The patterns and rates of forest regeneration on a critical wildlife winter range on the floor of the trench, known locally as Premier Ridge were examined in this study. A nearby western wall of the trench was also investigated to ascertain the effect of elevation on forest regeneration and understory productivity. Forest regeneration in a community which has remained unforested for several as years has pronounced effects on the floristic dynamics and productivity of the understory. On Premier Ridge the greatest floristic change was a rapid increase in pinegrass and a. corresponding decrease in the abundance of all other grass species as the forest regeneration progressed. Forbs varied widely in abundance while shrubs were slower to react to changes in the overstory. Similar trends were observed on Estella Mountain. Productivity of the grass component on the unforested sites was four times that of the forested sites. The production of forbs and some species of shrubs also declined as forest regrowth began. One species, bearberry, increased under light forest canopies. The reduction in productivity and the changes in species composition of-the understory which occur in regenerating forest communities, appear to be detrimental to foraging populations of wild and domestic ungulates. Cattle seem to prefer to graze the open, unforested areas, and as regeneration proceeds, the acreage which they will readily use diminishes. Since there have been few reductions in stock numbers to compensate for this range shrinkage, local overgrazing has become more widespread. The regrowth of the forest reduces the grass, both in terms of quality and quantity. This is the most important component in the diet of cattle and most of the wildlife species using the Premier Ridge area. In addition, bitterbrush, used in the summer by cattle and during the winter by big game species, is quickly eliminated by forest regeneration. Bearberry, which may be used by wildlife to some extent, increases under forest cover. This component does not approach in value or usefulness, the losses that the other components represent to grazing animals. The trees of the south and southwestern aspects are characterized by relatively slow growth rates. Forage production on these slopes is modest; if grazing animals are deemed desirable in the future economy of the East Kootenay, these areas should remain treeless. Growth rates are more favourable on the north and northeast aspects, which are less frequently used as foraging areas by winter wildlife, but may be used as shelter or bedding areas. / Land and Food Systems, Faculty of / Graduate

This study addresses the availability of total solar irradiance at the earth's surface during varying weather conditions . Two years of irradiance and meteorological data were collected at mountain and valley sites along 40° North latitude in the Rocky Mountains of Utah and Colorado. Generalized cases of recurring seasonal weather episodes and the associated t o t al irradiance a re identified and discussed , including local mesoscale phenomena (orographic clouds , valley fog, etc.) unique to mountainous regions . The generalized cases can be useful in long- range energy assessment planning. The east and west slopes of the Rocky Mountains are shown to have similar annual average solar energy potential , however the seasonal differences reveal unique climates which require different considerations for each slope. Short -term relationships between cloudiness and t o t al irradiance are developed for the mountainous region, providing a tool for forecasting solar irradiance using a cloudiness forecast. Total irradiance is shown to correlate much better to opaque sky cover than co total cloud cover . The relationships on the east and west slopes are similar , however greater variations a re observed with elevation between the moun t ain and valley sites . Short- term forecasting of irradiance is found to be limited due t o unreliable cloudiness fore-casting techniques , tho ugh satellite imagery trajectories are more reliable than numerical methods.

No description available.

Increasing visitation to national parks and the resulting resource impact has caused many park administrators to implement restrictive use management strategies. Though it seems clear that the resource has benefited from these use restrictions, little research has been done to determine their effect on the visitor. The goal of this study was to provide information to help guide the administrators of Rocky Mountain National Park in evaluating current use management actions and developing new ones in the future to both satisfactorily meet the protection needs of the resource and protect the quality of the visitor experience. Frontcountry campers were surveyed to determine awareness and attitudes about current and possible use management actions, perceptions of national park management purpose and challenges, and socio-demographic information. Respondents favored the majority of current use management actions, but were opposed to strongly restrictive actions considered as a possibility in the future.

“Perilous Pilgrimage: A Lady’s Flight into the Rocky Mountain Wilderness” is comprised of four thematically linked essays set in the Colorado Rockies. In these essays I probe my fascination with masculinity at an early age, the impact of my rape at age twenty-two, the dependency and resentment that undermined my marriage after the rape, and my quest after my divorce fifteen years later to define myself on my own terms. The link joining these strands is the tension between my drive for independence and my disassociation from my mind and body as a result of the rape. “Perilous Pilgrimage” revisits three pivotal stages of my life: childhood, young adulthood, and middle age. As a youngster vacationing with my family in Rocky Mountain National Park, I was drawn to men who rescued lost hikers and climbed mountains. Fred Bowen, the caretaker of our rented cabin in the park, and the two California school teachers who were the first to conquer the Diamond on Longs Peak, appeared to have more freedom than I did as a middle-class girl growing up in the 1950s. That conviction was reinforced after I moved to Colorado at age seventeen. Four years later I graduated from college and began dating a man who introduced me to the thrill and terror of mountaineering. After leading me up numerous mountains, he became my husband, and we made our home in Manitou Springs, Colorado. Once married, I could no longer repress the unresolved issues of my rape and identity quest, and I revolted. At age thirty-nine, I embarked on a solo quest to reclaim that sense of wonder and independence I had felt as a child exploring Rocky Mountain National Park. Included in my essays are references to historical figures with similar urges as mine, such as the 19th-century English explorer George Augustus Ruxton and English travel writer Isabella Bird. My search for refuge and redemption in the Colorado Rockies replicated a centuries-old pattern.

Most sociological analyses of community attachment have focused on the strength of attachment, with little concern for the qualities or attributes of a place to which people become attached. In cases where dimensions of attachment are the focus of analysis, the literature is rather narrowly focused on social dimensions, re ferring most often to connections with family, friends, and other social networks and largely ignoring the realm of natural environment factors. Two primary premises motivated this study. Fi rst, sociological understandi ngs of community attachment wou ld benefit from an expanded analytic framework that incorporates more complex arrays of both social and natural environment dimensions. Second, it is important to understand what variations in attachment may mean for the broader well-being of rural communities. Initial analyses of the data demonstrated four key results. First, factor analysis of fi fleen indicators of attachment produced two distinct dimensions of community attachment, social and natural environment. Second, the nature of the response patterns indicates that strength of natural environment attachment is widely shared amongst a variety of res idents, regardless of length of residence, historical roots to the area, or life cycle. Third, participation in collective action and perceptions of open communication (measures of well-being) within a respondent's community explained only a small portion of the variance in both social and natural environment attachment. Fourth, Structural Equation Modeling demonstrated that there is a causal relationship between attachment and community well-being, though that relationship appeared to be non-recursive. In contrast to much of the previous empirical work on community attachment, this research provides strong evidence of the natural environment dimension and provides justification for further research. This research provides one model to be considered and expanded upon in future research efforts in this area, and supports the need for further attention to the use of multiple dimensions of attachment and their associations with community well-being.

The Arizona Oil and Gas Commission in conjunction with the Arizona Geological Survey have collected a large amount of data for the oil and gas wells in the State of Arizona. The data covers over 1,000 wells that were drilled from the 1940s to present. This data includes copies of permits, location information, scanned copies of well logs and digitized versions of the well logs in .las file format. These files have been difficult to distribute efficiently because of an unfriendly web user interface. The purpose of this project is to give the Arizona Geological Survey a way to distribute the oil and gas well data through an effective web application. The web application will leverage existing web services at the Arizona Geological Survey. To create this map I used the Esri JavaScript API. In this application the users can select multiple wells by clicking and dragging over the well heads they want. This will then display the metadata in a grid along with hyperlinks to the available files for those wells. This data will be primarily used by companies involved with carbon sequestration or others seeking information for geological exploration.

Open grassland productivity was measured within adjacent East Kootenay range units to evaluate forage availability and calculate elk (Cervus canadensis nelsoni) and cattle (Bos taurus) sustainable carrying capacity targets. This research extends rangeland monitoring with an analysis of site differentiation and comparative grazing pressure to 2008 population estimates. Significant productivity differences were found between grass and shrubs for range units (p=0.024 and p<0.0001) and different biogeoclimatic zones (p=0.042 and p<0.0001). Notable grazing pressure distinctions occurred: cattle exceeded the Rampart Mayook carrying capacity, elk exceeded the Pickering Hills carrying capacity, and both species had sustainable populations within the Power Plant range unit. These results provide clear direction for stock management and offer valuable rangeland insight. Furthermore, the study introduces cover-percentage productivity estimation (CPPE), a simple grassland productivity assessment method. Pearson correlation coefficients were significant and high between productivity results and cover estimates, indicating that CPPE will be a useful field tool.

In 1975, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the grizzly bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Following the listing, a recovery plan was drafted in which the Bitterroot Ecosystem of central Idaho and extreme western Montana was one of six proposed grizzly bear recovery areas. It was the only one of the six, however, which did not contain a resident population of grizzlies. The Fish and Wildlife Service eventually accepted a proposal submitted by a coalition of environmental and timber industry groups. The coalition proposed to reestablish a population of grizzlies in the Bitterroot by translocating 25 bears over five years from existing populations in the US and Canada. The proposal, however, included significant concessions, including reduced protection for the reintroduced grizzlies and management of the grizzly population by a Citizen Management Committee. A large contingent of regional and national environmental groups quickly rose up in vociferous objection to the proposal exposing a significant rift within the environmental movement. These environmentalists objected to the very idea of Citizen Management and also claimed that the proposed recovery area was too small to ensure recovery. Drawing on interviews and document analyses, this dissertation employs an environmental pragmatist approach to examine the intra-environmentalist disputes that flared up throughout the Bitterroot grizzly recovery debates. The dissertation focuses on the relationship between environmental ideologies, science, and conservation advocacy, with an eye toward examining how environmentalists crafted and defended rival proposals for grizzly recovery. Through this interpretive lens, the dissertation aims to explain the existence and persistence of this intra-environmentalism rift as well as explore its ramifications for environmentalism in the region. While no wholly unified environmental movement can ever be possible or is even necessarily desirable unwavering commitments to unreachable ideals on the part of many environmentalists are hindering the growth, flexibility and efficacy of conservation in the region. The main contribution of this dissertation will be to provide an empirical case study that defends the environmental pragmatist assertion that hostile and unnecessary divisiveness within the environmental movement ultimately obstructs the development of a more successful environmentalism.

Thesis (M. A.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Dr. Frederick R. Davis, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of History. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 15, 2005). Document formatted into pages; contains v, 81 pages. Includes bibliographical references.