International and Area Studies Commons^™

Review Of Floods, Droughts, And Climate Change By Michael Collier And Robert H. Webb, Merlin P. Lawson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

For any of us over the age of fifty, the weather has noticeably changed in our lifetime. Meteorologists, hydrologists, and climatologists have concentrated their efforts on assessing climate variations to a much greater degree than during the first half of the twentieth century. Thus the weather we perceive as changing apparently is changing, or at least we are becoming more aware of the forcing mechanisms associated with change. This book introduces the layperson to the basic fundamentals associated with the occurrence of two forms of natural disasters, floods and droughts, and to the potential influence of a changing climate on …

Fishes Of The Missouri National Recreational River, South Dakota And Nebraska, Charles Berry, Jr., Bradley Young

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Two sections of the Missouri River, one extending 94 km downstream from Gavins Point Dam, and the other extending 62 km downstream from Fort Randall Dam, are legally designated as National Recreational Rivers. An ichthyofaunal list and fish habitat data were needed for conservation planning by states and federal agencies (e.g., National Park Service). We collected fish during three summers from four macrohabitats, using five fish collection techniques, and measured fish habitat characteristics. Temperature, conductivity, and turbidity varied little, but substrate, depth, and velocity differed among macrohabitats (e.g., depth and velocity in the channel exceeded those elsewhere; sand dominated the …

Parents’ Perceptions Of Wraparound Services In Lancaster County, Nebraska, Paul Mooney, Gregory Benner

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The role of parents in wraparound mental health systems of care for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders is evolving. The purpose of the present study was to identify variables that impact parents' perceptions of systems of care. Parents in a countywide system of care (N = 213) were surveyed to determine their perceptions of barriers to effective services and service priorities. Parents identified the ability to pay for services, long waiting lists and periods, and lack of information about community services and resources as their top barriers. Respondents indicated services coordination, mental health outreach, and mentoring programs were their …

Review Of Ranching West Of The Iooth Meridian: Culture, Ecology, And Economics Edited By Richard L. Knight, Wendell C. Gilgert, And Ed Marston, Ann Hild

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Ranching West of the l00th Meridian provides a diverse array of perceptions of ranching in western states. The authors of its seventeen essays describe ranching culture, ecology, and economics, while omitting extremist approaches to western land management. Intentionally absent are the preservationists who suggest removing ranching from western rangelands and those who would remove all land from the public domain. This selection attempts to unite concerned users of western lands and to present in a fair way less vocal western land stewards, the "radical center." What remains is a refreshing variety of authors committed to sustainable rangeland use that includes …

Review Of Roadside Geology Of Nebraska By Harmon D. Maher Jr., George F. Engelmann, And Robert D. Shuster, Rex Buchanan

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Like many of the fly-over states, Nebraska suffers from a bad reputation when it comes to scenery. But the Sand Hills of northwestern Nebraska are one of the most stark, yet entrancing landscapes in the country. The Platte, the Missouri, and the Niobrara are great places to see river systems at work. Nebraska's Cretaceous rocks and Oligocene-Pleistocene sediments have produced classic vertebrate fossils that grace museums in Nebraska and throughout the world.

The roadside geology series, published by Mountain Press, has helped introduce a large, generally non-geological audience to the rocks and fossils of many states. This addition to the …

Review Of Plants Of The Lewis And Clark Expedition By H. Wayne Phillips, Alfred Schuyler

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Since the publication of Lewis and Clark: Pioneering Naturalists by Paul Russell Cutright in 1969 and the arrival of the expedition's bicentennial, more and more people are interested in the botanical results of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The combined efforts of explorer Meriwether Lewis and botanist Frederick Pursh provided the foundation of our knowledge of the flora of western North America as well as the earliest portrayal of western plants as botanical art. Despite all the ordeals of the expedition, Lewis managed to collect specimens of about eighty currently recognized plant species that were described as new to science …

Review Of Prairie Peddlers: The Syrian-Lebanese In North Dakota By William C. Sherman, Paul Whitney, And John Guerrero, Philip M. Kayal

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This remarkable ethnographic study of the Syrian-Lebanese in North Dakota is unique. The data and information are original, never mind that the voices heard are nearly those of the early settlers, certainly those of their children. The authors use the records of the late 1930s (early 1940s) Federal Writers Projects and the Works Progress Administration to understand the reasons for Arab migration to North Dakota and the Great Plains, their employment practices, life styles (marriage patterns, culinary habits), and religious traditions, their distribution, settlements, institutions (or lack thereof), and finally their near total assimilation.

If it were homesteading that attracted …

Review Of The Bizarre Careers Of John R. Brinkley By R. Alton Lee, Bob Mccoy

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

R. Alton Lee has produced an engaging book that details the full life of John R. Brinkley. As someone interested in quackery in the US, I already knew Brinkley as an exemplar of this genre, but there is much more to him. He was a complex man who carried many labels, some contradictory: quack, caring healer; devoted family man, liar and con-man; would be Governor, community booster, and radio station entrepreneur, the latter as a way to promote mail-order sales of his medical remedies and also to draw in patients to his hospital.

Lee's biography is an informative and entertaining …

Review Of Native Voices: American Indian Identity And Resistance Edited By Richard A. Grounds, George E. Tinker, And David E. Wilkins, Beth R. Ritter

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

From our current vantage point, the true legacy of Vine Deloria Jr.'s scholarship and activism can neither be fully measured nor overstated. We know with certainty, however, that the landscape of Native American scholarship has been permanently altered-for the best. Native Voices honors Deloria's contributions through the presentation of original Native scholarship inspired by his model. As its editors observe, "Deloria has influenced a whole generation of younger Indian scholars to be self-consciously indigenous thinkers-to reclaim an American Indian intellectual tradition, along with a political activism rooted in the oral traditions of our peoples and the wisdom of our elders …

Review Of Lynching In Colorado, 1859-1919 By Stephen J. Leonard, Jesse T. Moore Jr.

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The term lynching likely conjures up in the minds of most Americans images of robed and hooded white men in the states of the Old Confederacy taking the law into their own hands to punish black males accused of violating white womanhood. Groups known as Regulators "enforced the law" in South Carolina as early as 1790. Lynching remained a form of punishment in Southern states until well into the twentieth century, despite the fact that most residents of the region frowned upon it.

Judge Lynch's powerful ghost prowled Colorado for more than half a century, "in part because he could …

Canada's Campaign For Immigrants And The Images In Canada West Magazine, Laura A. Detre

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

One of the major challenges that Canadian government officials felt they faced at the end of the nineteenth century was the development of the prairie West. By this time there were large urban centers in eastern Canada, but many Canadians worried that they had not truly ensured the future existence of their country. They hoped that filling the middle, the province of Manitoba and the region that would become the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, with prosperous, white, family farmers would support the industrialized cities of the East. To do this the government engaged in a systematic program to encourage …

"This Strange White World" Race And Place In Era Bell Thompson's American Daughter, Michael K. Johnson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Aboard a train heading out of Minneapolis toward frontier North Dakota, Era Bell Thompson in her autobiography American Daughter (1946) describes a landscape that grows steadily bleaker with each mile farther west: "Suddenly there was snow-miles and miles of dull, white snow, stretching out to meet the heavy, gray sky; deep banks of snow drifted against wooden snow fences .... All day long we rode through the silent fields of snow, a cold depression spreading over us." Thompson's realistic winter landscape descriptions also allegorically represent the social situation of herself and her family. The phrase "this strange white world," which …

Nesting Biology Of Three Grassland Passerines In The Northern Tallgrass Prairie, Maiken Winter, Douglas H. Johnson, Jill A. Shaffer, W. Daniel Svedarsky

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Basic nesting information on grassland passerines is needed for improving grassland bird management. Among the information needs are (1) the suitability of nesting habitat, (2) periods during the breeding season in which birds are most vulnerable to disturbances, and (3) how to fit grasslands into a priori- tization scheme for conservation. Comparisons of nesting parameters among grassland species will help identify important management considerations. We describe and compare nest-site characteristics, nesting phenology, clutch size, hatching and fledging success, and brood parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) for three grassland passerine species nesting in tallgrass prairie of northwestern Minnesota …

Nutrient Reserves Of Lesser Scaup (Aythya Affinis) During Spring Migration In The Mississippi Flyway: A Test Of The Spring Condition Hypothesis, Michael Anteau, Alan Afton

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The continental scaup population (Lesser [Aythya affinis] and Greater [A. marila ] combined) has declined markedly since 1978. One hypothesis for the population decline states that reproductive success has decreased because female scaup are arriving on breeding areas in poorer body condition than they did historically (i.e. spring condition hypothesis). We tested one aspect of that hypothesis by comparing body mass and nutrient reserves (lipid, protein, and mineral) of Lesser Scaup at four locations (Louisiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and Manitoba) between the 1980s and 2000s. We found that mean body mass and lipid and mineral reserves of females …

Does Presence Of Permanent Fresh Water Affect Recruitment In Prairie-Nesting Dabbling Ducks?, Gary Krapu, Pamela Pietz, David Brandt, Robert Cox Jr.

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

In the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of North Dakota, USA, American mink (Mustela vison) are a major predator of ducklings. Mink populations plummet during severe droughts, but some mink survive where permanent fresh water is available. In 1992–1993, we evaluated whether development of a permanent water body, the 125- km McClusky Canal (MC), had affected survival of gadwall (Anas strepera) and mallard (A. platyrhynchos) broods and ducklings in surrounding wetland complexes. Twelve of 25 radiomarked gadwall and mallard hens experienced total brood loss, and 148 of 199 radiomarked ducklings from 58 broods died by …

Transmission Of Neospora Caninum Between Wild And Domestic Animals, L. F. P. Gondim, M. M. Mcallister, N. E. Mateus-Pinilla, W. C. Pitt, L. D. Mech, M. E. Nelson

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

To determine whether deer can transmit Neospora caninum, brains of naturally infected white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were fed to 4 dogs; 2 of these dogs shed oocysts. Oocysts from 1 of the dogs were tested by polymerase chain reaction and found to be positive for N. caninum and negative for Hammondia heydorni. The internal transcribed spacer 1 sequence of the new strain (designated NC-deer1) was identical to N. caninum from domestic animals, indicating that N. caninum is transmitted between wild and domestic animals, often enough to prevent divergent evolution of isolated populations of the parasite. NC-deer1 …

Analyis Of Predator Movement In Prairie Landscapes With Contrasting Grassland Composition, Michael L. Phillips, William R. Clark, Sarah M. Nusser, Marsha A. Sovada, Raymond J. Greenwood

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Mammalian predation influences waterfowl breeding success in the U.S. northern Great Plains, yet little is known about the influence of the landscape on the ability of predators to find waterfowl nests. We used radiotelemetry to record nightly movements of red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) and striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis) in two 41.4-km² study areas in North Dakota. Study areas contained either 15–20% grassland (low grassland composition) or 45–55% grassland (high grassland composition). Grasslands included planted cover, pastureland, and hayland. We predicted that the type and composition of cover types in the landscape would influence both predator …

The Doha Round - 2004 Version, Clayton K. Yeutter

Clayton K. Yeutter, United States Secretary of Agriculture: Papers

Thank you, Sherman Katz. It is a pleasure always to participate in this CSIS Seminar, which is becoming an annual reunion for former USTRs. Trade is always on the front burner of world affairs, but that burner is especially hot at the moment! And it is as hot here in the U.S. as it is anywhere. So let's turn to the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, and see where we stand.

Animal Bones From Sondum (27012) Sandoy, Faroe Islands 200 Season Collection, Thomas H. Mcgovern, Seth Brewington, Sophia Perdikaris, Colin Amundsen

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

Introduction

This paper reports on analysis of animal bones collect in 2000 by the Faroese Museum from a stratified but eroding beach front cliff in on the island of Sandoy. The site designation is Sondum, 27012 and the bone materials have been kindly sent to the CUNY laboratories for analysis by the excavator Simun Arge. While conditions of bone preservation are not as good as at the Undir Junkarinsfløtti locality to the SW across the embayment, and sample size is much smaller, a substantial amount of bone was recovered from datable which adds to our understanding of early economic patterns …

Preface

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Aldo Leopold, who spent much of his adult life in Wisconsin, observed the prairie's loss in A Sand County Almanac as he passed by a lone Silphium growing in a Sauk County cemetery: "What a thousand acres of Silphiums looked like when they tickled the bellies of the buffalo is a question never again to be answered and perhaps not even asked."

Wisconsin has a strong environmental legacy. The writings and conservation efforts of individuals, such as John Muir and Aldo Leopold, have deep Wisconsin connections. Prairie studies and restoration experiments, begun by botanists John Curtis and Henry Greene in …

The Seed Bank Of A Reconstructed Prairie, Thomas R. Rosburg, Meredith Owens

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Seed banks, the reserve of viable seeds dormant in the soil, function in several important roles in the population and community dynamics of plant communities. Identification of the seed bank can furnish information on the vegetation history of a habitat, predict the future composition of the plant community, and provide insight on the seed viability and biology of plant species. Although seed banks of prairie ecosystems have been well studied, very little information exists on seed banks of reconstructed prairie. Identification of seed bank populations of reconstructed prairie provides a means to evaluate the success of restorations and establishes baseline …

White-Tailed Deer (Odocoileus Virginianus Zimmermann) Browsing Effects On Quality Of Tallgrass Prairie Community Forbs, Roger C. Anderson, Debra Nelson, M. Rebecca Anderson, Marcia A. Rickey

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

We examined the effect of white~tailed deer (Odocoiieus virginianus Zimmermann) browsing on community quality of tallgrass prairie forbs at a site in northeastern Illinois over a period of ten years (1992- 2001). Deer densities in the study area varied from 32- 50 km^-2 (83- 130 deer mi^-2) between 1992 and 1997 and declined to 7- 9 km^-2 (18- 23 mi^-2) following initiation of hunting. In a plot protected from deer browsing, abundances of browse-sensitive species increased and unpreferred and browse~tolerant species decreased. Community quality of forbs measured with a new index, Weighted Mean …

Grassland Bird Use Of Crp Fields That Differ By Age-Class And Cover Type, Kristel K. Bakker, Sarah L. Eggebo, Kenneth F. Higgins, David E. Naugle

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

During the past 50 years increasing agricultural practices have transformed native habitats into row~crop fields, making the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grass lands important habitat for wildlife populations. Limited information exists on how nongame grassland bird species relate to different stand ages and cover types of Conservation Reserve Program. Conservation Reserve Program grassland study sites (n = 42) were stratified by stand age (old [10-13 years] and new [0-3 years] grasslands), and cover types (CPI-cool-season grasslands and CPZ-warm-season grasslands) in eastern South Dakota. Field age rather than cover type was more predictive of grassland bird occurrence and density. Sedge wrens …

Impacts Of Agricultural Tillage On Grassland Birds In Western South Dakota, Julie R. Dejong, David E. Naugle, Kristel K. Bakker, Frank R. Quamen, Kenneth F. Higgins

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Xeric, mixed-grass landscapes are changing rapidly as native grasslands are converted to cropland. We surveyed birds to compare their use of grassland and cropland habitats and to evaluate whether their abundances were related to grassland fragment size. Surveys were conducted in western South Dakota at 146 sites that were stratified by habitat type, landscape composition and fragment size. The abundances of 13 of 14 species were 1.2-140 times higher in grass- lands than in cropland. Greater prairie-chicken, sharp-tailed grouse, burrowing owl, Baird's sparrow, northern harrier, and short-eared owl never occurred in cropland. Abundances of grasshopper sparrow, western meadowlark and chestnut-collared …

Ant-Mound Effects On Two Adjacent Prairies: Virgin And Plowed, Johanna Foster

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Mound-building Formica ants may be important biotic factors within prairie restorations because mounds found in virgin prairies can exist for decades, with densities up to 1,148 mounds/ha (465 mounds/acre). Research on the effects of Formica ant mounds on a virgin and an adjacent restored prairie (treatments) was established in 2003 near Olathe, Kansas; and it was expected that percent soil moisture, soil bulk density, plant species' distributions, and percent plant cover would be significantly affected. Data were collected from active mounds (28 in virgin prairie, 21 in restored prairie), and from paired off-mound sites 1 m (3 .3 ft) north …

Beyond Ecology: Bugs Reveal The Deep Roots Of Grassland Ecoregions, K. G.A. Hamilton

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Northern grassland faunas that were most affected by glaciation, induced climate shifts include more than 225 endemic phytophagous bugs (leafhoppers and related insects, the Homoptera,Auchenorrhyncha) on Canadian plains, and another 275 in Pacific Northwest intermontane grasslands. These exceptionally rich endemic faunas include many insect,plant associations common to related species of bugs, suggesting adaptation to certain environmental factors that persisted over millions of years despite radical environmental changes induced by glacial advances and retreats. Smaller, but significant, endemic faunas of Homoptera,Auchenorrhyncha in other glaciated areas also reveal patterns of ancient ecological areas. Groups of these grassland,endemic bugs are common to grassland …

Influence Of Matrix Elements On Prairie-Inhabiting Curculionidae, Tenebrionidae, And Scarabaeidae In The Palouse, Timothy D. Hatten, Sandford D. Eigenbrode, Nilsa A. Bosque-Pérez, Sarah Gebbie, Frank Merickel, Chris Looney

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

It is well established that the invertebrate community in cropland under conservation-tillage (consT) is often enriched relative to the community under conventional-tillage (CT) systems. The question posed in this research is whether consT contributes to the maintenance of regional biodiversity and to the conservation of prairie-inhabiting species in agriculturally dominated landscapes that contain prairie remnants. During 2002, we sampled the grounddwelling beetle fauna of remnant Palouse prairie and surrounding cropland (under CT and consT) in the Palouse region of northwestern Idaho and southeastern Washington. Biological diversity of the representative taxa-Curculionidae (weevils), Tenebrionidae (darkling beetles) and Scarabaeidae (scarab beetles)-is significantly higher …

Could The Area-Sensitivity Of Some Grassland Birds Be Affected By Landscape Composition?, David Joseph Horn, Rolf R. Koford

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Several grassland bird species have been shown to be area sensitive. This area sensitivity occurs when a species' frequency of occurrence, or relative abundance, tends to be lower in smaller fields. The detection of area sensitivity, however, is not consistent among studies because a species may exhibit area sensitivity in one study, but not in another. We tested the hypothesis that a species' area sensitivity varies depending on the amount of grassland in the landscape. The study took place in central North Dakota during the 1996 and 1997 breeding seasons on 46 fields enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). …

Potential Habitat Factors Influencing Carrion Beetles Communities Of Palouse Prairie Remnants, Chris Looney, Benjamin T. Caldwell, Timothy D. Hatten, Christopher Lorion, Sanford D. Eigenbrode

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

The bunchgrass prairies of the Palouse region in eastern Washington state and adjacent Idaho were almost completely converted to agriculture in the past century. Today, prairie habitat exists only on small remnants scattered across the landscape. The invertebrate fauna of these habitat remnants is poorly known, both in terms of species diversity and community composition. Pitfall traps baited with carrion were used to sample carrion beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae) during June and July of 2003. Prairie remnants were selected based on size to test whether habitat area influenced the diversity of this important insect community. Three size classes were identified; greater …

Adapting A Floral Biogeography Model To Prairie-Dependent Lepidoptera, Eric H. Metzler, John A. Shuey, Leslie A. Ferge, Richard A, Henderson, Paul Z. Goldstein

Proceedings of the North American Prairie Conferences

Analysis of data collected for a study of prairie dependent Lepidoptera in the northern tallgrass prairies showed four distributional patterns. A logical distributional pattern links species' distribution, i.e. Catocala abbreviatella, to larval host plants. Absence of larval host plant data, which is the case for most species of moths, requires inference based on habitat data of known specimens, i.e. Tarachidia binocula, or in the case of infrequently encountered species, i.e. Crambus murellus, capture data for a limited number of specimens. A fourth distributional pattern, i. e. Atrytone arogos, can be explained by hypotheses which explain the …