Collaborative Forest Restoration Program monitoring curriculum: Background and activities for ecological monitoring.

This guide was developed specifically for use by schools, teachers, and project leaders involved with ecological monitoring of Collaborative Forest Restoration Program projects. It was designed to provide background information, lessons and activities that relate directly to monitoring goals. It can also be used by other educators interested in teaching students about ecological concepts relevant to the Southwest

Issues in Forest Restoration: Navigating the Motives and Mandates of Multiparty Monitoring

In this paper, we discuss what we learned about multiparty monitoring for collaborative, community-based forest restoration projects, after providing technical assistance and training to more than 50 New Mexico community groups between 2002 and 2007. These community groups were all recipients of Collaborative Forest Restoration Program (CFRP) cost-share grants. The grants require multi-stakeholder monitoring and assessment of project effectiveness in terms of ecological change and effects on management skills. Because all CFRP grantees are required to monitor their projects, this program provided a unique opportunity for assessing community-based, multiparty monitoring of forest restoration projects. Given four years experience providing monitoring assistance to CFRP grantees, we explore the following questions:What are the goals of multiparty monitoring? How does it work? What are reasonable expectations of multiparty monitoring? What are the best ways to help community groups achieve these expectations? Finally, how should a community prepare for the implementation of multiparty monitoring in a community-based forestry program

Monitoring Handbook 6: Analyzing and interpreting monitoring data

The basic purpose of data analysis is to identify patterns of change in your indicator over time, and to evaluate these changes. Without doing some kind of analysis, it will be difficult for you to know the effect your project is actually having. The data analysis techniques presented in this handbook are not difficult. Most of them can be easily done using little more than a calculator and scratch paper. If necessary, there are resources listed in the handbook for additional assistance analyzing your data

Monitoring Handbook 4: Monitoring ecological effects

The goal of restoration should be to create a self-sustaining ecosystem that functions well and needs little maintenance. Monitoring is essential in order to see if projects are achieving improved ecological conditions. Part 1 of this handbook includes a description of common restoration goals and indicators. Methods for measuring each indicator are described in Part 2

Monitoring Handbook 1: What is multiparty monitoring?

There are many reasons for monitoring your project and using a multiparty approach. Multiparty monitoring will increase your understanding of the effects of restoration actions, support adaptive management, and set a course for future management. Multiparty monitoring also helps build trust among partners and establish project accountability in the broader community. This handbook will guide you through the initial steps required to develop a multiparty monitoring process

Monitoring Handbook 5: Monitoring social and economic effects of forest restoration

Forest restoration projects frequently have social, economic, and cultural goals as well as ecological goals. For instance, project partners may hope that their project will provide new jobs and reduce local unemployment, keep youth in the community, reduce the wildfire risk to human lives and property, or increase public involvement in national forest planning and decision making. Monitoring provides a way to determine whether you are headed toward or away from these goals. For example, your monitoring group might want to ask, Is our community becoming more or less sustainable? Are local management skills improving or getting worse? or Is the use of small-diameter trees increasing or decreasing? Part 1 of this handbook describes indicators that can help community-based multiparty monitoring groups measure changes in common forest restoration project goals. Part 2 describes specific methods for measuring change in each indicator

Genetic Analysis of the Henry Mountains Bison Herd

Wild American plains bison (Bison bison) populations virtually disappeared in the late 1800s, with some remnant animals retained in what would become Yellowstone National Park and on private ranches. Some of these private bison were intentionally crossbred with cattle for commercial purposes. This forced hybridization resulted in both mitochondrial and nuclear introgression of cattle genes into some of the extant bison genome. As the private populations grew, excess animals, along with their history of cattle genetics, provided founders for newly established public bison populations. Of the US public bison herds, only those in Yellowstone and Wind Cave National Parks (YNP and WCNP) appear to be free of detectable levels of cattle introgression. However, a small free-ranging population (~350 animals) exists on public land, along with domestic cattle, in the Henry Mountains (HM) of southern Utah. This isolated bison herd originated from a founder group translocated from YNP in the 1940s. Using genetic samples from 129 individuals, we examined the genetic status of the HM population and found no evidence of mitochondrial or nuclear introgression of cattle genes. This new information confirms it is highly unlikely for free-living bison to crossbreed with cattle, and this disease-free HM bison herd is valuable for the long-term conservation of the species. This bison herd is a subpopulation of the YNP/WCNP/HM metapopulation, within which it can contribute significantly to national efforts to restore the American plains bison to more of its native range

Anhydrous Ammonia or Liquid Supplement Treatment of Wheat Straw: Demonstration Results

The effect of anhydrous ammonia or liquid supplement treatment of wheat straw was evaluated by field demonstration in response to the drought of 1989. Ammoniation of wheat straw increased estimated TDN content by 7.8 percentage points and crude protein by 7 percentage points in comparison with untreated straw. Adding a liquid protein supplement to wheat straw increased estimated TDN content by 1.5 percentage points and crude protein by .6 percentage points. Ammoniation increased the quality of wheat straw to a level comparable to prairie hay. Based on nutrient analysis, the ammoniation procedure was more effective in improving the quality of wheat straw than addition of liquid supplement

Valence and magnetic ordering in intermediate valence compounds : TmSe versus SmB6

The intermediate valent systems TmSe and SmB6 have been investigated up to 16 and 18 GPa by ac microcalorimetry with a pressure (p) tuning realized in situ at low temperature. For TmSe, the transition from an antiferromagnetic insulator for p<3 GPa to an antiferromagnetic metal at higher pressure has been confirmed. A drastic change in the p variation of the Neel temperature (Tn) is observed at 3 GPa. In the metallic phase (p>3 GPa), Tn is found to increase linearly with p. A similar linear p increase of Tn is observed for the quasitrivalent compound TmS which is at ambiant pressure equivalent to TmSe at p=7 GPa. In the case of SmB6 long range magnetism has been detected above p=8 GPa, i.e. at a pressure slightly higher than the pressure of the insulator to metal transition. However a homogeneous magnetic phase occurs only above 10 GPa. The magnetic and electronic properties are related to the renormalization of the 4f wavefunction either to the divalent or the trivalent configurations. As observed in SmS, long range magnetism in SmB6 occurs already far below the pressure where a trivalent Sm3+ state will be reached. It seems possible, to describe roughly the physical properties of the intermediate valence equilibrium by assuming formulas for the Kondo lattice temperature depending on the valence configuration. Comparison is also made with the appearance of long range magnetism in cerium and ytterbium heavy fermion compounds.Comment: 22 pages including figure