VRSC 2021 Conference Proceedings

The biennial conference aims to catalyze ideas and innovation between academia, practice, NGOs and government agencies who work to address analysis, planning, valuation, design and management of visual resources. The aim of the 2021 Virtual Conference is to share ideas and discuss the issues associated with the assessment and protection of visual resources in an era of major landscape change - regionally, national and globally

Assessing the Economic Viability of a Mechanized Beech Bark Disease Remediation Harvest and a Life Cycle Assessment of a Mechanized Shelterwood Harvest

A beech bark disease remediation harvest producing clean chips and sawlogs was conducted in the Adirondack Park of New York. A cost analysis was conducted to assess the financial viability of the remediation prescription using high resolution data gathered from the logging company. This primary, site-specific data was also fed into an attributional life cycle assessment model to estimate the global warming potential of this method of raw materials extraction and delivery. The logging company produced a total profit of $5,965 despite the prescription requiring the feller-bunchers to spend 35% of their time on non-revenue-generating activity. The life cycle assessment model estimated 39.77 and 26.16 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent were emitted per metric tonne of clean chips and sawlogs, respectively. These case studies found this remediation technique economically viable enough for landowners to seriously consider its implementation, and that mechanized harvesting captures far more carbon than it emits

Using Data to Prioritize Invasive Species Management

With so many invasive species, natural resource managers must allocate limited funds to certain species and not others. Often, managers determine priorities through subjective experience and not regional data, contributing to a lack of objectivity, consistency, and transparency. This research mitigates this problem by demonstrating a process for combining data from iMapInvasives, New York’s official invasive species database, with expert feedback. Based on this process eighteen prioritization lists were generated for each of New York’s 8 Partnerships for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISMs) and the entire State of New York. Additionally, invasive species spread rates were calculated for all non-native terrestrial plant species in NYS using herbarium records and iMapInvasives data. Species’ current primary source of spread, primary dispersal mechanism, and overall invasiveness were all significant predictors of these invasive spread rates. The results of these analyses may provide a valuable insight for invasive species managers in their prioritization decisions

Natural Reproduction, Survival, Homing and Straying Of Chinook Salmon in Lake Ontario

Naturalization of a species requires self-sustaining populations without supplementation. Chinook Salmon are stocked into Lake Ontario to control non-native Alewife and provide a sportfishery worth $350 million to local economies. Hatchery stocking is often viewed by anglers and fisheries managers as the principal source of maintaining catch rates, thus, stocking decisions are controversial and set with limited information about contribution of wild salmon. Objectives of this dissertation were to use scale pattern analysis, mass marking and tagging to: 1) determine the relative contribution and distribution of wild and hatchery Chinook Salmon to Lake Ontario fisheries; 2) compare survival, imprinting and straying outcomes of hatchery stocking methods among tributaries and to the hatchery; 3) compare size at age and age at maturity of hatchery and wild salmon; 4) estimate straying rates of hatchery Chinook Salmon in Lake Ontario compared to native populations; and 5) consider the potential for local adaptation and naturalization of Chinook Salmon to Lake Ontario and implications to fisheries management. Wild Chinook Salmon have represented an important component of the fisheries for at least three decades averaging 46% of the lake harvest (range:23-61%) and varying significantly among tributaries (range: 9-59%). Hatchery salmon were significantly larger than wild salmon by 50 mm in July and were 20% more likely to mature at age 2. Recoveries of tagged salmon indicated a well-mixed population in the lake prior to September. Pen- acclimation provided 2.1 times higher relative survival than direct stocking, improved imprinting to tributaries, and significantly reduced straying to the rearing hatchery. Most salmon harvested in tributaries were stocked at those sites (mean=67%, SE=4%) or nearby, indicating good imprinting by both pen and direct-stocked salmon. Straying rates of hatchery Chinook Salmon were similar to those reported in native ranges of western North America, averaging 6.8% (range 0.1-23.9%) among Lake Ontario tributaries, and 11% to the rearing hatchery. Although local adaptation and naturalization may be occurring in some Lake Ontario tributaries, the potential is limited by intensive fisheries and stocking from central hatcheries. Hatchery and wild Chinook Salmon are important drivers of population dynamics and both require consideration when managing predator prey balance

Moderate Success With Underplanting 1-0 Containerized White Pine Seedlings in Shelterwoods With Abundant, Uncontrolled Understory Vegetation

This study examined the six-year survival and growth response of underplanted 1-0 containerized white pine seedlings to site quality, overstory density, and scarification treatments in four shelterwoods on a high- and low-quality site with abundant, untreated, understory vegetation in the Adirondacks. Overall survival was 57% and was similar between site and overstory treatments. Scarification treatment reduced survival ,which was 63.9% in unscarified subplots and 50.3% in scarified subplots. Average seedling height and diameter across all treatments was 110.0 cm (43.3 in) and 1.7 cm (0.7 in), respectively. While site quality and scarification treatment had no effect on seedling growth, seedlings in plots with 20% relative stand density (RSD) were faster growing than those in the 40% RSD plots. Seedlings in 20% RSD treatment plots were 54% taller and 77% larger in diameter than those in the 40% RSD plots. There was a negative relationship between understory vegetation cover, particularly fern and understory tree, and seedling survival and growth. Rubus cover was positively correlated with growth. These results suggest that moderate success can be achieved planting white pine seedlings in low-density shelterwoods with untreated understory vegetation on low- and high- quality sites in the Adirondacks

Large Area Land Cover Mapping Using Deep Neural Networks and Landsat Time-Series Observations

This dissertation focuses on analysis and implementation of deep learning methodologies in the field of remote sensing to enhance land cover classification accuracy, which has important applications in many areas of environmental planning and natural resources management. The first manuscript conducted a land cover analysis on 26 Landsat scenes in the United States by considering six classifier variants. An extensive grid search was conducted to optimize classifier parameters using only the spectral components of each pixel. Results showed no gain in using deep networks by using only spectral components over conventional classifiers, possibly due to the small reference sample size and richness of features. The effect of changing training data size, class distribution, or scene heterogeneity were also studied and we found all of them having significant effect on classifier accuracy. The second manuscript reviewed 103 research papers on the application of deep learning methodologies in remote sensing, with emphasis on per-pixel classification of mono-temporal data and utilizing spectral and spatial data dimensions. A meta-analysis quantified deep network architecture improvement over selected convolutional classifiers. The effect of network size, learning methodology, input data dimensionality and training data size were also studied, with deep models providing enhanced performance over conventional one using spectral and spatial data. The analysis found that input dataset was a major limitation and available datasets have already been utilized to their maximum capacity. The third manuscript described the steps to build the full environment for dataset generation based on Landsat time-series data using spectral, spatial, and temporal information available for each pixel. A large dataset containing one sample block from each of 84 ecoregions in the conterminous United States (CONUS) was created and then processed by a hybrid convolutional+recurrent deep network, and the network structure was optimized with thousands of simulations. The developed model achieved an overall accuracy of 98% on the test dataset. Also, the model was evaluated for its overall and per-class performance under different conditions, including individual blocks, individual or combined Landsat sensors, and different sequence lengths. The analysis found that although the deep model performance per each block is superior to other candidates, the per block performance still varies considerably from block to block. This suggests extending the work by model fine-tuning for local areas. The analysis also found that including more time stamps or combining different Landsat sensor observations in the model input significantly enhances the model performance

Response of Wild Pollinator Assemblages to Management of Restored Wetlands in Central New York, USA

Wetlands are restored and managed primarily to benefit waterfowl with little information about how these activities affect other taxa like pollinators. This study was among the first to survey pollinators in managed wetlands, and characterized the availability of floral resources, as well as bee and syrphid fly assemblages, among wetlands in central New York experiencing hydrological management. Over 80 bee species and 38 syrphid species were collected in 2019 and 2020, totaling 10,170 individuals. Bee and entomophilous plant assemblages did not differ in richness, and differed only weakly in composition, among treatments. Open water, invasive graminoids, and monotypic cattail negatively predicted bee richness and entomophilous plants. Treatments provided the greatest diversity of floral resources in late summer, and were exploited opportunistically by many generalists and some rare or specialized species. Wetland managers should strive for landscape heterogeneity through a mix of drawdowns, and control invasive graminoids to improve habitat quality

Toxic Procurement: An Examination of United States Federal Government Contracts, Disproportionality, and Firm Environmental Performance, 2001-2012

Government contract awardees in United States (US) industries produce toxic releases in addition to producing public goods and services. Industries that the government buys many products from and that have high environmental footprint are where procurement decisions have the most impact. This dissertation examines what factors predict variation in contractor facility environmental performance indicated by reported pollution control technology and environmental releases to inform guidance for revising procurement policy. The research question is: How are government contractors that mange toxic materials different in their environmental management behavior than noncontractors? Data from the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Toxics Release Inventory, a public dataset of chemical management information for industry, are combined with US Federal Government spending data on agency contracts and procurement to see how pollution by awardees has changed over time. Three factors explaining variation in environmental performance are explored here. The first is payment method to identify if facilities with contracts incentivizing cost reduction have different environmental performance than other contractor facilities. The second is the Federal agency that awards the contract with interest in how defense contractors are different due to exemptions from environmental purchasing standards. The last factor is variation in competition between bidding firms, which could lead to different outcomes related to management of chemicals by the facilities. This dissertation contributes to the socio-environmental frameworks of ecological modernization, environmental disproportionality, and the Porter Hypothesis on environment and competition. Quantitative models are estimated for each of the three factors of interest using both linear mixed models and Bayesian Hierarchical models. Findings support expanded use of incentive type contracts, while also identifying that defense spending as being linked to the majority of contractor pollution. Findings also show that competition intensity leads to more pollution when the chemical is not a component in the manufacturing process

Host Volatile Percepts of Two Sympatric Longhorned Beetles, Anoplophora Chinensis and Anoplophora Glabripennis

Anoplophora chinensis (CLB) and Anoplophora glabripennis (ALB) are sympatric sibling species of pest lamiine cerambycids. Both are destructive invasives under strong domestic and international focus. Monitoring lures for both species need improvement. Under the current ratio hypothesis of insect host detection, insects orient towards their hosts via identification of a host-indicative, attractive blend of multiple volatile compounds. I evaluated multivariate statistical comparison of host versus non-host hardwood volatiles as a method for simultaneously identifying host-indicative compounds for both species. Statistical methods determined the commercially unavailable (E)-4,8-dimethyl-1,3,7-nonatriene was indicative of CLB hosts and a multicomponent blend including benzyl acetate, α-humulene, (E)-nerolidol, (E)-caryophyllene, isoamyl benzoate, and 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-ol was indicative of ALB hosts. I hypothesized that the CLB host indicative blend is inclusive of the ALB host indicative blend and tested the six ALB host-indicative compounds for attraction to both species in Bengbu, China. Field trapping treatments were host volatiles only, male pheromone only, host volatiles + pheromone, and isopropanol control. Pheromone containing treatments captured significantly greater numbers of CLB with the host volatile + pheromone treatment capturing the greatest number of CLB. To further examine intraspecies chemical communication between ALB and CLB, cuticular hydrocarbon extracts from ALB and CLB were collected. Stepwise discriminate analysis showed differences in samples by species and sex, illustrating that ALB and CLB males and females can be identified by their cuticular extracts. In addition, principle component analysis indicated ALB cuticular hydrocarbon samples collected from beetles from Hunchun, Jilin, diverged from the rest of the samples. This research found supporting evidence for the ratio hypothesis of insect host detection, characterized the cuticular hydrocarbons of ALB and CLB, and identified potential geographic variation in ALB cuticular hydrocarbons

Lifecycle Assessment Of Shrub Willow Evapotranspiration Cover Versus Conventional Clay And Geosynthetic Covers

The establishment of the landfill covers consumes substantial amounts of fuels and materials that in turn contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and fuel depletion, the impacts of which are less explored. This study conducts lifecycle assessments of a willow ET cover, a conventional clay cover and a geosynthetic cover for Solvay settling basins to assess their global warming impact (GWI) and fossil fuel depletion (FFD) for 30 years at Camillus, NY. The study suggests that willow ET is a carbon negative system with the total GWI of -13,206 kgCO2eq ha-1 , while the clay (194,916 kgCO2eq ha-1) and geosynthetic scenarios (260,212 kgCO2eq ha-1) have large positive carbon impacts. Similarly, for FFD, the impact of willow ET cover (75,303 MJ Surplus ha-1) is the lowest and is 4.7 times lower than the clay cover and 7.7 times lower than the geosynthetic cover. Sensitivity and uncertainty analyses indicated that in all scenarios the GWI of the willow ET cover was less than zero and the GWI of the geosynthetic cover was greater than the clay covers