Environmental Horror and Restoration: Tolkien and Today

J.R.R. Tolkien never forgot the felling of a willow tree that had overlooked the mill-pool in Sarehole, nor how his former climbing companion had been left to rot in the grass. His horror at that small environmental violence bleeds through his works, from poems like “From the many-willow’d margin of the immemorial Thames” (1913) to the Party Tree in The Hobbit (1937) to a letter to The Daily Telegraph in 1972 when he decried the modern “torture and murder of trees.” This presentation will draw on the excellent foundations laid by Dinah Hazell, as well as the father-son pair of Walter S. Judd and Graham A. Judd, in their work on the plants of Middle-Earth. First, we will build a shared understanding of Tolkien’s horror at the cutting down of trees. The presentation will then grow to include other authors, activists, and leaders who tied their life’s work into a formative horror at the destruction of a treasured tree. Then, we will return to Tolkien, to the ways in which restoration of nature heals horror and feeds into narrative justice in Middle-Earth. Then, we will tie that back into some of the stories we touched upon earlier. Finally, we will share five designs for Tolkien Gardens, giving attendees the tools they need to create a garden which is, like Lothloríen, “beautiful because there the trees were loved,” and in doing so, restore a bit of nature in our own backyards

Assessing agricultural risk management using historic crop insurance loss data over the Ogallala Aquifer

Much of the agricultural production in the Ogallala Aquifer region relies on groundwater for irrigation. In addition to declining water levels, weather and climate-driven events affect crop yields and revenues. Crop insurance serves as a risk management tool to mitigate these perils. Here, we seek to understand what long-term crop insurance loss data can tell us about agricultural risk management in the Ogallala. We assess patterns and trends in crop insurance loss data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency. Indemnities, or insurance payments, totaled $22 billion from 1989–2017 for the 161 counties that overlie the Ogallala Aquifer. We focused on the top ten weather and climate-driven causes of crop loss for the Ogallala, which comprised at least 92% of total indemnities. Drought, hail, and heat were the leading causes of crop loss for the region, and varied over space and time. For example, drought is a significant cause of loss across all seasons, while hail is more prevalent in the spring and summer. Spatially heterogeneous patterns emerged showing larger hail indemnities in the northern Ogallala versus larger drought indemnities in the southern portion. We performed a Mann-Kendall trend analysis of county-level annual loss cost values (the ratio of indemnities to liabilities). Drought and excess moisture showed significant increasing loss cost trends in the western counties of the Ogallala. In contrast, hail showed significant decreasing trends in the northern and eastern portions. These results suggest the northern counties of the Ogallala may perceive hail as a greater risk, and may be better equipped to handle drought losses as compared with the southern Ogallala. Crop insurance loss data play a role in integrating long-term trends with near-term management practices, and providing relevant risk information in producers’ operational to tactical decision making processes

Determining an ideal sampling density for microbial community analyses of farm fields

Abstract Soil microbial communities represent an important indicator of soil health. Laboratories that provide microbial community analyses to farmers recommend submitting a single sample comprising 12–15 soil cores mixed together, but the instructions do not specify field size. Soil cores can be time consuming to collect and analyses are expensive to run, so it is important to identify the number of samples necessary to return reliable data without becoming unnecessarily time consuming to collect. In this study, we tested different sample densities using samples taken from five fields in Oklahoma and one in Kansas. The amount of variation in abundance of some microbial groups decreased significantly with increasing sample density, suggesting that higher sampling densities are preferable to lower ones. In addition, results indicate that changing sampling densities has the potential to introduce variation. Sampling density should therefore be maintained when samples are to be compared with one another

Assessing agricultural risk management using historic crop insurance loss data over the Ogallala Aquifer

Much of the agricultural production in the Ogallala Aquifer region relies on groundwater for irrigation. In addition to declining water levels, weather and climate-driven events affect crop yields and revenues. Crop insurance serves as a risk management tool to mitigate these perils. Here, we seek to understand what long-term crop insurance loss data can tell us about agricultural risk management in the Ogallala. We assess patterns and trends in crop insurance loss data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Risk Management Agency. Indemnities, or insurance payments, totaled $22 billion from 1989–2017 for the 161 counties that overlie the Ogallala Aquifer. We focused on the top ten weather and climate-driven causes of crop loss for the Ogallala, which comprised at least 92% of total indemnities. Drought, hail, and heat were the leading causes of crop loss for the region, and varied over space and time. For example, drought is a significant cause of loss across all seasons, while hail is more prevalent in the spring and summer. Spatially heterogeneous patterns emerged showing larger hail indemnities in the northern Ogallala versus larger drought indemnities in the southern portion. We performed a Mann-Kendall trend analysis of county-level annual loss cost values (the ratio of indemnities to liabilities). Drought and excess moisture showed significant increasing loss cost trends in the western counties of the Ogallala. In contrast, hail showed significant decreasing trends in the northern and eastern portions. These results suggest the northern counties of the Ogallala may perceive hail as a greater risk, and may be better equipped to handle drought losses as compared with the southern Ogallala. Crop insurance loss data play a role in integrating long-term trends with near-term management practices, and providing relevant risk information in producers’ operational to tactical decision making processes

Agricultural Management Impacts on Soil Health: Methods for Large Spatial Scales

Agriculture in the Southern Great Plains of the United States depends on precipitation and temperature thresholds for productivity. The region’s climate and weather are variable, presenting farming challenges that are predicted to increase. Building and conserving healthy, resilient soil is one way farmers manage for future uncertainty. Few studies have compared soil health–managed and conventionally managed farms at the regional scale. To better understand management effects on soil health across the Southern Great Plains, we studied farms at 12 locations. We piloted the study using three of the locations, collecting soils from 10 fields per location and analyzing them for indicators of soil health. Our objective was to test the suitability of our experimental framework and identify additional indicators and analyses of interest. Our framework was generally suitable to the purpose of this study. We also noted that soil health–managed soils had organic matter stratification similar to native soils, which we plan to explore further

Effects of Conversion From Sagebrush to Non-Native Grasslands on Sagebrush-Associated Species

On the Ground • There are as many as 170 vertebrate wildlife species throughout the western United States and Canada that are associated with and sometimes dependent on sagebrush habitats and can be negatively affected by conversion of sagebrush ecosystems to non-native perennial or annual grassland. • We briefly summarize the mechanisms responsible for this conversion and synthesize its effects on wildlife species that are not often in the spotlight, as well as potential effects on management efforts. • Conversion to non-native annual grasslands is especially difficult for sagebrush obligates because annual grass dominance of former sagebrush sites increases fire frequency, effectively eliminating the ability of functioning sagebrush communities to re-establish following burning. • Conversion to non-native perennial grasslands also negatively affects sagebrush obligates, because non-native perennial grasses are able to grow in monocultures that compete with native plants and prevent their re-establishment in areas that are dominated by non-native perennials.The Rangelands archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform March 202

Daubenmire versus line-point intercept: a response to Thacker et al. (2015)

On the Ground: Thacker et al. compared two common techniques for assessing greater sage-grouse habitat: Daubenmire quadrats and line-point intercept sampling. Sampling only 16 Daubenmire quadrats may not have been adequate to support Thacker et al.'s assertion that line-point sampling yields higher cover values and that the two methods are not comparable. Using data from sagebrush ecosystems in Montana, we show that mean percent cover changes depending on the number of Daubenmire quadrats sampled and that 16 Daubenmire quadrats may not be sufficient to accurately characterize sagebrush vegetation. Assessing the appropriate sampling effort for the method and study is a crucial part of designing sampling protocols and has implications for greater sage-grouse management and conservation

Simulation of regeneration of big sagebrush supports predicted changes in habitat suitability at the trailing and leading edges of distribution shifts

Many semi-arid plant communities in western North America are dominated by big sagebrush. These ecosystems are being reduced in extent and quality due to economic development, invasive species, and climate change. These pervasive modifications have generated concern about the long-term viability of sagebrush habitat and sagebrush-obligate wildlife species (notably Greater Sage-Grouse), highlighting the need for better understanding of the future big sagebrush distribution, particularly at the species' range margins. The leading and trailing edges of potential climate-driven distribution shifts are likely to be areas most sensitive to climate change. Although several processes contribute to distribution shifts, regeneration is a fundamental requirement, especially for species with episodic regeneration patterns, such as big sagebrush. We used a process-based regeneration model for big sagebrush to simulate potential germination and seedling survival in response to climatic and edaphic conditions. We estimated current and future regeneration under 2070–2099 CMIP5 climate conditions at trailing and leading edges that were previously identified using traditional species distribution models. Our results supported expectations of increased probability of regeneration at the leading edge and decreased probability at the trailing edge compared to current levels. Our simulations indicated that soil water dynamics at the leading edge will become more similar to the typical seasonal ecohydrological conditions observed within the current range of big sagebrush. At the trailing edge, increased winter and spring dryness represented a departure from conditions typically supportive of big sagebrush. Our results highlighted that minimum and maximum daily temperatures as well as soil water recharge and summer dry periods are important constraints for big sagebrush regeneration. We observed reliable changes in areas identified as trailing and leading edges, consistent with previous predictions. However, we also identified potential local refugia within the trailing edge, mostly at higher elevation sites. Decreasing regeneration probability at the trailing edge suggests that it will be difficult to preserve and/or restore big sagebrush in these areas. Conversely, increasing regeneration probability at the leading edge suggests a growing potential for conflicts in management goals between maintaining existing grasslands and croplands by preventing sagebrush expansion versus accepting a shift in plant community composition to sagebrush dominance

Supplement 1. R script and data to reproduce analyses of big sagebrush regeneration at leading and trailing edges of distribution shifts.

<h2>File List</h2><div> <p><a href="README_Database.txt">README_Database.txt</a> (MD5: 2c8929073dc6a5de187db7970acdc78f)</p> <p><a href="dbTables_Schlaepfer_BigSagebrushRegeneration_LeadingTrailingEdges.sqlite3.zip">dbTables_Schlaepfer_BigSagebrushRegeneration_LeadingTrailingEdges.sqlite3.zip</a> (MD5: 62f6e606c8cfcdb441aa518981676590)</p> <p><a href="Rcode_Schlaepfer_BigSagebrushRegeneration_LeadingTrailingEdges.R">Rcode_Schlaepfer_BigSagebrushRegeneration_LeadingTrailingEdges.R</a> (MD5: b1f2270ca68cc645e5a9cbd5f6fb958e)</p> </div><h2>Description</h2><div> <p>README_Database.txt – Metadata explaining tables and fields of the database<br> dbTables_Schlaepfer_BigSagebrushRegeneration_LeadingTrailingEdges.sqlite3.zip – SQL-lite database containing regenerations simulation results required for analyses<br> Rcode_Schlaepfer_BigSagebrushRegeneration_LeadingTrailingEdges.R – R code accessing and analyzing data contained in database</p> </div