No description available.

Southwestern mixed conifer forests cover approximately 2.5 million acres in Arizona and New Mexico, and provide a wide range of commercial and noncommercial products. The problem is to develop a management prescription which will benefit the greatest mix of resources. An alternatives analysis predicted that a prescription that included small patch clearcutting, in addition to other stand modifications, would meet this criteria. The two Thomas Creek watersheds, in eastern Arizona, were used to validate and test the responses of the forest resources to the preferred prescription, and to increase the understanding of the mixed conifer forest system. The actual harvest created 63 small patch clearcut and group selection openings, averaging 1-2 acres, over 13% of the South Fork watershed. Overall stand density was reduced 34% to 132 square feet per acre. The harvest resulted in significant hydrological changes. Average annual streamflow increased by about 45%, or 1.72 inches, mostly because of increased winter runoff. A greater proportion of the snowmelt generated streamflow occurred earlier in the spring, while annual peak flows were increased by an average of 66%, or about 2.60 cubic feet per second per square mile. The number of days without flow decreased. Average watershed maximum snow water equivalents remained unchanged. The primary causes of the increases were reduced evapotranspiration and increased snow accumulation in the openings; however, it appears that the partially cut stand also contributed to the increases. The treatment benefitted the timber resource. Diameter growth on the South Fork increased for most species compared to the unharvested stand on North Fork. Stand gross growth remained unchanged, but the same volume was being added to fewer trees. The stand, including most openings, is well stocked with adequate numbers of natural and advance regeneration. The Thomas Creek prescription, after 8 years of evaluation, has achieved its objectives of increasing water yields and stand growth while insuring adequate regeneration. It has also benefitted many wildlife species as well as livestock. A similar prescription should increase water yields, by about 15,000 acre-feet annually, from the Upper Black River Basin without adversely impacting other forest resources.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Tim Keane / Wildcat Creek in Riley County, KS has repeatedly flooded in the past 5 years causing significant damage to the watershed, private property, and community livelihood. Strategically placing wetlands throughout the watershed can help reduce stormwater runoff, increase infiltration, and increase wildlife habitat. A watershed assessment was completed to determine the best location for wetlands in the Wildcat Creek Basin. Two watershed-scale plans for wetlands were derived and evaluated based upon estimation of stormwater runoff and quality of wildlife habitat. Wetlands were then examined and incorporated into existing land cover and land uses at the site-scale for an existing golf course. Three proposals for the nine hole course (for best golf experience, wildlife habitat, and wetland creation) were developed to reflect expansion options from a Par 30 to a Par 34 or 35 course. Each proposal was evaluated based on wetland capacity from estimated stormwater runoff, quality of wildlife habitat, playability of the golf course for all skill levels, and cost of implementation. After this evaluation, the wetland proposal was moved forward and further developed into a proposal that is best suited for the site. Following wetland implementation, stormwater runoff can be collected on-site to prevent runoff and flooding at the golf course and downstream. In order to solve flooding problems in the Wildcat Creek watershed, a series of wetlands can be implemented at the smaller site scale, like the Wildcat Creek Golf Course site, throughout the watershed. Wetlands are one component of a larger stormwater management system that is needed to reduce flooding of the Wildcat Creek and the flood-prone area of Manhattan, KS.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Department of Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Timothy Keane / The City of Manhattan, Kansas is looking for possible solutions to mitigate flooding along Wildcat Creek within the Wildcat Creek Watershed. Recent flooding has caused substantial property damage. The project presented here brings recreation into the community by designing a golf course in a location along Wildcat Creek that addresses flooding issues, increases infiltration, and improves water quality. The golf industry has a long way to go to become more sustainable. The world is facing many challenges related to water and hydrology. Much of the opposition towards the golf industry is because critics see it as environmentally unfriendly. Golf has the potential to become a catalyst for change in the way we design and develop the landscape around us. The golf industry can become a leader in sustainable design while taking on hydrological concerns within the community. This project demonstrates the application of a golf course to help mitigate flooding along Wildcat Creek with the use of vulnerability and suitability analysis as a guide to site selection. This method of analysis illustrates the process of identifying and protecting areas vulnerable to degradation by designing a golf course in a suitable location to utilize water hazards to store flood water, provide more floodplain access to effectively increase infiltration capacity, reduce runoff rates, and improve water quality. The report explains the relationship between golf course design and environmental practices as they relate to hydrology on a theoretical site in Manhattan, Kansas. By integrating golf course design theory and environmentally sound stormwater management practices, water hazards on the golf course can become the fundamental elements used in strategizing the design of the golf course. A conceptual plan was created to maximize the infiltration capacity of the site as well as allow increased floodplain access, and provide a place to store flood water. A golf course can then be properly sited and designed hydrologically around the use of water hazards to help reduce flooding and improve water quality within the watershed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 362-374). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 199 p. : ill. (some col.), col. maps. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 142-172).

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 170 p. : ill. (some col.), maps (part col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 112-116).

Environmental philosophy has expanded and diversified greatly since its beginning. Yet applied philosophies, environmental philosophy and environmental ethics have not engaged descriptive ethics in the way that biomedical ethics has. I will suggest that the failure to has meant that environmental philosophy has had limited impact on environmental practices such as restoration ecology. In this thesis I will attempt to reposition philosophy's ethical spotlight upon what I feel to be the most ethically relevant features of the practice of restoration ecology, and to facilitate this, I develop a case-study. A history of the Musqueam Watershed restoration project and its participants' objectives and their operating policies will be given, followed by an ethical analysis of the project. I will argue on several counts that getting restoration right involves more than paying careful attention to the finished product, as philosophers Elliot and Katz have suggested. Getting restoration right involves placing practice within a broad social and political context where process becomes as crucial as outcome. This will require an examination of the way in which interested stakeholders nature, as well as an examination of the democratic structure and mandate of the Musqueam Watershed Committee. I will argue that restoration projects ought to be conducted in a manner that exploits the inherent participatory potential of restoration ecology. Finally, I will argue the inclusion of ecosystems within the human socio-political context, and thus suggest replacement of the Wilderness Paradigm, or the Hyperreal Paradigm with a Garden Paradigm for human relations with nature, in the hope that in this way we will restore ourselves to nature.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--Southern Oregon University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-38). Also available via Internet as PDF file through Southern Oregon Digital Archives: http://soda.sou.edu. Search Bioregion Collection.