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Full-Text Articles in Forest Sciences

Assessing Ecosystem Services From The Forestry-Based Reclamation Of Surface Mined Areas In The North Fork Of The Kentucky River Watershed, Kumari Gurung, Jian Yang, Lei Fang Oct 2018

Assessing Ecosystem Services From The Forestry-Based Reclamation Of Surface Mined Areas In The North Fork Of The Kentucky River Watershed, Kumari Gurung, Jian Yang, Lei Fang

Forestry and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Surface mining is a major driver of land use land cover (LULC) change in many mountainous areas such as the Appalachian region. Typical reclamation practices often result in land cover dominated by grass and shrubs. Assessing ecosystem services that can be obtained from a forest landscape may help policy-makers and other stakeholders fully understand the benefits of forestry-based reclamation (FRA). The objectives of this study are to (1) identify how surface mining and reclamation changed the LULC of a watershed encompassing the north fork of the Kentucky River, (2) assess the biophysical value of four major ecosystem services under the …


I-Tree Landscape: A Case Study In Best Practices For Education And Dissemination For Multiple User Groups, Margaret M. Abood May 2018

I-Tree Landscape: A Case Study In Best Practices For Education And Dissemination For Multiple User Groups, Margaret M. Abood

DePaul Discoveries

The urban ecosystems we inhabit provide essential ecosystem services to humans, such as air pollution removal, as well as effective means to avoid costs related to urban development, such as stormwater treatment. A better understanding of the value of ecosystem services and their spatial distribution in urban areas is vital to widespread, wholistic understanding of the relationship of environmental, economic, and social conditions. As such, it should be a component of education in grades 6-12, college, and continuing education. i-Tree Landscape is a free, online model developed by the USDA Forest Service in which users can select a geography (i.e. …


Assessing Ecosystem Services From The Forestry-Based Reclamation Of Surface Mined Areas In The North Fork Of The Kentucky River Watershed, Kumari Gurung Jan 2018

Assessing Ecosystem Services From The Forestry-Based Reclamation Of Surface Mined Areas In The North Fork Of The Kentucky River Watershed, Kumari Gurung

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes can take place at the expense of degrading environmental conditions and undermining ecosystem’s capacity to deliver benefits to people. In the Appalachian region, surface mining for coal is a major driver of LULC change. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977 requires mine site reclamation but typical reclamation practices often result in land cover dominated by grass and shrubs. The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) is a promising reclamation strategy but not in widespread use by industry. Assessing ecosystem services that can be obtained from a forest landscape may help policy-makers and …


The Three Creeks Allotment Consolidation: Changing Western Federal Grazing Paradigms, Taylor Payne Jan 2018

The Three Creeks Allotment Consolidation: Changing Western Federal Grazing Paradigms, Taylor Payne

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The federal government owns approximately 47% of all land in the western United States. In the state of Utah, about 64% of the land base is managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The government has historically issued permits to owners of private lands to allow the owners to graze their livestock on public lands. The permits (allotments) are generally of 10-year duration and allow for an annual season of use. In some cases, continued and repeated historical annual grazing practices may not be ideal for permit holders and their communities nor …


Smallholder Farmers, Environmental Change And Adaptation In A Human-Dominated Landscape In The Northern Highlands Of Rwanda, Apollinaire William Jan 2018

Smallholder Farmers, Environmental Change And Adaptation In A Human-Dominated Landscape In The Northern Highlands Of Rwanda, Apollinaire William

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Climate change and crop intensification are key challenges to the livelihoods and wellbeing of the majority of rural smallholder farmers in developing countries, particularly in human-dominated, climate-sensitive landscapes such as the northern highlands of Rwanda where issues of fluvial floods, soil erosion pose serious threats to the livelihoods of smallholder farmers. In this mixed methods study conducted between August and December 2015, I explored smallholder farmers’ perceptions by examining what barriers might hinder the process of agroforestry adoption by smallholder farmers, what socio-economic and physical factors and attitudes influence crop choices, motivations for smallholder farmers’ willingness to plant trees within …