Areas Of Montana Research Articles

Complementary and Alternative Medicine Providers in Rural Locations

The purpose of this study was to determine the availability of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) resources to individuals in twenty rural communities in two western states and to ascertain the contribution of one type of CAM provider, naturopathic physicians, to rural health care. Resource data were collected through internet phone directories searches and an on-line survey of Montana naturopaths. Seventy-three CAM providers were identified in the target communities. The naturopathic physician’s practices were located in urbanized areas of Montana, some with outreach clinics. Most naturopaths made regular referrals to conventional medical practitioners; however few received referrals. Comparison of use patterns of CAM by older residents of these communities to the presence of providers in the communities suggests that local availability is not the critical factor in use of a CAM therapist or self-directed therapy.

Spatial variability of soil hydrophobicity after wildfires in Montana and Colorado

Increases in runoff and erosion after wildfires are often attributed to the development of hydrophobic soils. The potential for increased overland flow depends on the spatial contiguity of the hydrophobicity as well as its overall strength, but there is limited information on the spatial variability of soil hydrophobicity. We conducted spatially intensive hydrophobicity measurements in 225 m 2 and 1 m 2 plots in forested areas of Montana and Colorado burned at moderate to high severity, and in unburned control plots. Both the burned and unburned 225 m 2 plots contained 10–23 hydrophobic soil patches in which hydrophobicity was strongest at the surface and declined rapidly with depth. The hydrophobic patches were closer together and up to 3 times larger in the burned plots. Consequently, 19% to 76% of the burned plots were hydrophobic compared to just 11% of the unburned plots. In five of the six burned plots, the patches were not laterally connected, suggesting that in most cases Hortonian overland flow generated from hydrophobic patches will infiltrate near its point of origin. The 1 m 2 plots were smaller than most of the hydrophobic patches, so they did not capture the spatial characteristics of soil hydrophobicity. Characterization of the spatial variability of soil hydrophobicity should be based on measurements conducted at ∼ 1 m intervals across areas of > 100 m 2. Due to the patchiness of soil hydrophobicity at the 10 0 to 10 1 meter scale, overland flow measurements in small (∼ 1 m 2) plots may overestimate the magnitude and variability of runoff from burned catchments.

Decline of spotted knapweed density at two sites in western Montana with large populations of the introduced root weevil, Cyphocleonus achates (Fahraeus)

Abstract Spotted knapweed is an important weed of rangeland in the northwestern United States and western Canada, and has been the focus of considerable biological control efforts. Cyphocleonus achates, a Eurasian root weevil, has been released as a biocontrol agent against the weed in many areas of Montana and the Pacific Northwest. Spotted knapweed plant density was monitored over a 11-year period (1993–2004) at two sites in western Montana where C. achates was released. Spotted knapweed density declined significantly over time at both sites (99 and 77%, respectively), after C. achates numbers increased dramatically at both sites. The average annual population growth rate of C. achates during 1993–1995 was 14% at the two sites, compared to 10% during 1995–1998. The weevil population radially expanded a distance of 73 m per year at one study site compared to 99 m per year at the other site. The estimated C. achates population increase at the two sites was similar: in 1998, the C. achates population estimate for one site was 90,776 in a 23 ha area of occupation, compared to 97,173 in a 29 ha area at the other site. Evidence suggests that C. achates played a major role in the spotted knapweed population decline. Following the decline of spotted knapweed, two annual exotic weeds, Bromus tectorum and Descurainia sophia, became major components of the new plant community, with B. tectorum becoming the dominant plant. By 2004, B. tectorum comprised 89 and 50% of the replacement vegetation at the two sites.

The potential role of sheep in dryland grain production systems

In dryland farming areas of Montana, annual precipitation is not sufficient for annual planting of cereal grains. Instead, a crop-summer fallow farming system is used to conserve soil moisture and increase available nitrogen for subsequent crop growth. Managing this summer fallow, either by mechanical means or with herbicides, is the highest variable cost associated with dryland grain production in Montana. Wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus (Hymenoptera: Cephidae) is the most damaging insect pest to Montana’s US$ 1 billion per year grain industry. Weed management is the largest variable cost associated with drylandgrain production andsummerfallow management. Sixfields, located onfour commercial Montana grainoperations,were grazedbysheepandgoatsfromOctober2002toMay2003todeterminetheimpactgrazinghasonC.cinctuspopulations,weedand volunteer cereal growth, soil compaction, and gravimetric water concentrations. Percent C. cinctus larval mortality and percent reduction of weed biomass was greater in grazed compared to non-grazed areas (P 0.01). No differences in soil bulk density or gravimetric water concentrations were found between treatments (P > 0.11). Grazing fallow with sheep and goats appears to successfully improve C. cinctus and weed management in grain production systems without impacting soil compaction. # 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cultural Politics or Critical Public History?: Battling on the Little Bighorn

This article uses a series of controversies that unfolded in the Little Bighorn Battlefield area of Montana (USA) to critique the guest/host distinction that pervades tourism research. The battlefield where Custer made his legendary last stand is now a popular but contested American heritage site. This article describes how individuals have used the discursive space opened by the conjuncture of local conditions and the site's growing touristic appeal to accomplish objectives marginal to tourism. Many of those have taken shape within and served local, regional, and national identity politics. All have sought to either challenge or defend the status quo. The issues raised and positions defended during the struggle for control of the battle site and story reveal social rifts and ideological differences among, as well as between, guests and hosts. The events and interactions described complicate those categories and blur the distinction between cultural politics and critical public history. The article concludes by calling for an elaboration of the social relations found within the touristic context driven by indigenous saliences rather than scholarly concepts. Only then can the intersection of touristic and non-touristic processes be brought within the analytical purview.

Simulation of Metals Total Maximum Daily Loads and Remediation in a Mining-Impacted Stream

Simulation of metals transport was performed to help develop metals total maximum daily loads ~TMDLs! and evaluate remediation alternatives in a mountain stream in Montana impacted by hundreds of abandoned hardrock metal mines. These types of watersheds are widespread in Montana and many other areas of the western United States. Impacts from abandoned hardrock or metal mines include loadings of sediment, metals, and other pollutants causing impairment of multiple beneficial uses and exceedances of water quality standards. The United States Environmental Protection Agency ~EPA! Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP)was used to model and evaluate TMDLs for several heavy metals in Tenmile Creek, a mountain stream supplying drinking water to the City of Helena, Mont. The model was calibrated for baseflow conditions and validated using data collected by the EPA and the United States Geological Survey, and used to assess existing metals loadings and losses, including interactions between metals in water and bed sediment, uncertainty, water quality standard exceedances, TMDLs, potential source areas, and required reductions in loadings. During baseflow conditions, adits and point sources contribute significant metals loadings to Tenmile Creek. Exceedances of standards are widespread throughout the stream under both baseflow and higher flow conditions. Adsorption and precipitation onto bed sediments play a primary role in losses from the water column in some areas. Modeling results indicate that some uncertainty exists in the metal partition coefficients associated with sediment, significance of precipitation reactions, and in locations of unidentified sources and losses of metals. TMDLs and loading reductions were calculated based on variations in flow, concentrations, loadings, and standards ~which vary with hardness! along the mainstem. In most cases, considerable reductions in loadings are required to achieve TMDLs and water quality standards. Reductions in loadings from point sources, mine waste near watercourses, and streambed sediment can help improve water quality, but alteration of the water supply scheme and increasing baseflow will also be needed.

LONG-RANGE MOVEMENTS AND BREEDING DISPERSAL OF PRAIRIE FALCONS FROM SOUTHWEST IDAHO

Abstract From 1999–2003, we tracked movements of adult female Prairie Falcons (Falco mexicanus) using satellite telemetry to characterize long-range movement patterns and breeding dispersal. We radio marked 40 falcons from April–May on their nesting grounds in the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in southwest Idaho. All falcons with functioning transmitters left the Snake River Canyon from late June through mid-July. Most headed northeast across the Continental Divide to summering areas in Montana, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Dakotas. Prairie Falcons stayed at their northern summer areas for 1–4 months before heading to the southern Great Plains or to southwest Idaho. The Great Plains was a key migration pathway. Important wintering areas included the Texas Panhandle and southwest Idaho. Most falcons completed their seasonal migrations within 2 weeks. Use of widely separated nesting, summering, and wintering areas appears to be a strategy to exploit seasonally abundant prey resource...

Social Support in Cyberspace

The goal of the Women to Women Project (WTW) is to help chronically ill rural women to adapt to their long-term illnesses by providing support and health information via computers. The specific aims are to (1) assess the impact of the computer-based intervention on psychosocial health (self-efficacy, self-esteem, empowerment, social support, stress, depression, loneliness), computer literacy skills, and health knowledge; and (2) analyze the computer exchanges for insights to explicate the complex process of adapting to chronic illness within the rural context. Participants are 240 rural women with a chronic illness who reside in rural areas of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Preliminary data analysis suggests that the intervention is helping to improve the women's ability to adapt to their chronic illnesses. The WTW intervention model has the potential to effectively connect these women in a program of support and education.

Unconformities and age relationships, Tongue River and older members of the Fort Union Formation (Paleocene), western Williston Basin, U.S.A.

An unconformable relationship is observed within the Paleocene Fort Union Formation in the western Williston Basin at the contact between the Tongue River Member and the underlying Lebo and Ludlow Members. Isotopic dates and pollen biozone data reported here are integrated with previously published data. A new correlation of these facies results in a revised history of localized depositional and tectonic events. One unconformity occurs at this lithological contact in the Pine Hills (PH), Terry Badlands (TB), and Ekalaka (E) areas west of the Cedar Creek anticline (CCA), and another unconformity occurs at the same lithological contact in the Little Missouri River (LMR) area east of the CCA. The two unconformities differ in age by about two million years. The older is the U 2 and the younger is the U 3 , which initially were recognized in the Ekalaka area of southeastern Montana (Belt et al., 2002). The U 2 crops out in the TB, PH, and E areas, where at least 85 m of Tongue River strata bearing palynomorphs characteristic of biozone P-3 are found above the unconformity. Radiometric dates from strata (bearing palynomorphs characteristic of biozone P-2) below the U 2 range in age from 64.0 to 64.73 Ma. The U 2 unconformity west of the CCA thus occurs in strata near the base of the lower P-3 biozone. The U 3 crops out in the LMR area (east of the CCA), where only 13 m of strata characterized by the P-3 pollen biozone occur above it. Radiometric dates from an ash <1 m above the U 3 in that area range in age from 61.03 to 61.23 Ma, and the P-3/P-4 pollen biozone boundary is located 13 m above the ashes. The U 3 thus occurs in strata characterized by upper parts of the P-3 pollen biozone east of the CCA. The U 3 is also identifiable in the middle of the ca. 200 m-thick Tongue River Member west of the CCA, where mammal sites 40 to 80 m above it are Tiffanian-3 in age. The strata below this unconformity are tilted gently to the northwest; strata above the unconformity are flat lying. This mid Tongue River unconformity probably correlates with the unconformity at the base of the Tongue River Member in the LMR area east of the CCA, where a Ti-2 mammal site (the “X-X” locality) occurs <10 m above it. Depositional and tectonic events can be summarized using North American Mammal Age nomenclature as a relative time scale. From latest Cretaceous through Puercan time, paleodrainage was toward the east or southeast, in the direction of the Cannonball Sea. The Black Hills did not serve as an obstruction at that time. During early Torrejonian time, the Miles City arch (MCA) and Black Hills were uplifted and partially eroded, leading to the U 2 unconformity. When deposition resumed, paleodrainages shifted to a northeasterly course. During middle and late Torrejonian time, facies of the lower Tongue River (“Dominy”) sequence and the Ekalaka Member of the Fort Union Formation were

Fall cattle grazing versus mowing to increase big-game forage

The effects of 3 levels of mowing and cattle (Bos taurus) grazing were examined on rough fescue (Festuca scabrella) range on the Blackfoot Clearwater Wildlife Management Area in west-central Montana. Treatments were implemented in enclosures during the fall of 1997 and 1998 at 50%, 70%, and 90% removal of herbaceous standing crop. Elk (Cervus elaphus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) forage measurements were obtained in spring and summer on standing dead vegetation, green grass and forb biomass, total biomass, and percent live vegetation, and compared between mowing and prescribed cattle grazing at the same removal level. At the 50% mowing level, there was increased (P<0.05) availability of grass and biomass in the spring, with increased standing dead and decreased percent live vegetation in the summer. At the 70% mowing level, there was increased standing dead and grass and decreased percent live vegetation available to elk and mule deer in the spring when compared with the same level of grazing (P<0.05). At the 90% mowing level, there was decreased availability of grass and total biomass during spring and summer (P<0.05). Results indicated that at moderate (50%) levels of vegetation removal, fall mowing might be adequate to increase grass and total biomass availability in the spring, but fall grazing by cattle might remove more standing dead material, leaving more nutritious plants available to wildlife in the summer. Fall mowing at 70% removal might provide more grass for wildlife in the spring, but reduces percent live vegetation and leaves more standing dead when compared to fall cattle grazing. This would make it more difficult for wildlife to select preferred forage in the spring, when nutrition is needed for calf and fawn production. Fall cattle grazing might be a better tool to use at the 90% level, since mowing removes more grass and total biomass, leaving reduced vegetation for elk and mule deer.

The Homestead kimberlite, central Montana, USA: mineralogy, xenocrysts, and upper-mantle xenoliths

The Homestead kimberlite was emplaced in lower Cretaceous marine shale and siltstone in the Grassrange area of central Montana. The Grassrange area includes aillikite, alnoite, carbonatite, kimberlite, and monchiquite and is situated within the Archean Wyoming craton. The kimberlite contains 25–30 modal% olivine as xenocrysts and phenocrysts in a matrix of phlogopite, monticellite, diopside, serpentine, chlorite, hydrous Ca–Al–Na silicates, perovskite, and spinel. The rock is kimberlite based on mineralogy, the presence of atoll-textured groundmass spinels, and kimberlitic core-rim zoning of groundmass spinels and groundmass phlogopites. Garnet xenocrysts are mainly Cr-pyropes, of which 2–12% are G10 compositions, crustal almandines are rare and eclogitic garnets are absent. Spinel xenocrysts have MgO and Cr 2O 3 contents ranging into the diamond inclusion field. Mg-ilmenite xenocrysts contain 7–11 wt.% MgO and 0.8–1.9 wt.% Cr 2O 3, with (Fe +3/Fe tot) from 0.17–0.31. Olivine is the only obvious megacryst mineral present. One microdiamond was recovered from caustic fusion of a 45-kg sample. Upper-mantle xenoliths up to 70 cm size are abundant and are some of the largest known garnet peridotite xenoliths in North America. The xenolith suite is dominated by dunites, and harzburgites containing garnet and/or spinel. Granulites are rare and eclogites are absent. Among 153 xenoliths, 7% are lherzolites, 61% are harzburgites, 31% are dunites, and 1% are orthopyroxenites. Three of 30 peridotite xenoliths that were analysed are low-Ca garnet–spinel harzburgites containing G10 garnets. Xenolith textures are mainly coarse granular, and only 5% are porphyroclastic. Xenolith modal mineralogy and mineral compositions indicate ancient major-element depletion as observed in other Wyoming craton xenolith assemblages, followed by younger enrichment events evidenced by tectonized or undeformed veins of orthopyroxenite, clinopyroxenite, websterite, and the presence of phlogopite-bearing veins and disseminated phlogopite. Phlogopite-bearing veins may represent kimberlite-related addition and/or earlier K-metasomatism. Xenolith thermobarometry using published two-pyroxene and Al-in-opx methods suggest that garnet–spinel peridotites are derived from 1180 to 1390 °C and 3.6 to 4.7 GPa, close to the diamond–graphite boundary and above a 38 mW/m 2 shield geotherm. Low-Ca garnet–spinel harzburgites with G10 garnets fall in about the same T and P range. Most spinel peridotites with assumed 2.0 GPa pressure are in the same T range, possibly indicating heating of the shallow mantle. Four of 79 Cr diopside xenocrysts have P– T estimates in the diamond stability field using published single-pyroxene P– T calculation methods.

MAPPING FUELS AND FIRE REGIMES USING REMOTE SENSING, ECOSYSTEM SIMULATION, AND GRADIENT MODELING

Maps of fuels and fire regimes are essential for understanding ecological relationships between wildland fire and landscape structure, composition, and function, and for managing wildland fire hazard and risk with an ecosystem perspective. While critical for successful wildland fire management, there are no standard methods for creating these maps, and spatial data representing these important characteristics of wildland fire are lacking in many areas. We present an integrated approach for mapping fuels and fire regimes using extensive field sampling, remote sensing, ecosystem simulation, and biophysical gradient modeling to create predictive landscape maps of fuels and fire regimes. A main objective was to develop a standardized, repeatable system for creating these maps using spatial data describing important landscape gradients along with straightforward statistical methods. We developed a hierarchical approach to stratifying field sampling to ensure that samples represented variability in a wide variety of ecosystem processes. We used existing and derived spatial layers to develop a modeling database within a Geographic Information System that included 38 mapped variables describing gradients of physiography, spectral characteristics, weather, and biogeochemical cycles for a 5830-km2 study area in northwestern Montana. Using general linear models, discriminant analysis, classification and regression trees, and logistic regression, we created maps of fuel load, fuel model, fire interval, and fire severity based on spatial predictive variables and response variables measured in the field. Independently evaluated accuracies ranged from 51 to 80%. Direct gradient modeling improved map accuracy significantly compared to maps based solely on indirect gradients. By focusing efforts on direct as opposed to indirect gradient modeling, our approach is easily adaptable to mapping potential future conditions under a range of possible management actions or climate scenarios. Our methods are an example of a standard yet flexible approach for mapping fuels and fire regimes over broad areas and at multiple scales. The resulting maps provide fine-grained, broad-scale information to spatially assess both ecosystem integrity and the hazards and risks of wildland fire when making decisions about how best to restore forests of the western United States to within historical ranges and variability.

True Grizz. Glimpses of Fernie, Stahr, Easy, Dakota, and Other Real Bears in the Modern World

On the outskirts of a Montana town, a female grizzly and her cubs catch the scent of a bag of dog food left out on a porch. It has been a poor autumn for berries in the backcountry, and the temptation to snatch an easy meal from human territory is strong. If the bears succeed often enough, they will be more likely to go into their winter den with the fat reserves needed for survival. But with each such raid, the bears' chances of getting caught or killed increase dramatically. In True Grizz, author Douglas Chadwick joins a crew of dedicated wildlife managers working to educate grizzlies about where they should and shouldn't go in the populated areas of northwestern Montana. With 'schooling' methods that range from shooting the bears with rubber bullets to charging at them with teams of specially trained Karelian dogs, these people are doing everything they can to save a threatened species.This challenge grows increasingly difficult as human development encroaches upon the bears' habitat, leaving grizz little choice but to share landscapes with us. Breaking with the tradition of tales that depict bears as either ferocious monsters or icons of pure wilderness, Chadwick gives us a refreshingly clear-eyed view of individual grizzlies and their complex personalities. As he chronicles the lives of Fernie, Stahr, Easy, Dakota, and other 'problem' bears - and shares his personal insights about free-roaming grizzlies gained through close observation for more than three decades - Chadwick offers a realistic yet poignant picture of grizz as big, strong, bright, adaptable omnivores trying to get by in the modern world any way they can.

The prevalence and predictors of helmet use by skiers and snowboarders at ski areas in western North America in 2001.

Helmets may protect the heads of skiers and snowboarders. The prevalence of helmet use by these groups was estimated. Helmet use was observed in face-to-face surveys (N = 2,978) on sun protection at 28 ski areas in Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and British Columbia (0.7% refusal rate) from January to April 2001. Helmets were worn by 12.1% (95% confidence interval [CI], 11.0-13.3) of the sample. Use was highest among guests who skied or snowboarded more frequently (fourth quartile vs. first quartile, odds ratio [OR] = 11.998 [95% CI, 6.774-21.251]; third vs. first, OR = 5.556 [95% CI, 3.119-9.896]; second vs. first, OR = 2.186 [95% CI, 1.162-4.112]), were experts (OR = 3.326 [95% CI, 1.297-8.528]), used snowboards (OR = 2.301 [95% CI, 1.731-3.058]), and were more educated (college graduate, OR = 2.167 [95% CI, 1.271-3.695]; some college, OR = 1.969 [95% CI, 1.130-3.431]). Helmet use was generally low but may be high enough by experts, snowboarders, and in the central Rocky Mountains to produce a norm stimulating further adoption.

Diel cycles in dissolved metal concentrations in streams: Occurrence and possible causes

Substantial diel (24‐hour) cycles in dissolved (0.1‐μm filtration) metal concentrations were observed during low flow for 18 sampling episodes at 14 sites on 12 neutral and alkaline streams draining historical mining areas in Montana and Idaho. At some sites, concentrations of Cd, Mn, Ni, and Zn increased as much as 119, 306, 167, and 500%, respectively, from afternoon minimum values to maximum values shortly after sunrise. Arsenic concentrations exhibited the inverse temporal pattern with increases of up to 54%. Variations in Cu concentrations were small and inconsistent. Diel metal cycles are widespread and persistent, occur over a wide range of metal concentrations, and likely are caused primarily by instream geochemical processes. Adsorption is the only process that can explain the inverse temporal patterns of As and the divalent metals. Diel metal cycles have important implications for many types of water‐quality studies and for understanding trace‐metal mobility.

Trace element speciation in selected smelter-contaminated soils in Anaconda and Deer Lodge Valley, Montana, USA

Long-term copper smelting in the Anaconda and Deer Lodge Valley area of Montana has resulted in an extensive area of trace element contamination. Aerial extent of contamination is generally established, but total analysis of soils does not correlate to relative degree of impact on vegetation growth. Three pedons (Beaverell, Cetrack and Judco) were analyzed by routine soil characterization methods, aqua regia microwave digestion, sequential chemical extraction, and X-ray diffraction analysis with the objective of providing a better understanding of chemical forms and potential reactivity of selected trace elements (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni, P, Pb). Surface horizons of soils are more acidic than subsoils, with pH for all horizons ranging from 4.0 to 8.7. Beaverell is the most contaminated in the upper 20 cm with the sum of total extractable (SUM TE) trace elements by microwave digestion ranging from 1836 to 3605 mg kg −1, largest H 2O-soluble (WS) and exchangeable (EX) fractions (e.g. 1.6 and 9.3%, respectively), and smallest residual (RES) fraction (e.g. 14.3%). Cetrack has greater SUM TE elements than Judco, though a lower WS+EX fraction due to the effects of alkaline pH, carbonates and high P. Oxide (OX), organic matter/sulfide (OM/S), and RES fractions predominate over WS, EX, and specially-sorbed/carbonate-bound fractions (SS/CAR) for all horizons. Copper, Zn, Pb and Cd are elevated in surface over subsurface horizons in these latter fractions, indicating these elements were anthropogenic additions. X-ray data indicate that Pb, Cu, Cr and Cd partially exists as both OX and sulfide mineral forms.

Fungicide Sensitivity Characteristics of Cercospora beticola Isolates Recovered from the High Plains of Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming. 2. Mancozeb, Propiconazole. and Azoxystrobin

Sugarbeet (Beta vulgaris L.) growing areas in northeastern Colorado, southeastern Montana and southwestern Nebraska were surveyed in 1998 through 2001 to determine if insensitive Cercospora beticola isolates were present in fields. One field in southeast Wyoming was included in the 1999 and 2000 surveys. A total of 328 isolates recovered from 110 fields in 1998, 305 isolates recovered from 101 fields in 1999, 255 isolates recovered from 72 fields in 2000, and 256 isolates recovered from 85 fields in 2001 was tested in this study. The radial growth of each isolate on potato dextrose agar (PDA) was compared to its radial growth on PDA amended with 5 μg mL -1 mancozeb, 1 and 10 μg mL -1 propiconazole and 1 and 10 μg mL -1 azoxystrobin. The overall percentages of isolates that grew in the presence of 5 μg mL -1 mancozeb were 92% in 1999, 88% in 2000 and 90% in 2001. Overall percentages of isolates that grew in the presence of 1 μg mL -1 propiconazole were 2% in 1999, 0.4% in 2000 and 0% in 2001. The overall percentages of isolates that grew in the presence of 1 μg -1 mL azoxystrobin were 99.7% in 1998 and 98% in both 2000 and 2001. Data reported here establishes baseline characteristics of the current C. beticola population infecting sugarbeet in the High Plains regions of Colorado, Montana, Nebraska and Wyoming.

Using simulation to map fire regimes: an evaluation of approaches, strategies, and limitations

Spatial depictions of fire regimes are indispensable to fire management because they portray important characteristics of wildland fire, such as severity, intensity, and pattern, across a landscape that serves as important reference for future treatment activities. However, spatially explicit fire regime maps are difficult and costly to create requiring extensive expertise in fire history sampling, multivariate statistics, remotely sensed image classification, fire behaviour and effects, fuel dynamics, landscape ecology, simulation modelling, and geographical information systems (GIS). This paper first compares three common strategies for predicting fire regimes (classification, empirical, and simulation) using a 51�000�ha landscape in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area of Montana, USA. Simulation modelling is identified as the best overall strategy with respect to developing temporally deep spatial fire patterns, but it has limitations. To illustrate these problems, we performed three simulation experiments using the LANDSUM spatial model to determine the relative importance of (1) simulation time span; (2) fire frequency parameters; and (3) fire size parameters on the simulation of landscape fire return interval. The model used to simulate fire regimes is also very important, so we compared two spatially explicit landscape fire succession models (LANDSUM and FIRESCAPE) to demonstrate differences between model predictions and limitations of each on a neutral landscape. FIRESCAPE was developed for simulating fire regimes in eucalypt forests of south-eastern Australia. Finally, challenges for future simulation and fire regime research are presented including field data, scale, fire regime variability, map obsolescence, and classification resolution.

DIETARY OVERLAP BETWEEN WOLVES AND COYOTES IN NORTHWESTERN MONTANA

We studied effects of recolonizing wolves (Canis lupus) in the North Fork of the Flathead area of northwestern Montana on the diets of coyotes (C. latrans) from 1994 to 1997. Wolf and coyote diets differed in frequency of occurrence of prey species during 3 of the 4 summers and winters (P < 0.001) during the study. Coyote diets contained more murid prey items, and wolf diets contained more deer (Odocoileus virginianus and O. hemionus) in the summer and elk (Cervus elaphus) in the winter. Coyotes and wolves ate prey of different size during both the summer (P < 0.001) and winter (P < 0.001) months in 1994–1996: wolves took a greater proportion (P < 0.001) of large (>45 kg) prey species and coyotes, small (<2 kg) prey (P < 0.001). Wolves selected a larger proportion of adults (P < 0.001), whereas coyotes selected a larger proportion of juveniles (P < 0.001) during summer. We believe that differential use of food resources facilitates coexistence of wolves and coyotes in the North Fork of the Flathead area.

Verrucaria kootenaica,a New Pyrenocarpous Lichen from the Northern Rocky Mountains

Abstract The new pyrenocarpous lichen, Verrucaria kootenaica Breuss & Spribille, is described. It is characterized by a thickish, circular thallus with radiating marginal lobes and in having perithecia located in thalline warts. The species is presently known from streambeds in limestone areas of northwestern Montana and southeastern British Columbia.