SLIDES: Land Use Planning

Presenter: Ann Morgan, Vice President, The Wilderness Society (Denver, CO) 4 slide

Recreation Management by the BLM: A Local Perspective

10 pages

Preferences for Exposure Control of Power-Frequency Fields among Lay Opinion Leaders

The authors report on surveys, differing according to focus on remedial costs, of Pittsburgh-area adults indicating beliefs about possible health effects of electromagnetic fields and the acceptability of options for reducing or eliminating the potential impact

SOCIAL WORK SUPERVISION EDUCATION: PENNSYLVANIA SOCIAL WORKERS REFLECT ON EDUCATION AND SUPERVISORY COMPETENCE

Supervision is an essential component of social work education and ongoing professional development for those employed at all levels of practice, having been identified as a protective factor against compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary trauma. Supervision education encompasses the direct training of students in how to be a supervisor to include knowledge, skills, and abilities of effective application. Supervision education is taught via multiple methods such as supervision education courses, supervision education embedded into the curriculum, post-degree certificate programs, continuing education coursework, including field educator training and on-the-job training. With vague competency expectations outlined by the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) pertaining to learning outcomes specific to supervision, students may lack the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to assume supervisory roles in their future careers. This cross-sectional pre-experimental quantitative study aims to better understand the educational experiences of social workers employed in Pennsylvania. It explored which supervision education learning method produced the highest self-perceived level of supervisory knowledge, skills, and abilities. The study examined if there is a relationship between supervision education obtained ((No Education; Post Grad Education; College; and Combined (Post Grad & College)), and how many years it takes to move into a supervisory position. The study also explored if there is an association between supervisory experience and participants’ perception of supervision education significance. Analysis of gender differences was explored. The theoretical framework used to analyze supervision education was Socialist Feminist theory. This theoretical model was chosen to assist in understanding social constructs influencing contemporary supervision education in the social work profession. Findings included a significant difference among education learning methods and self-perceived knowledge, skills, and abilities of social work Supervision. Interestingly, those with No Education became supervisors quicker than all other types. There was no significant relationship between supervisory experience and supervision education and its impact on preparing participants to assume a supervisory role. Lastly, there was no significant relationship between Gender and Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Effect of Professional Development and Follow-up Support through Coaching Emails on Secondary English Teachers\u27 Sense of Efficacy in Implementing Mentor Text Instruction

Beyond rigorous reading instruction in America’s high schools, writing instruction in the 21st century must be addressed if students will be equipped with the critical thinking skills they need to be successful. Teachers, however, need training in implementing innovative methods in writing instruction to effect change in student achievement. This quantitative, quasi-experimental study attempted to determine what effect professional development through in-person training and follow-up support through coaching emails have on teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in implementing mentor text instruction for writing. Data were collected from 9 teachers who attended a 2-hour professional development session on strategies for using mentor texts. Before and after the training, teachers responded to the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES). Participants received 5 weeks of follow-up support through coaching emails, which included classroom exemplar videos, articles on mentor text instruction, and lesson plans for using mentor texts. A 1-sample Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test was used to compare participants’ median scores on the TSES before and after the in-person training and then to compare the participants’ median scores on the TSES before and after receiving follow-up support through coaching emails. Further research may demonstrate more variations of professional development and follow-up support as well as the specific uses and benefits of mentor texts in writing instruction for various grade levels and for various writing tasks as well as how it affects students’ reading ability

NON-INDUSTRIAL PRIVATE FOREST LANDOWNER ENGAGEMENT AND AMENITY- DRIVEN MIGRATION IN WILDFIRE-PRONE LANDSCAPES OF THE INLAND NORTHWEST

Rural counties in the Inland Northwest have a ‘working lands’ culture that supports livelihoods dependent on the health of wildfire-prone private and public forests. Wildfires threaten economic livelihoods and exacerbate the challenges of working landscapes impacted by changing economies, demographic trends, and forest conditions. The main objectives of this thesis are to investigate: 1) what comprises amenity-driven migration and how are amenity- driven migration and wildfire severity related?; 2) are amenity-driven migrants engaged in forest management activities in Wallowa County, Oregon and what is forest management engagement?; 3) how does landowner parcel proximity from WUI, USFS land relate to perspectives of healthy forest, wildfire risk and how do geographic characteristics of amenity- driven migration relate to landowner perceptions of forest community transitions? First, amenity-driven migration is defined as depending on natural amenities, seasonal homes, protected area, older adult net migration rate, and creative industry using a principal component analysis. Generalized least squares modeling of the Inland Northwest from 1992- 2009 indicates significant statistical relationships between amenity-driven migration, urbanization and drought with annual burned acres on USFS land. Second, interviews with thirty non-industrial private forest landowners from Wallowa County, OR, emphasize the importance of a clear definition of forest management engagement. Interviews outline two varying types of forest management engagement as: 1) engagement on own forestland; 2) engagement in the broader community forest management. Third, interviews with thirty non-industrial private forest landowners from Wallowa County, OR emphasize that landowner perspectives of changing Wallowa County community dynamics are more prominent for landowners who dwell near their forest parcels. Furthermore, analyses of the qualitative interviews emphasize the continued need for forestry information outreach to landowners in or nearby the WUI to clarify forest management understanding. This research is especially useful for residents, landowners and policy-makers to better understand transitions faced by NIPF owners on the landscape and community level when establishing forest management and land use policies within wildfire- prone landscapes

Conservation and ecology of fringing salt marshes along the southern Maine/New Hampshire coast

The small, fringing salt marshes that line the edges of estuaries in southern Maine and New Hampshire were the focus of this research. Although larger meadow marshes in New England have been studied extensively, little is known about the ecology of fringing marshes. Not only are fringing marshes much more numerous than meadow marshes in northern New England, they are often restored or created as mitigation for marsh impacts. Five ecological functions (primary production, soil organic matter accumulation, sediment trapping and binding, wave dampening and maintenance of plant diversity) were compared in meadow marsh and fringing marsh sites, and sometimes in areas where no marsh was present. Also explored were the relationships between these functions and several physical characteristics, including soil salinity, percent surface slope, elevation and size. Fringing marsh and meadow marsh sites differed significantly in terms of their physical characteristics, but functional indicator values were similar, with the exception of plant species richness and soil organic matter content. A field experiment tested whether marsh surface slope or north-south orientation affects the growth of newly planted cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora) in fringing marshes. These experiments were not able to show that orientation or slope had an effect on plant growth. Comparisons were also made between six constructed fringing marshes and a set of selected reference sites (matched to constructed marshes using principal components analysis) in the Great Bay Estuary. Four ecological functions (primary production, soil organic matter accumulation, sediment trapping and binding, and maintenance of plant diversity) were studied. Mean values for constructed site (n = 6) and reference site (n = 11) functions were significantly different. Because the age of the constructed sites ranged from 1--14 years, patterns of functional development could be examined. Using constructed marsh age as the independent variable and functional indicator values as dependent variables, non-linear regression analyses produced several ecologically meaningful trajectories (r2 \u3e .9). These models illustrate that although indicators of some functions (primary production, sediment deposition, and plant species richness) should reach natural site values in less than ten years, soil organic matter content will take more than fifteen years to develop

Standards-Based Grading Practices in Middle School Mathematics Classrooms: A Multicase Study

This qualitative, multicase study sought to describe middle school mathematics teachers’ teaching practices as they implemented standards-based grading. Specifically, the study focused on understanding middle school mathematics teachers’ implementations of standards-based grading, use of assessment and feedback, and instructional design. Guided by cultural-historical activity theory lens, the researcher invited four middle school mathematics teachers who self-reported using standards-based grading practices to participate in the research study. Data collection for each case consisted of two interviews, lesson summaries and reflections, and classroom observations over the course of five consecutive class periods. Data analysis highlighted differences in the teachers’ uses of mathematical tasks during instruction, implementation of instructional types, and teacher moves used to engage students in supporting student reasoning, assessment strategies, and evaluation practices. The evidence suggests the need for improved standards documentation, resource development, and professional development both at the preservice and inservice levels to better achieve the recommendations of the standards-based grading literature

Book Review: Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right

Miller-Idriss’s Hate in the Homeland provides a timely explanation for the organization and mainstreaming of groups and beliefs that, until recently, were seen in the U.S. as fringe. This book review provides an overview of the spaces and places outlined by Miller-Idriss: virtual, physical, real, and imagined where far-right extremism is showing up and building financial, physical, intellectual, and human capital. The book prompts raising awareness and asking questions for teachers, parents, journalists, law enforcement, and many others