The Issue Invasive species, widely distributed across the western United States, pose critical conservation challenges on both non-Federal and Federal rangelands. Two of the biggest threats to ecosystem stability and integrity in the Great Basin (most of Nevada, a large part of Utah, and smaller sections of Oregon, Idaho, and California) are invasive annual grasses, particularly cheatgrass and ...

The pastoral nomads of Iran, who had been able to achieve a “sustainable balance” between their environment and their economy throughout their history, are being held responsible for the degradation of the rangelands by the experts and state officials. The government of Iran has placed considerable resources into provision of advice and services to improve the natural resource status of Iranian...

Abstract Context Fire transforms, fragments and sometimes maintains forests, creating mosaics of burned unburned patches. Highly mobile animals respond to resources in the landscape at a variety spatial scales, yet we know little about their landscape-scale relationships with fire. Objectives We aimed identify drivers bat richness mosaic forested areas while identifying scales which was most st...

The potential for high severity fires to affect changes in rangelands is considerable, and for this reason, assessing fire severity is critical. We explored fire severity modeling in rangelands by applying post-fire field observations to Satellite Pour l'Observation de la Terre 5 (SPOT 5) imagery using Classification Tree Analysis (CTA) techniques at two 2005 burns. The results of these analyse...

An algorithm for burned area mapping in Africa based on classification trees was developed using SPOT-VEGETATION imagery. The derived 1 km spatial resolution maps were compared with 30 m resolution maps obtained with 13 Landsat scenes, through linear regression analysis. The procedure quantifies the bias in burned area estimation present in the low resolution burned area maps. Good corresponden...

Low profitability of hardwood rangeland manage­ ment, and oak tree harvesting for firewood markets and forage enhancement has led to concern about the long-term sustainability of the oak resource on rangelands. New markets for recreational hunting may give value to oaks for the habitat they provide for game species, and broaden the economic base for managers. A ranch level optimal control model...

Woody plants can cause localized increases in resources (i.e., resource islands) that can persist after fire. We tested the hypothesis that burned sagebrush subcanopies would have increased seedling establishment and performance of post-fire seeded perennial bunchgrasses compared to burned interspaces. We utilized five study sites in southeastern Oregon. The area was burned in a wildfire (2007)...

Woody plants can cause localized increases in resources (i.e., resource islands) that can persist after fire and create a heterogeneous environment for restoration. Others have found that subcanopies have increased soil organic matter, nitrogen, and carbon and elevated post-fire soil temperature. We tested the hypothesis that burned sagebrush subcanopies would have increased seedling establishm...