Old Growth In The Runkle Woods,
2024
Wright State University
Old Growth In The Runkle Woods, Madeline Greene, Lindsay Smith, Matt Tyren, Leif Walters
Runkle Woods Symposia
In this conservation proposal, Wright State students focus on protecting the old growth areas of Runkle Woods—a rare and ecologically significant habitat in the Eastern United States, where only about 1% of such forests remain. Home to trees over 200 years old and critical species like endangered bats and white oaks, this 100-acre area faces threats from invasive species, deer overpopulation, littering, and urban runoff. Currently, only 15 acres are legally protected. The students propose expanding the easement, involving experts and graduate students in ongoing research and stewardship, and increasing public engagement through educational walks and increased and updated signage. …
Up In Smoke: Indigenous Techniques To Combat Climate Change And Increase Biodiversity,
2024
Wright State University
Up In Smoke: Indigenous Techniques To Combat Climate Change And Increase Biodiversity, Brad Kerry
Runkle Woods Symposia
Brad Kerry explores how Indigenous land management practices—particularly the use of prescribed fire—can be reintroduced to restore the Runkle Woods to its pre-colonial ecological state. Drawing on archaeological evidence, historical tree surveys, and ecological data, the presentation highlights how periodic, low-intensity fires historically maintained the forest’s biodiversity, promoted fire-adapted species like oak and hickory, and suppressed invasive plants. Kerry advocates for carefully planned, small-scale burns to combat "mesophication"—a shift toward shade-tolerant, fire-averse species—while increasing forest resilience to drought, invasive species, and climate change. The presentation underscores the ecological benefits of fire and outlines practical considerations for reintroducing controlled burns as …
Protecting Glen Helen With A Conservation Easement,
2024
Wright State University
Protecting Glen Helen With A Conservation Easement, Nick Boutis
Runkle Woods Symposia
Part 2 of the "Protecting Glen Helen with a Conservation Easement" presentation. This presentation offers an overview of Glen Helen, a 1,125-acre private nature preserve in Yellow Springs, Ohio, detailing its ecological significance, educational mission, and recent conservation efforts. Nick Boutis describes the preserve’s history, from ancient Indigenous use to its development as a resort and eventual donation to Antioch College. The focus centers on the complex, multi-year collaboration that led to establishing a permanent conservation easement, which now protects the land from development and subdivision. The presentation also highlights Glen Helen’s ongoing stewardship work, including habitat restoration, environmental education, …
Tecumseh Land Trust: Land Trusts And Land Preservation,
2024
Wright State University
Tecumseh Land Trust: Land Trusts And Land Preservation, Michele Burns
Runkle Woods Symposia
Part 1 of the "Protecting Glen Helen with a Conservation Easement" presentation. Michele Burns introduces the concept of land trusts—nonprofit organizations that protect various types of land, particularly through conservation easements, which are legally binding agreements that restrict development and preserve land forever. She explaines how Tecumseh Land Trust, founded in 1990, operates in southwest Ohio to protect farmland and natural areas without owning land directly and their work in protecting the Glen Helen preservation.
Opening Remarks,
2024
Wright State University - Main Campus
Opening Remarks, Volker Bahn
Runkle Woods Symposia
Dr. Volker Bahn welcomes everyone to the 2024 Runkle Woods Symposium. This year's symposium is held in collaboration with the REACH Native American Heritage Festival. The event began with a land acknowledgement written by Shane Creepingbear in collaboration with Chief Ben Barns and other, recognizing the Indigenouse peoples whose lands we occupy and emphasizing our reponsbility to protect and restore the natrual word.
Multi-Decadal Aspen Dynamics Show Recruitment Bottleneck Across Complex Mountain Community,
2024
Northern Arizona University
Multi-Decadal Aspen Dynamics Show Recruitment Bottleneck Across Complex Mountain Community, Michael T. Stoddard, Kyle C. Rodman, Connor D. Crouch, David W. Huffman, Peter Z. Fulé, Kristen M. Waring, Margaret M. Moore
Aspen Bibliography
Changes in forest structure and shifts in tree species composition have occurred globally due to climate change and altered disturbance regimes. With climate trending toward warmer and drier conditions, these altered forest communities may reorganize in diverse and unpredictable ways. This is especially true in mountain environments where a range of vegetation types and abiotic conditions coexist. In this study, we used long-term permanent plot data from a site spanning broad environmental gradients to assess regeneration and mortality patterns in populations of aspen (Populus tremuloides). The study site, located on the San Francisco Peaks, Arizona, USA, is near …
Decentering Humans In Sustainability: A Framework For Earth-Centered Kinship And Practice,
2024
Michigan Technological University
Decentering Humans In Sustainability: A Framework For Earth-Centered Kinship And Practice, Tran Thi Mai Anh, Cassandra M. Reed-Vandam, Kendall Belopavlovich, Elizabeth Brown, Katherine E. Higdon, Shelby Nicole Lane-Clark, Katherine M. Mcgowen, Emily Shaw, Valoree Gagnon
Michigan Tech Publications
Contemporary Earth crises are challenging ideologies that enthrone humans at the center of existence and separate from nature, problematizing common notions of sustainability. Further inquiry, particularly sustainability of what and for whom, requires decentering the human experience toward other-than-human beings (e.g., plants and animals). In this article, we, as the Kinship Circle book club, share reflections from our monthly dialogue with the five-part book series Kinship: Belonging in a World of Relations, built on a foundation of partnership experiences with the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Lake Superior Band of Ojibwa. Together, we discuss three major departures from our previous modes …
Wolves Across Borders,
2024
Universität Freiburg
Wolves Across Borders, Ilse Storch, Aimee Tallian, Luigi Boitani, Cecilia Di Bernardi, Josip Kusak, Çağan Şekercioğlu, Douglas Smith, John Vucetich, Barbara Zimmermann
Michigan Tech Publications
No abstract provided.
Smokejumper Obituary: Brennan, Joseph William “Joe” (Redmond 1986),
2024
Eastern Washington University
Smokejumper Obituary: Brennan, Joseph William “Joe” (Redmond 1986), National Smokejumper Association
Smokejumper Obituaries
No abstract provided.
Smokejumper Obituary: Davis, Jeffery R. “Jeff” (Missoula 1957),
2024
Eastern Washington University
Smokejumper Obituary: Davis, Jeffery R. “Jeff” (Missoula 1957), National Smokejumper Association
Smokejumper Obituaries
No abstract provided.
Smokejumper Obituary: Montgomery, Bruce A. (Idaho City 1965),
2024
Eastern Washington University
Smokejumper Obituary: Montgomery, Bruce A. (Idaho City 1965), National Smokejumper Association
Smokejumper Obituaries
No abstract provided.
Smokejumper Obituary: Osborne, John J. “Jack” (Missoula 1946),
2024
Eastern Washington University
Smokejumper Obituary: Osborne, John J. “Jack” (Missoula 1946), National Smokejumper Association
Smokejumper Obituaries
No abstract provided.
Smokejumper Obituary: Howard, Charles D. “Doug” (Missoula 1964),
2024
Eastern Washington University
Smokejumper Obituary: Howard, Charles D. “Doug” (Missoula 1964), National Smokejumper Association
Smokejumper Obituaries
No abstract provided.
Prediction Of Turfgrass Quality Using Multispectral Uav Imagery And Ordinal Forests: Validation Using A Fuzzy Approach,
2024
USDA, Agricultural Research Service
Prediction Of Turfgrass Quality Using Multispectral Uav Imagery And Ordinal Forests: Validation Using A Fuzzy Approach, Alexander Hernandez, Shaun Bushman, Paul Johnson, Matthew D. Robbins, Kaden Patten
Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications
Protocols to evaluate turfgrass quality rely on visual ratings that, depending on the rater’s expertise, can be subjective and susceptible to positive and negative drifts. We developed seasonal (spring, summer and fall) as well as inter-seasonal machine learning predictive models of turfgrass quality using multispectral and thermal imagery collected using unmanned aerial vehicles for two years as a proof-of-concept. We chose ordinal regression to develop the models instead of conventional classification to account for the ranked nature of the turfgrass quality assessments. We implemented a fuzzy correction of the resulting confusion matrices to ameliorate the probable drift of the field-based …
Topography And Wildfire Jointly Mediate Postfire Ecosystem Multifunctionality In A Chinese Boreal Forest,
2024
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Topography And Wildfire Jointly Mediate Postfire Ecosystem Multifunctionality In A Chinese Boreal Forest, Jianjian Kong, Zifan Ding, Wenhua Cai, Jiaxing Zu, Bo Liu, Jian Yang
Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications
Both topography and wildfire can exert significant influences on ecosystem processes and functions during boreal forest successions. However, their impacts on ecosystem multifunctionality (EMF) remain unclear. A mega-fire burned an area of 8700 hectares in the Great Xing’an Mountains in 2000, creating a wide range of fire severity levels across various topographic positions. This provided a unique opportunity to explore the impacts of mixed-severity fire disturbance in boreal forests. We evaluated the effect pathways of wildfire and topography on aboveground multifunctionality (AEMF), soil multifunctionality (SEMF), and overall multifunctionality (OEMF). We found that high-severity burning resulted in lower AEMF, SEMF, and …
Gains In Soil Carbon Storage Under Anthropogenic Nitrogen Deposition Are Rapidly Lost Following Its Cessation,
2024
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Gains In Soil Carbon Storage Under Anthropogenic Nitrogen Deposition Are Rapidly Lost Following Its Cessation, Brooke E. Propson, Donald R. Zak, Aimée T. Classen, Andrew J Burton, Zachary B. Freedman
Michigan Tech Publications
In the Northern Hemisphere, anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition contributed to the enhancement of the global terrestrial carbon (C) sink, partially offsetting CO2 emissions. Across several long-term field experiments, this ecosystem-level response was determined to be driven, in part, by the suppression of microbial activity associated with the breakdown of soil organic matter. However, since the implementation of emission abatement policies in the 1970s, atmospheric N deposition has declined globally, and the consequences of this decline are unknown. Here, we assessed the response of soil C storage and associated microbial activities, in a long-term field study that experimentally increased N deposition …
Smokejumper Obituary: Bassette, Gene L. “Geno” (Missoula 1980),
2024
Eastern Washington University
Smokejumper Obituary: Bassette, Gene L. “Geno” (Missoula 1980), National Smokejumper Association
Smokejumper Obituaries
No abstract provided.
The Primacy Of Density-Mediated Indirect Effects In A Community Of Wolves, Elk, And Aspen,
2024
Utah State University
The Primacy Of Density-Mediated Indirect Effects In A Community Of Wolves, Elk, And Aspen, Elaine M. Brice, Eric J. Larsen, Daniel R. Stahler, Daniel R. Macnulty
Aspen Bibliography
The removal or addition of a predator in an ecosystem can trigger a trophic cascade, whereby the predator indirectly influences plants and/or abiotic processes via direct effects on its herbivore prey. A trophic cascade can operate through a density-mediated indirect effect (DMIE), where the predator reduces herbivore density via predation, and/or through a trait-mediated indirect effect (TMIE), where the predator induces an herbivore trait response that modifies the herbivore's effect on plants. Manipulative experiments suggest that TMIEs are an equivalent or more important driver of trophic cascades than are DMIEs. Whether this applies generally in nature is uncertain because few …
Factors Influencing The Faunal Recolonization Of Restored Thornscrub Forest Habitats,
2024
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Factors Influencing The Faunal Recolonization Of Restored Thornscrub Forest Habitats, Audrey J. Hicks, Jerald T. Garrett, Christopher A. Gabler
School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications
Tamaulipan thornscrub forests (thornforests) have high ecological and economic values, yet over 90% of these forests have been lost, and they remain threatened, making them a conservation hotspot. For decades, federal, state, NGO, and corporate entities have been acquiring land and actively or passively restoring these forests, but results have been mixed and seldom monitored. This study characterized and quantified faunal communities of restored thornforest habitats in south Texas and examined the relationships between restored faunal communities and key site characteristics and environmental factors. We surveyed and analyzed mammal, bird, Lepidoptera, and herptile communities within 12 restored sites in the …
Interlaboratory Evaluation Of Bretziella Fagacearum Molecular Detection Assays To Guide The Edna Monitoring Of Oak Wilt Disease,
2024
Canadian Forest Service
Interlaboratory Evaluation Of Bretziella Fagacearum Molecular Detection Assays To Guide The Edna Monitoring Of Oak Wilt Disease, Marie Krystel Gauthier, Abdelmadjid Djoumad, Tara L Bal, Guillaume J Bilodeau, Marc F Digirolomo, Meher Ony, Denita Hadziabdic, Kelsey C Mclaughlin, Laura Miles, Isabel Munck, Karen Lynn Snover-Clift, Philippe Tanguay
Michigan Tech Publications
Oak wilt disease, caused by the fungus Bretziella fagacearum, can kill mature red oaks within months of infection, severely affecting biodiversity, landscapes, and industries. The disease, originally only present in the United States, was officially reported for the first time in Canada in June 2023. The aim of this study was to suggest a standardized assay and sample processing method to optimize oak wilt detection both in infection centers and ahead of the disease front. Two previously published molecular assays, a Nested PCR and a TaqMan qPCR, were compared to detect B. fagacearum in a variety of samples in a …
