Conservation And Conversation In The Anthropocene, Brittany Alyse Garner

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The driving questions of this dissertation consider both the scientific and communicative understanding of conservation and extinction in the Anthropocene. Overall, this dissertation portfolio explores this topic via genetic and genomic data, international policy, big data analytics, human values, and the performing arts. Chapter 1 analyzes the use of genetics and genomics in conservation, finding multiple case studies within and outside of peer-reviewed journals. Chapters 2 and 3 quantify and describe the use of genetic principles and tools in a global species extinction risk assessment, the IUCN Red List, and finds low overall use but high potential for genetics to …

Understanding The Effect Of Community Resources On Disability Employment In The Mountain West, Arin James Leopold

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examines the relationship between community resources and disability employment rate in the Mountain West. It draws on the five categories of Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) as defined by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) (2020) to select community resource variables. The determinants include: economic resources, health and health care, social and community context, infrastructure, and education. While there has been a good deal of work to understand how the SDOH can influence health outcomes, there has been little exploration of the influence that the SDOH has on employment outcomes for persons with disabilities (Frier …

Sediment Dynamics In The Magdalena River Basin, Colombia: Implications For Understanding Tropical River Processes And Hydropower Development, Luke H. Fisher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The Magdalena River Basin of Colombia has a globally relevant sediment flux, however, studies of the sediment regime in the basin are limited in scope. This knowledge gap limits application of understanding of sediment dynamics to hydropower decision making. To close this gap, we implemented a sediment budget framework to quantify the impacts of hydropower development in a 118,000 km² portion of the Magdalena River basin. We informed this framework with analysis of background erosion rates derived from ¹⁰Be cosmogenic nuclides and modern sediment fluxes derived from monitoring and optical remote sensing. We standardized these data to spatially …

Complicity And Climate Change, Shalomita Kristanugraha

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As individuals, how should we understand our personal complicity in climate change related harms? In this thesis, I argue that the predominant way we think of complicity within the Western moral paradigm—that is, as a distribution problem—is inadequate in helping us understand the nature of our complicity in climate change related harms. This inadequacy, in turn, psychologically hampers individual citizens residing in high-emitting nations of the Global North from effective and sustainable social and political engagement with climate change. To address the inadequacy and obstructions that result from it, I follow the discussion between Christopher Kutz and Iris Marion Young …

Change Is The Only Constant: A Snowpack Retention Analysis And Climate Vulnerability Road Map For The Skalkaho Creek Sub-Basin, Zachary Freeman Goodwin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Climate change is impacting the whole of North America, although the impacts differ depending on regional geography. In the Intermountain West, climate change is contributing to lower overall snowpack totals and diminished late season streamflows. These changes will likely contribute to vulnerabilities in how much water is available to irrigators, municipalities, and fisheries dependent upon a consistent yearly flow of meltwater. This paper explores how snowpack retention has changed via the NASA dataset Daymet, which provides gridded estimates of weather parameters including Snow Water Equivalent in the Bitterroot River Basin of western Montana. This analysis showed that snowpack retention from …

A Non-Representational Focus On Wilderness Affect, Mark Lane Douglas

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wilderness is integral to the fabric of American culture. With the National Wilderness Preservation System, America has a measure against which everyday life may be compared. But there remains concern over disconnection between members of society and wilderness. Nonrepresentational theory (non-rep) is a rich and recent style of scientific practice that holds potential. Non-rep places emphasis on habitual practices and everyday life. Those interested in human affection for and connection with wilderness and the outdoors may find non-rep intellectually and practically refreshing. One aspect of this study offers a macrostructural analysis of the levels, layers, and sub-layers on which non-representational …

Remote Sensing Approaches To Predict Forest Characteristics In Northwest Montana, Ryan P. Rock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Remote sensing can be utilized by land management organizations to save money and time. Mapping vegetation using either aerial photographs or satellite imagery and the applications for forest management are of particular interest to the Montana Department of Natural Resources. In 2018, the organization began a pilot program to test the incorporation of raster analysis of remotely sensed data into their inventory program and had limited success. This analysis identified two areas of improvement: the selection method of inventory plots and the imagery used for classification and metrics. This study found that selecting inventory plots using a generalized random tessellation …

"Black Colorism And White Racism: Discourse On The Politics Of White Supremacy, Black Equality, And Racial Identity, 1915-1930", Hannah Paige Mcdonald

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The following study unravels how Garveyite black nationalists, black integrationists, and Virginian white supremacists understood the race problem and its solution between 1915 and 1930. The racial identity and experiences of these three distinct groups, each informed how they understood the race problem and its solution. The divergent notions about the source of and solution to the race problem coalesced with colorism, sowing seeds of intraracial and interracial conflict and cooperation between the Garveyite black nationalists, black integrationists, and Virginian white supremacists as they navigated how to redress white supremacy and black equality. According to black integrationists and Garveyite black …

A Search For Community, Alexander Moore

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

I attempt to understand what is meant by community by grounding the analysis in Raymond Williams’ historical definition. From this, I work the criteria of community as described by Williams so to determine their precise meaning and primacy. I attempt to show why community must be small in size while arguing that humans are in a community with nonhumans. Building upon this move, I take up an argument for the role of place in community formation. This preceding inquiry is meant to prime an analysis of both virtue ethics and literature, specifically an application of Martha Nussbaum’s Central Capabilities to …

Shuttles In Wonderland: Assessing The Perceived Impact To Residents’ Quality Of Life Based On The Proposed Implementation Of A Voluntary Shuttle System In West Yellowstone, Mt, Carter Wyatt Bermingham

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As visitation to the national parks across the United States continues to increase, more and more park service units are exploring the possibility of implementing alternative forms of transportation to help mitigate some of the negative side effects associated with vehicle-related congestion issues. Although research efforts have examined the role of alternative transportation systems (ATS) in helping to improve the visitor experience in the national parks, fewer research efforts have focused on the impacts of these transportation systems on the affiliated gateway community, particularly with respect to the perceived impacts an ATS may have on quality of life in gateway …

The Role Of Experiential Learning In Developing Multicultural Competence, Kaoru Allison Powell

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Although much importance has been placed on training programs to develop multiculturally competent service providers, the question remains as to when and where clinicians acquire their multicultural competence (MCC). Currently, most training programs appear to focus on the development of multicultural awareness and knowledge, without adequate focus on skills. However, experientially based learning exercises are associated with skills development in many areas, including general clinical skills development. Thus, students who engage in higher levels of experiential learning in their multicultural training may rate themselves as more competent with multicultural skills than students with less frequent experiential learning. I hypothesize that …

Creating A Conservation Corridor In Coastal Ecuador: Constraints And Opportunities For Integrative Agroforestry, Lucille M.F. Rice

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Agroforestry has the potential to address land degradation and rural livelihood concerns resulting from tropical deforestation and has therefore become a popular tool for reforestation in conservation initiatives. However, these initiatives often lack the resources to implement an integrative approach to developing site-specific agroforestry systems, leading to undesirable outcomes such as lack of community support and unmet ecological objectives. This paper presents a case study of a conservation initiative implemented by the Ceiba Foundation for Tropical Conservation (CFTC) in the Ecuadorian province of Manabí. The CFTC is working with private landowners to establish a coastal conservation corridor through reforestation and …

Investigating Wildfire As A Catalyst For Community-Level Resilience, Lily J. Clarke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Protecting Biodiversity On National Forests: The Evolution And Implementation Of Forest Planning Regulations, Anna Wearn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In 2012, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) promulgated new forest planning regulations that significantly altered national forest management. One of the most controversial and important advancements was the inclusion of what were meant to be stronger biodiversity protections. An analysis of USFS’s rationale in revising the biodiversity regulations provides insights into how to interpret the substantively and procedurally new ecosystem and species protections. Examining this regulatory history reveals three key changes to the manner in which national forests are required to manage and monitor biodiversity: 1) a greater reliance on science to inform planning, 2) a new emphasis on ecological …

How The West Was Fun: Constructing The Western Tourism Experience In The Yellowstone Wylie Camps, 1880-1916, Jennifer E. Simpson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Worth A Dam: Glacier View And The Preservation Of Wild America, Shawn Patrick Bailey

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Conceived in the mid-1930s and formally proposed in 1943, the Glacier View Dam was an Army Corps of Engineers’ proposal for the North Fork of the Flathead River in northwestern Montana. This 416-foot tall dam would have provided inexpensive hydroelectric power to the region and helped control flooding on the volatile Columbia River watershed. Glacier View would also have flooded 20,000 acres of Glacier National Park, one of the “crown jewels” of the national park system. An ideologically diverse coalition of National Park Service officials, wilderness activists and outdoor recreation enthusiasts organized the defense of Glacier National Park and convinced …

Water For Fish And Farms: An Examination Of Instream Flow Programs In Montana Using Spatially-Explicit Water Rights Data, Anna Leigh Crockett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The state-level institutions governing water use in the western United States have increasingly come under pressure and scrutiny related to their inability to navigate water use conflicts in recent decades. Rapid population growth and shifting public values towards leaving water instream for recreational and environmental purposes pose challenges to Montana water supplies which are predominantly allocated for irrigated agriculture. Additionally, while water scarcity and unpredictable availability are not new dilemmas in Montana, the rate at which climate change is driving shifts in the distribution, timing, and availability of water supplies is unprecedented. Current water policies may not be nimble enough …

Descriptive Statistic Characteristics Study For Level 4 Frontier High Schools In Montana, Jacqueline May Gorshe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Frontier high schools in Montana have a degree of isolation that presents unique challenges setting them apart from their rural, and especially their urban, counterparts. Unfortunately, a one-size-fits-all approach hinders their voices being heard in professional development and policy decision making. This dissertation provides a profile of these high schools and their communities using four social determinants of health: education, access to health care, economics, and behavioral risk factors through mixed methods approach with descriptive statistics and high school principal survey responses. The results of this approach revealed frontier high schools have small class sizes and low teacher-student ratios, but …

Global And Regional Perspectives On Large-Landscape And Transboundary Conservation, Sanober R. Mirza

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

With the growing pressure of environmental degradation and exploitation to social and ecological landscapes around the world, conservationists are looking for new approaches to address the complex nature of transboundary issues. Large-landscape conservation supports conservation and management of ecosystems, wildlife, and resources in a more holistic approach that extends beyond protected area boundaries. Transboundary conservation, a distinct form of large-landscape conservation, operates across political and spatial scales by involving two or more countries cooperating to protect a border resource or ecosystem. Though the recognition of large-landscape and transboundary conservation is growing, there is limited understanding of trends across these types …

Tribal Consultation Policy And Practice:A Case Study Of The Confederated Salish And Kootenai Tribes And Nmisuletkʷ (The Middle Fork Of The Clark Fork River) As A Tribal Trust Resource, Jennifer J. Harrington

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Formal, government-to-government Consultation between sovereign nations is a process of continuous relationship-building, a partnership and an agreement made with all points-of-view included in the process, with results that have the fingerprint of all nations involved evident. The Federal Government is obligated to work with Federally-recognized Tribes as sovereign nations in matters that have or will impact each Nation’s people and places (reservations, treaty-protected areas)—a process legally known as Consultation. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as a federal agency, must uphold the Federal Trust responsibility which includes the act of Consulting with Federally-recognized Tribes on matters involving human health and the …

A Chip Off The Old Rock: An Investigation Of Hunter-Gatherer Lithic Behavior At Site 48pa551 Using The Field Processing Model, Emma Lydia Vance

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This research examines the lithic and raw material assemblage at site 48PA551, a McKean complex hunter-gatherer site in northwest Wyoming, through a lens of human behavioral ecology, central place foraging theory, and the field processing model. The identification of lithic technological patterns through this theoretical framework results in understanding the relationship between the landscape, hunter-gatherer behavior, and raw material procurement strategies in the region 4500 BP. The goal of this research is to identify economic decision making in reference to management of toolstone within the lithic assemblage uncovered at site 48PA551 during the 2018 field season. The expectation put forth …

Ethical Eating: Overcoming Alienation In The Industrial Food System By Aligning Our Practices With Our Principles, André Kushnir

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis arose out of a moment of discord, while an environmental philosopher was eating blackberries in the middle of a blizzard in Missoula, Montana. What follows is an attempt to bridge the gap between our principles and our practices, by asking the questions: What does ethical eating look like? Is it possible within our current industrial food system? and If not, what needs to change? Responding to the publication of the 2019 EAT-Lancet report, this essay moves beyond thinking of ethical eating as “healthy” and “sustainable” and challenges the networks of suffering and labour that we take for …

Characterizing Burn Severity Of Beetle-Killed Forest Stands Leveraging Google Earth Engine-Derived Normalized Burn Ratios, Sofronio Catalino Propios Iii

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Following numerous studies, a general consensus on burn severity in forests affected by bark beetle outbreaks has not yet been achieved. The purpose of this study is to characterize burn severities in forest stands affected by mountain pine beetle (MPB) outbreaks, especially in relation to “time since outbreak”, vegetation cover, and topographic factors. This study focuses on wildfires that occurred in the northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Montana during the 2012 fire season within forested areas that had previously experienced prior MPB outbreaks. Remote sensing techniques were used to quantify and compare the burn severities of MPB-outbreak stands with …

Alas, Poor Yorick: A Dna Analysis Of Ancestry Using Crania, Claire Hanson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Current methods for estimating ancestry in biological profiles provided to law enforcement and forensic collections rely heavily on the use of metric and non metric methods such as FORDISC 3.1 and “trait lists.” The reliance on these methods has led to inaccurate and ambiguous ancestry estimations, as many metric and non metric methods are subjective and cannot be statistically tested for error rates. As a result, forensic collections, such as the University of Montana Forensic Collection, could potentially house remains that have been inaccurately curated. In order to test the accuracy of curation in the UMFC, DNA samples were extracted …

Prioritizing Parcels For Conservation Easements Using Least-Cost Path Analyses Of Land Ownership: Case Study Within Theorized Grizzly Bear Migration Corridors Of Western Montana, Joseph H. Offer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As the world’s human population has grown and converted large natural habitats to human dominated landscapes, the planet’s biodiversity has decreased. To combat the loss of biodiversity from human development, many conservation professionals champion the concept of conservation corridors between intact habitats. Conservation corridors, made up of protected land, serve as a connection for wildlife populations to intermix genetics and, subsequently, help reduce the risk of extinction. The ideal geographic location of corridors is generally determined through geographic information system modeling using biophysical conditions and theorized animal movement. However, the resulting corridors are often expansive and protecting entire corridors is …

Synchrony: An Aspect Of The Abilities Of Steppe Horse Archers In Eurasian Warfare (525 Bce – 1350 Ce), Chris Hanson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Animals moving in unison as a group are quite intriguing to observe. Horses can run across terrain and change directions without jostling each other. They appear to move as if they know how to avoid crashing into others and run fluidly through their environment. This ability to maneuver without hindering herd is called synchrony and also extends to other animals including fish in schools and birds in flocks. Humans, on the other hand, need to create orderly formations in battle to move without interfering with adjacent warriors. For example, the Romans, Greeks, Persians, Chinese, and Byzantines trained their infantry and …

Measuring Development Across The Rural Urban Continuum In The United States Northern Rocky Mountain Region, Morgan E. Anderson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In recent years, the U.S. Northern Rocky Mountain Region has undergone a broad shift in landscape resulting in previously working agricultural, forestry, or other natural resource-based lands transitioning into residential and commercial development. Sprawl, exurban development, loss of crop and forest land have been identified as development concerns in the region. The region is unique because it is generally comprised of smaller metropolitan and micropolitan centers and highly dispersed rural towns making haphazard development issues a concern across the rural‑urban continuum. To identify and describe shifts in development patterns from 2001 to 2016, structural landscape metrics were used to measure …

Comparing Fence Modeling And Mapping Approaches To Support Wildlife Management And Research In Southwest Montana, Simon Albert Buzzard

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Fences pose significant challenges to wildlife movement, but their effects are difficult to quantify because fence location and fence type data are lacking on a global scale. We developed a fence location and density model in southwest Montana, USA to provide data to researchers and managers, and test whether previous models could be applied to a new region and retain suitable levels of statistical accuracy. Our model used local expert opinion to inform how road, land cover, and ownership spatial layers interacted to predict fence locations. We validated the model against fence data collected on random 3.2 km road transects …

Understanding And Measuring Net Positive Business Strategies, Luke Ruffner Robinson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite their attempts to mitigate ecological impacts through sustainability initiatives, businesses are a major cause of the world's ecological problems. Some progressive businesses are attempting to move beyond “net zero” in terms of achieving neutral environmental impacts and instead are now pursuing a goal of net positive. Net positive refers to the idea that business activities could contribute value-added benefits to earth’s ecological systems, for example, by using technologies that sequester and store carbon. However, except for a handful of high-profile corporate case studies, little is known about how companies are developing their strategies to become net positive and …

Resource Selection And Calving Success Of Moose In Colorado, Forest P. Hayes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Across much of North America, moose populations (Alces alces) are declining due to disease, predation, climate, and anthropogenic pressures. Despite this, populations of moose in Colorado have continued to grow. Studying successful (i.e., persistent or growing) populations of moose can facilitate the continued conservation of the species by identifying habitat features critical for moose persistence.

First, I evaluated calving success of moose in Colorado and the impact of willow habitat quality and nutrition. I then estimated the probability of female moose having a calf using repeated observations in a Bayesian occupancy model. I assigned values for dry matter …