Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons^™

Valuation Methods And Their Relevance In Achieving Marine Protected Areas Targets: A Systematic Review, Jacob Ankamah, Stephen Hynes, Daragh O'Leary

Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics

The prolific human-induced pressures on marine ecosystems leading to negative externalities such as beach erosion, biodiversity loss, and climate change are matters of global concern. Marine protected areas (MPAs) have emerged as a tool to conserve marine biodiversity and support human livelihoods. This paper reviews the global research landscape, the evolution of concepts and the relevance of valuation techniques related to the assessment of the contribution of MPAs to societal welfare. The review indicates that less than 3% of the wider MPA literature explores the economic valuation of MPA designation. Of those, there is an obvious preference for non-market-based methods …

Funding And Financing Mechanisms For Decarbonization At Higher Education Institutions, Emma Coopersmith, Dimitra Prassa, Alexander R. Barron

Environmental Science and Policy: Faculty Publications

A growing number of higher education institutions (HEIs) are decarbonizing their campuses, with thermal energy networks supported by ground-source-heat pumps (GSHPs) as the most common approach (Barron et al., 2025). The value proposition of these systems includes net savings on energy and maintenance, increasing occupant comfort, reducing air pollution and addressing deferred maintenance, guarding against future regulatory risk, providing education and research opportunities, and helping institutions meet climate goals. Despite the many benefits of decarbonization, funding and financing pose a significant challenge given the high upfront costs for GSHPs and building retrofits. “How will we pay for this?” is likely …

The Evolving Wildfire Crisis: The Need To Adapt Statewide Extension Efforts To Address Diverse Challenges, Alison L. Deak, Kathryn E. Low, Luca Carmignani, Ryan E. Tompkins, Barbara Satink Wolfson

Journal of Extension

There are many factors that contribute to wildfire preparedness in California. Although effective wildfire preparedness requires tailored regional approaches, it is crucial to understand how statewide Extension programs can address shared challenges while augmenting region-specific strategies. For the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network to meet the growing demands for fire-related Extension programming, a team of advisors surveyed California residents to refine the goals of our Extension programs. Survey results highlight key gaps in fire-related Extension education that residents in California and beyond need to reduce their wildfire risk.

From Innovation To Impact: Evaluation Of The Shape Accelerator Cohort, Iryna V. Lendel, Chloe Wieber

Upjohn Institute Technical Reports

The Solutions Hub for an Alternative Packaging Ecosystem (SHAPE), a Michigan-Ohio partnership operated by the Michigan State University Research Foundation as part of a National Science Foundation Regional Innovation Engine, co-funded a special cohort of the NextCycle Accelerator focused on sustainable packaging and circular economy ventures. This report evaluates how the accelerator contributed to firm-level advancement and ecosystem-level change, drawing on program data and interviews with participating companies, program facilitators, stakeholders, and SHAPE management.  Participants most consistently credited coaching, network connections, and the Pitch Showcase with meaningfully impacting their business trajectory, gaining market traction, advancing technology readiness, and gaining access …

Home On The Range: Where Deer And Antelope Compete With Feral Horses For Limited Resources, Katelyn Davies, Hannah B. Klugman, Kathryn A. Schoenecker, David C. Stoner

All Current Publications

Given projections for continued drought conditions in the West, a better understanding of how native wildlife respond to competition with feral horses will be critical for developing effective conservation programs in the future. This fact sheet provides information on feral horses and presents study data comparing their use of water resources with that of native wildlife.

Bathurst Burr And Its Control, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

Bathurst burr (Xanthium spinosum) is a declared pest in Western Australia (WA). This factsheet describes the nature of the plant, requirements land owners/occupiers must adhere to, control methods, and how to search, detect, and report it.

Bathurst burr is a summer growing annual shrubby plant originating in South America. In south west Australia, some mature plants survive well into winter, with the result that burrs may be found for most of the year. The weed spreads entirely by burrs, which are usually carried by people or animals, attached to clothes, fur, or other fibre by their hooked spines. They may …

Noogoora Burr And Its Control, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

Noogoora burr, also known as cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium), is a declared pest in Western Australia (WA). This factsheet describes the nature of the plant with links to requirements that land owners/occupiers must adhere to and control methods.

Native to western United States of America. Locally abundant in parts of the Kimberley, especially near water courses. Occasionally found in the South West region of WA.

Aligning Tenure With Institutional Values: Supporting And Rewarding Engaged Scholarship In College Tenure Policies, Sian Bareket, Alexander R. Barron, Abigail O’Meara, Charavee Basnet Chettri

Environmental Science and Policy: Faculty Publications

Scholars have described the current era as a polycrisis, with climate change overlapping and interacting with other social justice and environmental challenges. While the expertise and capacity housed in academia has tremendous potential to help society face these threats, scholars and others have long critiqued academia as too isolated from the practical problems of society and front-line communities. While engaged scholarship (ES) connects academia and real-world problems, tenure policies are usually designed to primarily reward “traditional” scholarship focused on journal articles and academic books. This study sought to investigate the contrast between higher education institutions’ publicly shared values aligned with …

Pathways For Coordinating High-Quality Exploitation Of Marine Resources And High-Level Protection Of Marine Ecosystems, Jianping Yin, Peimin Duan, Si Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The ocean serves as a vital strategic space and a reservoir of resources essential for human survival and development, offering robust support for socioeconomic progress. Simultaneously, as a critical component of the Earth’s ecological environment, the ocean plays a pivotal role in regulating climate change, conserving biodiversity, and maintaining ecological balance. In recent years, China has continuously intensified the exploitation and utilization of marine resources, with the growth of the marine economy injecting blue momentum into the nation’s development. Nevertheless, the long-term, high-intensity exploitation of offshore resources, coupled with the ongoing advancement into deep-sea resource development, has led to frequent …

Age Reassignment Using Luminescence Dating For The Mammoth Site, Black Hills, South Dakota, Usa, Shannon A. Mahan, Jim I. Mead, P.R. Hanson, Emma T. Krolczyk, Christopher N. Jass

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The Mammoth Site (MS) at Hot Springs, South Dakota, provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions on the Northern Great Plains of the United States. Previous radiocarbon analyses of mammoth bone apatite suggested the MS sinkhole was deposited ∼42–23 cal ka BP. However, two U-series ages and one thermoluminescence (TL) age ranged between 150 and 101 ka, suggesting the bones were considerably older. We analyzed six samples from the bone bed using infrared-stimulated luminescence (IRSL) on feldspars, because the quartz luminescence was saturated; the ages ranged from approximately 232 to 160 ka, showing better agreement with previous U-series and …

Mono Gold: An Informal Account Of The Geology, Production, And History Of Mono County Gold And Silver Mining Districts, D. D. Trent

Eastern Sierra History Journal

Mono Gold explores the mining production, technology, and history of the Eastern Sierra, with a special focus on Mono County. Author Dee Trent, a geologist, spent decades visiting, researching, and photographing each of the mining operations discussed in this book-length monograph.

Land Condition Standards For The Western Australian Nullarbor Pastoral Region, Peter-Jon A. Waddell, Wayne J. Fletcher

Natural resources published reports

This report outlines the quantitative land condition standards that define acceptable pastoral land condition for the Western Australian part of the Nullarbor, to meet the regulatory requirements of the Land Administration Act 1997 and the Soil and Land Conservation Act 1945.

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development is developing regional-level pastoral land condition standards for Western Australia as a critical component of the Framework for sustainable pastoral management – revised edition (Fletcher 2022), the purpose of which is to address the Office of the Auditor General’s recommendations to improve the management of pastoral lands in WA …

Prediction Of Pasture Condition In The Kimberley Rangelands Of Western Australia Using Simple Classification Tree Models, Ben Nestor, Kath Ryan, Charles Martin, Philip Thomas, Chris Hetherington, Matthew Fletcher, Robert Sudmeyer, Karyn Reeves

Natural Resources Research Articles

Pasture condition assessments assist pastoralists, regulators, and policy makers in making informed decisions around livestock production and the preservation of natural resources in the Kimberley rangelands of Western Australia (WA). Reliable qualitative assessments of pasture condition require assessors with extensive expertise, which means frequent and reproducible assessments can be difficult to achieve. To develop a quantitative approach that can complement existing qualitative assessment approaches in the Kimberley, we investigated the use of simple classification tree models to predict pasture condition using assessment data from the Western Australian Rangeland Monitoring System (WARMS). Quantitative traits were derived from WARMS observation data for …

Investigation Of Yy Production Methods For Invasive Channel Catfish Ictalurus Punctatus Population Management, Andrew M. Wisniewski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Aquatic invasive species are one of the leading causes of native fish declines in the Southwestern United States. Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus were introduced into the Colorado River Basin, including the San Juan River, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah for fishery enhancement during the 20th century. This introduction has contributed to the decline of native species and despite intensive mechanical removal efforts, the Channel Catfish population has persisted in the San Juan River. The Trojan Sex Chromosome approach is a promising eradication strategy that proposes the production and release of Trojan sex chromosome carriers (YY) to skew a targeted population’s …

Watersmart Farms - Desalination: Inventory And Analysis Summary, Ela Wendell, Abdulla Rasheed, Sharmina Begum, Vaibhav Patel, Goruck Soubans, John Ruprecht

Natural resources commissioned reports

The inventory and analysis report evaluates small-scale reverse osmosis (RO) desalination systems installed on farms and in regional communities across the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and Goldfields–Esperance regions of Western Australia. The study examined system performance, economics, energy consumption, water recovery, farmer adoption, and operational challenges to determine whether desalination is a practical solution for improving long-term water security.

This summary refers to the full report:

Ela, W., Rasheed, A., Begum, S., Patel, V., Soubans, G., and Ruprecht, J. (2025) WaterSmart Farms – Inventory and Analysis. A report to Water Corporation and Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development.

Available at …

Watersmart Farms - Desalination: Best Practice Study On Desalination In Agriculture Summary, V Ravisankar, W Ela, M Maharjan, J K. Ruprecht

Natural resources commissioned reports

The report reviews global and Australian best practices in agricultural desalination, with a strong emphasis on Western Australia. It evaluates desalination technologies, renewable energy integration, costs, and policy approaches to improve agricultural water security. The study concludes that desalination can play an important role in addressing freshwater scarcity, particularly where brackish groundwater resources are abundant and conventional freshwater supplies are unreliable.

This summary refers to the full report:

Ravisankar, V., Ela, W., Maharjan, M. and Ruprecht, J.K. (2025). WaterSmart Farms – Best Practice Study of Desalination in Agriculture. A report to Water Corporation and Department of Primary Industries and Regional …

A Community Planning Approach To Green Infrastructure And Hazard Mitigation, Kara Salazar, Daniel Walker, Carrie Mckillip

Journal of Extension

As communities seek to increase their resilience to climate change and natural hazards, integrating mitigation and adaptation solutions into local planning has become essential. Purdue Extension, the University of Illinois Extension, and Illinois–Indiana Sea Grant developed a program, funded by the Extension Disaster Education Network, which supports community-based updates to hazard mitigation and resilience planning, with an emphasis on green infrastructure. This paper highlights the lessons we learned after implementing the program in Hancock County, Illinois, and LaPorte, Indiana, and the toolkit we created, which provides engagement and education techniques, planning processes, and other resources to Extension professionals working in …

Ecological Gdp Of “Lucid Waters And Lush Mountains Are Invaluable Assets”, Wang Guangqian, Deyu Zhong

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Based on the concept of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”, this study investigates the theoretical connotation and accounting pathways of ecological GDP. (1) The core connotation of ecological value is elucidated from three dimensions—time, space, and civilization—and an economic quantification framework of principal–interest–interest rate is constructed. With four categories of ecological products as the foundation, the Green Certificate as the entitlement instrument, and a 5% annual simple interest rate as the accounting benchmark, ecological value is transformed from qualitative description to quantitative accounting. (2) The concept of ecological new quality productive forces is proposed, revealing its four-dimensional …

Planetary Health: Scientific Frontier For Harmonious Coexistence Between Humans And Nature, Zhu Yongguan, Jue Liu, Hua Zheng, Yaoyang Xu, Weiqi Zhou, Hongliang Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Against the backdrop of deeply intertwined global environmental change, biodiversity loss, and health risks, Planetary Health is emerging as a new interdisciplinary field that is gradually becoming the scientific frontier for understanding harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. This study systematically reviews the evolution of Planetary Health from the “Planetary Boundaries” theory to a comprehensive disciplinary framework. Through a paradigmatic comparison with concepts such as public health, global health, and One Health, it reveals that the core breakthrough of Planetary Health lies in redefining human health as an endogenous variable embedded within the stability of Earth’s natural systems. Three major …

How Important Is Clean Energy To Utahns?, Elizabeth Brunner, Stacia Ryder

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

Utah's energy mix has changed significantly over the past several decades as it has moved to cleaner forms of generation. For example, according to the Energy Information Administration, in 2024, coal fueled about 45% of Utah's total electricity net generation, down from 75% in 2015. As can be seen in the chart below, the state anticipates demand growth, with further reductions in coal alongside a significant increase in solar, storage, and natural gas by 2032. Though not represented in these charts, plans for nuclear power generation have been proposed in Brigham City as well as outside of Green River. Utah …

Geothermal Energy In Utah: A Safe Technology With Limited Environmental Impacts, Joseph Harding, Kendall Becker, Logan Mitchell, Jennifer Bodine, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

Geothermal energy has the potential to transform Utah’s electricity landscape, driving a future with improved air quality, lower carbon emissions, and fewer environmental impacts. In this fact sheet, we provide an overview of geothermal energy and its potential environmental implications in Utah. We highlight that recent geothermal projects in Utah do not use fresh water and that new well designs are expected to reduce the consumption of salty, brackish water. If these efforts are successful, geothermal energy would have lower water consumption, reduced seismic risk, and a similarly low land-use footprint compared to fossil fuel sources of electricity.

Managing Prairie Dogs On Agricultural Lands, Cory Farnsworth, S. Nicole Frey

All Current Publications

While prairie dogs are an important species in the region because their burrows provide shelter for many wildlife species, they are also preyed upon by many mammals and birds. However, because of the damage they can cause to cropping and range systems, their populations may occasionally need to be controlled. After you have identified which prairie dog species you are in conflict with and the scope of the damage, you will want to decide how to manage them. This fact sheet provides information on control options and the general ecology of the three prairie dog species in Utah.

Geothermal Energy In Utah: Massive Potential To Meet Growing Electricity Needs, Emily Labonty, Kendall Becker, Logan Mitchell, Jennifer Bodine, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

Including more geothermal energy in Utah's energy mix would help address issues of concern for many Utahns: poor air quality, climate change, and the need to support renewable energy research. Geothermal energy, heat from within the Earth, is a renewable energy source that can provide flexible, baseload electricity––like coal or natural gas––but without the climate-warming and polluting effects. This fact sheet provides information about geothermal energy, generating electricity from geothermal energy, and current geothermal projects in Utah.

Movement Ecology And Population Dynamics Of Box-Nesting Black-Bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna Autumnalis) In Louisiana, Katie E. Miranda

LSU Master's Theses

Understanding demographic and behavioral processes underlying population dynamics is essential for effective wildlife management, especially for species subject to harvest pressure or experiencing population shifts. Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks (Dendrocygna autumnalis) are currently undergoing a notable northward range expansion and are increasing in abundance across the southeastern United States, raising management concerns for both ecological and economic reasons. As a result, there is growing public support for a special Black-bellied Whistling-Duck-specific harvest season, yet little research has been conducted on this species, particularly within newly-established populations. To address this gap, I conducted this study with the goal of evaluating seasonal …

Effects Of Changing Fire Regimes On Black Huckleberry Habitat Suitability, Emily Labarge

University Honors Theses

Black huckleberries are a significant cultural, ecological, and economic species in the Pacific Northwest. Historically, black huckleberries were tended with cultural fire by Indigenous peoples, and now also hold importance as a resource in the non-timber forest product economy. Research has begun on the impacts of climate change on suitable black huckleberry habitat and on changing fire regimes, but not in relation to each other. To address this gap, I examined the area of overlap between suitable black huckleberry habitat and fire burn probability into mid-century climate projections. I determined the current ownership entities with management jurisdiction in areas with …

[2026 Honorable Mention] Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary, Daylyn R. Reese

Ethnic Studies Research Paper Award

This research offers unique insights into the creation and development of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary (N.M.S.) with a focus on indigenous populations’ roles (primarily Chumash and Costanoan). In this episode, I analyze what makes this NMS different from every NMS precluding it, how it recognizes a new goal in conservation (thrivability), and the areas in which improvements still must be made to authentically include and honor indigenous voices.

Western Kentucky University Stormwater Utility Survey 2026, Warren Campbell

SEAS Faculty Publications

In the U.S., more than 2200 stormwater utilities have been enacted. This year, we have expanded the survey to include stormwater utilities in other countries. Many of these stormwater assessments are called taxes, but if the assessment is recurring, is not an ad valorem tax, and is dedicated to stormwater purposes, we call it a stormwater utility. With the help of ChatGPT we have been able to identify 25 stormwater fees in Australia. We were also able to identify 3 in New Zealand, and some in Europe as well.

Gobbling Activity And Use Of Structural Habitat At Nest Sites By Wild Turkeys (Meleagris Gallopavo) In Western Nebraska, Robyn M. Dausener

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

Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) populations in Nebraska have declined substantially in recent years. Understanding gobbling chronology and its environmental drivers may inform spring hunting season structure and management actions. I used autonomous recording units (ARUs) in two ecologically distinct regions of Nebraska, the northwestern (NW) Pine Ridge landscape, and the southwestern (SW) agricultural landscape, to quantify gobbling activity from 2023-2025. I paired gobbling data with nesting chronology, cumulative daily hunting pressure, weather conditions, and moon phase using Bayesian generalized additive mixed models. Gobbling peaked during mid-to-late April in both regions, preceding peak nest initiation and incubation, with no …

Multimodal Machine Learning For Soil Burn Severity Mapping Across California Wildfires, Sanjana Checker

Master's Theses

Accurate mapping of soil burn severity (SBS) is critical for post-fire watershed management, erosion risk assessment, and ecological recovery planning, yet traditional field-based approaches remain costly, time-intensive, and spatially limited. This thesis presents a machine learning pipeline for wall-to-wall SBS classification across California wildfires using multi-sensor satellite imagery, terrain derivatives, and bioclimatic covariates. Field-collected SBS observations (n = 2,180) from 52 wildfires occur- ring between 2013 and 2025, sourced from the U.S. Forest Service and CAL FIRE, were used to train and evaluate multiple classification architectures within a Google Earth Engine and Google Cloud-based prediction framework. After upsampling the unburned …

Ecological Interest Theory Of “Lucid Waters And Lush Mountains Are Invaluable Assets” And Its Application In The Yellow River Basin, Guangqian Wang, Deyu Zhong

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

To address the core challenges of quantifying ecological value and converting it into economic gains, this study proposes a theoretical framework of ecological interest (EI) based on the principle that “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”. Three fundamental origins of ecological interest are explained, including the temporal value discount, the spatial ecological compensation, and the civilizational occupation-compensation balance. These three dimensions establish the logical connection between ecological and economic values. Setting a 5% annual simple interest rate as the benchmark and adopting “Lucid Waters and Lush Mountains” green certificates as the standardized ecological assets for property rights delineation …