Biblio Notes

June 30, 2010 - By Adam Switalski and Allison Jones   Editor’s Note: This BiblioNote is an excerpt from Wildlands CPR and Wild Utah’s ORV BMPs published in 2008. To see a list of Best Management Practices for planning and management of ORV routes or to view the full report click here.

March 24, 2010 - By Adam Switalski and Allison Jones   Forests are home to hundreds of species of fish and wildlife, providing recreational opportunities for hunters, anglers, and wildlife enthusiasts.  Millions of hunters and fishermen enjoy pursuing their sport while increasing numbers of birders and photographers enjoy simply catching a glimpse of the diversity of forest life.  In addition to recreational benefits, diverse wildlife are a sign of overall ecosystem health and integrity.  While there are many threats to preserving wildlife ranging from global warming to development, the negative impacts from off-road vehicles (ORVs) on wildlife

January 5, 2010 - By Adam Switalski and Allison Jones   Trees, shrubs, and grasses hold soil in place and provide habitats for a broad diversity of wildlife.  Wildlife health is intricately connected with the integrity of its associated plant communities.   Off-road vehicles (ORV) can greatly impact vegetation through trampling and the introduction of invasive species.  Here we review how ORVs impact plant communities and propose methods for restoring areas degraded by ORV use.

September 30, 2009 - By Adam Switalski and Allison Jones   Healthy forest soils provide nutrients and the physical foundation for plants.  Soils are also home to many animals that burrow beneath the surface.  One important characteristic of forest soil is that it contains pore space or tiny cracks and crevices that fill with air and water.  Pore spaces allow rain and snowmelt to enter the soil, gases to escape, and tree and other plant roots to grow.   Compaction and Erosion

June 25, 2009 - By Adam Switalski and Liane Davis   IntroductionClimate has changed throughout the history of our planet and species have adapted and persisted over time (Noss 2001). Unlike previous periods of climatic change, though, many species’ ability to adjust has been severely constrained by anthropocentric alterations of many ecosystems, such as habitat loss and fragmentation. It is these additional environmental stressors that make climate change such a challenge for biodiversity conservation. But while humans have inflated the conservation challenges associated with climate change, we can also help to alleviate them.

March 9, 2009 - Beth Gibson   Sand dunes and sandy beaches contend with surf spray, storms, wind, and other extreme conditions. These coastal areas also face unique challenges related to population growth, climate change, and urban development and sprawl – more than half the U.S. population lives in coastal areas. And while these habitats and the flora and fauna that inhabit them are robust, they are also vulnerable to the impacts of human recreation and development.  In fact, the coastal zone is home to more than one third of U.S. federally listed species.

December 4, 2008 - Josh Hurd   Watershed restoration often requires economic, in addition to scientific justification in order to gain political support (Norgaard et al., 2007; Rubin, 2000). In these cases restoration includes socio-economic arguments in which the economic benefits accruing from restoration are enumerated (Davis, 2004; Cowling, 2007; Holl and Howarth, 2000). However, many of the benefits of properly functioning watersheds are neither fully known nor taken into account in traditional market systems (Holl and Howarth, 2000; Costanza et al., 1997).

September 18, 2008 - By Shannon Donahue   As the human population grows, our wildlands face threats from increased access for recreation and resource extraction, subdivision for residential and commercial development, and movements to pave and improve many of our secondary and tertiary roads.  Road improvements include paving, widening, and/or other methods.  While paving may afford conveniences that satisfy commercial and residential demands, such improvements increase the detrimental ecological impacts of roads including direct effects such as fragmentation and loss of secure wildlife habitat (Forman & Alexander, 1998), increa

June 19, 2008 - Greg Peters   The U.S. northern Rocky Mountains cover a huge area of relatively pristine and undeveloped land, creating unique areas of core habitat for many important carnivore and ungulate species. However, many parts of this region also have a long history of resource extraction and road building. On Forest Service lands alone, there are more than 50,000 miles of roads. Today many areas in this region are being rapidly developed and critical wildlife habitats are increasingly being fragmented.

March 13, 2008 - Shannon Donahue    Editor’s Note: This review updates research since our last Bibliography Notes on this topic, in May/June 1998 (Vol. 3 #3, or visit: http://www.wildlandscpr.org/biblio-notes/roads-kill-grizzly-bears-and-ef...). Since that time, more research has addressed the effects of highways and railroads, rather than just low volume roads.