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Investigating the Impact of Aerial Firefighting on Rate of Wildfire Spread
No full textAerial retardant drops are widely used in wildfire suppression, yet their effectiveness in slowing fire spread remains difficult to quantify at scale. This study evaluates the impact of aerial suppression on wildfire rate of spread (ROS) using a modeling framework that incorporates both observed (real) and counterfactual (synthetic) drop locations from a sample of 62 wildfires in Oregon. Synthetic drops were generated to simulate a no-suppression baseline, allowing us to compare changes in ROS in the presence and absence of suppression. We trained two random forest classifiers: one using both real and synthetic drops (the full model), and another using only synthetic drops to model baseline fire behavior. Both models used a range of environmental and topographic features to predict whether fire spread slowed following a drop. While the full model performed well in predicting ROS outcomes, the indicator distinguishing real from synthetic drops had low feature importance, suggesting limited causal evidence that aerial suppression efforts consistently reduced fire spread. The synthetic-only model produced similarly high predictive performance, reinforcing the possibility that many observed reductions in ROS may have occurred independent of suppression. These findings highlight the challenges of evaluating suppression effectiveness at scale and emphasize the need for improved data resolution, more detailed operational records, and advanced modeling techniques to fully understand the role of aerial fire retardant drops in future wildfire management activities
RG94-142: Theta Rho Spring Formal Dance Card
No full textDance card for the Theta Rho of Delta Delta Delta spring formal. The card has a wooden cover and blue leather strap. The cover has a darker stained shield and engraved triangles. There are 7 pages in the dance card. The first page is blank. The second page reads Theta Rho of Delta Delta Delta Spring Formal Saturday Evening April thirteenth Nineteen Hundred Thirty-Five Elks Temple. The third page reads, Initiates - Albee, Katherine; Brennan, Patricia; Carlson, Bess; Daniels, Roberta; Deal, Babbie; Ford, Sadie; Fritz, Jean; Henderson, Mary; Kerruish, Mona; Larson, Elinor; Love, Jeanette; Lynch, Margaret; McCullough, Mary Alice; Pinkerton, Katherine; Romunstad, Jean; Ross, Peggy; Sandbo, Shirley; Smith, Glenna; Stele, Helen; Stout, Rose Mary. The next two pages have slots for 14 dances. Page 6 reads, Chaperons and Guests- Mrs. T. Dayton Davies (District Advisor Tridel); Dr. and Mrs. C.F. Deiss; Mrs. William Wayne Wayne; Miss Catherine White; Capt and MRs. George Finlay Simmons . The final page reads, Bronchon-Chicagohttps://scholarworks.umt.edu/universityofmontana_artifacts/1144/thumbnail.jp
Assessing Intra-Seasonal Changes in Summer Elk Diet Composition
No full textElk (Cervus canadensis) require adequate forage to fulfill their seasonal nutritional requirements. Elk undergo their highest nutritional demands during summer to support critical life functions such as late gestation, lactation, and juvenile growth. However, variations in plant phenology significantly influence the quality and quantity of forage available to elk during the summer season. As summer advances and plant communities mature, forage quality often declines, leading to a landscape that imposes greater nutritional constraints on elk. As a result, prior research on elk foraging habits has primarily focused on late summer. This has led to limited knowledge surrounding the intra-seasonal dynamics of elk diet composition across the entire summer season. Exacerbating this, growing evidence suggests that both early and late summer forage often fail to meet the nutritional demands of lactating and reproducing female elk.
To address this knowledge gap, we examined how forage phenology and availability influenced changes in elk diet composition between early and late summer. We utilized data from two elk populations in western Montana that resided in landscapes shaped by differing disturbance regimes (timber harvest, wildfire) and climates. Using DNA metabarcoding of fecal samples, we assessed intra-seasonal changes in diet composition from early to late summer via Principal Component Analyses (PCA).
Our PCA revealed a significant intra-seasonal shift in elk diets within the Noxon study area, whereas diets in the Blackfoot study area remained stable throughout the entire summer season. We determined that phenological changes in forage quality influenced elk diet composition in both study areas and drove the intra-seasonal shift observed in the Noxon study area. Conversely, the dietary stability observed in the Blackfoot study area resulted from the sustained presence of high quality forage throughout summer, combined with high overall biomass of an early successional forage species following a recent fire. Collectively, our findings contribute to the understanding of elk forage utilization in western Montana ecosystems and provide insights to inform habitat management approaches that explicitly consider elk diets across the entire summer season
Shellie Nelson Interview, April 30, 2025
No full textShellie Nelson discusses her work as the editor of the O’Connor Center’s newsletter Headwaters News (later renamed Mountain West News) from 2003 to 2016. She explains how her upbringing on a cattle ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska sparked her interests in water law and journalism. After earning her paralegal degree, Nelson moved to Missoula and enrolled at the University of Montana’s School of Journalism. Nelson then explains how she worked under Greg Lakes as the assistant editor before becoming the head editor herself in 2003. Nelson describes her responsibilities in publishing the newsletter and how the publication influenced people’s thinking about the West. She also discusses how transformations in online journalism, specifically paywalls, made news aggregator websites such as Headwaters News (Mountain West News) increasingly more challenging to operate.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/oconnorcenter_interviews/1007/thumbnail.jp
Master of Social Work Portfolio
No full textIdentifying all learned ten competencies of social work incorporated into educational settings. Utilizing theoretical practices and an integrated, justified intervention for mental health success.https://scholarworks.umt.edu/grad_portfolios/1493/thumbnail.jp