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A Sky Island Fire Ecology Primer, with a Focus on Chiricahua National Monument: A Reference Document for the National Park Service
Get PDFFire is a keystone ecological process in the vegetation of the Sky Islands of Arizona and beyond, affecting every aspect of these ecosystems, including soils, forest structure, species composition, carbon storage, wildlife populations, and much more. For thousands of years, wildfires have been, not a disruptive external force, but an intrinsic part of these natural communities, as integral as water, sunlight, soil, and air. Times have changed. Human-induced fire suppression and climate change have dramatically altered fire regimes across the region, and the fires of the 21st century are a serious problem. Not only are uncharacteristically large and intense fires disrupting ecosystems that historically experienced more frequent, low-intensity wildfire, they are also threatening human communities in the rapidly-growing wildland-urban interface. A key recommendation of the 2007 Statewide Strategy for Restoring Arizona’s Forests was that “The Arizona State Legislature, county and local governments, tribal governments, and state agencies should develop land use policies and practices that support forest restoration, community protection, and fire management efforts.” (Recommendation 2.2, p.9).
The goal of this essay is to discuss the landscape role of fire in the Sky Islands of southern Arizona, and in particular Chiricahua National Monument. We will describe fire and vegetation conditions before Euro-American settlement, changes in fire regime and ecosystems wrought over the past 150 years, the accompanying shifts in plant communities, and projections for the future. We will marshal our recent field research, tying our results to specific places in the park, but we will also summarize general principles developed from many decades of ecological research across the Southwest. Our mission is to provide essential fire ecology background for park staff, who enlighten park visitors about the ecologically-rich and regionally-important environments of Chiricahua National Monument (CHIR)
Can trophic rewilding reduce the impact of fire in a more flammable world?
No full textLarge vertebrates affect fire regimes in several ways: by consuming plant matter that would otherwise accumulate as fuel; by controlling and varying the density of vegetation; and by engineering the soil and litter layer. These processes can regulate the frequency, intensity and extent of fire. The evidence for these effects is strongest in environments with intermediate rainfall, warm temperatures and graminoid-dominated ground vegetation. Probably, extinction of Quaternary megafauna triggered increased biomass burning in many such environments. Recent and continuing declines of large vertebrates are likely to be significant contributors to changes in fire regimes and vegetation that are currently being experienced in many parts of the world. To date, rewilding projects that aim to restore large herbivores have paid little attention to the value of large animals in moderating fire regimes. Rewilding potentially offers a powerful tool for managing the risks of wildfire and its impacts on natural and human values.
This article is part of the theme issue ‘Trophic rewilding: consequences for ecosystems under global change’
College Success: Persistence and Retention of Upward Bound Low-Income First-Generation Students During Their First Semester
No full textThere is growing interest in the TRIO Upward Bound community regarding persistence and retention for alumni who are enrolled in post-secondary institutions. There is limited research explaining actions, attributes, behaviors and strategies of low-income and first-generation students and their persistence and success during their first semester of college. Qualitative data was gathered for this study. Upward Bound alumni from the University of Maine at Presque Isle completed a survey and one-on-one interviews were conducted. The purpose of this study was to examine factors that cause Upward Bound students who are classified as low-income and first-generation not to matriculate beyond the first semester of college. Once students are at the college level, it is difficult to predict their smoothness of their transition and academic success. My research explored how Upward Bound students face retention issues, especially during their first semester of college. This study was able to recognize which factors are included in the college success of low-income and first-generation students
Fengshui forests and village landscapes in China: Geographic extent, socioecological significance, and conservation prospects
No full textFengshui forests, also known as fengshui woods or fengshui woodlands, are culturally preserved remnant groves of natural forest or small plantations that are common in southern China. Similar forests known by other names are prevalent in many parts of East Asia, including Korea and Japan, where they have long helped sustain rural livelihoods and ecosystems. However, as is the case with research on the origins of fengshui philosophy, research on the origin, diffusion, present-day distribution, and conservation status of fengshui forests remains relatively sparse. Much of the research into fengshui forests has been published in Chinese, and is not accessible to a global scientific audience because the manuscripts are not easily discoverable or because of language barriers. This paper provides a quantitative review of 57 original papers on fengshui woods written in Chinese since the 1990s. Content analysis of Chinese-language papers on fengshui forests demonstrates a geographic bias towards case studies from southern China, and a predominance of methodologies representing vegetation surveys conducted by forestry specialists. Published field results and previously published research on fengshui forests report very high floristic diversity. Our own field research in 57 villages in five provinces shows that these locally protected woodlands are components of common property regimes (CPRs) that have been better preserved than the other forests in southern China and usually represent the only forest remnants adjacent to villages and other settle- ments. However, fengshui forests face threats from industrial pollution, urbanization, and other forms of eco- nomic development. We briefly report on our own preliminary field results and suggest that more research is required to develop interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives on the historical and cultural factors that support the persistence of fengshui forests across China and East Asia as a whole, and to integrate these wood- lands within sustainable rural development strategies. These remnants of southern China’s subtropical broadleaf evergreen forests are especially important in light of current efforts by the national government to promote urban forestry, ecosystem conservation, cultural heritage protection, and ecotourism, and to increase the ca- pacity of natural carbon sinks within the country’s borders
Standards Based Education: Effective Professional Development
No full textThis study explores the perceived value of ongoing professional development for Standards Based Assessment and Response to Intervention (RTI). In this study, professional development opportunities that support Standards Based Learning and RTI will be explored using a mixed method study, specifically asking the question: Does effective planning of professional development opportunities have a positive effect on student achievement on standards based assessment and instruction? Furthermore, how can Professional Development opportunities improve teachers effectiveness in implementing RTI in a Standards Based curriculum
McCarthyism in the Suburbs : Quakers, Communists, and the Children\u27s Librarian
No full textIn 1953, Mary Knowles was fired as a branch librarian for the Morrill Memorial Library, a public library in Norwood, Massachusetts. She had been called before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and, when asked if she’d ever been a member of the Communist Party, she declined to answer, relying on her Fifth Amendment rights. She was fired less than three weeks later. Knowles thought she was unlikely to find a position as a librarian again and left the area. She found a job at a small library outside Philadelphia, where anticommunists who learned of her past tried to create public support for a Loyalty Oath, resulting in the loss of public funding for the library. The resulting controversy eventually brought national attention to the local Quakers who had hired Knowles, the FBI was asked to investigate, Knowles was convicted of contempt of Congress, and the Quakers were subpoenaed and testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Knowles, however, was never fired from this position, retiring from the library in 1979.This book illustrates the impact of McCarthyism on small towns and “ordinary” people and local officials, some of whom abided by the standards of the era. There were others however, who challenged the status quo. Their actions provide readers with models of behavior often at odds with what has been thought of as the 1950s. People who spoke up risked families and jobs. At the same time, anticommunists also tapped into citizens’ fears of the cold war, not just of Communists but of a broad swath of people who promoted social justice and equality. The resulting interactions as described in this book offer important lessons on how fear and bravery operate local communities against the backdrop of (and involvement with) national events.https://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/publications/1030/thumbnail.jp
U–Pb zircon geochronology of Proterozoic and Paleozoic rocks, North Islesboro, coastal Maine (USA): links to West Africa and Penobscottian orogenesis in southeastern Ganderia?
No full textWithin the Ganderian inlier of Penobscot Bay, coastal Maine, the Islesboro fault block occupies a central position between the St. Croix terrane of continental affinity and, to the east, the Ellsworth terrane of oceanic affinity. New field, petrographic, geochemical, and U–Pb LA-ICP-MS geochronological data on detrital and magmatic zircon grains constrain the provenance and transfer history of these terranes from Gondwana to the Appalachian margin of Laurentia. On North Islesboro, the Coombs Limestone and Hutchins Island Quartzite (new name), intruded by E-MORB amphibolite, constitute a newly recognized local inlier of Proterozoic basement. Together with the nearby Seven Hundred Acre Island Formation, these mature, carbonate-rich strata record deposition on a low-latitude passive margin. Abundant detrital zircon grains in the Hutchins Island Quartzite, all older than ca. 1.8 Ga, have a predominant population at ca. 2.0 Ga and a small peak between ca. 2.8 Ga and 2.4 Ga, an age spectrum strikingly similar to those of both the Paleoproterozoic Taghdout Quartzite in Morocco, on the West African craton, and basement rocks from Georges Bank, offshore Massachusetts. The overlying Neoproterozoic–Cambrian Islesboro Formation records a second period of extension (interstratified EMORB greenstone) synchronous with accumulation of interbedded siliciclastic and carbonate sediment, prior to recumbent folding. At the base of the moderately deformed Turtle Head Cove (new name) cover sequence, immature greywacke has a youngest zircon population of ca. 515 Ma, large late Neoproterozoic populations (ca. 624 Ma and 678 Ma), a small peak at 1.2 Ga, a moderate number of ca. 1.5 Ga to 2.0 Ga grains, and a few Late Archean grains. Compared with many similar Ganderian age spectra reported from Vermont to New Brunswick, which are all consistent with a source in either the Amazonian or West African cratons, this new age spectrum most closely resembles those from quartzites in the Grand Manaan and Brookville terranes of coastal New Brunswick. Significantly, exotic blocks lithologically indistinguishable from Proterozoic strata on Islesboro occur in the St. Croix terrane within a Lower Ordovician black shale mélange at the base of the Penobscot Formation, suggesting that the St. Croix terrane, Islesboro block, and Ellsworth terrane were initially juxtaposed by Penobscottian thrusting prior to the Middle Ordovician. Subsequently, the Islesboro block was isolated between the bounding post-Silurian, pre-Late Devonian Turtle Head and Penobscot Bay dextral strike-slip faults. Along the North Islesboro fault, a fault-bounded lens of foliated pyritic felsic volcanic and volcaniclastic rock, dated at ca. 372 Ma and containing Devonian to Archean detrital zircons, records late Paleozoic deformation recognized previously in coastal New Brunswick but not in Penobscot Bay
Social Interaction and Interactive Technology in the Preschool Classroom
Get PDFIncreased use of technology in early childhood classrooms comes with new concerns about how technology may impact the development of social skills in young children. This mixed methods study examines how the use of a multi-touch table influences social skills and interactions of preschoolers in a head start setting. Eight children ages three to five were video recorded while using a multi-touch table during free choice time in groups of three for ten minute increments. Tracking sheets were used to track how often social interactions occurred for each child. Results indicated students played cooperatively 12% of their time and parallel to each other 3% of the time. The qualitative data indicated verbal interactions among peers included asking for help, encouragement, and sharing their likes and dislikes. Findings from the study highlight the importance and value of social interaction during group technology usage in the classroom and its implications for social development
The Rules of Screenwriting and Why You Should Break Them
No full texthttps://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/publications/1044/thumbnail.jp
The Effects of Teacher Gender on Children’s Behavior
No full textThe researcher examined if the gender of high school student-teachers influence child behavior in the preschool classroom. The lack of male educators in the early childhood field has limited the currently available research on how the teacher’s gender affects children’s behavior and learning (Sumsion, 2005). Parents of seven boys and four girls between the ages of three and five years gave consent for their child to participate in the study. One male and five female high school students enrolled in an early childhood occupations class agreed to participate in the study. The researcher used video observations of the children interacting with high school student-teachers during planned and unplanned activities. The study analyzed children’s behavior as they interacted with male and female student-teachers. Children’s behavior differed when they participated in activities offered by male and some female high school student-teachers