The National Park Service (NPS) and other land management agencies have interest in managing bison herds under “natural” conditions; yet demographic features of natural populations are not well described. One solution to this issue involves the analysis of historical bison (Bison spp.) jump data. We conducted a literature search of archeological data associated with bison jump sites in North America with the goal of analyzing the data and summarizing historical bison demographics. We identified six locations with adequate information to conduct vertical life-table analyses.

We conducted a survey of 3321 Forest Service employees involved in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) followed by five focus groups to investigate agency views of the purpose of agency NEPA processes and their appropriate measures of success. Results suggest the lack of a unified critical task for Forest Service NEPA processes and that employees' functions relevant to NEPA influence their views of its meaning.

Summary The recognition that biodiversity conservation requires more than a system of reserves has led to the need to consider the outcomes of land management actions, such as timber harvesting, in the matrix land outside reserves. The design of harvesting systems can be guided by the natural disturbance regime, which in Tasmania's lowland wet eucalypt forests is infrequent, intense wildfire.

Targets for improvements in water quality entering the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) have been set through the Reef Water Quality Protection Plan (Reef Plan). To measure and report on progress towards the targets set a program has been established that combines monitoring and modelling at paddock through to catchment and reef scales; the Paddock to Reef Integrated Monitoring, Modelling and Reporting Program (Paddock to Reef Program). This program aims to provide evidence of links between land management activities, water quality and reef health.

Vertical vegetation structure in rangeland ecosystems can be a valuable indicator for monitoring rangeland health or progress toward management objectives because of its importance for assessing riparian areas, post-fire recovery, wind erosion, and wildlife habitat. Federal land management agencies are directed to monitor and manage rangelands at landscapes scales, but traditional field methods for measuring vegetation heights are often too costly and time consuming to apply at these broad scales.

Government agencies are subject to increasing public scrutiny of land management practices. Consequently, rigorous, yet efficient, monitoring protocols are needed to provide defensible quantitative data on the status and trends of rangeland vegetation. Rigor requires precise, repeatable measures, whereas efficiency requires the greatest possible information content for the amount of resources spent acquiring the information. We compared two methods--point frequency and visual estimate--of measuring canopy cover of individual plant species and groups of species (forbs vs.

Fire regimes are changing throughout the world. Changed fire patterns across northern Australian savannas have been proposed as a factor contributing to recent declines of small‐ and medium‐sized mammals. Despite this, few studies have examined the mechanisms that underpin how species use habitat in fire‐affected landscapes. We determined the habitats and resources important to the declining golden‐backed tree‐rat (Mesembriomys macrurus) in landscapes partially burnt by recent intense fire.

Generally, sustainability dimension is related to a context, timing and scale. Although the context of sustainability can be various – either general or more specific, the timing is oriented to the long-term, but the scale has a global nature. The main purpose of the paper is to assess analytically the sustainable development concept.

Understanding cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) dynamics in the Northern Great Basin rangelands, USA, is necessary to effectively manage the region's lands. This study's goal was to map and monitor cheatgrass performance to identify where and when cheatgrass dieoff occurred in the Northern Great Basin and to discover how this phenomenon was affected by climatic, topographic, and edaphic variables. We also examined how fire affected cheatgrass performance.

Surveying end-users about their use of technologies and preferences provides information for researchers and educators to develop relevant research and educational programs. A mail survey was sent to Corn Belt farmers during 2006 to quantify cover crop management and preferences. Results indicated that the dominant cereal cover crops in Indiana and Illinois are winter wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and cereal rye (Secale cereale L.), cereal rye and oat (Avena sativa L.) in Iowa, and oat in Minnesota.