Keyword: assessment

Biological assessment of oil and gas development on the Little Missouri National Grassland

The Little Missouri National Grassland is the largest designated National Grassland in the United States and represents one of the best examples of intact native mixed-grass prairie in the United States. The Little Missouri National Grasslands occurs entirely within the Williston Basin, which has been a leading source of conventional oil and gas production since the 1950s.

A strategic assessment of forest biomass and fuel reduction treatments in Western States

This assessment characterizes, at a regional scale, forest biomass that can potentially be removed to implement the fuel reduction and ecosystem restoration objectives of the National Fire Plan for the Western United States. The assessment area covers forests on both public and private ownerships in the region and describes all standing tree volume including stems, limbs, and tops.

Applying the 2012 Planning Rule to conserve species: A practitioner's reference

The National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA) directs managers of National Forest System (NFS) lands to "provide for diversity of plant and animal communities based on the suitability and capability of the specific land area in order to meet overall multiple-use objectives." The mandate is challenging and is embraced by the Forest Service.

The 1993 RPA timber assessment update

This update reports changes in the Nation's timber resource since the 1989 RPA timber assessment. The timber resource situation is analyzed to provide projections for future cost and availability of timber products to meet demands. Prospective trends in demands for and supplies of timber, and the factors that affect these trends are examined. These include changes in the land and timber resource base.

A comparative analysis of hydrologic responses of tropical deciduous and temperate deciduous watershed ecosystems to climatic change

Long-term monitoring of ecological and hydrological processes is critical to understanding ecosystem function and responses to anthropogenic and natural disturbances. Much of the world's knowledge of ecosystem responses to disturbance comes from long-term studies on gaged watersheds. However, there are relatively few long-term sites due to the large cost and commitment required to establish and maintain them.

Forest resources of the United States, 1992

The 1987 Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment forest resources statistics are updated to 1992, to provide current information on the Nation's forests. Resource tables present estimates of forest area, volume, mortality, growth, removals, and timber products output. Resource data are analyzed, and trends since 1987 are noted.

Field methods and data processing techniques associated with mapped inventory plots

The U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) and Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) programs utilize a fixed-area mapped-plot design as the national standard for extensive forest inventories. The mapped-plot design is explained, as well as the rationale for its selection as the national standard. Ratio-of-means estimators am presented as a method to process data from mapped inventory plots.

Risk management: Core principles and practices, and their relevance to wildland fire

The Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture faces a future of increasing complexity and risk, pressing financial issues, and the inescapable possibility of loss of human life. These issues are perhaps most acute for wildland fire management, the highest risk activity in which the Forest Service engages.

Planning for climate change on the National Wildlife Refuge System

This document originated in 2008 as a collaborative project of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the University of Maryland's Graduate Program in Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology. The original title was A Primer on Climate Change for the National Wildlife Refuge System. The Primer has evolved into Planning for Climate Change on the National Wildlife Refuge System in response to DOl and FWS mandates.

A conceptual precipitation-runoff modeling suite: Model selection, calibration and predictive uncertainty assessment

In Montana and much of the Rocky Mountain West, the single most important parameter in forecasting the controls on regional water resources is snowpack. Despite the heightened importance of snowpack, few studies have considered the representation of uncertainty in coupled snowmelt/hydrologic conceptual models. Uncertainty estimation provides a direct interpretation of the risk associated with predictive modeling results.