Wood turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) are of conservation interest rangewide. Anecdotal accounts demonstrate that some populations have been decimated since 1850, and recent studies demonstrate that declines are still underway. From 2004–2008 I investigated the ecology of wood turtles in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I obtained between one and five years of annual home range data for 150 turtles, and evaluated population structure at 31 sites in five major watersheds. Seasonal floods displaced 7% of wood turtles annually in one watershed, and accounted for elevated mortality. Twelve wood turtles were displaced < 16.8 km, and two were displaced over a 65-foot dam. Several turtles overwintered at their displacement site and two returned successfully, indicating that floods are a mechanism of population connectivity. Several homing turtles ended up in new areas. Turtles occupied stream segments with gradient < 1%, lower than generally available. Agricultural machinery accounted for most observed mortality, followed by automobiles and mammals. Female turtles exhibit smaller home ranges in agricultural areas. Older turtles move farther from the river than do young turtles, possibly reflecting their familiarity with a former landscape. Population density ranged from 0–40.4 turtles/river-kilometer. The highest densities occur in central New Hampshire and lower densities occur in the Housatonic watershed. Population density is negatively correlated with agriculture at both riparian and watershed scales, and responds unimodally to forest cover. Wood turtle populations in western Massachusetts are declining by 6.6–11.2% annually. I estimated ages of turtles by assessing shell-wear rates from photographs. Wood turtles regularly achieve ages over 80 years, and like related species, do not exhibit clear signs of senescence. Old wood turtles are reproductively dominant, and their survival rates are twice as high as young turtles. Carapace scutes appear to require 80 years to become worn. Population modeling indicates that wood turtle populations are declining in New England due to anthropogenic and natural factors. Conservation efforts must address the effects of agriculture on adult survival. Climate change may negatively affect northeastern wood turtles through increased flooding. Populations in mountainous areas may be likely candidates for conservation because they don't occupy prime agricultural land, but may be more susceptible to floods.

Planning is important it helps the landowner develop a more thorough understanding of the value of forestland. Formal recognition of the forests many values leads to more informed decision-making regarding land-use. A review of the literature on forest management planning and its relation to landowner behavior and timber harvesting is presented. In 1990 the U.S. Congress recognized the importance of planning by passing the Forest Stewardship Act. A history of the Forest Stewardship Program (FSP) is presented. State-level data is analyzed to describe differences in the level of stewardship planning across states. Case studies of eight states, having either high or low levels of success in encouraging stewardship planning are presented. State forestry officials were interviewed regarding the techniques used, impediments, and success factors observed in implementing their states' FSP. Each states approach to stewardship plan development is described. An econometric model is developed to analyze causal factors that might lead to observed differences across states in the level of forest management planning, as measured by acreage under Forest Stewardship Plans. Factors including landowner characteristics, forest land characteristics, amenity values, and policy and information variables were tested. Results of the regression model found; base level of funding, Stewardship Incentive Program cost-share monies, agricultural property tax rates, number of forestry professionals, and region to be significant in explaining differences in the level of stewardship planning. A qualitative analysis of state case study interviews revealed a number of factors that affected the level of stewardship planning. High performing states: had a history of providing private forest landowner services, had property tax reduction programs that required management plans, provided management planning services free-of-charge, and collaborated successfully with related federal and state agencies, woodland owner and conservation groups. Impediments to achieving high levels of stewardship planning included: lack of a prior history of stewardship planning, a confusing and time consuming administrative process for plan approvals, friction between state service foresters and consulting foresters, lack of a financial incentive for consulting foresters to promote stewardship planning, and a focus on plan quality versus the quantity of acreage brought into planning.

In order to protect water quality and quantity, a decision support system, Watershed Forest Management Information System (WFMIS), was developed with Visual Basic® and ArcObjects® in ArcGIS® 9. There are three subsystems: the Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) is a zoning method for forest management planning with respect to soils, water, and aquatic ecosystems; the Forest Road Evaluation System (FRES) is a module to evaluate roads and road-stream crossings in order to develop and implement preventive management strategies, and the Harvest Scheduling Review System (HSRS) is a module to estimate the cumulative hydrologic effect of timber harvesting on water yield and associated changes in water quality. The system is an extension to ArcGIS ® 9. It uses commonly available GIS data and has user friendly interfaces to assist foresters and planners to manage the watershed in an environment healthy way.

This study examined the politics and policy processes that led to the formation and change of federal urban forest policy in the United States. Using the Three Streams Framework and Punctuated Equilibrium Model of policy processes for the analysis, findings suggest that federal urban forest policy began as a “top-down” policy process originating from presidential attention to New Conservation issues. In the 1960s a “wave of enthusiasm” formed for government solutions to environmental problems. Policy entrepreneurs in the federal bureaucracy recognized this opportunity and acted to use it for organizational advantage. Federal urban forest policy forms due to bureaucratic response to presidential attention and policy changes due to the United States Forest Service quest for legislator attention, new resources, and to cultivate an urban constituency. The agency accomplished this in cooperation with two principal and historically allied forestry interest groups, the American Forestry Association and state foresters. A key element was the rise of skillful policy entrepreneurs advancing policy. Political advocates were also present in Congress. Important too was that several urban forestry policy entrepreneurs cross back and forth between these groups. Another key element was not so much the absence of organized opposition, but the control of it. Opposition to federal urban forest policy existed among members of the policy monopoly due to distribution politics. However, opposition ceased when federal cooperative forestry law changed in 1978 permitting distribution of federal urban forestry funds to and by state foresters. Policy stabilizes due to the formation of a policy monopoly resulting from an advocacy coalition who controlled membership. Policy becomes unstable due to the introduction of new, competing actors into the policy monopoly and due to issue ambiguity affecting the urban forest policy image. By 1989 presidential attention to the causal story of urban reforestation (tree planting) emerges again as it did in the 1960s. This causes the coupling of the three policy process streams resulting in a punctuated moment in federal urban forest policy. This results in increased political attention and the acquisition of scarce resources for the Forest Service and distribution of funds to partners in the advocacy coalition. Keywords: Advocacy coalition; American governance; cooperative forestry; distributive politics; Forest Service; interorganizational relationships; policy entrepreneurs; policy monopoly; policy stability; political advocates; political behavior; urban forest history; urban forest policy.

The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar L., is one of the most important forest pests in the United States. Insecticides are frequently used to suppress outbreaks, however, untreated outbreaks generally collapse due to disease epizootics caused by a nuclear polyhedrosis virus (NPV). Knowledge of NPV epizootiology could aid in the use of NPV as a biological control agent. In this study, the mechanisms by which the NPV is transmitted across host generations, factors affecting host susceptibility to the pathogen, and the effects of NPV on the behavior and distribution of infected larvae in natural populations were investigated. A series of experiments were conducted in the field to determine whether maternal or environmental mechanisms are responsible for transgenerational transmission of the pathogen. Larvae hatching from egg masses oviposited in NPV-contaminated environments became infected, whereas, progeny of NPV-fed parents did not, indicating that environmental contamination of egg masses, rather than maternal transmission, is the principle means of transmission across generations. Further tests showed that egg masses acquire inoculum from the substrate during oviposition, rather than through rain-caused leaching. The pathogenesis of the virus in gypsy moth larvae, pupae, and adults was followed using nucleic acid-hybridization techniques. Virus was not detected in adult moths suggesting that vertical transmission of NPV from infected moths to progeny may not be possible in the gypsy moth. Susceptibility to disease may also be affected by disease prevalence. In laboratory assays, larvae from populations with more heavily NPV-contaminated eggs were more resistant to NPV than were populations with little inoculum present. These results suggest that exposure to NPV may favor selection for resistance to the pathogen. It was also demonstrated that NPV infection alters the behavior of larvae, resulting in the tendency of infected larvae to die in the upper crowns of trees. Thus, samples of larvae collected from the upper canopy contain a higher proportion of infected larvae compared with those collected from under burlap bands wrapped around tree trunks. Therefore, NPV prevalence is more precisely estimated by rearing larvae collecting by a stratified-random sampling design.

Increases in numbers of Herring (L. argentatus) and Great Black-backed (L. marinus) gulls, and concurrent decreases in numbers of other beach-nesting birds, led to the proposed use of avicides to control gulls on Monomoy NWR, Chatham, Massachusetts. The purpose of this study was to obtain biological information on Monomoy's gull populations, and to use this information to develop and evaluate gull control strategies. Landfill use differed between species. Herring Gulls used more, and traveled farther to, landfills than did Great Black-backed Gulls. Herring Gulls used fewer landfills during the non-breeding than breeding season. Numbers of Herring Gulls in landfills were significantly related to human populations served by those landfills (r$\sp2$ = 0.63, P = 0.0003), Great Black-backed Gull numbers were not. Although both species consumed refuse and natural foods, more Herring than Great Black-backed gull stomachs contained refuse $(X\sp2$ = 7.88, P $<$ 0.005 in 1988; $X\sp2$ = 13.93, P $<$ 0.0002 in 1989). Refuse was a minor dietary component for both species' chicks. The passage of large gulls over nest sites had little impact on Monomoy's Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) and Laughing Gull (L. atricilla) colonies. Few fly-overs (49, 0.04%) at altitudes of 20 m or less resulted in mobbings or disturbances. Terns mobbed large gulls more often than did Laughing Gulls (G = 16.61, P $<$ 0.005), but numbers of birds per mobbing did not differ between species (t = 0.95, P $>$ 0.05). Both species habituated to fly-overs and ignored most large gulls. We developed a deterministic simulation model to identify the effects of different types and levels of control on gull population dynamics. Effectiveness of gull control varied with technique, but no method completely eliminated Herring or Great Black-backed gulls. Model construction and interpretation of outputs are described.

The mechanisms linking spring flooding to changes in plant primary production were examined in seasonally flooded shallow prairie marshes dominated by whitetop (Scolochloa festucacea) at Delta, Manitoba, Canada. This study tested the hypotheses that flooding influences aboveground production by: (1) altering biomass allocation between above- and belowground structures, (2) changing soil salinity, and (3) by changing availability of plant-limiting nitrogen. Experimentally manipulated water levels provided comparisons between marshes with spring flooded and nonflooded hydrologic regimes. Spring flooding increased aboveground production (950 g/m$\sp2)$ compared with nonflooded marsh (360 g/m$\sp2).$ Flooding increased the number of flowering shoots and mid-summer shoot recruitment. Ingrowth mesh bag methods for estimating belowground production showed consistently greater estimates and lower sampling variability compared with soil coring methods. Below ground production measured by mesh bags was greater in flooded marsh (415 g/m$\sp2)$ than in nonflooded marsh (309 g/m$\sp2).$ Changes in total production between flooding regimes indicated that differences in aboveground production could not be explained solely by changes in biomass allocation. Flooding reduced pore water salinity compared with nonflooded marsh but mean growing season soil salinities at 15-cm depth over two years in both flooded marsh (12 mS/cm) and nonflooded marsh (17 mS/cm) were greater than the salinities (approximately 8 mS/cm) that reduced whitetop growth by more than 50 percent in greenhouse trails. Irrigation of plots with fresh water in nonflooded marsh reduced pore water salinity and increased whitetop growth. Flooding appeared to increase whitetop growth by providing plants access to fresh water in the top 10 cm of the soil profile. Net nitrogen mineralization rates were greater in flooded marsh (261 kg N/ha/y) than nonflooded marsh (114 kg N/ha/y). Net nitrification was significant in nonflooded marsh (60 kg N/ha/y) but not in flooded marsh ($<$1 kg N/h/y). Net nitrification increased levels of soil nitrate during summer and early spring in nonflooded marsh. Net mineralization rates in flooded and nonflooded marsh approximately balanced whitetop nitrogen uptake requirements. However, irrigation of nonflooded marsh did not increase net mineralization rates while increasing whitetop growth, indicating that soil salinity and not nitrogen availability provided the most immediate control over plant growth.

On Georges Bank, skates (F. Rajidae) appear to be replacing depleted populations of economically-important demersal fishes like Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) and yellowtail flounder (Pleuronectes ferrugineus). Because skates share some food resources with these teleosts, National Marine Fisheries Service biologists are concerned that food resources historically available to demersal fishes are now being consumed by the abundant skates, which could indirectly and negatively impact the growth of demersal species. The main objectives of this study were to estimate the consumptive impact of little skate (Raja erinacea) and winter skate (Raja ocellata) on their invertebrate prey, and to test whether these skates may indirectly impact the growth of yellowtail flounder on Georges Bank. The diet of little skate was comprised mainly of amphipods and decapods on Georges Bank. Both proportions of the two taxa and selection of prey varied depending on season, site, and body length of skates. Seasonal overlap was highest (0.42-0.92) between little skate $<$39 cm and all lengths of yellowtail flounder, indicating little skate could affect yellowtail flounder indirectly through resource competition. The consumptive impact of little skate and winter skate on their benthic prey was determined by estimating the percentage of benthic production consumed by these skate species. Annual consumption ranged from 0.085 kg fish$\sp{-1}$ yr$\sp{-1}$ for little skate 10-19 cm in length to 0.860 kg fish$\sp{-1}$ yr$\sp{-1}$ for skates 50-59 cm, and from 1.186 kg fish$\sp{-1}$ yr$\sp{-1}$ for winter skate 40-49 cm to 5.528 kg fish$\sp{-1}$ yr$\sp{-1}$ for 90-99 cm skates. The percentage of benthic production consumed by little skate and winter skate from 1969 to 1990 ranged from 5% to 15% and 11% to 43%. This indicated only a small to moderate proportion of benthic biomass is consumed by these species. Linear regression and Spearman correlation analyses indicated growth of age 1+ to age 4+ yellowtail flounder was significantly and inversely correlated to its own density, indicating growth of this species is density-dependent. Growth was either not, or positively, correlated to the abundance of skates, groundfishes, and other flounders, suggesting interspecific competition is not an important regulatory mechanism of growth. Therefore, skates appear not to have a measurable impact on the growth dynamics of yellowtail flounder.

A data set was compiled from detailed information provided from 26 independent logging contractors from throughout the Eastern United States over a five year period from 2000 to 2004. The age distribution of the logging contractors in the study has increased over time with the percentage of contactors over the age of 55 rising from 15% to 32%. The median age of all equipment including feller-bunchers, skidders, loaders, bulldozers, service vehicles, and haul trucks increased over the period. While the median age of all equipment increased, the age of service and support equipment saw the greatest increase. The total average cost per ton increased 13% over the five year period from $13.99 in 2000 to $16.11 in 2004, due mostly to increases in fuel costs and higher use of contract services. Total production for all firms increased by a net of 450,000 tons over five years.

No description available.