight Cox

JFSP Research Project Reports

The Piedmont Region of South Carolina experienced one of the heaviest attacks of southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis Zimm.) in history during the early part of this decade. Managers with both commercial objectives and restoration objectives needed information on how prescribed burning or mechanical treatments can be used to reduce the heavy fuels resulting from these attacks, without neglecting their primary management objectives. Prescribed burning is of concern because intensities are expected to be high and fires may damage soils, neighboring trees, or target vegetation. Methods of predicting fire behavior and fuel consumption are unavailable. Mechanical treatments will reduce fuels …

Estimating The Biomass Of Hand-Piled Fuels For Smoke Management Planning, Clinton S. Wright, Robert E. Vilnanek, James Russell, Mark Middy, Jim Bailey, Steve Davis, Robert Sanders, Cameron Balog, Paige Eagle

JFSP Research Project Reports

Dimensions, volume, and biomass were measured for 121 hand-constructed piles composed primarily of coniferous (n=61) and shrub/hardwood (n=60) material at sites in Washington and California. Equations using pile dimensions, shape, and type allow users to accurately estimate the biomass of hand piles. Equations for estimating true pile volume from simple geometric shapes and measurements of pile dimensions were also developed to allow users who require estimates of pile volume for regulatory reporting. Biomass and volume estimation equations are being programmed into a web-based calculator to allow users to estimate either value from pile dimensions.

Estimating Canopy Fuels And Their Impact On Potential Fire Behavior For Ponderosa Pine In The Black Hills, South Dakota., Frederick W. Smith, Tara Keyser, Wayne Shepperd

JFSP Research Project Reports

We evaluate whether current procedures used in fire behavior prediction models such as FVS-FFE provide predictions of CBD and CBH suitable for evaluating fire behavior in response to fuel treatments. Currently, FFE-FVS uses a geographic non-specific set of tree allometries and assumes a uniform distribution of crown mass when estimating CBH and CBD. We develop allometric equations to predict crown mass specific to ponderosa pine in the Black Hills (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) from a sample of 80 felled trees in 16 forest stands spanning a wide range in tree size and stand. We develop a non-uniform description of …

Ecological Effects Of Prescribed Fire Season: A Literature Review And Synthesis For Managers, Eric Knapp, Becky Estes, Carl N. Skinner

JFSP Research Project Reports

Prescribed burning may be conducted at times of the year when fires were infrequent historically, leading to concerns about potential adverse effects on vegetation and wildlife. Historical and prescribed fire regimes for different regions in the continental United States were compared and literature on season of prescribed burning synthesized. In regions and vegetation types where considerable differences in fuel consumption exist among burning seasons, the effects of prescribed fire season appears, for many ecological variables, to be driven more by fire-intensity differences among seasons than by phenology or growth stage of organisms at the time of fire. Where fuel consumption …

Reducing Fine Fuel Loads, Controlling Invasive Annual Grasses, And Manipulating Vegetation Composition In Zion Canyon, Utah, J. R. Matchett, Aviva O'Neill, Matt Brooks, Cheryl Decker, Jennifer Vollmer, Curt Deuser

JFSP Research Project Reports

Fine fuels created by non-native annual grasses are a land management problem throughout the United States and beyond. These fuels facilitate the ignition of wildfires and promote their spread, creating hazardous fuel conditions in wildland urban interface areas. For example, fine fuel accumulations from non-native annual grasses in the riparian corridor at Zion National Park threaten the few egress routes from Zion Canyon, creating a threat to human life should a large wildfire occur there. In addition, when these non-native plants create novel fuel characteristics and fire behavior, they can lead to altered fire regimes that can significantly degrade natural …

A Regional Assessment Of The Ecological Effects Of Chipping And Mastication Fuels Reduction And Forest Restoration Treatments., Mike Battaglia, Charles Rhoades, Monique E. Rocca, Michael G. Ryan

JFSP Research Project Reports

Over the past several years, fire managers have increased their use of mastication treatments, the on-site disposal of shrubs and small-diameter trees through chipping and shredding. Mastication is a relatively untested management practice that alters the chemical and physical conditions of the forest floor and may influence vegetation regrowth and fuel development for years or decades. Eighteen sites were established across four ecosystems of the southern Rocky Mountains and the Colorado Plateau: lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), mixed conifer (Pinus ponderosa, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Pinus flexilis, and Pinus contorta), ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), and pinyon pine/juniper …

Conversion Of The Bluesky Framework Into Collaborative Web Service Architecture And Creation Of A Smoke Modeling Application, Narasimhan K. Larkin, Sean Raffuse, Daniel Pryden, Alan Healy, Kevin Unger, Tara Strand, Robert Solomon

JFSP Research Project Reports

This project addresses the need for a collaborative architecture for scientific modeling that allows various scientific models to easily interact. The need for such a system has been documented by recent studies such as the JFSP Smoke Roundtables and the JFSP review of tools done by the Software Engineering Institute. This project addresses these needs by modifying the BlueSky Modeling Framework so that it can better serve as a collaborative architecture, and then utilizing this architecture to create an advanced application that could not otherwise be created. The BlueSky framework was modified for this purpose, and all changes integrated into …

Community Wildfire Protection Plans: Enhancing Collaboration And Building Social Capacity, Daniel R. Williams, Pamela J. Jakes, Sam Burns, Antony Cheng, Kristen Nelson, Victoria Sturtevant, Alex Bujak, Rachel Brummel, Stephanie Grayzeck Souter, Emily Saeli Staychock

JFSP Research Project Reports

The Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 (HFRA) was enacted to reduce wildfire risk to communities and other at-risk lands through a collaborative process of planning, prioritizing and implementing hazardous fuel reduction projects. One of the key features of HFRA is the development of community wildfire protection plans (CWPPs). We studied the development of CWPPs in order to identify those factors and processes that consistently lead to effective collaborative fire and fuels management as defined by HFRA, and enhance local social capacity to sustain wildfire protection activities into the future. Findings from this research highlight the importance of: (1) drawing …