Landscape Analysis
Using data collected from 120 plots over three years (2011–2013) and 2012 National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery, we evaluated (1) whether well pads are more likely to be located in areas of pygmy rabbit habitat, (2) whether the presence and abundance of pygmy rabbits are related to distance from infrastructure, and, if so, (3) how much of the total surface area on a gas field is affected. Well pads on three gas fields occurred in higher quality pygmy rabbit habitat than did a set of randomly generated points, and the abundance and probability of pygmy rabbits being present were lower within approximately 0.5–1.5 km of the nearest road and 2 km of well pads and utilities. Buffering a digital layer of roads and well pads on one gas field revealed that nearly 82% of the (4417 km2) surface area was within 1 km of infrastructure, and over 95% of the gas field surface area was within 2 km. This need not be the case on future gas fields. Directional and horizontal well drilling technologies now make it possible for gas to be recovered from a greater area per well pad, enabling future gas field developments that require fewer well pads, roads, and pipeline corridors. Such changes would enable increased well pad spacing and provide the opportunity to locate gas field infrastructure in areas of poor quality wildlife habitat, avoid high priority habitat, and conserve a greater amount of on‐field wildlife habitat overall.
This work represents an effort by the NRCS and USFS to rapidly quantify the impact of drought on vegetation production across large areas to inform a reseeding strategy for affected areas. As a result of this collaboration 1.5 million hectares (3.7 million acres) in three counties were identified as exhibiting 50% losses in production or greater. During future drought declarations, this technology may be deployed to rapidly determine the impacts of the drought and identify the hardest hit areas. Additionally, RPMS can be applied to identify areas developing drought conditions and recovering from drought. Information produced by this process can be an important component to management strategies, adding to manager expertise and drought plans. When used in conjunction with other sources of information, such as drought monitors, this process provides a rapid, cost-effective, transparent solution to a long-standing problem and demonstrates a unique way that multiple agencies can team together to help producers and land managers in the western United States. This type of analysis is inherently multijurisdictional and embraces the “Shared Stewardship”28 vision and leverages multiagency resources from the NRCS and USFS to combat the effects of drought.
Description: The first webinar in a series of virtual learning opportunities that address the cultural shifts and adaptations that are being embraced at all levels to evolve and advance progress toward the vision and goals of the Cohesive Wildland Fire Strategy.
Presenter: Alan Ager, Research Forester, USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station
Description: Wildfire has fundamentally shaped the western landscapes we seek to conserve. It is a source of renewal and central to the functioning of many ecosystems; as well as a destructive force that threatens communities and conservation values across public and private lands. Wildfire epitomizes myriad connectivities that we cannot escape. Yet as the frequency of large, severe wildfires has greatly increased over the past 20 years, it has called to attention the fragmented, sometimes conflicting approaches to natural resource conservation across different jurisdictions and organizations. Reducing threats and enhancing conservation benefits from wildfire will require synergistic collaboration and coordination to span these disconnects. Our discussants will provide a range of perspectives from applied social science and policy action around wildfire to suggest bold new ideas about how people in the western U.S. may live with fire in the 21st century, and how conservation policy could spur more effective collective action to address wildfire risk across public and private lands.
Presenters: Tony Cheng, Director of the Colorado Forest Restoration Institute and Professor at Colorado State University; Emily Jane Davis Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist at Oregon State University; Tyson Bertone-Riggs, Policy Analyst for the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition; Cassandra Moseley Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation at University of Oregon.
This video by Heather Heward, University of Idaho, offers a short overview of the steps needed to review LANDFIRE data in the context of wildland fire and fuels management. Perform any or all of these steps to increase your ability to creatively and effectively use LF to understand and manage your landscape. The steps can be completed using a variety of techniques, most of which are described in detail in the “How-to: process LF data” document. Other resources include Stratton 2009 and Helmbrecht and Blankenship 2016.
Description: Recent policies including the Cohesive Strategy and the 2012 NFMA planning rule emphasize restoration of landscape resilience as a way forward for living with fire on national forestlands. But what does resilience mean, what does it take to plan for resilient landscapes, and what other factors complicate the achievement of resilient landscape outcomes? In this webinar we will present the results of a Joint Fire Science Program-funded research project based on three research elements: 1) a content analysis of Environmental Impact Statements; 2) a survey of USFS staff that have been involved in interdisciplinary planning efforts; and 3) case studies of three national forests that have recently revised their forest plans. Collectively, these studies shed light on how resilience has been operationalized within the U.S. Forest Service, what obstacles to achieving resilience have been identified, and what solutions appear to hold promise for overcoming the complexities of managing for resilience.
Hosted by Matt Reeves, using Microsoft Teams, click the “Watch on web instead” link to view.
Wet or mesic meadows are rare but disproportionately important habitats within western rangelands. Gully erosion and channel incision are widespread problems reducing natural resiliency and water storage capacity, which is impacting wildlife and working lands. Simple, low-tech restoration methods using sticks and stones provide effective tools for protecting and restoring meadow systems. While there is no shortage of degraded areas that need help across the West, there is a shortage of time and money to address them. In this webinar, Jeremy and Shawn will introduce participants to how to use Bill Zeedyk’s principles of “Reading the Landscape and Thinking like Water” to recognize and prioritize meadow restoration.
Visit ESA 2020 meeting webpage.
ESA held a totally virtual Annual Meeting this year from August 3–6 in response to the pandemic. The virtual meeting provided an opportunity for you to join colleagues and leaders from across the field for four days of inspiration and community focused on your research and your career as each of us looks ahead to the future.
Like many science fields, the ecological sciences are being flooded by massive and diverse sources of information. For example, remote sensing platforms, automated sensors, observatory networks, molecular techniques, large-scale or replicated experiments, and predictive (simulation) models are generating enormous amounts of data over time and/or across space. Such big and diverse data are opening up new avenues of research and enabling ecologists to address more complex questions and hypotheses that, for example, span multiple scales and disciplines. However, this information deluge also creates challenges in terms of methods available for harnessing the information contained in such data and tools for effectively communicating big data issues and results. The 105th annual meeting encourages contributions that address these issues or that employ novel and integrative approaches to harnessing the data revolution to address pressing issues in ecology.
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Since the mid-1800s pinyon-juniper (PJ) woodlands have been encroaching into sagebrush-steppe shrublands and grasslands such that they now comprise 40% of the total forest and woodland area of the Intermountain West of the United States. More recently, PJ ecosystems in select areas have experienced dramatic reductions in area and biomass due to extreme drought, wildfire, and management. Due to the vast area of PJ ecosystems, tracking these changes in woodland tree cover is essential for understanding their consequences for carbon accounting efforts, as well as ecosystem structure and functioning. Here we present a carbon monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) system for characterizing total aboveground biomass stocks and flux of PJ ecosystems across the Great Basin.