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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Gis Look At Woody Plant Encroachment (Wpe): Mapping Grassland Degradation Through Habitat Succession, Brandon M. Wolf Jan 2023

A Gis Look At Woody Plant Encroachment (Wpe): Mapping Grassland Degradation Through Habitat Succession, Brandon M. Wolf

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

The grasslands of North America remain at a fraction of their historic range. Estimates of acreage remaining vary between 4% and 13%. Affectionately known as the Great Plains, these grasslands have been converted for agriculture, rangeland, infrastructure, and civilization itself. Woody Plant Encroachment (WPE) on the grasslands is a silent, often overlooked, serious threat. The use of a simple GIS can estimate current acreage of a grassland, its adjacent woodland corridor, riparian buffers, and predict future acreage based on trends and hypothetical management scenarios, or lack thereof. The American prairie, though a remnant of its former self, is still home …


Was The Grass Always Greener? Mapping The Historical Extent Of Grassland Ecosystems In The San Juan Islands, Kailey Marie Schillinger-Brokaw Jan 2023

Was The Grass Always Greener? Mapping The Historical Extent Of Grassland Ecosystems In The San Juan Islands, Kailey Marie Schillinger-Brokaw

WWU Graduate School Collection

The San Juan Islands, an archipelago in the Salish Sea between Vancouver Island and the Washington coast, are one of the few places native temperate grasslands are found in western Washington State. These ecosystems are important sources of biodiversity and support many rare and endemic species. In addition to their ecological importance, native temperate grasslands have profound cultural significance to the Coast Salish peoples who historically stewarded these landscapes using traditional land management practices-particularly fire-for the production of bulb crops such as common camas (Camassia quamash). Unfortunately, these ecologically and culturally valuable ecosystems have become rare, greatly impacted by the …