Do Pine Trees in Aspen Stands Increase Bird Diversity

In the Black Hills of South Dakota, quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) is being replaced by conifers through fire suppression and successional processes. Al- though the Black Hills National forest is removing conifers (primarily ponderosa pine [Pinus ponderosa])toincreasetheaspencommunitiesinsomemixedstands,ForestPlan guidelines allow four conifers per hectare to remain to increase diversity in the remaining aspen stand. We compared bird species richness in pure ponderosa pine, mixed stands dominated by ponderosa pine with quaking aspen, mixed stands dominated by aspen with ponderosa pine, and pure aspen stands. Stands dominated by ponderosa pine had lower (

Mechanisms of Risk and Resilience in Military Families: Theoretical and Empirical Basis of a Family-Focused Resilience Enhancement Program

Recent studies have confirmed that repeated wartime deployment of a parent exacts a toll on military children and families and that the quality and functionality of familial relations is linked to force preservation and readiness. As a result, family-centered care has increasingly become a priority across the military health system. FOCUS (Families OverComing Under Stress), a family-centered, resilience-enhancing program developed by a team at UCLA and Harvard Schools of Medicine, is a primary initiative in this movement. In a large-scale implementation project initiated by the Bureau of Navy Medicine, FOCUS has been delivered to thousands of Navy, Marine, Navy Special Warfare, Army, and Air Force families since 2008. This article describes the theoretical and empirical foundation and rationale for FOCUS, which is rooted in a broad conception of family resilience. We review the literature on family resilience, noting that an important next step in building a clinically useful theory of family resilience is to move beyond developing broad “shopping lists” of risk indicators by proposing specific mechanisms of risk and resilience. Based on the literature, we propose five primary risk mechanisms for military families and common negative “chain reaction” pathways through which they undermine the resilience of families contending with wartime deployments and parental injury. In addition, we propose specific mechanisms that mobilize and enhance resilience in military families and that comprise central features of the FOCUS Program. We describe these resilience-enhancing mechanisms in detail, followed by a discussion of the ways in which evaluation data from the program’s first 2 years of operation supports the proposed model and the specified mechanisms of action

Ecological study of rodents in a short-grass prairie of northeastern Colorado, An

May 1971.Includes bibliographical references

Study of rodents in northeastern Colorado, A

November 1969.Includes bibliographical references

History of Greater Sage-grouse in the Dakotas: Distribution and Population Trends

The greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) has declined throughout its range and its status is of major concern to federal, state, and provincial wildlife agencies. We collected information on current and historical greater sage-grouse distribution and lek activity in western North and South Dakota. A steady decline in lek attendance by males occurred over the entire recorded period in North Dakota (1951-2002) and South Dakota (1972-2002). There was no apparent change in numbers of known active leks due to discovery of new leks, but there was an abandonment of regions once occupied by active leks