Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons^™

The Efficacy Of Best Management Practices On Peak Discharge And Contaminant Loads In Agricultural Drainage Systems, Blue Earth River Watershed, South-Central Minnesota, Usa, Zach Hilgendorf

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Conversion of native land cover to row crop agriculture and anthropogenically modified hydrology, correlates with increases in peak discharge, annual discharge, sediment and nutrient loads in agricultural land-use dominated watersheds within the Mississippi River basin. This results in environmental issues related to turbidity, eutrophication-hypoxia, loss of biodiversity, natural resource degradation, reduction in tourism, and more. In no place is this more obvious than the ever-growing "Dead Zone" in the Gulf of Mexico. The Minnesota River basin, the largest tributary to the Mississippi River in Minnesota, is a disproportionately large contributor of sediment (~80-90%), nitrogen (~56%), and phosphorus (~45%) to the …

Aspects Of White-Tailed Deer Ecology And Management: Effects Of Imidacloprid And An Evaluation Of Management At Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Elise Hughes Berheim

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

White-tail deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are an economically and recreationally important species throughout their range, and understanding their ecology to implement beneficial management techniques is invaluable. This thesis focused on two studies 1) the effect of Imidacloprid on adult female and fawn physiology and 2) an evaluation of techniques to monitor white-tailed deer at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (GSNWR). Imidacloprid, a widely-used pesticide, has been linked to lethal and sub-lethal effects in insects and small vertebrates, however, no research has been conducted on white-tailed deer. Twenty captive pregnant adult female and subsequent fawns housed at the South Dakota …

Satellite Remote Sensing Of Woody And Herbaceous Leaf Area For Improved Understanding Of Forage Resources And Fire In Africa, Milkah Njoki Kahiu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) tree-grass systems commonly referred to as savannas dominating drylands, play a critical role in social, cultural, economic and environmental systems. These coupled natural-human systems support millions of people through pastoralism, are important global biodiversity hotspots and play a critical role in global biogeochemical cycles. Despite the importance of SSA savannas, they have been marginalized for years as most governments neglect dryland resources in favor of agricultural research and development assistance. Hence, lack of spatially and temporally accurate information on the status and trends in savanna resources has led to poor planning and management. This scenario calls …

Sustainability-Efficiency Paradox: The Efficacy Of State Energy Plans In Building A More Sustainable Energy Future, Austin Zimmerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

State energy plans are created at the request of a sitting governor or State Legislature in order to provide guidance set goals for the state’s energy sector. These plans will be critical indicators of energy trends such as the future market share of coal, natural gas, and renewables. If the future of energy in the United States is to be remotely sustainable, low-carbon policies must headline state plans. The strength of a state’s energy plan in terms of sustainability is directly related to that state’s willingness to prioritize and commit to incorporating energy sources that produce negligible carbon emissions. Questions …

Black-Tailed Prairie Dog (Cynomys Ludovicianus) State-And-Transition Model For Loamy Ecological Sites In Mlra 62 In Custer State Park, South Dakota, Mark R. Hendrix

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) are native burrowing rodents that occupy large areas in the shortgrass and mixed-grass prairies of the Northern Great Plains. They are an important component of these prairie systems due to their impacts on plant communities. Currently State-and-Transition models (STMs) for grassland Ecological Site Descriptions (ESDs) address grazing by livestock as a major factor affecting states and phases within states. Impacts from other grazers, such as prairie dogs, are either not addressed directly, or are included only in a transition to a generalized early seral state. There are, however, dramatic differences in plant communities …

Evaluation Of Methods Used To Improve Grasslands As Ring-Necked Pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus) Brood Habitat, Mandy Orth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Management practices designed for upland game species often focus on nest survival and hen winter survival due to the importance of these life history stages on population vital rates. However, chick survival is an important component of gallinaceous bird population dynamics, but it is poorly understood and often tends to be overlooked. Ideal brood habitat not only provides open understory for easy movement and canopy cover for protection, but also provides an abundance of arthropod foods for chicks. It has been hypothesized that restricted movement of chicks through thick vegetation in unmanaged grasslands results in lower brood survival rates. Research …

Quantifying Potential Long-Term Changes In Erosion, Discharge, And Total Suspended Solids Resulting From Agricultural Land Use Change In South Dakota, Hector Manuel Menendez Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

South Dakota is a mosaic of grasslands, wetlands, and cropland. A continuing shift from grassland to cropland has occurred over the past decade and is expected for the next 50 years. Rate of future conversion may vary greatly in response to regulatory, economic, and social factors. Concern has risen over environmental consequences associated with land conversion, which include but are not limited to changes in rill and sheet erosion rates from cultivated soils, stream and river discharge, and water quality. Quantifying future changes for these three externalities is important to understand the possible long-term consequences of complex grassland conversion decisions …

Mapping And Risk Assessment Of Juniper Encroachment Into A Prairie Landscape, Kyle D. Kaskie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Juniper encroachment is a considerable threat to the prairie ecosystems of the Great Plains because it has the potential to alter native grasslands by changing soil characteristics, limiting herbaceous biomass, and hindering native community regeneration. Accurate maps of juniper cover and predictions of areas at risk for future expansion are needed to support proactive management measures. Therefore, our objectives are to: (1) Develop a practical workflow for large-scale juniper mapping using Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery and partial unmixing techniques, (2) Compare the classification accuracies from the resulting map based on different juniper density thresholds and different types …

Walleye Fishery Ecology In Lake Oahe Of The Dakotas, Eli Felts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Walleye Sander vitreus is among the most popular sport fishes in North America and is the most sought-after fish in both South Dakota and North Dakota. Lake Oahe, a large main stem Missouri River reservoir, spans state boundaries and provides one of the most popular and productive Walleye fisheries in both Dakotas. The Walleye population of Lake Oahe has experienced wide fluctuations in abundance and size structure over the last 25 years which has caused high variability in angler use and satisfaction. Much of this variation is thought to be driven by Rainbow Smelt Osmserus mordax, which are the dominant …

Sustainability At Sit: A Look At The Past, A Plan For The Future, Taliesin Haugh

Capstone Collection

Climate change threatens our world and way of life. Intelligent development and investment could mitigate the worst threats of climate change, while simultaneously providing continuous growth for the global economy. The New Climate Economy proposes efforts to combat this ecological collapse that would result in $30 trillion in new annual economic growth by 2030. Stockholm Resilience Center agrees, giving a framework based on global ecological systems that calls for five critical tasks that can bring growth and stability: Renewable energy

Sustainable local food production

New development models, based on what has worked globally

Reduction of wealth inequity

Education, health, and …

Post-Fire Regeneration And Fuel Succession Patterns In Hesperocyparis Bakeri Forests, Bret Anthony Mcnamara

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Climate change is predicted to cause widespread redistribution of suitable tree habitats, as well as increase the size and frequency of wildfires in the western United States during the forthcoming century. Rare serotinous conifers may have heightened sensitivity to the impacts of both fire regime and climate shifts for multiple reasons. First, the rapid spatial rearrangement of suitable habitat will disproportionately affect trees with constrained seed dispersal capabilities, and limited dispersal is a trait associated with some genera of serotinous trees. Second, a number of serotinous conifers depend on fire disturbances for regeneration, though with the expected increase in annual …

Low Income Housing Energy Efficiency Improvement Program For The Yurok Tribe Of Northern California, Keivan Branson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Housing on the Yurok reservation in California is a major concern for the local Tribal Government. This report details a study of the energy situation for housing of the Yurok Tribe to provide a framework for implementing housing energy efficiency to benefit low-income members of the Tribal community residing in substandard housing. The report briefly details the history of the reservation as it pertains to the current housing situation, as well as the authors personal context of living for 16 years in the reservation town of Klamath, CA. The analysis draws on information obtained from mixed methods, including information collected …

Anatomy Of An Interrupted Irrigation Season: Micro-Drought At The Wind River Indian Reservation, Shannon M. Mcneeley, Cadida F. Dewes, Crystal J. Stiles, Tyler A. Beeton, Imtiaz Rangwala, Michael T. Hobbins, Cody L. Knutson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Drought is a complex phenomenon manifested through interactions between biophysical and social factors. At the Wind River Indian Reservation (WRIR) in west-central Wyoming, water shortages have become increasingly common since the turn of the 21st century. Here we discuss the 2015 water year as an exemplar year, which was characterized by wetter-than-normal conditions across the reservation and, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, remained drought-free throughout the year. Yet parts of the reservation experienced harmful water shortages, or “microdrought” conditions, during the growing season in 2015. In this assessment of the 2015 water year at the WRIR we: (1) describe …

A Dynamic Ocean Management Tool To Reduce Bycatch And Support Sustainable Fisheries, Elliot L. Hazen, Kylie L. Scales, Sara M. Maxwell, Dana K. Briscoe, Heather Welch, Steven J. Bograd, Helen Bailey, Scott R. Benson, Tomo Eguchi, Heidi Dewar

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Seafood is anessential sourceofprotein formore than3billionpeopleworldwide, yet bycatchof threatened species in capture fisheries remains a major impediment to fisheries sustainability. Management measures designed to reduce bycatch often result in significant economic losses and even fisheries closures. Static spatial management approaches can also be rendered ineffective by environmental variability and climate change, as productive habitats shift and introduce new interactions between human activities and protected species. We introduce a new multispecies and dynamic approach that uses daily satellite data to track ocean features and aligns scales of management, species movement, and fisheries. To accomplish this, we create species distribution models for …

The Infrastructure-Extractives-Resource Governance Complex In The Pan-Amazon: Roll Backs And Contestations, Denise Bebbington, Ricardo Verdum, Cesar Gamboa, Anthony J. Bebbington

Geography

Large-scale access and energy infrastructure projects, together with expanding investments in natural resource extraction, pose significant challenges to biodiversity conservation, forest cover, and the defence of forest peoples' rights and livelihoods across the wider Amazon region. Following a period in which safeguards and forest dwellers' territorial rights were strengthened under more permissive political opportunity structures, the current period has been characterized by efforts to weaken these protections and to facilitate large-scale private investment in previously protected lands. We describe these investment-based threats to forests and rights, and the nature of regulatory rollbacks in the region. We then discuss some of …

Personal Entrepreneurial Competencies And Entrepreneurial Intention Of Non-Business Students Enrolled In An Introductory Entrepreneurship Course, Gemma U. Reyes, Rachelle A. Mariano, Maria Noriza Q. Herrera, Nohreen Ethel P. Manipol, Jewel Joanna S. Cabardo

Journal of Economics, Management and Agricultural Development

The objectives of the study are two-fold. The first is to find out the relationship between the personal entrepreneurial competencies (PEC), as identified by Management Systems International, and the entrepreneurial intention of non-business students who are taking up an introductory entrepreneurship course. The second is to determine whether the entrepreneurial competencies of the students improved after taking the course. Using Spearman rank-order correlation, the study reveals that eight of the ten entrepreneurial competencies have a significant correlation with entrepreneurial intention although the relationship ranges only from moderate to weak. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was employed to test whether the post …

Spatial And Temporal Analysis Of A 17–Year Lightning Climatology Over Bangladesh With Lis Data, Rezaul Mahmood

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Utility-Scale Solar Photovoltaic Hosting Potential Of Historic Mill Sites In Humboldt County, California, Michael Avcollie

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The adoption of Redwood Coast Energy Authority’s (RCEA’s) Community Choice Energy program in May of 2017 across Humboldt County has sparked interest in locally produced energy from solar photovoltaics (PV). RCEA has a goal of bringing 5 Megawatts (MW) of local, utility-scale, solar PV under contract by 2018 and 15 MW by 2023. Humboldt County’s former mill sites offer features that make them suitable for hosting PV development. This study performed an inventory and analysis of these sites to answer two questions: Can Humboldt County’s former mill sites provide the hosting capacity for15 MW of local, utility-scale solar PV? Which …

Assessing Spatio-Temporal Patterns Of Forest Decline Across A Diverse Landscape In The Klamath Mountains Using A 28-Year Landsat Time-Series Analysis, Drew S. Bost

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Rates of tree mortality in California and the Pacific Northwest have greatly increased in recent years, driven largely by pest and pathogen outbreaks as well as the effects of hotter, warmer droughts. While there have been a multitude of regional-scale assessments of mortality and forest decline, landscape-level studies are necessary to better identify forests that are most vulnerable to decline and to anticipate future changes. This need is particularly notable in the remote and little-studied mountains of northwest California, which are renowned for their diverse, heterogeneous vegetation types. A recent observation of elevated levels of Shasta red fir (Abies …

Classifying The Woody Vegetation Community Of Wade Ponds In Colleton County, South Carolina, Wade Biltoft

Theses and Dissertations

Wetland habitats are some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, varying in both physical and biological characteristics. Geographically isolated wetlands are particularly important to the landscape due to their role in the hydrological cycle and as local centers for biodiversity. In parts of the coastal plain of South Carolina, there are geographically isolated wetlands found in concentrated groups with distinctive size, shape, and distribution. Despite their unique appearance and distribution, these wetlands have been scarcely researched or investigated. This project seeks to explore the plant communities that are contained within these ponds in order to understand their composition …

Wintering American Black Duck Ecology Of Central Appalachia, Sara E. Yannuzzi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The American black duck (Anas rubripes) is a species of dabbling duck found only in the northeastern part of North America, and widely hunted until its decline. Since the 1950s, the total population has decreased by 53%. Habitat degradation and decline of wintering and breeding wetlands, historic overharvest, and interactions with the mallard (A. platyrhynchos) are attributed as some of the main causes of the black duck population’s decrease. Many policies and taxa- and habitat-specific joint ventures have since been created to aid in studying and improving North American wetlands and black duck populations throughout both their breeding and wintering …

Applying Bayesian Belief Network To Understand Public Perception On Green Stormwater Infrastructures In Vermont, Qing Ren

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Decisions of adopting best management practices made on residential properties play an important role in reduction of nutrient loading from non-point sources into Lake Champlain and other waterbodies in Vermont. In this study, we use Bayesian belief network (BBN) to analyze a 2015 survey dataset about adoption of six types of green infrastructures (GSIs) in Vermont’s residential areas. Learning BBNs from physical probabilities of the variables provides a visually explicit approach to reveal the message delivered by the dataset. Using both unsupervised and supervised machine learning algorithms, we are able to generate networks that connect the variables of interest and …

Cityscape Connections: National Park Service Relevance And Resilience In Urban Areas, Elizabeth Eleanor Perry

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The National Park Service (NPS) strives to embody U.S. democratic ideals, conserving our collective stories and scenery for their intrinsic value and the enjoyment of current and future generations. However, although these places are conserved for all, they are not enjoyed by all. As with other conservation agencies, the NPS finds itself increasingly concerned with building relevance with diverse potential stewards. In cities, where 80% of the U.S. population and 40% of the NPS portfolio is based, there is a prime opportunity to build relevance with large, diverse, and proximate audiences. Recognizing this opportunity, the NPS initiated its Urban Agenda …

Land Use, Power, And Knowledge At The Northern Resource Frontier: Mining, Public Engagement, And Contentious Land Imaginaries In Bristol Bay And The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Jonathan Tollefson

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The Donlin and Pebbles mines are two of the eight industrial-scale hard rock mines currently under the review of Alaska’s Large Mine Permitting program. Both projects promise to deliver profit and employment to their respective regions: Pebble to Bristol Bay in the southwest, and Donlin to the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, just north of Pebble. Both projects would also produce exceptional quantities of waste and will require almost-unprecedented infrastructure development, potentially threatening the lives and subsistence livelihoods of the Alaska Native peoples in their respective regions. The Pebble project inspired international protest and led to the emergence of a powerful resistance coalition …

Relationship Between Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Management, And Profitability, Dr. Daisy Valentin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The U.S. hospitality industry's profitability has been shifting to environmental management and corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Hospitality industries accounted for 5% of the global market in 2015 and are expected to increase by 130% in 2035. Grounded in stakeholder theory, this correlation study examined the relationship between corporate sustainability officer (CSO) CSR, CSO environmental management, and hospitality business profitability. Secondary data were collected from 97 hotel websites of the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota area from 2014 to 2016. The multiple linear regression combinations of CSR and environmental management (EM) measured significantly related to the profitability index, F(3, 93) = 4.67, …

Resource Assessment Report Western Australian Sea Cucumber Resource, Anthony M. Hart, D. V. Murphy, N Caputi, Alexander Hesp, E. A. Fisher

WA Marine Stewardship Council report series

This document provides a cumulative description and assessment of the Sea Cucumber Resource and all of the fishing activities (i.e. fisheries / fishing sectors) affecting this resource in Western Australia (WA). The overall resource comprises two main species (sandfish Holothuria scabra and redfish Actinopyga echinites), and few minor species that inhabit the tropical shallow continental shelf waters of the North Coast Bioregion.

Evaluating Floodplain Hydrologic Connectivity, Yakima River, Wa, Cristopher Morton

All Master's Theses

River side-channels provide habitat for threatened fish, and restoring such habitats is a goal of resource managers. Resource managers use side-channel reconnection projects to increase the quality and quantity of aquatic floodplain habitat, and evaluating the effectiveness of reconnection is a crucial and often neglected part of these projects. The purpose of this research was to collect baseline data to determine if and how floodplain connectivity affects water quality and quantity in side-channel habitat on the Yakima River. This research compared seasonal differences in habitat quality between connected and disconnected channels by evaluating bi-weekly measurements of surface water quality and …

Water Demand, Adaptive Capacity, And Drought: An Analysis Of The Upper Klamath Basin, Oregon And California, Patricia Snyder

All Master's Theses

Freshwater demand and scarcity issues are an issue of global concern, in particular for the American West as global climate models suggest precipitation regime changes and an increase of drought. This research conducts a case-study of the Upper Klamath Basin, located in south-central Oregon and northern California, a microcosm of the arid and semi-arid American West that experienced an economically, socially, and ecologically impactful drought in the early 2000s. Through a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods this research: 1) identifies key stakeholders, their goals and key policies; 2) conducts an adaptive capacity assessment of water management within the basin; …

Postglacial Fire, Vegetation, And Environmental Change In The Sinlahekin Wildlife Area, Okanogan County, Washington (Usa), Kevin Haydon

All Master's Theses

Historically fire has played a key disturbance role in many ecosystems of the western United States. One of the most affected landscapes is the dry ponderosa pine-dominated forests of eastern Washington. Over the past decade, these forests have experienced a dramatic increase in large, high-severity wildfires, resulting in significant damage to natural resources, property, and habitat. Public land managers are now faced with the increasing challenge of maintaining these fire-dependent ecosystems in tandem with the projected impacts of future climate change. To do this, land managers need to make informed, adaptive decisions based on what it known in terms of …

A Decade Of Governing The Blackfoot Community Conservation Area (Bcca): Community Involvement And Landscape Connectivity Through Public Private Partnerships, Alexander A. Barton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In recent decades, non-governmental organizations have acquired and established community forests and conservation areas in the U.S. However, there have been few empirical studies on their governance. This study focuses on the Blackfoot Community Conservation Area (BCCA) in the Blackfoot watershed of Montana, created in 2005. The BCCA is a 41,000 acre mosaic of private, state, and federal lands, including 5,600 acres known as the “Core” located near Ovando mountain and owned by the Blackfoot Challenge, a local watershed organization and leader in grassroots conservation. This research examined the definitions, activities and lessons learned over the past decade with regard …