Most reserves fail to capture the habitat heterogeneity necessary to maintain viable populations of wide-ranging species. Methods to determine defensible dimensions of reserves and reserve networks are needed. The primary goal of this study was to develop such methods for lowland tropical forests by examining habitat- and spatial-use patterns of...
Forest carnivores such as the fisher have frequently been the target of conservation concern due to their association with older forests and assumed sensitivity to landscape-level habitat alteration. Although the fisher has been extirpated from most of its former range in the western U.S., it is still found throughout much...
Relatively little is known about wintering bird communities in lowlands of the Pacific Northwest, yet, the condition of winter habitats potentially can pose a major constraint on bird populations. I initiated a study to determine: (1) Which avian species use lowland riparian and wetland habitats in the Willamette Valley during...
I classified the environment of the Klamath Mountains region into physical habitat types using climate and soil variables and a geographic information system (GIS). I used principal components analysis to find four variables representing most regional climate variation: average annual precipitation, the difference between December and July precipitation, average annual...
Viability analysis of well-selected focal species can complement other types of conservation planning by revealing thresholds in habitat area and landscape connectivity that may not be evident from ecosystem-level evaluations. I used focal species analysis of five carnivores to suggest conservation planning guidelines for the Rocky Mountains and adjacent areas...
The management of fire-prone forests is one of the most controversial natural resource issues in the US today,
particularly in the west of the country. Although vegetation and wildlife in these forests are adapted to fire, the
historical range of fire frequency and severity was huge. When fire regimes are...
Knowledge of regional-scale patterns of plant community structure and controlling factors is largely qualitative and based on numerous local studies. Data from a subsample of 10,000 field plots were used to quantify and map compositional gradients of woody plant communities across Oregon forests. Canonical correspondence analyses explained 9-14% of the...
The main objectives of this study are to identify the nature of threats to protected areas and assess the effectiveness of protected area systems and management in Thailand, and to evaluate the use of conservation biology concepts in protected area management. The results from a survey of the heads of...