Natural resource data analysis: Finding comfort with computers

For the past six years Michigan State University Department of Forestry has offered a course, Natural Resource Data Analysis, that has evolved as computer skills, there are three principle objectives in the course: identifying a natural resource problem and obtaining relevant data; conducting an objective, quantitative analysis of data; and presenting the analysis in a way that is clear to a non-technical audience. The course consists of a combined lecture/lab where fundamental concepts oral and written communication, quantitative analysis, and spatial analysis/cartography are introduced and a hands-on lab where students practice specific computer and analytic skills. The ultimate course objective is the presentation of an analysis of a natural resource problem via World Wide Web pages, a written report and an oral, computer-assisted presentation

Linking senior forestry courses

Learning has been described as a cumulative process that allows students to build knowledge and skills as they progress through their undergraduate programs. Courses offered at the senior level usually have prerequisites, or require concurrent enrollment in other courses. In the Department of Forestry at Michigan State University, we have recently started offering two senior-level courses concurrently (rather than sequentially): Forest Management and Natural Resources Planning and Policy. In an effort to better integrate our curriculum, we are building linkages between these courses based on content (to reduce redundancy), quantitative analysis, and data sets. Forest Management is taken mostly by Professional Forestry majors, whereas Natural Resources Policy and Planning has a mixture of students from Forestry and other disciplines. Traditionally, concepts and technical skills learned in the management were used by students on interdisciplinary planning teams in planning/policy. This distribution of material created some inherent equity problems that we are addressing by offering the courses concurrently. Our experiences and the pros and cons of linking these courses are presented

Elk, the cow, the ranger, and the rolex: Urban/wildland resource management conflict at Mt. Diablo State Partk, California

The grazing dispute at Mt. Diablo State Park in California provides a case study for examining the dynamics of conflict over park management. It also offers a glimpse of what the future likely holds for many wildland parks in the United States. The dispute illustrates that no park is an island, wither ecologically or socially. The ecological setting and the human participants in the conflict have a dynamic interaction moderated by cultural values and norms. At Mt. Diablo, cultural values and the myths that give them cohesion have encouraged the participants in the conflict to strive toward impossible and apparently irreconcilable goals for the park. Proposed solutions must offer a way to reconcile these divergent views if they are to last

A Comprehensive Guide to Fuel Management Practices for Dry Mixed Conifer Forests in the Northwestern United States

This guide describes the benefits, opportunities, and trade-offs concerning fuel treatments in the dry mixed conifer forests of northern California and the Klamath Mountains, Pacific Northwest Interior, northern and central Rocky Mountains, and Utah. Multiple interacting disturbances and diverse physical settings have created a forest mosaic with historically low- to mixed-severity fire regimes. Analysis of forest inventory data found nearly 80 percent of these forests rate hazardous by at least one measure and 20 to 30 percent rate hazardous by multiple measures. Modeled mechanical treatments designed to mimic what is typically implemented, such as thinning, are effective on less than 20 percent of the forest in single entry, but can be self-funding more often than not. We provide: (1) exhaustive summaries and links to supporting guides and literature on the mechanics of fuel treatments, including mechanical manipulation, prescribed fire, targeted grazing and chemical use; (2) a decision tree to help managers select the best mechanical method for any situation in these regions; (3) discussion on how to apply prescribed fire to achieve diverse and specific objectives; (4) key principles for developing an effective monitoring plan; (5) economic analysis of mechanical fuel treatments in each region; and (6) discussion on fuel treatment longevity. In the electronic version of the document, we have provided links to electronic copies of cited literature available in TreeSearch online document library (http://www.treesearch.fs.fed.us/

Deploying initial attack resources for wildfire suppression: spatial coordination, budget constraints, and capacity constraints

We combine a scenario-based, standard-response optimization model with stochastic simulation to improve the efficiency of resource deployment for initial attack on wildland fires in three planning units in California. The optimization model minimizes the expected number of fires that do not receive a standard response-defined as the number of resources by type that must arrive at the fire within a specified time limit-subject to budget and station capacity constraints and uncertainty about the daily number and location of fires. We use the California Fire Economics Simulator to predict the number of fires not contained within initial attack modeling limits. Compared with the current deployment, the deployment obtained with optimization shifts resources from the planning unit with highest fire load to the planning unit with the highest standard response requirements but leaves simulated containment success unchanged. This result suggests that, under the current budget and capacity constraints, a range of deployments may perform equally well in terms of fire containment. Resource deployments that result from relaxing constraints on station capacity achieve greater containment success by encouraging consolidation of resources into stations with high dispatch frequency, thus increasing the probability of resource availability on high fire count days.Nous combinons un modèle d'optimisation de la réponse standard basée sur différents scénarios a` une simulation stochastique pour améliorer l'efficacité du déploiement des ressources lors de l'attaque initiale des feux de forêt dans trois unités de gestion en Californie. Le modèle d'optimisation minimise le nombre attendu de feux qui ne reçoivent pas une réponse standard (définie comme la quantité de ressources de chaque type qui doit être déployée `a l'intérieur d'une certaine limite de temps) a` cause de contraintes de budget et de capacité des stations et de l'incertitude quant au nombre quotidien de feux et `a leur localisation. Nous utilisons le simulateur de l'aspect économique des feux en Californie pour prédire le nombre de feux qui ne sont pas maîtrisés a` l'intérieur des limites déterminées par la modélisation de l'attaque initiale. Comparativement au déploie-ment actuel, le déploiement obtenu par optimisation déplace des ressources de l'unité de gestion qui a le fardeau d'intervention le plus lourd vers l'unité de gestion qui a les exigences de réponse standard les plus élevées mais laisse le succès simulé de la maîtrise des feux inchangé. Ce résultat indique que dans les conditions actuelles de contraintes de budget et de capacité, différents déploiements peuvent avoir une aussi bonne performance en termes de maîtrise du feu. Les déploiements de ressources qui résultent de la réduction des contraintes de capacité des stations ont plus de succès dans la maîtrise des feux en favorisant la consolidation des ressources dans les stations qui ont une fréquence élevée de déploiement, augmentant par conséquent la probabilité que les ressources soient disponibles les jours où le nombre de feux est élevé. [Traduit par la Rédaction]Keywords: Allocation, Forest fires, Airtankers, Wildland fire suppression, Management, California, Stochastic representation, Containment, Protection planning mode

Participatory Design of Purdue University’s Active Learning Center Final Report

Purdue University’s commitment to active learning requires facilities that support small-­‐group work, peer learning, the use of technology, and other classroom innovations. The Active Learning Center is intended to provide classroom space combined seamlessly with library space to meet these needs. Members of the Libraries faculty and staff conducted a series of information-­‐gathering activities to gain insight into the range of activities, work practices and preferences that the new building must support. It is our hope that the building will indeed support these activities, serve as a centrally located, flagship building for Purdue University, and support and inspire learning for years to come

Interleukin-6 and C-Reactive Protein Levels and 9-Year Cognitive Decline in Community-Dwelling Older Women: The Women’s Health and Aging Study II

Elevated inflammation is a proposed mechanism relating chronic diseases to cognitive dysfunction. The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that greater levels of inflammation, as measured by the proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) and C-reactive protein, are associated with faster rates of cognitive decline among cognitively intact community-dwelling older women

The Role of Convection in Redistributing Formaldehyde to the Upper Troposphere Over North America and the North Atlantic during the Summer 2004 INTEX Campaign

Measurements of CH2O from a tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer (TDLAS) were acquired onboard the NASA DC-8 during the summer 2004 INTEX-NA (Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment - North America) campaign to test our understanding of convection and production mechanisms in the upper troposphere (UT, 6-12-km) over continental North America and the North Atlantic Ocean. Point-by-point comparisons with box model calculations, when MHP (CH3OOH) measurements were available for model constraint, resulted in a median CH2O measurement/model ratio of 0.91 in the UT. Multiple tracers were used to arrive at a set of UT CH2O background and perturbed air mass periods, and 46% of the TDLAS measurements fell within the latter category. At least 66% to 73% of these elevated UT observations were caused by enhanced production from CH2O precursors rather than direct transport of CH2O from the boundary layer. This distinction is important, since the effects from the former can last for over a week or more compared to one day or less in the case of convective transport of CH2O itself. In general, production of CH2O from CH4 was found to be the dominant source term, even in perturbed air masses. This was followed by production from MHP, methanol, PAN type compounds, and ketones, in descending order of their contribution. In the presence of elevated NO from lightning and potentially from the stratosphere, there was a definite trend in the CH2O discrepancy, which for the highest NO mixing ratios produced a median CH2O measurement/model ratio of 3.9 in the 10-12-km range. Discrepancies in CH2O and HO2 in the UT with NO were highly correlated and this provided further information as to the possible mechanism(s) responsible. These discrepancies with NO are consistent with additional production sources of both gases involving CH3O2 + NO reactions, most likely caused by unmeasured hydrocarbons

Airborne Measurements in Support of the NASA Atmospheric Carbon and Transport - America (ACT-America) Mission

NASA announced the research opportunity Earth Venture Suborbital -2 (EVS-2) mission in support of the NASA's science strategic goals and objectives in 2013. Penn State University, NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC), and other academic institutions, government agencies, and industrial companies together formulated and proposed the Atmospheric Carbon and Transport -America (ACT -America) suborbital mission, which was subsequently selected for implementation. The airborne measurements that are part of ACT-America will provide a unique set of remote and in-situ measurements of CO2 over North America at spatial and temporal scales not previously available to the science community and this will greatly enhance our understanding of the carbon cycle. ACT -America will consist of five airborne campaigns, covering all four seasons, to measure regional atmospheric carbon distributions and to evaluate the accuracy of atmospheric transport models used to assess carbon sinks and sources under fair and stormy weather conditions. This coordinated mission will measure atmospheric carbon in the three most important regions of the continental US carbon balance: Northeast, Midwest, and South. Data will be collected using 2 airborne platforms (NASA Wallops' C-130 and NASA Langley's B-200) with both in-situ and lidar instruments, along with instrumented ground towers and under flights of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite. This presentation provides an overview of the ACT-America instruments, with particular emphasis on the airborne CO2and backscatter lidars, and the, rationale, approach, and anticipated results from this mission

Formaldehyde over North America and the North Atlantic during the summer 2004 INTEX campaign: Methods, observed distributions, and measurement‐model comparisons

A tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer (TDLAS) was operated on the NASA DC‐8 aircraft during the summer INTEX‐NA study to acquire ambient formaldehyde (CH2O) measurements over North America and the North Atlantic Ocean from ∼0.2 km to ∼12.5 km altitude spanning 17 science flights. Measurements of CH2O in the boundary layer and upper troposphere over the southeastern United States were anomalously low compared to studies in other years, and this was attributed to the record low temperatures over this region during the summer of 2004. Formaldehyde is primarily formed over the southeast from isoprene, and isoprene emissions are strongly temperature‐dependent. Despite this effect, the median upper tropospheric (UT) CH2O mixing ratio of 159 pptv from the TDLAS over continental North America is about a factor of 4 times higher than the median UT value of 40 pptv observed over remote regions during TRACE‐P. These observations together with the higher variability observed in this study all point to the fact that continental CH2O levels in the upper troposphere were significantly perturbed during the summer of 2004 relative to more typical background levels in the upper troposphere over more remote regions. The TDLAS measurements discussed in this paper are employed together with box model results in the companion paper by Fried et al. to further examine enhanced CH2O distributions in the upper troposphere due to convection. Measurements of CH2O on the DC‐8 were also acquired by a coil enzyme fluorometric system and compared with measurements from the TDLAS system