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We present the history of land use and historic vegetation conditions on the Sacramento Ranger District of the Lincoln National Forest within the framework of an ecosystem needs assessment. We reconstruct forest vegetation conditions and ecosystem processes for the period immediately before Anglo-American settlement using General Land Office survey records, historic studies and accounts, and reconstructive studies such as dendrochronological histories of fire and insect outbreak and studies of old growth. Intensive grazing, clearcut logging, fire suppression, and agriculture in riparian areas have radically altered forest structure and processes since the 1880s, when intensive settlement began in the Sacramento Mountains. Present forests are younger and more dense than historic ones, and in areas that were previously dominated by ponderosa pine, dominance has shifted to Douglas-fir and white fir in the absence of frequent surface fire. Landscapes are more homogeneous and contiguous than historic ones, facilitating large-scale, intense disturbances such as insect outbreaks and crown fires.
An approach for synthesizing the results of ecological research pertinent to land management is the analysis of the historic range of variability (HRV) for key ecosystem variables that are affected by management activities. This report provides an HRV analysis for the upland vegetation of the Bighorn National Forest in northcentral Wyoming. The variables include live tree density, dead tree (snag) density, canopy cover, abundance of coarse woody debris, species diversity, fire return intervals, the abundance of various diseases, the proportion of the landscape in different land cover types, and the degree of patchiness in the landscape. The variables were examined at the stand and landscape scales, using information available in the literature and USFS databases. High-elevation landscapes were considered separately from low-elevation landscapes. Much of the report pertains to forests dominated by lodge-pole pine, subalpine fir, and Engelmann spruce at high elevations, and by ponderosa pine, aspen, and Douglas-fir at lower elevations. We defined the HRV reference period for the BNF as approximately 1600 to 1890.
This volume incorporates case studies that explore past and current land use decisions on both public and private lands, and includes practical approaches and tools for land use decision-making. The most important feature of the book is the linking of ecological theory and principle with applied land use decision-making. The theoretical and empirical are joined through concrete case studies of actual land use decision-making processes.
The purpose of this pilot study was to record, characterize, and quantify road maintenance activity in Mexican spotted owl (Strix occidentalis lucida) habitat to gauge potential sound level exposure for owls during road maintenance activities. We measured sound levels from three different types of road maintenance equipment (rock crusherlloader, dozerlroller, and grader), from seven distances (30,60, 120, 180,240,320, and 400 m), in two different habitat types (forested and meadow sites) on the Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, on 22-23 October 2002 to determine how sound varied over distance, habitat type, topography, and stimulus type. Sound levels increased as the distance between road maintenance activity and microphone locations decreased, regardless of stimulus type or habitat type. Concomitantly, the amount of sound energy within the middle frequency range decreased substantially with increasing stimulus distance from microphone locations. The frequency range over which owls can potentially hear road maintenance events decreased with increasing stimulus distance. Sound recordings of road maintenance equipment were louder at tree microphones than at base microphones, regardless of stimulus distance, stimulus type, and site location. The difference in sound levels between tree and base microphones at each distance was consistently louder at meadow sites (tree microphones were located in trees along the edge of the meadow during testing at the meadow site) compared with forested sites, regardless of stimulus type or stimulus distance. Tree microphones registered a greater proportion of sound energy from road maintenance activities in the middle frequency range than at base microphones, regardless of stimulus type, stimulus distance or site location. Sound level and frequency spectra varied by stimulus type. Rock crushing equipment registered the highest sound levels of any of the road maintenance equipment tested, regardless of stimulus distance or habitat type. Rock crushing equipment had the greatest amount of sound energy in the middle frequency range of all the road maintenance equipment tested, followed by the dozerlroller and the grader, regardless of stimulus distance or habitat type. Road maintenance equipment was consistently louder than background ambient forest and meadow sound levels over a range of distances from 30 to 400 m. The extended duration of both rock crusher sound and the multiple passes required of the grader and dozerlroller are additional, potentially negative considerations. Based on our previous sound research with this species, it appears that spotted owls are capable of hearing all the sound sources tested during this pilot study out to distances of at least 400 m.