Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: John Byrne, School of Urban Affairs & Public Policy. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Wageningen University, 2006. / Vita. "Propositions" ([1] leaf) inserted. Includes bibliographical references.

Linoleum has been around for over a hundred years. With its invention by Frederick Walton in the 1860’s a new means of durable floor covering was introduced to the world. This new invention was promoted as durable, hygienic, and easy to maintain. In agreement with the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, a study was commissioned to seek the best means to conserve linoleum from a canal boat excavated in the summer of 2002 in Lake Champlain. The Sloop Island Canal Boat is part of an excavation project that is studying the ways of life on the lake. Conserving waterlogged linoleum is a new area of study in conservation, and there is very little information dealing with the topic. This study will provide a baseline for the conservation of linoleum.

While advocates of Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) contend that this decentralized approach to natural resource management has higher potential for the distribution of conservation and social benefits throughout civil society than conventional protected area approaches, there is limited empirical research to confirm it, especially regarding goals and claims of gender empowerment. To assess the impact of CBNRM on women's empowerment, this research selected Kwandu Conservancy in Namibia's Caprivi Region for in-depth study, an area with a relatively long and nationally-praised experience with CBNRM. The research was organized around the following two questions: how do women residing in Kwandu Conservancy define empowerment; and how has women's empowerment changed as a result of CBNRM in Kwandu Conservancy? Given the range of CBNRM activities in the Conservancy, the research focused on the effects of income-generation activities, in part, because they have been emphasized in CBNRM as a mechanism for women's empowerment. The iterative, ethnographic methodology included participant observation, document review, 20 interviews with key informants, and 49 in-depth interviews with women residents in Kwandu Conservancy varied by household wealth, age, ethnicity, education, marital status, Conservancy involvement, religion, and 5 other characteristics over the course of 6 months. Results show that women residents talk of a female ideal in their culture as having the following characteristics, and translated from their language as a "real woman": 1) able to meet material needs by earning cash income from locally-respected livelihood activities, 2) educated, 3) hard-working, 4) engaged in nurturing relationships with other people, and 5) performing culturally-defined roles as a wife and mother. Kwandu Conservancy provided enhanced income-generation opportunities through four activities: cash-paid employment of five to seven women annually; harvesting and sales of grass, reeds, and Devil's Claw (<italic>Harpagophytum procumbens</italic>); sale of locally-produced crafts; and collection of household dividends from the Conservancy. This represents limited economic opportunity for women in Kwandu Conservancy but mixed capacity to achieve their own, locally-defined female ideal of being a "real woman". While the Conservancy's economic activities provided women opportunity to gain new income, skills, public-speaking training, and awareness of gender norms and alternatives, opportunities were limited by existing and persisting male-bias, relatively low monetary returns from dividends and craft sales, and the low overall number of economic opportunities provided relative to the Conservancy's population size. The research concludes that efforts to improve women's empowerment need to be built on women's own definitions and goals in a particular context. They should also directly address barriers in gender-based roles and responsibilities, particularly regarding economic participation, household and community-level decision-making, and women's control over their bodies. Gender-based norms continue to place women in roles of subservience and dependency, increasing women's risks for experiencing gender-based violence. Challenging cultural norms will be problematic in Kwandu Conservancy and likely in other CBNRM efforts because creating opportunities for women requires cultural and economic change on the part of men, and is likely to create resistance from within the community as well as resentment against the conservation organization. It also begs the question as to who besides nature conservancies need to implement and reinforce empowerment programs.

Throughout the developing world, countries face a number of issues regarding the health and welfare of their populations. One issue that stands out with critical and growing importance is the availability-and accessibility-of water. Across the Sahel, access to potable water for domestic use, as well as contaminant-free water for agricultural and animal husbandry purposes is of growing concern. This study evaluates Government of Senegal efforts at improving rural water access through public-private operation contracts to manage deep groundwater resources. In West Africa, Senegal currently counts itself among the few Sahelian countries having sufficient freshwater supplies to support its populations growing domestic and industrial needs, though this is threatened by global climate change, and the Sahels natural ecological variability. Surface water supplies the majority of urban areas in the country, while rural regions commonly draw water from groundwater systems. From 2002-2009, the Senegalese government, in cooperation with external partners, launched the Projet dOrganisation et de Gestion Villageoise (Village Organization and Management Project) which aimed to reduce poverty and improve quality-of-life at the village level. In 2007, the village of Tawa Fall received the technology necessary to access deep groundwater resources through this project. In a unique public-private system, the government of Senegal engaged Associations dUsagers de Forages (Drilling User Associations, ASUFOR) to manage operation and maintenance contracts for these boreholes. Proceeds from the sale of water is managed by ASUFOR associations, and used both for borehole maintenance and to further village development. This study explores the effectiveness of deep borehole wells at reducing womens workload, evaluating the wells effects on communities from the perspective of women as primary domestic water drawers and users. The study also examines the efficiency of the ASUFOR system at maintaining decentralized management of natural resources. It examines how Tawa Falls ASUFOR committee has used proceeds from the sale of groundwater to bring electricity to the village, and also explores how village women manage their household water needs through a combination of purchased, and well-drawn water. The data collection methods utilized include spot observation, site visits, semi-structured and unstructured interviews with key informants, and a survey of female heads of household to determine domestic water use patterns. The results suggest that, while deep borehole wells provide a fairly reliable source of water for villagers and reduce womens labor burden, the cost of water is often prohibitive, and the majority of residents continue to regularly use open wells in addition to public taps. This suggests that Senegals management of rural water systems is still at an emerging stage, and would benefit from increased financial investment to maintain continuous access and expand the existing rural water provision network.

The results of the ongoing study to monitor visitors use, and the shuttle experience in Glacier National Park demonstrate that use levels in the park have increased considerably. Thus, it was pertinent to evaluate to which extent the conditions on the trails are so undesirable or unexpected for visitors that they would usually employ coping responses to deal with those situations. This research was structured to provide a description of the salient setting attributes and personal factors associated with the identification of the detracting elements of the recreational experiences, and types of coping mechanisms usually used. The study reported here was implemented at four of the most popular trails in GNP: Avalanche Lake, The Loop, Sunrift Gorge, and the Highline trail. A total 765 on-site collected surveys were used for the analysis. Ordinary least squares regression was used to test whether situational and personal factors could predict detracting elements and coping responses. One-way analysis of variance was used to test whether the use of coping mechanisms varied by type of detractor, and by use level. From the overall sample, results indicated that 67% of the respondents experienced a lot of other hikers as the most common detracting element (48%), followed by non-natural sounds (42%) and overflights (32%). For hikers experiencing detracting elements, 80% would usually use a coping mechanism to reduce the negative effect of that kind of detractor. Hikers sampled employed different cognitive coping mechanisms. Rationalization and product shift would be used 49% and 47% respectively. Displacement, in the form of seasonal, time of the day, activity or location changes, was also a usual response considered for 47% of the hikers sampled. The results suggested that personal factors were more useful than situational factors to predict detracting elements, especially crowding. The regression models suggested that there is still much of the variance in the use of coping responses that needs to be explained by factors other than the ones used in this study. Furthermore, there was not enough evidence found to support differences in the use of coping responses by use levels and number of detractors. However, encounters with wildlife were found to have incidence in the use of cognitive coping responses.

There is longstanding conflict related to planning standards and guidelines (S & Gs) used by the U.S. Forest Service to guide and constrain National Forest System land management. The role these prescriptions have played in the past in forest management, and the role they ought to play in the future, is often disputed. However, the National Forest Management Act (NFMA) and the new 2012 NFMA planning regulations require S & Gs, so they must be included in forest plans in the future. The goal of this research was to provide a common understanding of how planning S & Gs were used in the past in order to provide recommendations for how standards, specifically, might be written and applied more effectively in the future. To understand the history and conflicts associated with S & Gs, I analyzed public comment letters from NFMA planning regulations, applicable case law, and background literature. Twenty-five forest plans, strategies and amendments were examined in order to create a typology of common standards and assess their use. This typology found three primary continuums of common standards: mandatory and discretionary, scale of application, and complexity. Several sub-categories are also described, including prioritization, threshold, process-based, management method, and mitigation. Fifteen interviews were conducted with USFS personnel, interest group representatives, and legal experts in order to supplement and validate findings. Findings reveal compelling reasons why the USFS should impose binding, enforceable standards upon itself, including bolstering legal accountability, political credibility, and organizational efficiency. Recommendations for writing standards, incorporating best available science, working within an adaptive management system, supporting recovery efforts for threatened and endangered species, and making use of suitability determinations and management area designations are also provided.

Emerging interests in wildland fire behavior and risk, bioenergy utilization, carbon sequestration, and wildlife conservation increasingly rely on accurate assessments of the amount and location of biomass within the dominant plants on the landscape, often at finer scales than traditional methods have provided. At the tree scale, current studies often distribute biomass uniformly through simple volumes (e.g., cones and cylinders). However, biomass is heterogeneous at a variety of scales from needle clusters to groups of trees. This thesis presents techniques for using terrestrial laser scanning data to define crown profiles and describe within-crown heterogeneity in Pseudotusga menziesii, Pinus ponderosa, and Abies lasiocarpa of the Interior Northwest. Crown profiles were modeled using parametric curves applied to crown-length normalized laser point clouds, dimensioned by height above ground and distance from bole-centroids. A crown-base metric was derived from the laser data and compared to conventional field measurements. For all species, a modified Weibull curve fit crown points with significantly smaller error than a beta curve, cone, or cylinder; crown profile Weibull curves were species-specific and not interchangeable without producing signifcantly greater error. Within-crown patterning was described using a 3-D form of the Ripleys K function. Ripleys K analysis detected maximum clustering occuring at scales of 1.25 2.50 percent of crown length (e.g., 25-50 cm radius clusters in a 20 meter crown). P. ponderosa demonstrated clustering over the largest range of scales and to the greatest degree, while A. lasiocarpa exhibited clustering over the smallest range of scales. The scale of clustering did not change when points roughly corresponding to branchwood were excluded from the analysis. This study provides groundwork for predicting the spatial distribution of biomass with tree crowns. Limitations of the work include uncertainty regarding the impacts of occlusion of inner crowns and the relationships between laser points and foliage-branch elements, and the lack of spatial explicitness inherent to Ripleys K. Future work should examine these issues with an eye toward refinement of predictive models linking traditional biomass allometry with spatial arrangement of canopy material.

This paper is designed to give the reader basic in-sight to the different attitudes and perception that local residents have in regards to the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program and the Southwestern Collaborative's ability to accomplish their mission.

Montanas forest products industry has been experiencing declining production levels during the last two decades, with many mills struggling to survive due to declining harvest levels over the last two decades and the current low domestic demand. By diversifying wood product sales into new international markets, Montana wood product manufacturers would have an opportunity to increase their current production levels. To determine the potential export opportunities for Montana manufacturers in the Chinese wood product import market, a strategic analysis was conducted. The purpose of the strategy formulation for this research was to identify the position that Montana wood product manufacturers should take, in order to achieve the best possible sustainable competitive advantage for exporting their products to China. To facilitate this process, Montanas forest industry core competencies were identified and aligned with Chinese wood product import market opportunities to highlight strong growth prospects for the Montana wood products industry. It was found that the Montanas log supply strengths primarily exist in the Douglas-fir, ponderosa pine, and lodgepole pine species, with the majority of the volume existing in small size classes (7.0-14.9 diameter at breast height). The wood products that provided the best fit with Chinese import demands are dimensional lumber (2x4s), of these species. The predominant Chinese uses of these products are for concrete forms and furring strips, which are key components in concrete housing construction. The recommended target markets that Montana wood product manufacturers should pursue are the 2nd and 3rd tier lumber distributors that are located in the 2nd and 3rd tier cites of the Shandong province. It is believed that this market provides an opportunity for future growth and decreased competition from industry rivals. The best opportunity to increase total export volumes of Montana wood products is through the creation of a wood product export coalition, licensed as an export trading company. The creation of this coalition increases the total chance of export success for Montanas wood product industry, while reducing the marketing cost and risk for individual manufacturers.