Pinyon and juniper are invasive woody species which has occupied more than 47 million acres of land in Western United States. Pinyon juniper woodlands domination decreases the herbaceous vegetation, increase bare lands which in turn increases soil erosion and nutrition loss. Thus, The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has focused on harvesting these woody species to make room for herbaceous vegetation. The major application of harvested pinyon-juniper (PJ) is low value firewood. Thus, there is a need to develop new high value products from this woody biomass to reduce the cost of harvesting. In this study pyrolysis was carried out to investigate the feasibility of converting pinyon juniper biomass to value added products. The first part of the study was focused on biomass characterization, and effect of biomass type on product yields. The second part focuses on optimization of process parameters on product yields. The third part focuses on catalytic pyrolysis for improving the quality of bio-oil. In this study it has been shown that pinyon juniper biomass could be effectively used as biomass in fast pyrolysis and red mud, an industrial waste could be used as catalyst in catalytic pyrolysis to improve the quality of the bio-oil.

An important management practice within the 60-80 million acres of Pinyon-Juniper woodlands is to convert these woodlands to open rangelands. The success or failure of seedling adapted grasses in place of trees is contingent upon the revegetation techniques employed and upon fortuitous weather patterns. In order to formulate policy for Pinyon-Juniper control decisions, persons responsible for such policies need to know the risks of introducing range grasses into given areas. This thesis is essentially a hypothesis concerning the magnitude of such risks. Pinyon-Juniper control has been practiced widely in the five state areas of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Justification for control and conversion of the woodlands to open grazing areas rests on the assumption that the trees have little apparent utility and, therefore they should be replaced by a grass resource which has relatively greater value. In its extreme form the assumption involves the notion that the trees are actually detrimental to the productivity of the land. they become a hindrance to the growth of various forms of plant life considered desirable. Considerable investment, primarily at the expense of society, has been incurred in the transformation process. Until recent years control projects have been limited to the most accessible sites and areas "invaded" by Pinyon-Juniper trees. At present the conversion place has slackened due to the limited number of remaining accessible sites in some areas, but more importantly to the fact that the projects have had a history of mixed success. While certain rules of thumb have been put forth to explain the nature of the factors influencing seedling emergence and increased forage production, these are so volatile that an apprehension of failure exists among land managers. The intensity of investment can only be balanced against risk levels if there is basic understanding of the roles played by the variables influencing seedling establishment and forage increase. Both policy and nonpolicy (not subject to human manipulation) variables must be identified and their influences upon success measured. The analysis that follows begins by setting forth the objectives to be achieved in evaluating the tree conversion process and its associated risk. Next a theory of range grass seedling establishment is presented. The appropriate variables are identified and an "establishment" model is applied to the empirical data. A third section specifically treats weather as a major influence upon seedling emergence and forage production. A model expressed in probabilistic terms, employing the Markov property is applied to available data to evaluate weather index movements. Finally having dealt with emergence, a theory is developed to explain expected forage production in the period following emergence. The parameters of the associated model are obtained from empirical data.

A profit criterion which will make possible the selection of optimum conversion practices in the Pinyon-Juniper woodlands can be made operational if: (a) it is possible to predict eradication costs and resulting total costs (eradication costs, seed costs, and seed application costs) , and (b) it is possible to determine for age production resulting from initial eradication, as well as when it reaches absolute minimum allowable limit due to tree re-growth . Knowledge of the above relationships makes it possible to determine the optimum practice.

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This thesis is a comparative study of two Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) with the aim to conclude which one is the most suitable for a small enterprise network. The network in question is Company A’s Office A1. Office A is in the process of upgrading their internal network and with the upgrade a new NGFW will be implemented. The two NGFW platforms that have been researched per Company A’s request are Juniper Networks’ SRX-series firewalls and Palo Alto Networks’ (PAN) PA-series, with focus on the SRX1500 and PA-3020 for a fair comparison. To be able to evaluate different platforms and appliances, the concept of NGFW and what it constitutes has been researched and presented. Both of the NGFW platforms have been tested and compared in terms of ease-of-use and cost analysis. The testing focused on the respective web-interfaces and shows no significant differences between the two NGFWs at a first glance in terms of functionality. However, PAN’s web-interface does objectively feel more up-to-date and provides application visibility natively, which Juniper offers as a separate service as part of the centralised management platform, which is excessive for Office A’s network. The research and collection of data has been conducted based on Office A’s needs and requirements. Third-party research has been collected from NSS Labs and Gartner and serves as a basis for the evaluation. The future network of Office A introduces new services and the general usage will mainly consist of office oriented application based traffic. The evaluation of the research of the two NGFWs and the collection of data, in the context of Office A’s network, shows that the PA-3020 would be favoured. The key points are as follows: PAN’s NGFWs are built specifically for application awareness whereas Juniper are new in the NGFW market and has recently started to add the more advanced application awareness features. PAN offers a one-box solution suited for smaller networks such as Office A whereas a Juniper implementation would require additional hardware (VM’s) to obtain similar features. PAN offers more features in terms of user identification which is a key factor in enabling a true context aware security environment seamlessly integrated and invisible to the users. No major difference in cost if a similar set of features are to be implemented, based on non-rebated list prices (additional hardware not included). 1 Note: Due to confidentiality, the name and details of the company has been anonymised throughout the report.

Relevance of the problem. Common juniper (Juniperus communis L.) is a characteristic underbrush plant of the dry and infertile forest ecosystems. Under favorable conditions, mostly on exposed slopes, common juniper comprises unique juniper communities. The species occupies a large range, is characterized by ecological plasticity and a large variety of populations (Adams, 2008). In many areas of the range it is an important element of the ecosystem, characterized by a large variety of forms. However, the prevalence of junipers and their ecological importance is often dealt with episodically, and on a wider scale - only in the British Isles (Plantlife, 2007, Thomas, 2007) and in some regions of Russia (Барзут, 2007; Михеева, 2002). Despite the large range, common juniper remains one of the least explored coniferous species. According to the Lithuanian National forest inventory data, common juniper is the most widespread in the south-southeastern Lithuanian pine forests on infertile (Nb) forest sites of normal humidity. Nb site occupies more than one fifth of the Lithuanian forest area, while about 94% of stands on this site type occupy pine stands where common juniper is the most common plant in the underbrush (State Forest Service, 2009). Juniper communities formed in the underbrush under intense forest management conditions generally suffer from economic activity, particularly due to final forest felling, when the largest and most valuable individuals are often damaged or... [to full text] / Paprastasis kadagys (Juniperus communis L.) yra charakteringas sausesnių ir mažiau derlingų miško ekosistemų trako augalas. Esant palankioms sąlygoms dažniausiai atviruo-se šlaituose paprastasis kadagys sudaro unikalias kadagynų bendrijas. Rūšis užima didelį arealą, pasižymi ekologiniu plastiškumu ir didele populiacijų įvairove (Adams, 2008). Daugelyje arealo sričių jis yra svarbus ekosistemos elementas, kuriam būdinga formų įvai-rovė. Tačiau kadagių paplitimas bei jų ekologinė svarba dažniausiai nagrinėjami epizodiš-kai, o plačiau – tik Britų salose (Plantlife, 2007; Thomas, 2007) ir kai kuriuose Rusijos re-gionuose (Барзут, 2007; Михеева, 2002). Nors arealas ir didelis, paprastasis kadagys vis dar yra viena iš mažiausiai ištirtų spygliuočių rūšių. Remiantis Lietuvos Nacionalinės miškų inventorizacijos duomenimis, paprastasis kadagys yra labiausiai paplitęs Pietų-Pietryčių Lietuvos pušynuose normalaus drėgnumo nederlingose (Nb) miško augavietėse. Nb augavietė užima daugiau nei penktadalį Lietuvos miškų ploto, o apie 94 % šios augavietės medynų sudaro pušynai, kuriuose paprastasis ka-dagys yra dažnai aptinkamas trako augalas (Valstybinė miškų tarnyba, 2009). Intensyvaus miškų ūkio sąlygomis medynų trake susiformavusios kadagių bendrijos paprastai nukenčia nuo ūkinės veiklos, ypač nuo pagrindinių miško kirtimų. Jų metu dažnai pažeidžiami arba sunaikinami vertingi stambiausi kadagių individai. Be to, pasikeičia šviesos ir temperatū-ros sąlygos bei hidrologinis režimas, todėl... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]

During 1973 and 1974 a water quality study was conducted in San Juan County, southeastern Utah. In 1973, baseline water quality data was collected from study locations which had been chained to remove pinyon-juniper vegetation six years earlier. The area had been chained under two different techniques: (1) doubled chained, with debris-left-in-place and (2) chained, with debris windrowed. An "undisturbed, natural" woodland was left between these two treatments in order to serve as a control area. In the fall of 1973 and spring of 1974 secondary treatments of burning and grazing were superimposed upon the debris-in-place and windrowed sites, respectively. All water collected and analyzed for the several water quality parameters was generated through use of a small plot Rocky Mountain infiltrometer which creates a simulated rainstorm. Resultant runoff was collected and analyzed for each of the parameters in question. No significant changes were noted from these point source measurements in terms of fecal and total coliform production (fecal pollution bacterial indicators). The point source approach was a technique for sampling a much larger land area through many small plots (0.23 m2). There is an element of risk involved whenever the data generated from such a small area is projected to the larger land area. Based on this small plot data it appears, however, that this level of livestock grazing (2 hectares/AUM) does not constitute a public health hazard in terms of fecal pollution indicators when grazed on similar semi-arid watershed areas. Some significant changes were noted following burning, however. Significant increases in potassium and phosphorus were noted. Apparently the fire "released" these nutrients which were tied up in the debris scattered across the site. Potassium registered an increase of about 4 ppm (400 percent) while phosphorus showed an increase of about 0.2 ppm (400 percent). No significant treatment changes were detected for sodium, calcium, or nitrate-nitrogen, however. Sediment production was also measured under the various treatment conditions. High natural variability is present among these sites, and no significant treatment effect was defected following our prescribed burning or grazing treatments. Infiltration rates were also monitored. No significant treatment differences were noted among the initial treatment means during 1973. Apparently any differences in infiltration rates due to chaining technique had been overcome by the passage of six years since the initial chaining had been completed. During 1974, however, secondary treatment was in effect. Infiltration rates on the grazed and burned watersheds were significantly depressed during certain time intervals in comparison to the "undisturbed, natural" woodland location. Apparently this level of secondary treatment could have an effect on the hydrology of the area, at least in terms of infiltration rates.

Every year, millions of acres of forest and rangeland are burned in prescribed burns as well as wildfires. The costs associated with wildfires may be some of the largest we face as a society both in material goods and in life. The importance of managing fire fuels has increased with the development of the wildland-urban interface. With this increased emphasis has come the development of tools to assess, map, and simulate fuel maps at a landscape level. These fuel maps are then input into computer-aided wildfire simulation models that are used by land managers in the planning process. A current challenge for land managers is to find efficient ways to measure the amount and structure of fire fuels on a landscape level. Fuel models are one of the required inputs for software that mathematically computes wildfire rate of spread. Various methods have been used to develop fuel maps. It is the objective of this thesis to develop a method by which fuel models can be predicted and mapped on a landscape level through utilization of remotely sensed data. The proposed process for this method is: 1) develop landcover classification, 2) assess data analysis approaches for use in creation of predictive regression models, 3) correlation of data results to Natural Fuels Photo Series, and 4) translate Natural Fuels Photo Series classifications into fuel models described by Scott and Burgan.

Since European American settlement of the Intermountain Region, dramatic changes in vegetation composition and structure have occurred in the sagebrush steppe ecosystem. Western juniper (Juniperus occidentalis spp. occidentalis Vasek), although indigenous to the Intermountain Region, has increased since the late 1800s. Considerable work has been done documenting juniper woodland expansion in the Intermountain West, however, little is known about the environmental variables that influence rates of tree establishment and structural attributes of woodlands across landscapes. Most studies of western juniper have addressed site-specific questions at limited spatial scales. Consequently, there is a lack of research on broader scale patterns of woodland development occurring across heterogeneous landscapes. In addition, changes in the amount, composition, and structure of fuels during the transition from open sagebrush steppe communities to closed juniper woodlands have profound influences on the size, intensity, frequency, and behavior of fire. However, limited data exist quantifying changes in fuels during this transition, thus, consequences to fire behavior have been difficult to predict. The major impetus for the study was to determine the influence of environmental variables on rates and structural attributes of woodland development and associated changes in fuel loading characteristics during the transition from sagebrush steppe communities to closed juniper woodlands in the High Desert and Humboldt ecological provinces. The proportion of trees greater than 150 years old relative to trees less than 150 years suggest western juniper has greatly expanded in the Owyhee Mountains and on Steens Mountain since settlement of the areas. Ninety-five percent of the trees established after the 1850s. As evidenced by the presence of western juniper in 96% of plots sampled in this study, juniper is able to encroach upon a variety of plant alliances and under a broad range of environmental conditions over diverse landscapes. Although it appears the occurrence of western juniper within the woodland belt is not spatially limited by environmental or vegetative conditions, stand structural and fuel loading characteristics do vary considerably across heterogeneous landscapes. Total juniper density, density of dominant trees comprising the primary canopy, and certain live and dead fuels biomass very substantially with site potential. Spatial variation in stand structure and fuels may have significant implications to management of juniper at the landscape scale. / Graduation date: 2005