Agroforestry is a traditional farming practice in American Samoa that has helped to sustain the livelihood of the native population for centuries. These once self-sufficient islands have become economically dependent on U.S monies and other external resources during the past century. Dependency has caused a shift in the carrying capacity...
Innovation is considered the ultimate drive for business success. Fast growing furniture imports from China have become a controversial topic within U.S. wood and furniture industries. Low-cost production, which is stereotypically considered as the major competitive advantage of the Chinese-made products, has received considerable attention by a large body of...
The objectives and characteristics of university biotechnology research, including its applicability to such industries as agriculture and food processing, arise from formal and informal linkages among university scientists, public and private-nonprofit funding sources, and industry. In the present study I develop, specify, and estimate a model of the supply and...
Since the 1890s, American federalism has been perceived as being unique in the world by having two different levels of government operating within the same jurisdiction without influencing one another. Modern scholars call into question the validity of this basic assumption, but few have published quantitative evidence to reject its...
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LIST OF FIGURES (Continued)
Figure Page
6.11 Log no. of permits distribution by program
With 97% of the world’s freshwater resources stored underground, the connection between groundwater resources to the metrics of space, scale and time common to the geographic study of natural resources has not been extensively investigated by geographers. While nearly 240 transboundary aquifers are mapped across the world, a potential “tragedy”...
Floods are the most frequent and damaging of all types of natural disasters and annually affect the lives of millions all over the globe. However, researchers seem to have overlooked the fact that floods do not recognize national boundaries. Therefore, the phenomena of shared, or transboundary floods occurring in international...
In the United States, many of the thorniest natural resource conflicts occur on private lands. This is especially true in the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon where the hallmark habitat type, Oregon white oak woodland and savanna, is imperiled. Almost exclusively found on private land, Oregon white oak is threatened...
......................................................................................................................136 Results and discussion
The human-nature relationship
Latinos are less likely to be civically involved in their community than any other minority group, despite the fact that they are the biggest minority in the United States. A great concern exists over ways to effectively promote and improve this group’s participation in their community’s decision-making process [or civic...
This research examines two questions: 1) What stories do Christian teacher educators tell about their own White racial identity development? and 2) Is there an impact of studying White racial identity development on the praxis of Christian teacher educators? If so, in what ways? The researcher began the project with...
Despite their widespread use and presence at all levels of government, public commissions and boards are rarely given much attention, by the general public, academia, or surprisingly by public policy and agency experts. As a state infrastructure governing entity transportation commissions often deal with controversy, but do we really understand...
Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are an important aspect of the forest that has often been overlooked. NTFPs have been especially important to Native American people because of their subsistence, cultural, and economic values. As a result of their economic value, there have been an increased number of people harvesting NTFPs...
Changes in federal forest management, enactment of environmental policies, recessions and a shift to a global economy dramatically impacted counties between the 1980s and 1990s. In the 1990s, counties began experiencing a shift away from traditional natural resource extraction activities – amidst changing demographics resulting from rural restructuring taking place...
The purpose of this research study was to describe and improve understanding of the meaning of institutionalized sustainability and the role that a college president plays in institutionalizing sustainability on a community college campus. The following questions guided the research: (a) What does it mean to have sustainability “institutionalized” at...
This study explores the role of classroom use of live organisms as a pathway for the spread of invasive species. The overall guiding research question is “Are behavioral changes necessary to reduce the spread from the classroom pathway?” Using focus groups comprised of key educators, this study seeks to identify...
Despite a great deal of attention paid to state renewable energy potential, there has been relatively little research on specific energy policies and their effect on the generation of renewable energy. This study seeks greater understanding of the state energy policies and how they individually affect the generation of wind,...
This study explores Oregonians’ attitudes about and perceptions of public education. Specifically, perceptions about education quality were analyzed, looking at the perceived quality of education today and how it has changed over the last 5 years. Questions posed to respondents about education funding, explored views on additional state funding needed...
The federal government owns 60 percent of Oregon’s forests and, since 1908, has shared proceeds from federal forest timber harvests with counties. These revenues
have provided a relatively stable source of funds for the provision of services by county governments in Oregon. Shared revenues from US Forest Service (USFS)
lands...
By 2050 the world population is expected to reach 9 billion. Fears of the impact of such a large population on earth’s environmental systems and finite resources have lead efforts by governmental and non-governmental agencies to assist developing nations in reducing fertility rates to slow population growth by direct medical...
In the Middle Rio Grande region of New Mexico, challenges such as droughts, growing urban demand for water, and newly listed endangered species have forced people to change the way that they manage water. New challenges in water governance have created cooperation among agencies that often have conflicting interests, goals,...
Community driven development (CDD) is one of the recent approaches in the development arena that integrates people into mainstream development. Bringing people together into the development prospects through social capital is an important aspect of this approach that harnesses greater social inclusion and wider participation at the grass root level....
The spread of invasive species into the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States poses a serious threat to the valuable forest resources of the region. Many insects and diseases that are a threat to these forest resources can be transported inside firewood. When campers transport their firewood across borders...
Literature on the evolution of the American higher education system includes a historical and consistent debate over the definition of the higher education mission in the country. Recent debate focuses on mission differentiation between the university and the community college. Acknowledging systemic changes in higher education historically occurred within regions...
Adaptive collaborative (co-) management has received increased recognition as a novel approach to environmental governance that combines the dynamic learning features of adaptive management with the linking and network features of collaborative management. This approach is concerned with fostering sustainable livelihoods and ecological sustainability in the face of uncertainty and...
The purpose of this study is to critically explore low-income women's experience as they negotiate post secondary education in community colleges. Three research questions explore the context through which low-income women have entered the college experience, what that experience is like for them, and how the community college experience has...
Intact sagebrush communities in the Great Basin are rapidly disappearing due
to invasion of non-native plants, large wildfires, and encroachment of pinyon pine
and juniper woodlands. Land management options include the use of prescribed
fire, grazing, herbicides and mechanical treatments to reduce the potential for
wildfire and restore plant communities....
This study addresses the question: "What are the incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention and mitigation in the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), and how do they factor into Reclamation's management of water in the western United States?" Incentives and disincentives for conflict prevention (i.e., actions taken to avoid conflict) and...
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Figure 9. Internal components of the action situation
Policies in Europe over the last half a century have steadily dismantled the inequality-easing processes of the welfare state. Current conditions coupled with concerns related to the recent economic downturn have heightened focus on the issue of income distribution. Education has been identified as a resource to combat such ills....
River basins provide essential services for both humans and ecosystems. Understanding the connections between ecosystems and society and their function has been at the heart of resilience studies and has become an increasing important endeavor in research and practice. In this dissertation, I define basin resilience as a river basin...
This research uses the Institutional Development Analysis (IDA) framework to examine the relationships between the individual levels of enforcement and the commercial trawl fishermen in Newport, Oregon, to determine if there is a difference in relationships and whether those differences impact compliance. While a difference in the relationships between the...
Seashore paspalum (Paspalum vaginatum Sw.) is an important warm-season perennial turfgrass, known for its tolerance to salinity. Turfgrass is used for homes, municipalities, sod farms, resorts, and sports fields. Seashore paspalum has historically been planted in sub-tropical and tropical climates because of its heat tolerance. Seashore paspalum could become an...
Housing is the single most important environmental factor associated with high rates of mortality and morbidity (United Nations, 2007). Most Americans spend about 90% of their time indoors, and an estimated two-thirds of that is spent in the home (Klepeis et al., 2001). Studies show a link between substandard housing...
The absence of federal climate legislation in the United States has led to a growth of sub-federal and non-governmental programs to combat greenhouse gas emissions. One such program, the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) seeks to mitigate greenhouse emissions from higher education through the voluntary commitment of...
Michigan’s State Department of Education issued a resolution in 2003 calling for all public K-12 schools to repeal their American Indian mascots and in 2013 the Michigan Department of Civil Rights filed a complaint with the United States Department of Education in response to school districts failing to do so....
Central Oregon's landscape is rich in dry forests prone to frequent wildfires. Climate change studies and improved modeling indicate this region could experience conditions that result in an increase in number and severity of wildfires. With the potential for increased environmental hazards, the nearby communities face potential risks and vulnerabilities...
The VISualization of Terrestrial and Aquatic Systems (VISTAS) software development project began with the proposition that visualization would increase the ability of scientists to explore and communicate their data, especially complex datasets that span multiple spatial and temporal scales. A case study of VISTAS articulates how and why scientists intend...
Several distinctive environmental movements of the past century have had major influence on public policies in the United States. More generally, social movements that push environmental issues into the limelight have the potential for significantly altering public perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs, thus driving big policy changes. This thesis examines the...
Tax evasion is one of many problematic issues associated with tax systems that negatively affect
state’s ability to provide public goods and services. This study seeks to examine the impact of
tax composition on tax evasion using information about 150 countries from 1999 to 2007. The
paper adopts neoclassical theoretical...
Wind energy has widespread public support; nevertheless, the emergence of local support or
opposition in response to siting proposals is often unpredictable. Uncertainty surrounding a
community’s response is problematic for both the company planning the project and for states
pursuing policies for expanded development and use of renewable energy. Given...
Climate change policies present multiple quandaries to the field of public policy and science studies. Despite the prevalent scientific consensus, approaches demonstrate great heterogeneity. With one side advocating for the facticity of climate change and a pro-active stance, while the other argues about negative economic trade-offs, viewpoints diverge. Between controversy...
Deforestation and loss of soil fertility are two forms of environmental degradation with global importance. Theories of environmental degradation commonly cited in public and academic discourse have historically emphasized the role of human populations and national economic development as being the primary drivers of environmental damage. This thesis utilizes quantitative...
A history of fire suppression, growth in the wildland-urban interface, and changing climate conditions, have created a fire regime in central Oregon that is growing in severity and intensity, putting more people and structures at risk and requiring a greater percentage of state and federal agency budgets to manage fires....
Cities of the world today house more than half the world’s population, contribute to 80 percent of the global GDP, consume approximately 70 percent of the global energy and produce 70 percent of the greenhouse gases produced worldwide (Floater et al., 2014; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2014). City governments...
Despite widespread public support for renewable energy development, the siting of wind energy facilities can prove problematic due to opposition from surrounding communities. I propose a unifying framework to explain community response to wind energy development – showing how concepts from environmental sociology related to local biophysical and socioeconomic conditions...
The state of Oregon is divided in important ways along rural and urban lines, including the way people make a living, individual and group relationships with the natural world, political ideologies, and personal values. This rural-urban divide has assisted policymakers in making decisions that balance the needs of Oregonians on...
This study examines the determinants of food consumption behaviors, such as purchasing less meat products, paying attention to how and where food is produced, and reducing food waste within the household. Food consumption is particularly important given that it can often comprise between 10% to 30% of the total household...
Climate change increases weather unpredictability, threatens communities whose livelihoods depend on natural resources, such as rural communities. Utilizing a Community Capital Framework (Flora and Flora, 2013) and Governance of Complex Adaptive Systems (Duit and Galaz, 2008), this study concentrated on the role of cultural and political capital in supporting rural...
Although dam construction has been an integral tool in development initiatives for nearly a century, dams can have significant negative impacts on local residents, particularly those who are permanently displaced from their homes and must be resettled elsewhere. Dams have unique impacts on indigenous peoples. As a result, many dam...
This research examined public perceptions of risk, behavioral intentions in the event of the M9 Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake and tsunami on the Oregon Coast, and factors that may influence both attitudes and intentions. A household survey was conducted to understand public opinion in Seaside, Oregon, which is located...
In this work, I address foundational concerns at the interface of institutions, governance structure, transaction costs, and efficiency in public-private contracting. Following transaction cost economic perspective, I build and justify the theoretical models explaining that institutions may affect the economic performance of public-private contracting through the effect of transaction costs....
Environmental scientists, land managers, and policy actors are increasingly presented with high-stakes high-uncertainty problems stemming from human-ecosystem interactions. To help address these problems, scientists frequently use models that produce enormous geospatial and temporal datasets that are constantly modified and often seek input from communities outside their discipline. To assist scientists—as...
Public policy narratives and stories are often referenced by the media, politicians, advocacy groups, and across many disciplines in academia. Studies of social and political narratives support the notion narrative matters, but often lack systematic design capable of producing generalizable findings. The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) has responded to this...
More than half of students in Washington state community colleges enroll in developmental mathematics, but a relatively small percentage of these students persist to the second year. Many students place into these courses and never enroll; others enroll at some point after the first academic term, even when faced with...
The last decade has seen a drastic interest in microgrids throughout the world. Even though this trend might seem to be just another technological solution in the energy sector, it is a part of a greater transition from a centralized energy system to a more decentralized one. However, unlike most...
Food, water, and energy have strong interdependencies; actions in one sector inadvertently affect actions in another sector. Recent literature supports a “nexus” approach, whereby policies related to food, water, and energy are integrated and used in tandem rather than in isolation. Developing a better understanding of the trade-offs between food,...
The interdependences among water, energy and food, are diverse and multidimensional and are referred to as the food-water-energy (FWE) nexus. This nexus approach seeks to understand the complex interactions among these sectors, in order to identify synergies and trade-offs that could serve as the basis for developing effective planning and...
There are currently 43 countries which have adopted some kind of carbon pricing policy – either adopted a carbon tax or entered a cap–and–trade, while the remaining countries have not. This has created significant diversity in the world with regard to climate change mitigation. There is thus a need to...
Under the Paris Agreement, parties submitted documents outlining their commitments to climate change mitigation and adaptation, called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), which are set to be updated to increase ambition by 2020. Costa Rica and México are known for their significant national actions on climate change, so comparing these two...
Increasing calls from stakeholders for a greater role in public decision making has led to the rapid world-wide adoption of multi stakeholder collaboration for policymaking. In line with this emerging trend the Government of Nepal with support from its long-time development partners and bi-lateral donors initiated a policy level experiment...
Transportation contributes approximately 41 percent of California’s greenhouse gas emissions and 27 percent of national greenhouse gas emissions (CARB, 2019, EPA, 2017). In response to climate change concerns, stakeholders have encouraged the use of electric and hybrid vehicles through tax credits, rebates, and education campaigns. Environmental and transportation justice groups...
Diversity and inclusion represent central challenges and opportunities in the transnational field of higher education, as the number of students enrolled in higher education has expanded exponentially over the past century and universal access to tertiary education has emerged as a development imperative. Within this context, diversity has emerged as...
Background: Calls by presidents and legislators to raise the U.S. college graduation rate to 60% by 2025 have required educational institutions to find ways to increase accessibility and quality while simultaneously reducing costs (Bautsch, 2018; Smith, 2017). Private foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are getting involved...
This MPP essay examines how states expand access to nutritious food for low-income families, focusing specifically on policies related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and farmers’ markets. Coalitions made up of nonprofits focused on hunger, farmers, and health collaborate to impact relevant policies in their respective states. The...
Little is known about non-industrial private forestland (NIPF) owners in relation to Oregon’s two primary preferential forest property tax programs: Forestland Program – the default tax program for many forestland owners, and Small Tract Forestland Option (STF) – a voluntary program wherein landowners pay reduced annual property taxes and an...
Improving access to and uptake of antenatal care remains a persistent challenge for India. It is a far greater challenge for an underdeveloped, poorer and mostly rural state like Bihar. The 2015-16 National Family Health Survey (NFHS-IV) of India reported that only 3% pregnant women in rural Bihar utilized full...
Because the environmental threats are becoming global in scope, international cooperation and global governance issues are in the spotlight. The most controversial environmental law and policy problems arise in the areas where no individual state has sole responsibility for governing, "global commons." Scholars believe that the best way to deal...
The Rohingya community have faced continuous violence, discrimination and statelessness in the Rakhine State of Myanmar. In 2017, a violent crackdown by Myanmar’s army on Rohingya Muslims sent almost a million fleeing across the border of Bangladesh. They found their temporary home in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh...
Wastewater treatment plants around the world are becoming increasingly at risk of sea level rise impacts as these facilities are typically located in low-lying areas to utilize gravity flow for influent (incoming sewage) and effluent (discharged treated sewage). As these risks become realized, treatment plant managers and decision-makers must know...
The use of FDA-approved medications for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) is a critical tool in reducing the impacts of the opioid crisis. Despite the known benefits of these medications, access to these treatments is lacking more than two decades into the opioid crisis. While most policy changes...
California and Steller sea lions (Zalophus californianus, Eumetopias jubatus, respectively) are considered sentinel species because they have long life spans, are long-term coastal residents, feed at high trophic levels, and have large blubber stores that serve as depots for anthropogenic toxicants. There are few studies on sea lion health and...
Children enter kindergarten on unequal footing. Early childhood experiences shape initial disparities and predict academic achievement and life trajectories. One influence, child care, is not available to all children in Oregon as most counties qualify as child care deserts. This paper analyzes if child care access has an effect on...
Children enter kindergarten on unequal footing. Early childhood experiences shape initial disparities and predict academic achievement and life trajectories. One influence, child care, is not available to all children in Oregon as most counties qualify as child care deserts. This paper analyzes if child care access has an effect on...
Nuclear fuel management is an optimization problem on many levels. Finding “viable” solutions for the core reload design problem is difficult without expert knowledge and software automation. Small modular reactors with a shared used fuel pool demonstrate a novel opportunity for fuel cycle optimization.
A Python package was developed and...
The shortage of physicians serving rural communities is well documented. To address the rural shortage, medical schools have developed extracurricular programs, called rural health tracks, with an intent to foster medical students’ interest in serving rural communities. While there has been some research about the effects of these tracks, almost...
After the 1996 national welfare reform known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was enacted with more stringent eligibility and work requirements for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program, a plethora of analyses have followed assessing the...
Background:
The number of people diagnosed with chronic physical conditions is increasing in the United States. Chronic mental illnesses are also common in the country. Low-income women and those on Medicaid bear a disproportionate burden of chronic conditions and these conditions significantly contribute to obstetric morbidity. Prioritizing preventive measures and...
Water in the U.S. West faces considerable challenges and uncertainties. Climate change has intensified weather extremes, threatening the water sources that support the region’s many stakeholders. Urban water providers are among the stakeholders contending with the challenge of providing reliable water supplies to their growing populations. Recognizing the critical role...
This research explores the prospects of legislation in Michigan to authorize statewide use of Overdose Fatality Review Teams (OFRTs) to address the escalating opioid crisis. OFRTs consist of multidisciplinary teams that collaborate for overdose prevention. These teams operate on a local to statewide level and are comprised of individuals from...