In the eastern U.S. Coastal Plain and Piedmont region, diverse inland wetlands (riverine, depressional, wet flats) have been impacted by or converted to agriculture. Farm Bill conservation practices that restore or enhance wetlands can return their ecological functions and services to the agricultural landscape. We review the extent of regional knowledge regarding the effectiveness of these con...

Nowhere in the eastern United States is the con ̄ict between the conservation of the rich biological diversity of existing forested landscapes vs. a continued expansion of suburban/exurban development more evident than in the case of Sterling Forest, a 7245 ha tract of land on the New York±New Jersey border. This paper reports on our application of geographic information systems (GIS)-based asse...

In his response to my recent editorial (Soule 2013), Kareiva (2014) seeks to “correct some misimpressions” while seeking common ground. I am grateful for Kareiva’s collegial response and his agreement that nature (biodiversity) must be protected and conserved for its own sake as well as for utilitarian reasons.1 Kareiva celebrates the achievements of his employer, The Nature Conservancy (TNC), ...

Modeling efforts focused on future greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from energy and other sectors in California have shown varying capacities to meet the emissions reduction targets established by the state. These efforts have not included potential reductions from changes in ecosystem management, restoration, and conservation. We examine the scale of contributions from selected activities in nat...

Increases in agricultural commodity price triggered by ethanol production and other socioeconomic conditions have dramatically affected land uses and agronomic practices in the U.S. This study used crop-specific land cover data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to analyze agricultural expansion and crop rotation pattern from 2006 to 2013 in the Midwest Corn Belt (MWCB): nine states...

A sink for atmospheric carbon (i.e., CO2) in soils may derive from the application of conservation tillage and the regrowth of native vegetation on abandoned agricultural land. Accumulations of soil organic matter on these lands could offset emissions of CO2 from fossil fuel combustion, in the context of the Kyoto protocol. The rate of accumulation of soil organic matter is often higher on fert...

Targeting of agricultural conservation practices to the most effective locations in a watershed can promote wise use of conservation funds to protect surface waters from agricultural nonpoint source pollution. A spatial optimization procedure using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool was used to target six widely used conservation practices, namely no-tillage, cereal rye cover crops (CC), filter...

Capture-recapture studies are frequently used to monitor the status and trends of wildlife populations. Detection histories from individual animals are used to estimate probability of detection and abundance or density. The accuracy of abundance and density estimates depends on the ability to model factors affecting detection probability. Non-spatial capture-recapture models have recently evolv...

Landscape connectivity is important for conserving wildlife in spaces shared with humans. Yet, differences human attitudes and behaviors within movement corridors can lead to spatial variation the risks humans pose wildlife. Mapping pattern of toward provides a useful tool measuring this promoting connectivity. We surveyed ranchers ( n = 505) High Divide region eastern Idaho western Montana (Un...

Almost every ecosystem has been amended so that plants and animals can be used as food, fibre, fodder, medicines, traps and weapons. Historically, wild plants and animals were sole dietary components for hunter-gatherer and forager cultures. Today, they remain key to many agricultural communities. The mean use of wild foods by agricultural and forager communities in 22 countries of Asia and Afr...