Due to water turbidity and maintenance issues, some of the water filling stations and flush toilets normally available along the North Kaibab and Bright Angel Trails at this time of the year will not be open until water conditions change and/or water line repairs are made. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/backcountry-users-advised-of-changes-to-water-availability-on-north-kaibab-and-bright-angel-trails.htm

Grand Canyon National Park rangers responded to an emergency call of assistance for a 77-year-old man on a river trip Sept. 3, 2019, below Deer Creek Falls on the Colorado River. https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/visitor-fatality-colorado-river.htm

Little Richard, one of the founding fathers of rock and roll, has died at the age of 87.

Production of high-quality water is a vitally important ecosystem service in the largely semiarid interior Columbia River basin (ICRB).

Land use and climate change are two key factors with the potential to affect stream conditions and fish habitat. Since the 1950s, Washington and Oregon have required forest practices designed to mitigate the effects of timber harvest on streams and fish.

The Malheur model for fire-caused delayed mortality is presented as an easily interpreted graph (mortality-probability calculator) as part of a one-page field guide that allows the user to determine postfire probability of mortality for ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.).

The research is developed around the contemporary debate on LGBT... more

Changes in forest management have detrimentally affected the economic health of small communities in the Blue Mountain region of Oregon over the past few decades. A build-up of small trees threatens the ecological health of these forests and increases wildland fire hazard. Hoping to boost their economies and also restore these forests, local leaders are interested in the economic value of timber that might be available from thinning treatments on these lands.

Biomass resources in Alaska are extensive and diverse, comprising millions of acres of standing small-diameter trees, diseased or dead trees, and trees having lowgrade timber.

Split Screen layouts are a great way to add design to your Divi website that is beautifully balanced and unconventional. With Divi’s new position options, we can create a split-screen layout design using two adjacent Divi sections. This opens the door for building even more unique split-screen layouts using the Divi Builder. In this tutorial, […]

The post How to Create a Full Split-Screen Layout with Unique Toggles in Divi appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

Millions of miles of highway crisscross the United States. Highways fragment the landscape, affecting the distribution of animal populations and limiting the ability of individuals to disperse between those populations. Moreover, animal-vehicle collisions are a serious hazard to wildlife, not to mention people.

A 4-year-old Douglas-fir plantation in the western Washington Cascades was monitored for 8 years after fertilization with potassium (K), nitrogen (N), and K+N to determine fertilizer effects on rates of mortality from laminated root rot (LRR) and other causes relative to a nonfertilized control.

Change is the only constant in forest ecosystems. Quantifying regional-scale forest change is increasingly done with remote sensing, which relies on data sent from digital camera-like sensors mounted to Earth-orbiting satellites. Through remote sensing, changes in forests can be studied comprehensively and uniformly across time and space.

Hemlock dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium tsugense [Rosendahl] G.N. Jones) is a small, inconspicuous parasite that has significant effects on tree growth and stand structure in coastal forest ecosystems of western North America. Most previous research focused on the effects of hemlock dwarf mistletoe on timber production. Previous clearcut harvesting of large areas that removed virtually all infected trees and forestry practices that established even-aged stands of trees effectively prevented or minimized future hemlock dwarf mistletoe impacts. Under this regime, further research on hemlock dwarf mistletoe was considered unnecessary. However, current forestry practices that restrict clearcut harvesting to small openings and retain live trees to preserve attributes of old-growth forests create conditions that appear highly favorable for enhanced seed production by hemlock dwarf mistletoe, early spread of the mistletoe to infect young trees, and, consequently, increased growth impacts to residual trees over time. More information is needed on the biology and impacts of hemlock dwarf mistletoe in coastal western hemlock retention harvested forests in the United States of America and Canada. Further work is recommended to develop sampling and monitoring procedures to determine hemlock dwarf mistletoe spread and impacts. We also need to investigate several unusual aspects of hemlock dwarf mistletoe biology and development such as long-distance seed dispersal and persistence in old-growth forests. Detailed tree, stand, and forest-level models are needed to monitor and project hemlock dwarf mistletoe effects over a wide range of ecological conditions and management regimes in coastal forests.

This guidebook describes the Little Sink Research Natural Area, a 32.38-ha (80-ac) tract occupying an area of geologically unstable marine siltstone exhibiting natural geomorphic disturbances including landslides, slump benches, scarps, basins and ponds. The area supports forested stands dominated by Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) as well as stands codominated by Douglas-fir and bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) representative of coniferous forest along the foothills of the Willamette Valley.

The demand for water is rapidly increasing, but the uses to which that water is put and the values society places on water are changing dramatically. Water is the source of life, the sustenance for living, the resource needed for manufacturing, mining, agriculture; the element required to grow our lawns, to water our landscaping, to shower us with refreshment; it is the place where we play; it provides the snow for our winter recreation, and it provides the habitat for much of our wildlife. Water in contemporary American society is more than a simple physical entity, its symbolic values, and noninstrumental uses are growing in significance. As with many Native American cultures, water is as much a symbol as it is something to extract and use in the production of commercial products. This book is about the issues associated with these symbolic values and uses of water: the challenges they present--in our language, in our allocation mechanisms, in our communication--the conflicts raised; and the potential for resolving the difficult, contentious and complex issues concerning the use of water for various purposes. It is as much about framing the questions about symbolic values of water as it is anything else.

Lichens are highly valued ecological indicators known for their sensitivity to a wide variety of environmental stressors like air quality and climate change. This report summarizes baseline results from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Lichen Community Indicator covering the first full cycle of data collection (1998-2001, 2003) for Washington, Oregon, and California. During this period, FIA conducted 972 surveys of epiphytic macrolichen communities for monitoring both spatial and long-term temporal trends in forest health. Major research findings are presented with emphasis on lichen biodiversity as well as bioindication of air quality and climate. Considerable effort is devoted to mapping geographic patterns and defining lichen indicator species suitable for estimating air quality and climate.

Whitebark pine is a critical component of subalpine ecosystems in western North America, where it contributes to biodiversity and ecosystem function and in some communities is considered a keystone species. Whitebark pine is undergoing rangewide population declines attributed to the combined effects of mountain pine beetle, white pine blister rust, and fire suppression. The restoration and maintenance of whitebark pine populations require an understanding of all aspects of seed fate. In this paper, we review the literature on seed dispersal in whitebark pine. Clark's nutcracker, pine squirrels, and scatter-hoarding rodents are all known to influence whitebark pine seed fate and ultimately affect the ability of whitebark pine populations to regenerate. We also provide a general overview of the natural histories of the most influential species involved with whitebark pine seed fate: Clark's nutcracker and the pine squirrel.

Greenhouse pot studies were conducted to quantify the competitive abilities of three native perennial grass species to inhibit development of Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link ) seedlings: spike bentgrass (Agrostis exarata Trin. ), blue wildrye (Elymus glaucus Buckley), and western fescue (Festuca occidentalis Hook. ). In single-species stands (1) soil water content decreased with increasing grass density, (2) soil water depletion per plant differed among species as ratios of 2.4:1.3:1 for bentgrass, fescue, and wildrye, respectively, and (3) average percentage of ground cover per plant was ranked by species as bentgrass (14 percent), wildrye (8 percent), broom (8 percent), and fescue (5 percent). Regression models predicted 90, 85, and 72 percent reductions in average biomass per plant of broom when grown with approximately 250 plants/m2 of bentgrass, wildrye, and fescue, respectively. Bentgrass and wildrye were more competitive than fescue because of their early-season depletion of soil water and rapid development of cover.

The United States, in partnership with 11 other countries, participates in the Montreal Process. Each country assesses national progress toward the sustainable management of forest resources by using a set of criteria and indicators agreed on by all member countries. Several indicators focus on nontimber forest products (NTFPs). In the United States, permit and contract data from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, in addition to several other data sources, were used as a benchmark to assess harvest, value, employment, exports and imports, per capita consumption, and subsistence uses for many NTFPs. The retail value of commercial harvests of NTFPs from U.S. forest lands is estimated at $1.4 billion annually. Nontimber forest products in the United States are important to many people throughout the country for personal, cultural, and commercial uses, providing food security, beauty, connection to culture and tradition, and income.

The past decade has seen resurgence in interest in gathering wild plants and fungi in cities. In addition to gathering by individuals, dozens of groups have emerged in U.S., Canadian, and European cities to facilitate access to nontimber forest products (NTFPs), particularly fruits and nuts, in public and private spaces. Recent efforts within cities to encourage public orchards and food forests, and to incorporate more fruit and nut trees into street tree planting programs indicate a growing recognition among planners that gathering is an important urban activity.

Concerns about forest health and the threat of wildfire across the Western United States increasingly provide the impetus for communities to find land management solutions that serve multiple interests. Funding and procedural changes over the past decade have positioned federal agencies to put greater emphasis on multistakeholder partnerships and public outreach efforts. Partnerships build slowly over time, but can result in a healthier resource, reduced fire risk, greater stability for agency planning processes, and more resilient communities. Drawing on interviews with stakeholders representing broad interests in a partnership between the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition and the Colville National Forest, we examine some of the critical factors leading to the partnership's success and identify challenges along the way. We illustrate how the citizens of Colville, Washington, overcame conflicts by learning to communicate their interests and use existing resources to advance a variety of goals, ranging from fuels reduction and active forest management to roadless area and wilderness management. We highlight a set of important organizational themes that have emerged from Colville to provide managers and other stakeholders with ideas for similar efforts.

Cofiring of biomass and coal at electrical generation facilities is gaining in importance as a means of reducing fossil fuel consumption, and more than 40 facilities in the United States have conducted test burns. Given the large size of many coal plants, cofiring at even low rates has the potential to utilize relatively large volumes of biomass. This could have important forest management implications if harvest residues or salvage timber are supplied to coal plants. Other feedstocks suitable for cofiring include wood products manufacturing residues, woody municipal wastes, agricultural residues, short-rotation intensive culture forests, or hazard fuel removals. Cofiring at low rates can often be done with minimal changes to plant handling and processing equipment, requiring little capital investment. Cofiring at higher rates can involve repowering entire burners to burn biomass in place of coal, or in some cases, repowering entire powerplants. Our research evaluates the current status of biomass cofiring in North America, identifying current trends and success stories, types of biomass used, coal plant sizes, and primary cofiring regions. We also identify potential barriers to cofiring. Results are presented for more than a dozen plants that are currently cofiring or have recently announced plans to cofire.

The effects of climate change are expected to be more severe for some segments of society than others because of geographic location, the degree of association with climate-sensitive environments, and unique cultural, economic, or political characteristics of particular landscapes and human populations. Social vulnerability and equity in the context of climate change are important because some populations may have less capacity to prepare for, respond to, and recover from climate-related hazards and effects. Such populations may be disproportionately affected by climate change. This synthesis of literature illustrates information about the socioeconomic, political, health, and cultural effects of climate change on socially vulnerable populations in the United States, with some additional examples in Canada. Through this synthesis, social vulnerability, equity, and climate justice are defined and described, and key issues, themes, and considerations that pertain to the effects of climate change on socially vulnerable populations are identified. The synthesis reviews what available science says about social vulnerability and climate change, and documents the emergence of issues not currently addressed in academic literature. In so doing, the synthesis identifies knowledge gaps and questions for future research.

Existing models and predictions project serious changes to worldwide hydrologic processes as a result of global climate change. Projections indicate that significant change may threaten National Forest System watersheds that are an important source of water used to support people, economies, and ecosystems. Wildland managers are expected to anticipate and respond to these threats, adjusting management priorities and actions. Because watersheds differ greatly in: (1) the values they support, (2) their exposure to climatic changes, and (3) their sensitivity to climatic changes, understanding these differences will help inform the setting of priorities and selection of management approaches. Drawing distinctions in climate change vulnerability among watersheds on a national forest or grassland allows more efficient and effective allocation of resources and better land and watershed stewardship. Eleven national forests from throughout the United States, representing each of the nine Forest Service regions, conducted assessments of potential hydrologic change resulting from ongoing and expected climate warming. A pilot assessment approach was developed and implemented. Each national forest identified water resources important in that area, assessed climate change exposure and watershed sensitivity, and evaluated the relative vulnerabilities of watersheds to climate change. The assessments provided management recommendations to anticipate and respond to projected climate-hydrologic changes. Completed assessments differed in level of detail, but all assessments identified priority areas and management actions to maintain or improve watershed resilience in response to a changing climate. The pilot efforts also identified key principles important to conducting future vulnerability assessments.

The North Cascadia Adaptation Partnership (NCAP) is a science-management partnership consisting of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forests and Pacific Northwest Research Station; North Cascades National Park Complex; Mount Rainier National Park; and University of Washington Climate Impacts Group.

We developed a process to address terrestrial wildlife species for which management for ecosystem diversity may be inadequate for providing ecological conditions capable of sustaining viable populations. The process includes (1) identifying species of conservation concern, (2) describing source habitats, and other important ecological factors, (3) organizing species into groups, (4) selecting surrogate species for each group, (5) developing surrogate species assessment models; (6) applying surrogate species assessment models to evaluate current and historical conditions, (7) developing conservation considerations, and (8) designing monitoring and adaptive management. Following the application of our species screening criteria, we identified 209 of 700 species as species of concern on National Forest System lands east of the Cascade Range in Washington state. We aggregated the 209 species of conservation concern into 10 families and 28 groups based primarily on their habitat associations (these are not phylogenetic families). We selected 32 primary surrogate species (78 percent birds, 17 percent mammals, 5 percent amphibians) for application in northeastern Washington, based on risk factors and ecological characteristics. Our assessment documented reductions in habitat capability across the assessment area compared to historical conditions. We combined management considerations for individual species with other surrogate species to address multiple species. This information may be used to inform land management planning efforts currently underway on the Okanogan-Wenatchee and Colville National Forests in northeastern Washington.

Understanding the capacity to reduce wildfire risk and restore dry forests on Western national forests is a key part of prioritizing new accelerated restoration programs initiated by the Forest Service.

Over the past decade, wood-energy use in Alaska has grown dramatically.

Over the past decade, wood-energy use in Alaska has grown dramatically.

The Blue Mountains Adaptation Partnership was developed to identify climate change issues relevant to resource management in the Blue Mountains region, to find solutions that can minimize negative effects of climate change, and to facilitate transition of diverse ecosystems to a warmer climate.

This assessment evaluates the effects of future climate change on a select set of ecological systems and ecosystem services in Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula and Chugach National Forest regions. The focus of the assessment was established during a multi-agency/organization workshop that established the goal to conduct a rigorous evaluation of a limited range of topics rather than produce a broad overview.

iHEARTMEDIA Top 40 WKSC (KISS 1035)/CHICAGO is rolling out the red carpet for the thousands of bartenders and servers who are sidelined with no work due to COVID-19 impacting their businesses … more

Weather permitting, the string of satellites will be quite the sight over Northern Ireland's night sky

ASHLEY KING joins SIGNAL MEDIA Country KHLR (106.7 THE RIDE)/LITTLE ROCK for afternoons, effective MONDAY, MAY 4th. It’s a return to radio for KING, who had been APD/MD and midday host … more

MIKE ELLIOTT, the former MILWAUKEE host, PD, GM, and sportscaster and HOUSTON ASTROS broadcaster, died APRIL 20th of pneumonia in BAYSIDE, WI at 82. ELLIOTT started his career at … more

CUMULUS MEDIA Classic Rock WXMX  (98.1 THE MAX)/MEMPHIS, TN and the MEMPHIS MADE BREWING CO. are teaming up with AJAX DISTRIBUTING COMPANY of MEMPHIS to help hospitality workers … more

Rock & Roll legend LITTLE RICHARD (RICHARD WAYNE PENNIMAN) has died at the age of 87 TODAY (5/9.). The cause of death was bone cancer, according to his son, DANNY JONES … more

DALLAS, April 20, 2020 — With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic changing the daily routines of many Americans, the American Heart Association, the leading voluntary health organization focused on heart and brain health for all, is committed to help...

For many marketers, emails are the lifeline for most marketing efforts. Every SPAM complaint, unsubscribe, or bounce has an impact on the current ROI as well as on the sender’s reputation which affects the ROI of the future campaigns. Yet the sender reputation, that you accumulate over the period of multiple email campaigns, is only...

Are you sure everyone on the web can easily access your website? ‘Cause if it is not accessible to everyone, you are losing some great business opportunities! This article is going to put some shades on this “web accessibility” term. Also, you will get to know why it holds so much importance in today’s digital...

When Andrea Wilson approached me five years ago with her idea of creating a space for writers in our community separate from any offered by the University of Iowa, I must admit I was a bit skeptical,...

Another day, another devastating new uptick in Iowa’s COVID-19 figures.

Several times in the past few weeks, Gov. Kim Reynolds has announced a new daily high in Iowa’s positive COVID-19 tests or deaths. On Tuesday, yet another striking record — 19 deaths in a 24-hour period, or nearly 10 percent of the state’s total COVID-19 deaths to date.

For a governor who says she is staking her pandemic response on data and metrics, those grim numbers don’t seem to weigh heavily on Reynolds’ decision-making.

“The fact is we can’t prevent people from getting the COVID-19 virus,” Reynolds said at her Tuesday news conference. “If we weren’t testing in these areas, people would still have the virus and without being tested, diagnosed and isolated it could spread even further.”

In one breath, Reynolds tells Iowans we are helpless to stop the virus’s spread. In the very next breath, she explains how testing and isolation can help prevent the spread.

It’s just one example of the confusing guidance Iowans are getting from the governor and her team. Iowans looking for answers about how to protect themselves and their families are finding seemingly conflicting answers.

They report we have reached the peak, only to backtrack. They say we’re in this together and there’s a statewide plan to confront the outbreak, but then they tell us it’s really about “personal responsibility.” They tell us to stay home as much as possible, then pivot to emphasizing the need for people who feel sick to stay home.

Sometimes, it almost feels as if Reynolds is blaming Iowans for getting sick.

Early on, Reynolds used a regional strategy to track the virus, based on factors such as hospitalizations and health care resources in six multicounty regions across the state. That approach has been brushed aside with little explanation to the public.

Instead, Iowa now has “open” and “closed” counties — 22 where significant restrictions remain intact, and 77 where businesses can open in a limited manner. After less than a week under the county-by-county strategy, there are early signs that the 77 counties are seeing an uptick in confirmed COVID-19 cases.

• Gov. Reynolds is disrupting her own virus response plan

Reynolds’ response in this phase of the pandemic is just as crucial as the initial phase, to prevent a deadlier wave. Shifting to the personal responsibility path also decentralizes leadership, which creates more uncertainty.

If Iowa’s “open” counties see a surge, will Reynolds relent and reimpose restrictions?

We have reason to doubt it. Just this week, Reynolds co-authored a Washington Post guest column with other governors, arguing “our approach worked.”

In Reynolds’ mind, she has already defeated the virus, so she’s retreating from the fight. That’s bad news for Iowans who are still very much on the front lines of this pandemic.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com