The Importance of Water-Based Ecosystem Services Derived from the Shoshone National Forest

There is a wide range of goods and services being provided to humans by water resources (e.g. hydropower and recreation), but there is also a diversity of stakeholders that require or desire these benefits, also known as water-based ecosystem services, for everyday life. Land managers working for the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service in the semi-arid Rocky Mountain Region are tasked with the difficult job of managing scarce water resources in the face of competing human pressures and natural forces (e.g. climate change). Water management decisions on public lands can potentially impact the availability of a wide range of benefits derived from water to a wide range of stakeholders. This project aimed to inform policy-makers and land managers about the range of benefits people derive from water within and flowing from the Shoshone National Forest (SNF), and the importance of those water benefits to stakeholders in northwest Wyoming. Additionally, this project aimed to understand the perceptions of stakeholders regarding the threat of climate change, and other factors, to their ability to receive certain water-based ecosystem services. The use of literature review, focus groups, and pilot tests helped to identify 34 water-based ecosystem services being derived from the SNF. An understanding of stakeholder preference for those 34 ecosystem services was obtained through the use of a preference elicitation method called Q-methodology, which was administered to 96 stakeholders covering a broad range of interests. Factor analysis of the 96 surveys yielded four major perspectives that explain, in a nuanced fashion, 48% of the study variance. The four viewpoints were named the environmental perspective, agricultural perspective, Native American perspective, and recreation perspective. The preferences for each of the four viewpoints with regard to water-based ecosystem services are presented holistically, however, each of the viewpoints is partly defined by two ‘most important’ ecosystem services. Those ‘most important’ water-based ecosystem services were water quality (‘most important’ to two different viewpoints), household/municipal use (‘most important’ to two different viewpoints), Native American cultural and spiritual values, commercial irrigation, river-based fishing, and biodiversity conservation. The threat of climate change to the ability of stakeholders to receive their most important water-based ecosystem services was acknowledged by the majority of stakeholders but, in many cases, there was skepticism that climate change is anything more than a natural trend. Additionally, stakeholders were concerned about water quality, federal and state government management and regulations (e.g. reservoirs and in-stream flow management), and other competing uses impacting their ability to receive their most important ecosystem services

Oryzomyine rodents

376 p. : ill., maps (1 col.) ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 324-337)."We describe the morphological species boundaries and geographic distributions of 10 Neotropical Oryzomys based on analyses of museum specimens (skins and skulls, examples preserved in fluid, chromosomal spreads, and information about collection sites from skin tags, field catalogs, and other sources). These species have been regarded as members of an Oryzomys capito complex and for a long time were consolidated into a single entity identified as O. capito. Our study documents the following: 1. Defining the limits of species within the O. capito complex first requires a comprehensive review and rigorous definition of O. capito itself. We consider Fischer's (1814) Mus megacephalus to be valid and available, designate a neotype to bear the name, and reinstate it as a senior synonym of capito Olfers (1818). We then provide a working definition of O. megacephalus and its close relative, O. laticeps, derived from analyses of morphometric variation, estimates of geographic distributions, and evaluations of synonyms. In our view, O. megacephalus occurs in Amazonia but also extends into eastern Paraguay; its synonyms are capito Olfers (1818), cephalotes Desmarest (1819), velutinus Allen and Chapman (1893), goeldi Thomas (1897), modestus Allen (1899), and perenensis Allen (1901). Oryzomys laticeps Lund (1840) occurs in the Atlantic Forest region of eastern Brazil. We designate a lectotype for laticeps and allocate the names saltator Winge (1887) and oniscus Thomas (1904) as synonyms. 2. We provide the first comprehensive taxonomic revision of Oryzomys yunganus Thomas (1902). Its range covers tropical evergreen rainforest formations in the Guiana Region and the Amazon Basin where, as documented by voucher specimens, it has been collected at the same localities as O. megacephalus, O. nitidus, and O. macconnelli. Specimens of O. yunganus can be distinguished from those of the other three by a combination of body size, pelage texture and coloration, pattern of carotid arterial circulation, occlusal patterns of second upper and lower molars, cranial proportions, and chromosomal features. Appreciable intraspecific geographic variation occurs in diploid number of chromosomes and frequency of occurrence of the hypothenar plantar pad, but sampling inadequacies obscure the significance of this variation. Large body size is characteristic of populations in the western Amazon Basin and in the tepui region of eastern Venezuela; smaller size characterizes populations in the Guianas and along the eastern margin of the Amazon Basin. No other scientific name has been correctly associated with the species. Samples from Mirador, Palmera, and Mera in the western Andean foothills of central Ecuador possess a combination of pelage, cranial, and dental traits that distinguish them from all samples of O. yunganus. These specimens are the basis for a new species we describe here, one that is more closely related to O. yunganus than to any other member of the former O. 'capito' complex. 3. We redescribe Oryzomys bolivaris (reviewed by Pine, 1971, under the name O. bombycinus), amplify its geographic range, and contrast it with O. talamancae and O. alfaroi, two sympatric congeners with which it is often confused. A distinctive set of morphological traits allows unambiguous identification of specimens belonging to O. bolivaris. It is a trans-Andean species recorded from very wet tropical evergreen rain forests extending from eastern Honduras and Nicaragua through Costa Rica and Panamá to western Colombia and Ecuador. Allen's (1901) bolivaris is the oldest name for this species; castaneus Allen (1901), rivularis Allen (1901), bombycinus Goldman (1912), alleni Goldman (1915), and orinus Pearson (1939) are synonyms. 4. We revise the definition of Oryzomys talamancae Allen (1891) provided by Musser and Williams (1985), document additional specimens, describe karyotypes from Ecuadoran and Venezuelan samples, and contrast its morphology, chromosomes, and distribution with those of O. alfaroi and O. megacephalus. The geographic distribution of O. talamancae is also trans-Andean, but it inhabits a wider variety of habitats than does O. bolivaris. We also provide a new synonymy and identify the following scientific names as synonyms of O. talamancae: mollipilosus Allen (1899), magdalenae Allen (1899), villosus Allen (1899), sylvaticus Thomas (1900), panamensis Thomas (1901), medius Robinson and Lyon (1901), and carrikeri Allen (1908). 5. We present hypotheses of species boundaries of four morphologically similar species that we identify as members of the Oryzomys nitidus group: O. nitidus Thomas (1884), O. macconnelli Thomas (1910), O. russatus Wagner (1848), and a species described as new. We recognize the four species by morphological and chromosomal traits, and contrast characteristics of each species with one another. One synonym, boliviae Thomas (1901), is associated with O. nitidus, and two scientific names, incertus Allen (1913) and mureliae Allen (1915), are allocated to O. macconnelli. Synonyms of O. russatus are physodes Brants (1827), intermedia Leche (1886), coronatus Winge (1887), lamia Thomas (1901), legatus Thomas (1925), kelloggi Ávila-Pires (1959), and moojeni Ávila-Pires (1959). We designate lectotypes for russatus and intermedia and identify the holotype of coronatus. Based on voucher specimens, the geographic distribution of O. nitidus is mainly along the Andean foothills and adjacent lowlands in Perú, Bolivia, and nearby western Brazil, but scattered records document its eastward extension through south-central Brazil to Paraguay and northeastern Argentina. Oryzomys macconnelli inhabits the tropical evergreen rain forests of Amazonia. Its distribution partially overlaps that of O. nitidus in western Amazonia, where the two species have been collected together at one locality in Perú, and it is sympatric with the new species, which is recorded only from the lower regions of rios Xingu and Tocantins in northern Pará, Brazil. The distribution of O. russatus is documented by specimens from southeastern and south-central Brazil, southern Bolivia, and northern Argentina; its range is allopatric to those of O. macconnelli, the new species, and O. nitidus except in southern Bolivia, where the latter was collected at the same site with O. russatus. We also examined types and descriptions of taxa associated with Oryzomys subflavus and O. ratticeps to determine if any of those names actually reference members of the O. nitidus group. Although the original description of subflavus Wagner (1842) is vague, the holotype clearly represents an example of that very distinctive species; vulpinus Lund (1840), for which we designate a lectotype, and vulpinoides Schinz (1845) are synonyms of O. subflavus. The oldest name for the species currently known as Oryzomys ratticeps is Mus angouya Fischer (1814), a name not based on a specimen but on Azara's (1801) description of 'Rat troisième, ou Rat Angouya.' Azara's account is so general that it could also apply to individuals of O. subflavus, O. nitidus, or O. russatus. To stabilize the nomenclature of these species, we designate a neotype for Mus angouya Fischer (1814) and treat the following scientific names as synonyms: buccinatus Olfers (1818), leucogaster Wagner (1845), ratticeps Hensel (1872), rex Winge (1887), tropicius Thomas (1924), and paraganus Thomas (1924). We also designate lectotypes for leucogaster and ratticeps. We have not analyzed phylogenetic relationships among the species in the former O. 'capito' complex discussed here. Documenting morphological and distributional boundaries of other biological species now grouped in the genus Oryzomys (alfaroi and its close relatives, for example) must precede, in our view, attempts at phylogenetic reconstruction"--P. 5-6

The Little Paint Site: A Classic Toyah Camp on the South Llano River, Kimble County, Texas

On behalf of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), SWCA Environmental Consultants (SWCA) conducted testing and data recovery investigations at the Little Paint site (41KM226), a prehistoric multi-component site in the US 377 right-of-way along the South Llano River in Kimble County, Texas. While the site revealed Archaic and Late Prehistoric components, the earlier components were stratigraphically intermixed. Consequently, data recovery focused almost entirely on a discrete Toyah component, which, based on earlier test excavations conducted in August and September 2006, had previously been determined to be eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and as a State Archeological Landmark. SWCA performed the investigations under Texas Antiquities Permits 4184 and 4318. Kevin A. Miller served as Principal Investigator. The excavations recovered approximately 102 m2 of a stratigraphically-discrete Toyah component consisting of rock-lined hearths, Perdiz points, Cliffton points, a bird-bone bead, bone-tempered ceramics, bifaces, scrapers (notably end scrapers on blade-flakes), various informal lithic tools, drills, awls, debitage, and faunal remains. Based on the assemblage, the site is interpreted as a Toyah basecamp as indicated by a diversity of tool forms and site furniture. The component has good integrity, is vertically and horizontally discrete, and contains a substantial amount of archaeological materials. The suite of 16 radiometric dates indicates intermittent Toyah occupations between 240 and 570 years ago, a time range that is generally consistent with recognized span of the Toyah assemblage. The archaeological assemblage and site structure, however, suggests a possible single Toyah occupation. While not a focal point of the data recovery investigations, the excavations also recovered mixed Archaic components below the Toyah component. Artifacts include diagnostic point styles that indicate Late Archaic to early Late Prehistoric occupations, representing 1,000 to 2,000 years of the regional cultural chronology compressed within a thin stratum. Based on the findings, the depositional conditions below the Toyah component, as was previously determined by the testing data, were found to be generally not conducive to the formation of stratigraphic separation of the successive occupations. This compression resulted in intermixing of components and poor integrity. Below the mixed Archaic zone, deeply buried Middle to Early Archaic deposits were identified. These retained a better potential for significant isolable strata, but these deeper deposits were beyond the project impacts and therefore were not the subject of mitigative efforts. The deeper deposits are preserved by avoidance. As previously determined and further substantiated by the data recovery investigations, the Little Paint site, because of the Toyah component and perhaps earlier deposits, is eligible for National Register of Historic Places listing under Criterion D, 36 CFR 60.4, and eligible for State Archeological Landmark designation under Criteria 1 and 2 of the Rules of Practice and Procedure for the Antiquities Code of Texas, 13 TAC 26.8. The excavations have mitigated the adverse effects of the US 377 bridge replacement by recovering the vast majority of the Toyah component within the area of potential effect of the roadway undertaking. No further archaeological work is recommended. Portions of the site outside of the right-of-way have not been fully evaluated. The artifacts and records from the project are curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies, Texas State University

Assessing the natural range of variability in minimally disturbed wetlands across the Rocky Mountains: the Rocky Mountain ReMAP Project

Prepared for: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.Includes bibliographical references (pages 35-40).In Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and Utah, extremes of mountain climate, high elevations and characteristic geology produce a large range of natural variability within ecological systems. Even under minimal human disturbance regimes, environmental gradients can result in wetlands with very low vegetation cover, low species diversity and unpredictable hydrologic shifts. Documenting the range of variability found under minimally disturbed conditions can help distinguish signal from noise when assessing more altered occurrences, and aid in the calibration of assessment metrics. The project was a collaboration between the Montana Natural Heritage Program (MTNHP), the Colorado Natural Heritage Program (CNHP) and the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database (WYNDD). It had three objectives:1) identify reference standards for four wetland ecological systems across four Rocky Mountain ecoregions; 2) assess the range of natural variability of these ecological systems; and3) produce a regionally standardized Level 1,2 and 3 method for assessing and monitoring wetland condition, including quality assurance project plans, sampling strategies, and metrics calibrated to the four different wetland ecological systems. This report summarizes our approach, activities, and conclusions

Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Muir Woods National Monument: Final General Management Plan/Environmental Impact Statement, Volume II

We are pleased to present this final General Management Plan for Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Muir Woods National Monument. The plan is the culmination of several years of effort involving the thoughtful input and participation of thousands of individuals, dozens of public agencies, and numerous outside organizations and stakeholder groups. This plan replaces the 1980 General Management Plan. That plan for a National Park in an Urban Area effectively guided the park for over three decades, and most of its major concepts have been fulfilled. A general management plan is a key document for any unit of the National Park System, because within the plan can be found the aspirations of those who care about the park, expressed as a framework that will direct and sustain more detailed implementation planning and guide management decisions over the next 20 years. The new plan for Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Muir Woods reflects the intent of Congress in establishing the parks, as well as the vast amount of knowledge about the parks\u27 exceptional natural and cultural resources that has been gained since 1980. The plan offers a vision of the park that accommodates its changing cultural and social landscape. It was developed in the context of the evolution in attitudes toward conservation and preservation that has occurred over the past three decades - as well as changing preferences in modes of transportation, recreation choices, and ways of experiencing parklands. The vision in this plan is predicated on partnership as an effective management approach, and will rely on the continued support of our partners, especially the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. This park has become central to the life of the San Francisco Bay Area, and a destination for millions of people from elsewhere in the United States and around the world. Because of the way the park engages the community as visitors, stewards and advocates, it has become a model of success for park managers around the world

Integrated water resources management:limits and potential in the municipality of El Grullo, Mexico

Decreasing water availability per capita in more and more countries is the result of bad management over the past centuries. The 'world water crisis', however, is not inevitable. The concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) has been promoted over the last ten years as a possible way of reversing such a trend. One of its most fervent promoters is the Global Water Partnership, according to which "IWRM is a process which promotes the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems" (GWP, 2000: 22). A number of authors are critical of an appropriation of the IWRM concept by the Global Water Partnership devoid of its historical evolution over more than 70 years (Biswas, 2005; Mollard and Vargas, 2005a). As a result of this omission, these authors question the applicability and usefulness of the concept and call for assessing the effectiveness of IWRM implementation. The difficulties of practical IWRM implementation are manifold and include issues of scale, as well as institutional, political, and social constraints to sectoral and environmental integration (Tortajada, 2005; Duda and El-Ashry, 2000; Mitchell, 1990), that can be more or less specific to developing countries (Thioubou, 2002). The 1992 Mexican Water Law, amended in 2004, explicitly refers to IWRM as a national objective. As a result, there has been fairly extensive research on the implementation of IWRM in Mexico at the national level. This study assesses the implementation of IWRM efforts in the municipality of El Grullo (Jalisco), to identify the local and necessary conditions to enhance these. We first recall the innovative aspects of the IWRM concept, as compared to more traditional water management. Ambitious, integrated water resources management is a holistic approach that includes both the natural system (water and its diverse components –surface water/groundwater, quantity/quality– but also all other environmental resources such as land, forests and biodiversity in general) and the human system, including all the different uses (domestic, agricultural, industrial, etc.) (Mitchell, 1990). Integrated water management is an indicator of what Gleick (2000) qualifies as a change in paradigm between the 20th century –where infrastructure development enabled to better exploit resources, perceived as unlimited– and the 21st century, where finite resources are to be managed in order to maintain ecological integrity. Integrated water resources management is necessary to realise this 'blue revolution' (Calder, 2005). It requires, on the one hand, a participative and negotiation-oriented institutional framework and, on the other hand, water pricing tools, so as to balance demand and supply (Meublat, 2001). At the level of a municipality, implementing IWRM efforts translates, on the one hand, in ensuring good quality municipal water and sanitation services without impacting surrounding ecosystems and, on the other hand, participating –with other municipalities and institutions– in coordination activities at the level of the basin or sub-basin (Smits and Butterworth, 2006). Seven months of fieldwork over a three-year period enabled to realise a number of interviews, both with households in the El Grullo municipality (in four urban neighbourhoods and three villages) and with key informants (the local authorities of El Grullo and five neighbour municipalities, members of the Ayuquila-Armería Watershed Commission and researchers from the partner institution IMECBIO). These interviews were complemented by direct observation as well as secondary sources of information. Our results show that in spite of being well endowed in water resources, the municipality of El Grullo does not manage to provide good quality potable water services. Water distribution is irregular and forces households to resort to appropriate social practices (e.g. use of various storage methods and alternative water sources). The inequity of the variable water service quality is reinforced by a fixed water fee system, in the absence of meters. Further, the lack of any wastewater treatment station impacts riparian villages and aquatic ecosystems located downstream from the wastewater discharge. Efforts are currently underway to address these issues: the municipality wishes to have water meters installed, and is also negotiating a concession with a private company for a constructed wetland to treat municipal wastewaters. At the regional level, the Ayuquila-Armería Watershed Commission, which was established in 1998, is criticised for the poor effective participation it generates and its lack of means and concrete results. Created in reaction to finance local priorities, the Inter-municipal initiative of the lower Ayuquila watershed, a negotiation platform that convenes ten municipalities, is in comparison relatively successful. Developed through a ten year trust-building process by the researchers from the University of Guadalajara and the directorship of the Sierra de Manantlán Biosphere Reserve, it has enabled the Ayuquila River to regain its original state, as well as set up a series of measures to protect the environment (e.g. the establishment of fire brigades and solid waste separation and recycling programmes). The Ayuquila-Armería Watershed Commission wishes, in turn, to replicate this model throughout the whole watershed. Although the management plan is still to be designed at the basin scale, these inter-municipal initiatives are indeed judged more flexible and better adapted to IWRM implementation. These results show that in order for the El Grullo municipality to enhance its efforts in terms of IWRM, important changes must take place. More specifically, decentralisation must be reinforced, at the level of both the municipal water board and the Ayuquila-Armería Watershed Commission. First, the potable water tariffs should be set independently by the municipal water board, on the basis of its operating costs –and not on that of political calculations, as is actually the case by the Jalisco State Congress. This would contribute to put an end to the vicious circle entailed by the municipal board's insufficient financial capacity (i.e. lack of staff, limited infrastructure maintenance, heterogeneous water services, lack of meters, non-payment of fees, etc.), along with other factors at stake (like encouraging a culture of payment). The Ayuquila-Armería Watershed Commission should also benefit from more freedom and means, in order to increase its credibility among the municipalities its territorial borders encompass. The effective transcription of the 2004 reform of the Water Law, which seems to point in that direction, is awaited by all those interested in this issue. This thesis thus confirms previous analyses of problems surrounding IWRM implementation in Mexico (Mollard and Vargas, 2005b; Tortajada, 2005; García, 2004; Centro del Tercer Mundo para el Manejo del Agua, 2003; Martínez et al., 2002b). It also highlights the importance of finding country-specific ways for ensuring effective IWRM implementation. In particular, this may mean considering other scales than that of river basins

Over the Line: Critical Media Technologies of the Trans-American Hyperborder

My project argues that the U.S.-Mexico border is an assemblage of medial forms that are communicated in multiple media without superseding one another. For example, the border is, at once, a graphic design on numerous maps; a symbolic construction in copious literary and legal textual media; a series of fences erected in various terrestrial media; a photographic icon in still and moving pictures; an architectural design; a painted figure; the list goes on. As an assortment of medial forms, The U.S.-Mexico border does not refer to the United States and Mexico as the subjects of its mediation, but rather produces the United States and Mexico as subjects, which thereon depend on the border for their subjectivity, as the border depends on the nations for its continued existence. The United States and Mexico cannot be articulated from or with one another without what media theorist Bernhard Siegert calls “concrete practices and symbolic operations” to process their articulation, operations which are ultimately expressed in medial forms, whether lines on maps, untranslatable proper nouns, legal writ, poetic verses, or fences. In drawing connections between the borders produced in different media, I am examining borders as media systems that correspond to different cultural techniques and produce distinct political subjectivities. To envision this network, I develop the concept of the hyperborder, which I define as a border that extends across media. The hyperborder is a framework that links together different mediated borders, and that proposes and examines epistemological connections between them. The hyperborder is a way of attaining a global and comparative view of borders, while at the same time accounting for their different and irreducible media forms. In this project, I examine border forms primarily in three media: literary media, including poetry and prose; cartographic media, with an attention to different cultural meanings of mapmaking; and infrastructural media, particularly types of fencing. My methodology for researching and comparing these different media forms combines archival and participatory research. In order to study textual borders—those found in literary and cartographic media—I have relied on archival research carried out at UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library and in the Special Collections of UCSB’s Davidson Library. My desire to account for the location of media has also compelled me to research media forms in the field, so to speak. My analysis of Indigenous mapping in Chapter Two is informed by conversations that I have had with Jim Enote, director of the A:shiwi A:wan Museum and Heritage Center at Zuni Pueblo. My analysis of the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Chapter Three is grounded in physical fieldwork at the site of the fence, particularly with Friends of Friendship Park in San Diego and Tijuana. My combination of archival and participatory research practices allows for a wider view of the border. It also situates my project in numerous academic disciplines and fields, including Comparative Literature, Media Studies, Border Studies, History, Chicana/o Studies, and Indigenous Studies. In developing the comparative framework of the hyperborder, I am making use of the interdisciplinary potential of Comparative Literature, albeit in a way that problematizes the discipline by including what may not be considered “literary” in my comparisons. Although originating in Comparative Literature, my methodology has wandered, through the discipline’s encyclopedic opening, into Media Studies, where I can compare objects like those listed above through concepts like cultural techniques and knowledge systems. I am mainly applying my Media Studies and Comparative Literature approach in order to intervene in the interdisciplinary field of Border Studies. As an academic specialization, Border Studies leans toward political and social sciences, and often leads to bureaucratic professionalization. My project complements and challenges a social sciences-oriented Border Studies with a humanities-based approach that insists on the media specificity of borders. Similarly, my project is engaged with rethinking the paradigmatic borderlands, as conceptualized by historian Herbert Eugene Bolton in the early 20th century. While my dissertation is grounded in borderlands historiography, my sense of History is directed toward a borderlands of media—toward medial differences, and how they determine boundaries in the symbolic and in the real.A major assertion in my project is that cultural differences correlate to media operations. I thus pay critical attention to the disciplinary frameworks of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, and to how their disciplinary stances and social frameworks are articulated with those of History and Border Studies. While older center-periphery historiographies relegated Chicana/o cultural production to regional margins, my project marks how Chicana/o texts address these problematics in media-specific ways.Finally, as a white, non-Indigenous scholar who examines how subjects are produced through medial borders in literature, cartography, and infrastructure, I consider it ethically important to foreground Indigenous academic frameworks for evaluating border media. In this project I evaluate Indigenous media using Indigenous intellectual traditions, and I also examine the effects of non-Indigenous theory on Indigenous cultural practice