Ecotourism Attractions of Ruteng Nature Recreation Park, Indonesia

This document describes the major ecotourism attractions of the Ruteng Nature Recreation Park in Flores, which was established in August 1993. Development of the Park began in 1995 with assistance from the Indonesia Biodiversity Conservation Project (IBCP) funded by the Asian Development Bank. I served as the Team Leader of the IBCP in Flores (1995-1996). My major tasks were supervising the completion of a 25 year management plan for the Park, and providing technical assistance during the first year of implementation of the new management plan. Another task was preparing this short booklet for visitors that describes the major ecotourism attractions in the Park and the surrounding buffer zone. The attractions include hiking trails to a volcano, lakes, and waterfalls in areas with diverse wildlife and vegetation

Silviculture Training for Staff to Support Community Forestry Programs in Developing Countries

Providing silviculture training to forest service staff in developing countries can have a major impact on the implementation of community forestry programs. This report describes a seven day silviculture training conducted in Bhutan in 2005. The main objective of the training was to enhance the technical and social skills of forestry staff so that they could assist villagers to manage community forests in a more productive, sustainable, and equitable manner. I helped plan and conduct the training, and wrote a detailed training report with two other colleagues. Later in 2011 while supporting community forestry in other countries, I prepared this much shorter description of the training that provides much less information about Bhutan, but focuses on information that could be useful for organizing silviculture trainings in other countries

A New Tool for Mapping Forest Habitats in Rhode Island

The Forest Habitat Map (FHM) for Rhode Island was created to provide private land owners with a simple tool to analyze and map forest habitats at the scales of 1:5000 or more using licensed or free mapping GIS software. Seven existing land use and land cover data sets provide recent spatial data on forest habitats in Rhode Island (Table 1), but none provides complete coverage of the most important forest habitat types. As a result, it is necessary to combine data from several datasets to prepare a forest habitat map. This requires access to licensed GIS software and an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the available data sets. Furthermore, shrubland forest habitat is not adequately covered by any of the existing datasets. The FHM simplifies the process of mapping forest habitats by including eight major forest types in one dataset. The FHM was prepared by combining data from several existing datasets with a recently prepared shrubland dataset and a manual update of several forest categories

GIS rasters to identify best sites for creating habitat for American Woodcock in Rhode Island

The University of Rhode Island has conducted many studies of the habitat use of American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) in Rhode Island, USA. In 2020 we developed a new geographic information system (GIS) tool based on our previous research to identify sites in Rhode Island where forest clearcutting to create young forest habitat would have the most positive effect for American woodcock. We believe that our new tool is effective, and that it helps landowners identify the best locations on their properties to improve woodcock habitat. This report provides public access to the GIS rasters of the tool and to an article providing more details about how the tool was created

Review of \u3cem\u3eSettlement Houses Under Siege: The Struggle to Sustain Community Organizations in New York City.\u3c/em\u3e Michael Fabricant and Robert Fisher. Reviewed by Bill Buffum.

Book review of Michael Fabricant and Robert Fisher, Settlement Houses Under Siege: The Struggle to Sustain Community Organizations in New York City. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. $49.50 hardcover,$23.40 papercover

Research Brief: Loss of forest in large unfragmented blocks of forest in Rhode Island

This research brief was prepared by the University of Rhode Island (URI) in response to a request from the RI Woodland Partnership to provide data on recent loss of forest in RI. Specifically we were asked to estimate the extent of recent loss of forest in large unfragmented blocks of forest with an area of at least 250ac. These large unfragmented blocks are important for many wildlife species, and were mapped by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM) during the preparation of the 2015 Rhode Island Wildlife Action Plan. We were also asked to (a) estimate how much of the recent loss of forest in these unfragmented blocks was in areas that were not classified as wetlands, conservation land, or within the Urban Services Boundary; and (b) to describe the 2018 land uses to which these forested areas had been converted. The report was updated in January 2020 to include an estimate the loss of forest in these blocks by town

Managing a Forest Reserve Severely Affected by Illegal Logging and Farming. Based on Research in Haiti.

Forest reserves in developing countries can have severe problems with illegal logging and farming, and addressing these problems is complex. I worked in Haiti in 1997 as a forestry consultant for the Forest and Parks Protection Technical Assistance Project, financed by the World Bank. I offered recommendations for the management of a forest reserve (Foret des Pins) that was experiencing the problems mentioned above. I prepared a detailed report that included recommendations and a draft management plan for the reserve (Buffum 1997). Since the reserve was in a state of crisis, I recommended that the project initially focus on issues that could be handled without increasing the already severe conflict with local villagers, and move on to other issues after a few years. In 2006, I produced this modified report about the Haitian reserve, which focusses on issues that are relevant for other countries, and is much shorter than my original 1997 report

Identifying sites where small clearcuts can expand habitat for New England Cottontail in conjunction with existing habitat patches in Rhode Island

The objective of this analysis was to prioritize forest owners in Rhode Island for outreach programs related to creating habitat for New England Cottontail (NEC). The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides generous funding to landowners to create wildlife habitat through ongoing programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). However, few landowners in Rhode Island are able or willing to create large enough habitat patches to meet the 25 acre patch size needed by NEC. Therefore, an alternative approach is to identify areas where smaller clearcuts could add to existing patches of shrubland to create 25 acre patches. We generated nine maps based on different assumptions. Map 3 (which can identifies 461 high priority polygons in Rhode Island which include patches of upland forest where a clearcut of 3 acres could result in a NEC habitat patch of at least 25 acres in conjunction with existing patches of shrubland, assuming that patches of existing shrubland less than 50 m apart can be considered to be the same patch. Some of the 3 acre clearcut must be inside these polygons but can extend into the surrounding upland forest. Map 9 identifies 60 parcels belonging to existing NRCS clients who could create 3 acre clearcuts on their properties that would result in 25 acre patches in conjunction with existing patches of shrubland. Map 10 further prioritizes the polygons in Map 9 by excluding xeric sites that are likely to have poor or delayed regeneration of shrubby habitat following a clearcut. The maps based on property boundaries are not included in this report for privacy reasons, but are available for use by NRCS staff and authorized affiliates