Keyword: New Mexico

Climate relationships with increasing wildfire in the southwestern US from 1984 to 2015

Over the last several decades in forest and woodland ecosystems of the southwestern United States, wildfire size and severity have increased, thereby increasing the vulnerability of these systems to type conversions, invasive species, and other disturbances. A combination of land use history and climate change is widely thought to be contributing to the changing fire regimes.

Grassland Sustainability

In this chapter we discuss grassland sustainability in the Southwest, grassland management for sustainability, national and local criteria and indicators of sustainable grassland ecosystems, and monitoring for sustainability at various scales. Ecological sustainability is defined as: [T]he maintenance or restoration of the composition, structure, and processes of ecosystems over time and space.

Roost sites of radio-marked Mexican spotted owls in Arizona and New Mexico: sources of variability and descriptive characteristics

To increase understanding of roosting habitat of Mexican Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis lucida) and factors that influence use of roosting habitat, we sampled habitat characteristics at 1790 sites used for roosting by 28 radio-marked Mexican Spotted Owls in three study areas in Arizona and New Mexico.

Historic and Contemporary Land Use in Southwestern Grassland Ecosystems

This chapter encompasses the lands of the Southwest as defined by Region 3 of the USDA Forest Service (USFS): Arizona, New Mexico, and portions of western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. I examine human use and modification of the grasslands/rangelands of this region, with an emphasis on those areas managed by the Forest Service.

Wildlife

This volume addresses the wildlife and fish of the grasslands in the Southwestern Region of the USDA Forest Service. Our intent is to provide information that will help resource specialists and decisionmakers manage wildlife populations within grassland ecosystems in the Southwestern United States. The information and analysis presented is at a Regional scale.

Grassland Assessment Categories and Extent

This chapter establishes a general framework for describing the various kinds of grasslands outlined in subsequent chapters. This framework outlines the major categories or classes of grasslands that occur as part of Southwestern terrestrial ecosystems within National Forest System lands and provides an ecological and environmental context in regards to how they differ in their floristic, geographic, spatial, and climatic settings.