WERC Highlights -- May 2001

Wildfire Risk Strategies: Researchers from the USGS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service will meet with other scientists and policy makers at a workshop to craft a broad strategy, using sound science, for coping with the risk of wildfire. The workshop, organized by The Forest Trust, will be held June 8-10, on St. Simons Island, Ga. (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170)

USGS Scientists to Present Fire Science Research Results at International Workshop: USGS scientists Jan van Wagtendonk (Western Ecological Research Center) and Ralph Root (Rocky Mountain Mapping Center) will present a poster May 17 titled "The use of multi-temporal LANDSAT NDVI data for mapping fuel models in Yosemite National Park" at the 3rd International Workshop on Remote Sensing and GIS Applications to Forest Fire Management, in Paris, France. The purpose of the workshop is to establish personal contacts among researchers interested in the application of remote sensing and GIS technologies to forest fire research. Within this context, this workshop has been organized as a forum of discussion and sharing of ideas and technical experience in the use of remote sensing and GIS in forest fire applications. The goal will be to identify requirements not currently met by remote sensing systems and to explore potential collaborations. Root and van Wagtendonk have been applying remote sensing technologies to fuels mapping at Yosemite National Park for the past decade. Future plans include enhancement of mapping capabilities using imaging spectroscopy, and expanding the scope of studies to several additional national parks representing forest, brushland, and grassland fuels environments. More details on the workshop are available at http://www.geogra.alcala.es/EARSeL/Workshop.htm. (Jan van Wagtendonk, El Portal, CA, 209-379-1885)

Klamath River Basin Symposium Invited Speaker: Mary Ann Madej, research geologist at the USGS Western Ecological Research Center, is an invited speaker at the upcoming Klamath Basin Fish and Water Management Symposium, to be held at Humboldt State University, Arcata, California, May 22-25, 2001. The symposium will address major policy issues in the Klamath River Basin, including re-licensing of Klamath hydroelectric facilities, tribal fish and water rights, and watershed restoration. Madej will be discussing her research on evaluating the effectiveness of watershed restoration techniques. (Mary Ann Madej, Arcata, CA, 707-825-5148)

Desert Ranching and the Desert Tortoise: USGS wildlife biologist Hal Avery of the Western Ecological Research Center was interviewed by The Press-Enterprise (Riverside) about his research on the effects of spring cattle grazing on the desert tortoise, which he initiated in the Mojave National Preserve in 1991. Avery found that short-term food competition can occur between tortoises and cattle in years of low production of annual plants. In addition, selective feeding by cattle may reduce the biomass of some species of native winter annuals in areas continually grazed and cause tortoises to switch from eating these preferred native plants to eating exotic annual grasses that are less nutritious (i.e., have less protein and digestible energy) for the tortoise. Avery also found that cattle may damage large percentages of burrows that tortoises attempt to use as shelter in early spring, but never found a tortoise actually trampled or stuck in a collapsed burrow. (Hal Avery, Las Vegas, NV, 702-914-2206 x235)

White Abalone Spawn News Stories: The successful spawning of white abalone by a team of university, government and private biologists has generated a story by Associated Press that appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, and Orange County Register, a follow-on story in the San Francisco Chronicle, reporting at the University Science website, and news stories that aired on KGO news radio in San Francisco and KEYT radio news program in Santa Barbara. A brief story is expected in a future issue of Smithsonian Magazine. (Gloria Maender, Tucson, AZ, 520-670-5596)