Natural Resource Management

Human impacts on natural landscapes through urbanization and agricultural expansion have left a deep and enduring imprint on almost every dimension of the natural world. Throughout history, fire has almost always been associated with this human expansion, from field clearance and the burning of fossil fuel biomass to human-induced conflagrations. “The arrival of a fire-wielding species,” observes Stephen J. Pyne, “was a monumental moment in the natural history of Earth” (Pyne, 2010, xvii).

Protecting wildlife habitat often requires controlling invasive plants, and those conducting invasive plant removal need to be sure their approach is safe for wildlife. This manual of Best Management Practices presents ways land managers can protect wildlife when using herbicides to control invasive plants. (While any invasive plant removal approach can potentially affect wildlife, chemical control methods are the focus of this report.) Herbicides are an important tool in the IPM (Integrated Pest Management) toolbox for controlling wildland weeds.

ABSTRACT

A regional collaboration of resource agencies learned today that it will receive an $8 million grant to protect agricultural lands and ecosystems for drought and climate resiliency.

Have you ever wondered how wetlands provide services to you and your community? If not, you are not alone. However, there are examples all across the country of ways that wetlands and the state programs that protect them are providing significant benefits to you. Wetlands are known as natural filters and sponges that absorb water. With these attributes, they provide invaluable functions for slowing and storing water from storm events in ways that limit flood damage. They filter pollutants out of runoff. They store carbon. They buffer the land

The new statewide president of Mass Audubon has filed for intervenor status for its West Mountain Wildlife Sanctuary in Plainfield, just over the border from Berkshire County, in the federal review of the proposed Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. project. ... "At this stage, we're optimistic that in working with the Conservation Commission and Stantec, the restoration plan will be adequate and that letter will be the only need we'll have for legal counsel," said Becky Cushing, director of the Berkshire Sanctuaries.

County by county, West Virginia’s coalfield communities are being forced to cut jobs, eliminate programs and slash benefits as they steadily collapse alongside the Mountain State’s plummeting coal severance tax revenue. ... But Evan Hansen, president of Downstream Strategies and one author of the white paper, said diversifying the economy might be the only way out.

Forty percent of the world’s people share the tropics with 50 percent of the world’s terrestrial life. World population has more than doubled since 1960. Land use decisions will become increasingly controversial as it soars from 7.2 billion to a projected 9.6 billion in 2050. A downloadable publication from the Smithsonian and the BIO Program of the Inter-American Development Bank, “Managing watersheds for ecosystem services in the steepland Neotropics,” offers new tools to weigh trade-offs between water, timber, biodiversity and development.

Clemson scientists Rob Baldwin and Paul Leonard have recently published a research article that examines the existing distribution of conservation easements in the Appalachian Mountains.