Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons^™

Report Card On Sustainable Natural Resource Use In The Rangelands: Status And Trend In The Pastoral Rangelands Of Western Australia, Department Of Agriculture And Food, Western Australia

Books & book chapters

This report card provides a regional overview of the status and trend of the natural resource base of the pastoral rangelands in Western Australia (WA). It covers the pastoral lease areas of the 2.2 million square kilometres of rangelands in WA (87% of the state). Pastoral leases cover 857 833km² or 40% of the rangelands, based on active leases as at June 2016.

The drivers of change in the rangelands — seasonal quality, grazing pressure and fire — interact and their effect is expressed in the condition and trends of natural resources used in pastoralism. The natural resource themes …

Agricultural Land Use, Watershed Characteristics, And Hydrological Forces Contributing To The Impairment Of A Shallow Lake In The Western Corn Belt Ecoregion, Lynn Schultz

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The Lake Titlow watershed (approximately 35,000 acres) in south-central Minnesota is part of the Minnesota River Basin. The lake is listed in the draft 2010 Clean Water Act Section 303d for nutrient pollution, eutrophication, and biological indicators for impairment of aquatic life and recreational use. Over 90 percent of pre-settlement wetlands are currently drained for agricultural land use. The Lake Titlow watershed is over 80 percent row crops and land use is implicated as a primary cause of impairment in the lake.

Water samples were collected from the Lake Titlow tributaries McLeod-Sibley Judicial Ditch Number 18 (JD18), Sibley County Ditch …

A Model-Based Assessment Of Potential Impacts Of Man-Made Reservoirs On Precipitation, Jesse Winchester, Rezaul Mahmood, William Rodgers, Faisal Hossain, Eric Rappin, Joshua D. Durkee, Themis Chronis

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Land-use land-cover change (LULCC) plays an important role in weather and climate systems. Human modifications of land cover include building reservoirs and thus creating artificial lakes for multipurpose use. In this research, the authors have completed a Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model–based assessment of impacts of two large parallel lakes on precipitation. This area is located in the western part of the states of Kentucky and Tennessee and known as the Land between the Lakes (LBL). To determine the impacts, this study has replaced the lakes with grass, deciduous forests, and bare soil and conducted model simulations for three …

The Effect Of The Dry Line And Convective Initiation On Drought Evolution Over Oklahoma During The 2011 Drought, Paul X. Flanagan, Jeffrey B. Basara, Bradley G. Illston, Jason A. Otkin

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Observations from the Oklahoma Mesonet and high resolution Weather Research and Forecasting model simulations were used to evaluate the effect that the dry line and large-scale atmospheric patterns had on drought evolution during 2011. Mesonet observations showed that a “dry” and “wet” pattern developed across Oklahoma due to anomalous atmospheric patterns. The location of the dry line varied due to this “dry” and “wet” pattern, with the average dry line location around 1.5∘ longitude further to the east than climatology.Model simulations were used to further quantify the impact of variable surface conditions on dry line evolution and convective initiation (CI) …

Droughtscape, Winter 2017, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

NDMC partners with Sioux tribes to build climate resiliency

Drought intensifies in some regions of U.S. in fall

Fire danger and sequoia deaths in third quarter

2016: Year in review

MENA region forums elicit

feedback from stakeholders

Tech pass-off in Tunisia

Midwest DEWS meetings build collaboration, relationships

Workshop links drought, socioeconomic impacts/p>

Drought center helps ranchers prepare for drought

Drought tourney in Nebraska goes low tech

Protocol For Surveying Bat Use Of Lava Tube Caves During Winter In Craters Of The Moon National Monument And Preserve, Version 1.0, Thomas J. Rodhouse, Kathleen Slocum, Todd Stefanic, Shawn Thomas, Meghan Lonneker, Gordon Dicus

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The mission of the National Park Service (NPS) is “to conserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment of this and future generations” (NPS 1999). To uphold this goal, the Director of the NPS approved the Natural Resource Challenge to encourage national parks to focus on the preservation of the nation’s natural heritage through science, natural resource inventories, and expanded resource monitoring (NPS 1999). Through the Challenge, 270 parks in the national park system were organized into 32 inventory and monitoring (I&M) networks.

The Upper Columbia Basin Network Inventory …

Protocol For Surveying Bat Use Of Lava Tube Caves During Winter In Craters Of The Moon National Monument And Preserve, Standard Operating Procedures, Thomas J. Rodhouse, Kathleen Slocum, Todd Stefanic, Shawn Thomas, Meghan Lonneker

United States National Park Service: Publications

Background

The Upper Columbia Basin Network I&M (Inventory and Monitoring) program and Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve are collaborating to monitor winter bat use in Arco Tunnel, which is a safely accessed cave in the northern portion of the monument that consistently has been found with the largest number of bats (~30/year) among the set of caves recently inventoried. The standard operating procedures documented here and the methods described in the associated protocol narrative will also be used to periodically inventory other caves within the monument and surrounding preserve as park resources and safety (winter environmental and …

Antibiotics And Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria In Coastal Plain Streams, Jason Duff

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Streams across the United States and globally are influenced by environmental contamination, including antibiotics, which enter streams due to widespread use and multiple pathways into the environment. Antibiotics are also likely to enter streams in mixture with other contaminants that alter the effects on aquatic organisms. Furthermore, antibiotic-resistant bacteria enter streams through similar pathways as antibiotics with implications for natural microbial communities. Therefore, understanding the presence and effects of antibiotic-contaminant mixtures and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in streams is important for resource management.

Chapter one describes an experiment that tested the hypothesis that the antibiotic tetracycline (TC) alone influences phytoplankton communities differently …

Response Of Amphibian And Invertebrate Communities To Wetland Mitigation In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Leah K. Swartz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Wetlands play a critical role in supporting freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem services, but human activities have resulted in large-scale loss and degradation of these habitats across the globe. To offset the decline of wetland area, mitigation wetlands are now frequently constructed, but their ability to replace the functions of natural habitats, including providing habitat for native fauna, remains uncertain. A recent highway reconstruction project in northwestern Wyoming caused impacts to and the destruction of multiple natural wetlands. To mitigate this loss, new wetlands were constructed along the highway corridor. To evaluate the performance of these created wetlands relative to reference …

Longevity Of Ponderosa Pine Fuel Reduction Treatments: A Legacy Of Research At Lick Creek Demonstration/Research Forest In Western Montana, Katelynn J. Bowen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In ponderosa pine ecosystems of the interior western United States, fuels reduction treatments are common, but the persistence of their effectiveness in mitigating fire behavior is poorly understood. We addressed this problem by analyzing ponderosa pine – Douglas-fir stands during more than two decades of response following fuel reduction treatments. An experiment at the Lick Creek Demonstration/Research Forest in western Montana was initiated in 1991 as a partnership between the USDA Forest Service and the University of Montana to evaluate tradeoffs among alternative cutting and burning strategies to reduce fuels and forest fire behavior while restoring historical stand structures and …

Sedimentation And Erosion Patterns Within Anabranching Channels In A Lowland River Restoration Project, Ivan Medel

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Phase 2A of the Salt River Ecosystem Restoration Project (SRERP) was implemented to increase transport efficiency of water and sediment through a low gradient river reach to alleviate flooding on adjacent properties. The SRERP utilizes a unique anabranching channel design that concentrates base flows within a single deep, narrow channel overflowing onto an alternating series of higher elevation active benches at flood stages. This paper investigated the performance of the project’s hydraulic conveyance and general utility of anabranching channels as a restoration alternative by assessing the distribution and magnitude of deposition and erosion response patterns.

Aggradation was not observed within …

Social Justice In Social-Ecological Systems: Resilience Through Stakeholder Engagement, Frederick I. Lauer

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Successful management of social-ecological systems (SES) is predicated on quality collaborative exchanges between project stakeholders and management. The Southwest Crown of the Continent Collaborative (SWCC) Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) provided an opportunity to explore landscape scale collaborative management and SES outcomes. Global change and future uncertainty of landscapes prompted the SWCC to employ restoration treatment alternatives throughout 1.4 million acres of forests, most of which are publicly held. The SWCC currently monitors environmental and economic variables, with plans to monitor social variables. This thesis formalizes a proposed framework to investigate SES resilience, and explores public engagement as an …

Fire Management Provisions In Federal Wilderness Law, Erik D. Alnes

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Potential For Asymmetric Competition Among Co-Inhabiting Invasive Silver Carp And Native Shad Species In The Lower Midwest, Dalton D. Lebeda

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, Silver Carp are an invasive voracious planktivorous fish that are capable of competing with many native fish species. Until the last decade, very little was known about how Silver Carp would interact with native fish species or how quickly their populations would expand. In the early 2000’s, established Silver Carp populations were reported in Kentucky Lake although they were reported in the Tennessee River much earlier (1987). Kentucky Lake is the first large flood storage reservoir that has been invaded by a reproducing population of Silver Carp in the United States. To date, control measures for …

Evaluation Of Gamebird Use And Thermal Characteristics Of Alfalfa And Perennial Grasses In Eastern South Dakota, Neal P. Martorelli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The northern Great Plains provide critical breeding habitat for waterfowl and gamebirds in the United States. Peak commodity prices in the late 2000s resulted in increased agricultural production and large-scale conversions of grassland habitat to monoculture row crops. However, recent declines in commodity prices have created a renewed interest for private landowners to diversify crops and enroll in government subsidized conservation programs that convert idle grassland and unproductive cropland to wildlife friendly perennial grassland plantings. Exploring alternative grassland restoration techniques can improve the efficiency of management practices to benefit future wildlife habitat and productivity on both public and private lands. …

Human Dimensions Of Habitat Loss In The Plains And Prairie Potholes Ecoregion, Lily A. Sweikert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Plains and Prairie Potholes Ecoregion (PPPE), is located in the north-central contiguous United States and is one of the most imperiled grassland regions in the world. Most of the region is privately owned and used for the production of agricultural commodities. In addition to its direct benefits to humanity, the PPPE provides multiple ecosystem services including, soil and water quality improvements, carbon sequestration, weather amelioration, and wildlife habitat. Recent increases in expansion of row crop agriculture concerns conservation practitioners about the long-term integrity of the PPPE. Conservation practitioners are looking to improve their private landowner conservation initiatives in the …

Assessment Of Watershed Condition And Vulnerability To Forecasted Land-Use/Land-Cover Change In The Northwestern Great Plains Of Western South Dakota, Aaron Suehring

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A projected increase in global population by mid-century will likely further intensify agricultural practices given future demand for food, increasing the strain on the nation’s aquatic resources. Extensive water quality monitoring will be important in agriculturally dominated regions. The main objectives of this effort were to develop an approach to assess watershed condition and watershed vulnerability to land-use/landcover (LULC) change under multiple scenarios of future development. We used U.S. EPA’s Analytical Tools Interface for Landscape Assessment (ATtILA) to analyze landscape spatial data to determine the condition of wadeable, perennial stream watersheds in the Northwestern Great Plains level III ecoregion of …

Evaluation Of The Deadwood Bighorn Sheep Herd Translocation, Ty J. Werdel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From 2015-2017, we evaluated a newly established bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) herd in the Deadwood Region of the Black Hills, South Dakota. Our objectives were to 1a) determine annual survival rates, 1b) determine cause-specific mortality, 1c) estimate population size, 2a) assess genetic diversity, 2b) assess disease prevalence, 3) evaluate movement patterns post-release, 4a) evaluate 3rd-order habitat selection, and 4b) estimate herbaceous biomass at foraging sites post-release of translocated bighorn sheep. In February 2015, we captured and translocated 26 bighorn sheep from the Luscar Mine near Hinton, Alberta, Canada to the Deadwood Region of the Black Hills, South Dakota. Overall annual …

Mountain Lion (Puma Concolor) Population Characteristics And Resource Selection In The North Dakota Badlands, Randy D. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mountain lions (Puma concolor) have significant ecological impacts on the ecosystems they inhabit, leading to both biological and social ramifications. Yet, due to the relatively recent natural recolonization by mountain lions of the Little Missouri Badlands Region of western North Dakota, detailed data regarding many aspects of this population have been lacking. Therefore, we studied mountain lions occupying the Badlands Region to improve our understanding of mountain lion population ecology, resource selection, and occurrence in North Dakota. Our objectives were to: 1) improve the accuracy of home range size, subadult movement, and survival estimates of mountain lions in …

Measuring Aquatic Organism Responses To Grassland Restoration: Does The Field Of Dreams Really Exist?, David A. Schumann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Landscape homogenization and the degradation of riparian areas has greatly impaired stream ecosystems throughout North America. Conservation programs may repair riparian ecosystems to indirectly improve water quality and instream habitat heterogeneity in hopes to elicit biological responses. However, focused manipulations on isolated stream fragments have rarely achieved biological goals. Prairie streams with restored riparian areas were appraised (chemical, physical, and biological variables) to quantify the indirect effects of prevalent grassland conservation practices on aquatic resources. Riparian rehabilitation, via passive methods, promoted bank-stabilizing vegetation along all conservation stream reaches. Riparian vegetation and function quickly recovered from previous agricultural disturbances at conservation …

A Statewide Assessment Of Drivers Influencing Biotic Integrity In Perennial, Wadeable Prairie Streams Of South Dakota, Lyntausha Kuehl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biological assessments are used to evaluate the biotic integrity of a system. Great Plains prairie streams are harsh environments due to variable climate, topography, vegetation, and human development. This presents a challenge to water resource managers who must detect impairment and determine causation. The objectives of this study were: 1) to develop a macroinvertebrate Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) for the Northwestern Great Plains (NWGP) and compare it to an existing Northern Glaciated Plains (NGP) IBI, and 2) to identify and evaluate statewide abiotic drivers of biotic integrity. The IBIs were hypothesized to differ regionally, as were abiotic drivers explaining …

Biotic Integrity In The Northwestern Great Plains And Mechanisms Regulating Stream Condition In South Dakota, Chad Kaiser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic disturbance of streams can alter biotic integrity in various ways. Some degradation is easy to classify and monitor, others such as habitat impairment may be less easy to quantify. The Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) is a unique method of assessing the aquatic health of an ecosystem. Beginning in 2010 the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources (SD DENR) began implementing biological monitoring on wadeable streams by developing an IBI for the Northern Glaciated Plains ecoregion in eastern SD (Krause et al. 2013). Prior to this survey the condition of the majority of SD’s streams was unknown. …

Dynamics Of Wild Red Raspberry (Rubus Idaeus L.) And The Influence On Tree Regeneration Within Silvicultural Openings In A Northern Hardwood Stand, Matthew J. Widen

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Previous studies have investigated how the abundance of raspberries (Rubus idaeus L.) impacts tree regeneration, but few have linked these impacts to location within canopy openings with a legacy tree. To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated the presence, abundance, and location of raspberries within openings containing legacy trees and the resulting impacts on tree regeneration. During the winter of 2003, 49 openings were created of three sizes: small, medium, large and 20 reference single-tree selection sites in a northern hardwood stand in Ford Forest near Alberta, Michigan. Tree regeneration and vegetative species cover were recorded in 2005 and …

Nebraska Public Water Supply Program Summary Report 2017

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality: Reports

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the Public Water System Supervision (PWSS) Program under the authority of the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). Under the SDWA and the 1986 Amendments, EPA sets national limits on contaminant levels in drinking water to ensure that the water is safe for human consumption. These limits are known as Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs) and Maximum Residual Disinfectant Levels (MRDLs). For some regulations, EPA establishes treatment techniques in lieu of an MCL to control unacceptable levels of contaminants in water.

2017 Nebraska Groundwater Quality Monitoring Report

Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality: Reports

The 2001 Nebraska Legislature passed LB329 (Neb. Rev. Stat. §46-1304) which, in part, directed the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality (NDEQ) to report on groundwater quality monitoring in Nebraska. Reports have been issued annually since December 2001. The text of the statute applicable to this report follows: “The Department of Environmental Quality shall prepare a report outlining the extent of ground water quality monitoring conducted by natural resources districts during the preceding calendar year. The department shall analyze the data collected for the purpose of determining whether or not ground water quality is degrading or improving and shall present the …

Coral Gardening: Issues And Challenges, Michelle Z. Reyes, Darwin J. C. Raymundo, Sameen J. Rizwan, Wilfredo Y. Licuanan

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Coral gardening is the process of restoring cover of a damaged reef by affixing live coral fragments. This method of reef rehabilitation has been gaining popularity in the Philippines, and while it has its applications, it should be the last option for bringing a reef back to a healthy state. Proper management of reef resources through marine protected areas, removal of stressors, and easing of fishing pressure provides a broader and more holistic approach while allowing the reef to recover by itself. If coral gardening is the only viable option available for rehabilitating a certain reef, careful consideration must be …

Information Technology Approaches To Forest Management, Mary Snow, Richard Snow

Publications

The majority of the world’s forests occur where there is a dry season long enough to affect a seasonal change in the forest community. The seasonal forest may include evergreen, semi-deciduous, deciduous trees, or some combination of these. Local differences in soil or other site characteristics often determine which community persists. Since the seasonal forests exist where there is seasonal precipitation, the character of the forest is closely associated with the length of the rainy season. As the length of the rainy season decreases, the density of the canopy decreases. If the global climate system warms and prolonged drought gives …

Ecophysiological Responses Of Native Invasive Woody Juniperus Virginiana L. To Resource Availability And Stand Characteristics In The Semiarid Grasslands Of The Nebraska Sandhills, Joseph Msanne, Tala Awada, N. M. Bryan, Walter H. Schacht, Rhae A. Drijber, Y. Li, X. Zhou, Jane A. Okalebo, David A. Wedin, James R. Brandle, J. Hiller

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Vegetation in grasslands is changing at an unprecedented rate. In the Nebraska Sandhills, this shift is attributed in part to encroachment of the woody species Juniperus virginiana. We investigated changes in resource availability and their feedback on seasonal trends in photosynthetic characteristics of J. virginiana trees scattered in open grasslands vs. a dense 57-year-old stand. Dense stand exhibited lower volumetric soil water content, NH₄ ⁺, NO₃ ^–, and δ¹³C, as well as foliage δ¹³C, δ¹⁵N, and N content, compared to grasslands. Water potential was higher in trees in grasslands …

An Evaluation Of U.S. National Wildlife Refuge Planning For Off-Road Vehicle Use, Robert L. Fischman, Vicky J. Meretsky, Katie Freeman, Alexi Lamm, Leah Missik, Scott Salmon

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Off-road vehicles (hereafter, ORVs) rank high among public-land management challenges because they are popular, often impair environmental conditions, and may cause conflicts with other recreational users. Unit-level planning for federal lands increasingly translates broad, system-wide objectives, such as maintenance of ecological integrity, into place-based limitations on ORV use to minimize and mitigate adverse impacts on wildlife. We reviewed 176 planning documents covering 313 National Wildlife Refuges (hereafter, Refuges) to understand how planning supports or undermines ORV recreation management. These plans offer an important perspective on ORV management because the Refuges are a large, diverse system of conservation lands where recreation …

Dam Removal In The Usa: Effects On River Water Quality, Michael A. Kruge

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Dam removal decisions should ideally be made after a thorough cost-benefit analysis. If dam obsolescence, structural safety, harm to fisheries, maintenance costs, and reservoir eutrophication are among the primary concerns, decommissioning would likely be favored. On the other hand, dams provide considerable benefits including water storage for agricultural and urban consumption, renewable electricity generation, support of navigational canal systems, flood control, and lakes for recreation. Because of these competing factors and interests, dam removal decision-making in the United States is often a slow process fraught with controversy, as in the case of the Klamath River.

Dams provided mechanical water power …