Digital Commons Network^™

Review Of The Gospel Of Sustainability: Media, Market, And Lohas. By Monica M. Emerich, Toby A. Ten Eyck

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

It is no longer enough to grow your own food to be considered environmentally conscious. According to Emerich in The Gospel of Sustainability, being green means driving a hydrogen-powered car, patronizing businesses that sell free-trade coffee, and subscribing to the proper magazines. Emerich provides a backstage pass (as well as front-stage views in the form of quotes from conferences and media stories) where one can view how the conflicts around sustainability arose and are maintained as various actors try both to meld and tear apart capitalism and wanton consumerism, desiring to live lives that will translate into more resources for …

Review Of Lone Star Law: A Legal History Of Texas. By Michael Ariens. Foreword By Gordon Morris Bakken., David Anderson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The tidelands case is one of many examples of Ariens's success in weaving the narrative of a legal development into the state's political, economic, and social history. He meticulously analyzes scores of decisions and statutes, clearly and economically explains them, and locates them in the larger history of Texas. Some of Texas legal history is unique because of Texas's origins as a republic and its membership in the Confederacy, but other chapters, particularly those relating to land, minerals, water, and railroads, will resonate in the other Great Plains states. Ariens wisely declines to trumpet Texas exceptionalism. The infatuation with Texas …

Review Of Winnipeg Beach: Leisure And Courtship In A Resort Town, 1900-1967. By Dale Barbour., Pauline Greenhill

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Manitoba's answer to such waterside attractions as Coney Island and Blackpool, Winnipeg Beach saw tremendous social change over the nearly 70 years Dale Barbour explores. The dates correspond to "the lifespan of Winnipeg Beach as a tourist destination, from its creation by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in 1901 to the demolition of its dance hall, roller coaster, and boardwalk in 1967." Barbour traces the complexities of the town's development as a primarily heterosocial space for socializing and as a destination for families; its meaning as a paradoxical mixing of nature and culture; and its class and ethnic associations (in …

Review Of Texas Bobwhites: A Guide To Their Foods And Habitat Management. By Jon A. Larson, Timothy E. Fulbright, Leonard A. Brennan, Fidel Hernandez, And Fred C. Bryant., Markus J. Peterson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Texas Bobwhites: A Guide to Their Foods and Habitat Management is a pictorial guide to the identification of seeds commonly consumed by northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus)-- and the plants that produce them--in Texas. The authors "hope that interest in what constitutes good bobwhite habitat among hunters and nature enthusiasts will be enhanced by this guide to the identification of seeds eaten by quail." Targeting this lay audience leads to certain constraints regarding how the text, particularly, is presented. Regardless, because Texas includes much of the southern terminus of the Great Plains, this book is directly relevant to readers …

Review Of Alberta's Day Care Controversy: From 1908 To 2009-And Beyond. By Tom Langford., Gordon Cleveland

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This is a carefully crafted, meticulously researched gem of a book exploring the history and intrigues of Alberta's controversies and struggles concerning child care, focused on the period since the 1960s. It is a work of historical sociology analyzing the interaction of social and political forces in Alberta clashing over the effects of child care in promoting changes in women's roles, over the negative effects of commercial child care on quality, and over the appropriate amount and type of support that governments vs. families should provide for child care. That description may make it sound too analytical and boring, but …

Review Of Two Toms: Lessons From A Shoshone Doctor. By Thomas H. Johnson And Helen S. Johnson., Christopher Loether

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Thomas H. Johnson, one of the co-authors of Two Toms: Lessons from a Shoshone Doctor, was a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign when he first met Tom Wesaw in 1966 at a Sun Dance on the Wind River Reservation. Johnson returned to live with Wesaw during 1969-1970, in order to learn about Shoshone language and culture. Two Toms is based on his field notes from that stay. Tom Wesaw (1886-1973) was a traditional Shoshone doctor, Sun Dance leader, and member of the Native American (Peyote) Church. He had left Wind River Reservation when only fifteen …

Review Of The Northern Cheyenne Exodus In History And Memory By James N. Leiker And Ramon Powers, Alan Boye

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In 1878, about 350 Northern Cheyennes fled captivity in Indian Territory, in what is now Oklahoma, in an attempt to return to their homeland in present-day Montana. Before long, thousands of soldiers involving three departments of the U.S. Army, dozens of cowboys, a number of pioneer families, and such mythic figures as Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp were swept up in the event.

The Cheyennes successfully withstood several battles with the army on their flight. For much of the distance, they paused only long enough to steal horses and food; but, while crossing northwestern Kansas, a number of the Cheyennes …

Benchmarking Us Department Of Veterans Affairs Dermatologic Services: Results From A National Survey, L. Kendall Krause, Leilani Townsend, Michael L. Orser, Jennifer Mulhausen, Jodi Duke, Weston T. Waxweiler, Robert P. Dellavalle

United States Public Health Resources

Background: How well Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) dermatology services provide clinical care, medical education, and innovative research is a largely unexplored topic in the literature.

Objective: We sought to benchmark VA dermatology services by surveying VA dermatologists about their environment, resources, and the pros and cons of working in the VA.

Methods: Printed surveys were mailed to VA dermatologists and responses were compiled and analyzed.

Results: Of 105 dermatology services surveyed, 48% returned surveys completed by board-certified dermatologists (n = 50); 20 surveys completed by nondermatologists were excluded from the analysis. Most services trained …

West Of Eden: Resource Wars And Nature-Cultures In The American West, Scout Calvert

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

The richness and variety of the western landscape is what is at stake in hot political contests for the resources of the West: much of this public land is available to economic activity, including for mining, grazing, logging, and recreation. These uses threaten to outpace the land’s ability to renew these resources along with others, like air and water. Now in the first decade of the millennium with a new environmental awareness emerging partly from media coverage of global warming and peak oil, The American West at Risk offers a wide-ranging look at the degradation of the environment in the …

Global Monthly Water Scarcity: Blue Water Footprints Versus Blue Water Availability, Arjen Y. Hoekstra, Mesfin Mekonnen, Ashok K. Chapagain, Ruth E. Mathews, Brian D. Richter

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

Freshwater scarcity is a growing concern, placing considerable importance on the accuracy of indicators used to characterize and map water scarcity worldwide. We improve upon past efforts by using estimates of blue water footprints (consumptive use of ground- and surface water flows) rather than water withdrawals, accounting for the flows needed to sustain critical ecological functions and by considering monthly rather than annual values. We analyzed 405 river basins for the period 1996–2005. In 201 basins with 2.67 billion inhabitants there was severe water scarcity during at least one month of the year. The ecological and economic consequences of increasing …

Los Ciempiés Escutigeromorfos (Scutigeromorpha), Escolopendromorfos (Scolopendromorpha) Y Geofilomorfos (Geophilomorpha) De La Selva Tropical Caducifolia De La Reserva De Chamela, Jalisco, México, Fabio Germán Cupul-Magaña

Insecta Mundi

The Chamela-Cuixmala Biosphere Reserve is located on the Pacific coast of the state of Jalisco in Mexico. The Reserve was founded in 1993 and covers 13142 hectares. It is one of the few reserves in Mexico created for the protection of the tropical deciduous (dry) forest and associated ecosystems. Five centipede species have hitherto been reported from the Reserve: Cormocephalus impressus Porat, 1876; Dendrothereua linceci (Wood, 1867); Ectonocryptoides quadrimeropus Shelley and Mercurio, 2005; Scolopendra polymorpha (Wood, 1861) and Scolopendra viridis Say, 1821. The first formal study on the centipede fauna in the Reserve commenced in July 2010. After one year …

Bark Beetles And Fire: Two Forces Of Nature Transforming Western Forests, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

Bark beetles are chewing a wide swath through forests across North America. Over the past few years, infestations have become epidemic in lodgepole and spruce-fir forests of the Intermountain West. The resulting extensive acreages of dead trees are alarming the public and raising concern about risk of severe fire. Researchers supported by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) are examining the complicated relationship between bark beetles and wildfire, the two most influential natural disturbance agents in these forests. Are the beetles setting the stage for larger, more severe wildfires? And are fires bringing on beetle epidemics? Contrary to popular opinion, …

Signifying The Place Of Unforgettable Memory: Atrocity And Trauma In A Post-Conflict Landscape, Ralph J. Hartley

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

After active inter-group lethal violence subsides places at which atrocities occurred are often assigned significance, reflecting an altered social topography influenced by ideology that may foster the hardening of socio-ethnic boundary distinctions. While using a comparativist approach, this paper explores the relationships between socio-cultural trauma, places of atrocity, and socio-political polarization. Two sites in the former Yugoslavia and in Rwanda, where highly publicized massacres occurred, illustrate the power of place significance in social environments vulnerable to flare-ups of violent conflict.

Scotts Bluff National Monument, Plant Community Resource Brief, Isabel Ashton, Mike Prowatzke

United States National Park Service: Publications

2011 Monitoring Status

Overview

In 2011, the first year of vegetation monitoring by the Northern Great Plains Network Inventory and Monitoring staff at Scotts Bluff National Monument, efforts resulted in the documentation of 79 plant species. This was the lowest number of species among parks sampled in 2011. Graminoid (grass and grass-like plant) species accounted for only 21 (27%) of the total species, but graminoid cover was much higher than that of any other plant type. Forbs were much more diverse, but did not provide as much foliar cover.

The 5 most abundant native non-graminoids were winterfat (Krascheninnikovia lanata …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring Protocol For The Northern Great Plains I&M Network - Standard Operating Procedures, Version 1.01, Amy J. Symstad, Robert A. Gitzen, Cody L. Wienk, Michael R. Bynum, Daniel J. Swanson, Andy D. Thorstenson, Kara J. Paintner-Green

United States National Park Service: Publications

Introduction

The Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) includes thirteen park units located in five northern Great Plains states across six ecoregions. Plant community composition and structure monitoring comprises the core of the vegetation monitoring effort for the NGPN, covering the “Riparian Lowland Plant Communities” and “Upland Plant Communities” vital signs (Gitzen et al. 2010). The narrative portion of the plant community protocol can be found in Symstad et al. 2012. The narrative includes the rationale for vegetation monitoring, an overview of sample design, field methods, data management, and program requirements. This document contains the standard operating procedures …

Monitoring Live Fuel Moisture Using Soil Moisture And Remote Sensing Proxies, Yi Qi, Philip E. Dennison, Jessica Spencer, David Riano

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Live fuel moisture (LFM) is an important fuel property controlling fuel ignition and fire propagation. LFM varies seasonally, and is controlled by precipitation, soil moisture, evapotranspiration, and plant physiology. LFM is typically sampled manually in the field, which leads to sparse measurements in space and time. Use of LFM proxies could reduce the need for field sampling while potentially improving spatial and temporal sampling density. This study compares soil moisture and remote sensing data to field-sampled LFM for Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii Nutt) and big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata Nutt) in northern Utah. Bivariate linear regression models were constructed …

Factors Affecting Global Climate, Alison N.P. Stevens

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Common–Interest Community Agreements On Private Lands Provide Opportunity And Scale For Wildlife Management, Larkin A. Powell

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Common–interest community agreements on private lands provide opportunity and scale for wildlife management.— Private lands are critical to conservation planning for wildlife, worldwide. Agriculture subsidies, tax incentives, and conservation easements have been successfully used as tools to convert cropland to native vegetation. However, uncertain economies threaten the sustainability of these incentives. The wildlife management profession is in need of innovative models that support effective management of populations. I argue that biologists should consider the option of facilitating the development of private reserves to reduce the dependence of conservation on public investment. Private reserves can be enhanced by creating common– interest …

Is Pretenure Interdisciplinary Research A Career Risk?, E. V. Fischer, K. R. M. Mackey, D. F. Cusack, L. R. G. Desantis, L. Hartzell-Nichols, J. A. Lutz, J. Melbourne-Thomas, R. Meyer, Diego Andrés Riveros-Iregui, C. J. B. Sorte, J. R. Taylor, S. A. White

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Despite initiatives to promote interdisciplinary research, early-career academics continue to perceive professional risks to working at the interface between traditional disciplines. Unexpectedly, the inherent practical challenges of interdisciplinary scholarship, such as new methodologies and lexicons, are not the chief source of the perceived risk. The perception of risk is pervasive across disciplines, and it persists despite efforts to support career development for individuals with common interests [Mitchell and Weiler, 2011]. Suggestions that interdisciplinary work can go unrewarded in academia [Clark et al., 2011] foster a concern that targeting interdisciplinary questions, such as those presented by climate change, will pose problems …

Crowdfunding And The Federal Securities Laws, C. Steven Bradford

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

Crowdfunding-the use of the Internet to raise money through small contributions from a large number of investors-could cause a revolution in small-business financing. Through crowdfunding, smaller entrepreneurs, who traditionally have had great difficulty obtaining capital, have access to anyone in the world with a computer, Internet access, and spare cash to invest. Crowdfunding sites such as Kiva, Kickstarter, and IndieGoGo have proliferated, and the amount of money raised through crowdfunding has grown to billions of dollars in just a few years.

Crowdfunding poses two issues under federal securities law. First, crowdfunding sometimes involves the sale of securities, triggering the registration …

Mapping Anuran Habitat Suitability To Estimate Effects Of Grassland And Wetland Conservation Programs, David M. Mushet, Ned H. Euliss Jr., Craig A. Stockwell

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The conversion of the Northern Great Plains of North America to a landscape favoring agricultural commodity production has negatively impacted wildlife habitats. To offset impacts, conservation programs have been implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies to restore grassland and wetland habitat components. To evaluate effects of these efforts on anuran habitats, we used call survey data and environmental data in ecological niche factor analyses implemented through the program Biomapper to quantify habitat suitability for five anuran species within a 196 km² study area. Our amphibian call surveys identified Northern Leopard Frogs (Lithobates pipiens), …

Geochemical Evaluation Of High Sulfate Levels In Ponca Creek, Northeastern Nebraska, Jon C. Atkinson

United States Air Force: Publications

Most surface water and shallow groundwater occurring in northeastern Nebraska are of the calcium bicarbonate type, with minor concentrations (e.g., 10–200 mg/L) of sulfate (SO₄). Examination of historical water quality data (major cations and anions) for Ponca Creek, a predominantly ephemeral streamin northeastern Nebraska, revealed that SO₄ concentrations ranged from about 110 to almost 1000mg/L and contribute to a calcium sulfate hydrochemical facies. Consequently, most SO₄ concentrations were above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency secondary maximum contaminant level in drinking water of 250 mg/L. Sulfate concentrations for the same period for a nearby stream, Verdigre Creek, …

Asean's Gradual Evolution: Challenges And Opportunities For Integrating Participatory Procedural Reforms For The Environment In An Evolving Rights-Based Framework, Tarik Abdel-Monem

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is entering an interesting and important new phase in its evolution. Having survived the cold war and Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Association remains a uniquely successful, yet enigmatic organization comprised of ten major Southeast Asian countries. ASEAN nations have successfully obtained rapid levels of economic and human development in the face of the region's political difficulties, yet at the risk of causing significant environmental degradation. Now, ASEAN is implementing two new structures that have major implications for the state of civil society among its member nations-the ASEAN Charter and the …

Alaska Native Consultation & Co-Management Meeting

United States Marine Mammal Commission

Alaska Native Consultation & Co-Management Meeting

Riparian Forest Buffers: An Agroforestry Practice

Agroforestry Notes (USDA-NAC)

No abstract provided.

Estimating Aboveground Carbon Stocks Of A Forest Affected By Mountain Pine Beetle In Idaho Using Lidar And Multispectral Imagery, Benjamin C. Bright, Jeffrey A. Hicke, Andrew T. Hudak

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Mountain pine beetle outbreaks have caused widespread tree mortality in North American forests in recent decades, yet few studies have documented impacts on carbon cycling. In particular, landscape scales intermediate between stands and regions have not been well studied. Remote sensing is an effective tool for quantifying impacts of insect outbreaks on forest ecosystems at landscape scales. In this study, we developed and evaluated methodologies for quantifying aboveground carbon (AGC) stocks affected by mountain pine beetle using field observations, lidar data, and multispectral imagery. We evaluated methods at two scales, the plot level and the tree level, to ascertain the …

Drought Monitoring: Historical And Current Perspectives, Michael J. Hayes, Mark D. Svoboda, Brian D. Wardlow, Martha C. Anderson, Felix Kogan

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

Drought is a normal, recurring feature of climate throughout the world, with characteristics and impacts that can vary from region to region. Figure 1.1 illustrates the regular occurrence of drought within the United States between 1895 and 2010 with approximately 14% of the country, on average (plotted by black dotted line), experiencing severe to extreme drought conditions during any given year. Drought conditions can persist in a region for several years, as occurred in the United States in the 1930s, 1950s, and early 2000s, and tree ring and other proxy records confirm that multiple-year droughts are part of the long-term …

Preface To Remote Sensing Of Drought: Innovative Monitoring Approaches, Brian D. Wardlow

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The motivation for this book on satellite remote sensing of drought stems from the increasing demand for drought-related information to address a wide range of societal issues (e.g., water scarcity, food security, and economic sustainability), the availability of unique Earth observations from many new satellite- based remote sensing instruments, and the advancement of analysis and modeling techniques. Collectively, the convergence of these factors has resulted in unprecedented new satellite-based estimates of evapotranspiration, rainfall, snow cover, subsurface moisture, and vegetation condition over large geographic areas that can support drought-monitoring activities. To date, a book solely dedicated to the topic of satellite …

Changes In Atmospheric Circulation Patterns Associated With High And Low Rainfall Regimes In The Hawaiian Islands Region On Multiple Time Scales, Henry F. Diaz, Thomas W. Giambelluca

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

We examine a suite of climate variables in the North Pacific associated with different temporal scales of dry and wet episodes in the Hawaiian Islands. The goal is to ascertain whether varying the length in the occurrence of such events from seasonal to multi-decadal results from different ocean–atmosphere circulation patterns over the North Pacific region.We find that as the dryness period lengthens, the spatial scale of the anomalies widens, but the characteristics of the anomalous circulation fields exhibit elements evident at each time scale. At the longest (multi-decadal) time scales during the wet season (November–April), the major anomalous circulation features …

Steward Of Headwaters: U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers, St. Paul District 1975-2000, Theodore Catton, Matthew Godfrey

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, is one of fortyone districts in the Corps’ organization. As the northernmost district in the Mississippi Valley Division, it centers on the headwaters of the Mississippi River and the uppermost section of the river’s nine-foot navigation channel. The St. Paul District oversees civil works projects and conducts disaster relief within the geographic boundaries of the district, implements the Corps’ regulatory program in the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin and assists with other Corps’ missions wherever needed. The following history updates the book Creativity, Conflict & Controversy: A History of the St. …