The Forest Homestead Act of 1906 precipitated one of the final rushes for free
land in American history. A nascent land management agency, the USDA Forest
Service, created a systematized process for the review and documentation of purported
forest homestead claims. One hundred years later, the forest-homestead examination
files of...
Gathering empirical data on the factors and processes affecting bedload transport
in the field is difficult. This project conducted during the winter of 1996 field tested a new passive method of positively tracking individual particle movement. The project was conducted in Oak Creek, a gravel bedded stream, located in Corvallis,...
In 2001, an extreme drought tightened water supply in the Upper Klamath Basin (basin) while earlier increases in Endangered Species Act (ESA) water requirements for basin fish species that same year elevated demands. The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), which manages irrigation water in parts of the basin located near the...
Vegetation change is an important factor affecting the global carbon cycle, land-atmosphere interaction, and terrestrial ecology. The study of vegetation change on a global scale can be used to evaluate the impact of global climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. Satellite remote sensing can monitor vegetation change at the global scale,...
Invasion by exotic species can pose a major challenge for developing native
plant communities in wetland restoration projects. Often native plant communities
do not develop as anticipated in restored wetlands due to colonization by exotic
species that dominate the native plant community. Despite the time and expense to
restore wetlands,...
Once considered the largest wetland in Central Asia, the Mesopotamian Marshlands of Southeastern Iraq have nearly disappeared. Various hydrological projects by the Iraqi government and dam construction in the region have nearly destroyed these once rich freshwater wetlands by over 90%. With the launching of Operation Iraqi Freedom recent attempts...
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...
This dissertation uses a new methodological approach for an in-depth analysis of three cartographic works. Studies within the discipline of the history of cartography have followed various methodologies throughout the past century. This dissertation argues that in order to come to a more complete understanding of how maps were produced...
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”...
The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami raised concern among marine park managers and
hazard mitigation professionals about the significant impact of major coastal hazards
on marine park natural resources and ecosystems. The main reason for this concern is
the strong linkage of marine parks and their rich assortment of ecosystem services...