A Field Guide for Grasses and Grass-like Plants of Idaho

The purpose of this project is to develop a user-friendly field guide to grasses and grass-like plants in Idaho, specifically geared to those with limited background in botany. The guide will feature 60 Idaho grasses and grass-like plants, intended for K-16 educators and students, ranchers, land owners, recreationists, and nature enthusiasts, with accompanying K-12 lesson plans. In the form of both a printed book and an offline app for iPhones and Androids, the guide will include colorful images showing detailed characteristics and vegetative features of each grass, an easy-to-use dichotomous key, and information on each plant’s history, forage value, and fire resistance. This dual resource will meet the needs of land managers making economic decisions regarding livestock production and field treatments; university students in wildlife and range sciences conducting class exercises and field research; K-12 educators during field botany excursions, teaching the use of dichotomous keys, and ecosystem studies; and recreationists engaged in nature study. Both book and app will be distributed via the University of Idaho Rangeland Center and the Idaho Range Resource Commission

Lidar-derived estimate and uncertainty of carbon sink in successional phases of woody encroachment

Woody encroachment is a globally occurring phenomenon that contributes to the global carbon sink. The magnitude of this contribution needs to be estimated at regional and local scales to address uncertainties present in the global- and continental-scale estimates, and guide regional policy and management in balancing restoration activities, including removal of woody plants, with greenhouse gas mitigation goals. The objective of this study was to estimate carbon stored in various successional phases of woody encroachment. Using lidar measurements of individual trees, we present high-resolution estimates of aboveground carbon storage in juniper woodlands. Segmentation analysis of lidar point cloud data identified a total of 60,628 juniper tree crowns across four watersheds. Tree heights, canopy cover, and density derived from lidar were strongly correlated with field measurements of 2613 juniper stems measured in 85 plots (30×30 m). Aboveground total biomass of individual trees was estimated using a regression model with lidar-derived height and crown area as predictors (Adj. R2=0.76, p<0.001, RMSE=0.58 kg). The predicted mean aboveground woody carbon storage for the study area was 677 g/m2. Uncertainty in carbon storage estimates was examined with a Monte Carlo approach that addressed major error sources. Ranges predicted with uncertainty analysis in the mean, individual tree, aboveground woody C, and associated standard deviation were 0.35-143.6 kg and 0.5-1.25 kg, respectively. Later successional phases of woody encroachment had, on average, twice the aboveground carbon relative to earlier phases. Woody encroachment might be more successfully managed and balanced with carbon storage goals by identifying priority areas in earlier phases of encroachment where intensive treatments are most effective

WAMBAF – Good Practices for Ditch Network Maintenance to Protect Water Quality in the Baltic Sea Region

These good practices for ditch network maintenance (DNM) were prepared within the WAMBAF project (Water Management in Baltic Forests); project period from 1.3.2016 to 28.2.2019, which was initiated to tackle the problems relating to water quality after forestry operations in the Baltic Sea Region. The main aim of these good practices for DNM to protect water quality is to give background information and an overview of available water protection measures that can be used in conjunction with DNM on peatlands and paludified mineral soils to reduce the export of suspended solids (SS), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and methyl mercury (MeHg) within the Baltic Sea Region. The good practices for DNM also deal with the suitability of DNM for peatlands and paludified soils by presenting tradeoffs between its benefits and detrimental impacts on water quality, as well as the planning of water protection measures to avoid or reduce transport of SS and nutrients to the receiving water bodies. In this document, we (i) describe the aims of DNM and give an overview of the existing scientific knowledge of the effects of DNM on tree growth, soil properties, hydrology and soil hydraulics, and drainage water quality, (ii) present factors for assessing the suitability of DNM, and (iii) present the principles of DNM planning and water protection for the reduction of the exports of SS, N and P to the water bodies in the Baltic Sea Region.201

Developing spatial literacy through design of built environments: Art and crafts teachers’ strategies

Designing built environments demands the ability to make translations between your visions, visual representations of these, and the full-scale environment that is to be built. Pupils working on architectural tasks face these challenges of translation. How can the teacher come to their aid? Research on teaching strategies for the architectural studio has sought to articulate the entire design process, something that leads to overarching strategies but less hands-on, detailed descriptions. This article offers greater in-depth insight into the strategies teachers use to enhance pupils’ spatial literacy. In semi-structured interviews, six lower secondary school Art and crafts teachers described their teaching practice related to architectural tasks. From the teachers’ detailed moves, we have identified five teaching strategies and placed them in a visual model that demonstrates what role they may play in aiding pupils in the process of designing built environments. By articulating these strategies, we hope to contribute to the development of the vocabulary used in and about teaching design and architecture

Teaching Size, Area and Scale

Gaining an understanding of scale, area and size is an important part of the subject of Art and crafts. Although this skill should be practiced, perhaps even mastered, by pupils in primary education, it is regarded as difficult to teach, due to the skill being intangible and difficult to discuss. This paper seeks to aid in overcoming these difficulties, as it gathers initial findings from ongoing interviews with teachers on their strategies for teaching this important skill. Instead of highlighting one strategy as the best, we wish to showcase a broad range of appropriate approaches to this theme. Tensions between these approaches are also discovered and discussed to highlight the inherent properties of the different strategies.publishedVersio

Developing spatial literacy through design of built environments: Art and crafts teachers’ strategies

Designing built environments demands the ability to make translations between your visions, visual representations of these, and the full-scale environment that is to be built. Pupils working on architectural tasks face these challenges of translation. How can the teacher come to their aid? Research on teaching strategies for the architectural studio has sought to articulate the entire design process, something that leads to overarching strategies but less hands-on, detailed descriptions. This article offers greater in-depth insight into the strategies teachers use to enhance pupils’ spatial literacy. In semi-structured interviews, six lower secondary school Art and crafts teachers described their teaching practice related to architectural tasks. From the teachers’ detailed moves, we have identified five teaching strategies and placed them in a visual model that demonstrates what role they may play in aiding pupils in the process of designing built environments. By articulating these strategies, we hope to contribute to the development of the vocabulary used in and about teaching design and architecture.publishedVersio

Fuels Guide for Sagebrush and Pinyon-Juniper Treatments: 10 Years Post-Treatment

Increased woody plant dominance and degraded understory vegetation are important issues on rangelands in the Intermountain West. Land managers implement woody plant reduction treatments of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.), juniper (Juniperus spp.), and pinyon pine (Pinus spp.) to increase understory diversity and cover, restore wildlife habitat, increase forage, improve ecosystem functions, and reduce or manipulate fuels to increase ecosystem resilience to fire and resistance to invasive annual grasses. Woody plant reduction treatments alter fuel orientation, continuity, and loading, and therefore have important implications for wildfire behavior, effects, and management. Currently, there is a lack of knowledge of the longer-term implications of these treatments on fuel loads and vegetation structure. Using data collected as part of the Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project (SageSTEP), this guide summarizes fuel loads, vegetation cover by functional group, and shrub and tree stem density 10 years after sagebrush and pinyon-juniper reduction treatments. The data was collected at 16 study sites in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, and Utah, and is summarized by treatment type, region, and groups or woodland development phases based on pre-treatment vegetation. These summarized data can be used by land managers and fire behavior specialists to quickly estimate fuel loads in older treatments or to predict fuel loads 10 years after a potential treatment. These fuel loading data can be used to create custom fuel beds to model fire behavior and effects

Effekter av ulik jordarbeiding i korn

Hvilken jordarbeiding som benyttes i den enkelte kornåker påvirker blant annet avlingsmengde, kvaliteten på kornet og miljøet. I denne publikasjonen er det samlet informasjon om effekter av ulik jordarbeiding, som hjelp til korndyrkere ved vurdering av jordarbeidingsmetoder, og for myndigheter ved beslutninger om jordarbeiding i regionale miljøprogram (RMP)