Bureau Of Land Management Research Articles

Assimilating optical satellite remote sensing images and field data to predict surface indicators in the Western U.S.: Assessing error in satellite predictions based on large geographical datasets with the use of machine learning

Indicators of vegetation composition, vegetation structure, bare ground cover, and gap size in drylands potentially gives information about the condition of ecosystems, in part because they are strongly related to factors such as erosion, wildlife habitat characteristics, and the suitability for some land uses. Field data collection based on points does not produce spatially continuous information about surface indicators and cannot cover vast geographic areas. Remote sensing is possibly a labor- and time-saving method to estimate important biophysical indicators of vegetation and surface condition at both temporal and spatial scales impossible with field methods. Regression models based on machine learning algorithms, such as random forest (RF), can build relationships between field and remotely sensed data, while also providing error estimates. In this study, field data including over 15,000 points from the Assessment, Inventory, and Monitoring (AIM) and Landscape Monitoring Framework (LMF) programs on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands throughout the Western U.S., Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) parameters, MODIS nadir BRDF-adjusted reflectance (NBAR), and Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) surface reflectance products with ancillary data were used as predictor variables in a k-fold cross-validation approach to RF modeling. RF regression models were built to predict fourteen indicators of vegetation cover and height, as well as bare gap parameters. The RF model estimates exhibited good correlations with independent samples, with a low bias and a low RMSE. External cross-validation showed good agreement with out-of-bag (OOB) errors produced by RF and also allowed mapping prediction uncertainty. Predicted distribution maps of the surface indicators were produced by using these relationships across the arid and semiarid Western U.S. The bias and RMSE distribution maps show that the sample insufficiency and unevenly pattern of sample strongly impact the accuracy of the RF regression and prediction. The results from this study clearly show the utility of RF as a means to estimate multiple dryland surface indicators from remotely sensed data, and the reliability of the OOB errors in assessing the accuracy of the predictions.

Fine-scale assessment of cross-boundary wildfire events in the western United States

Abstract. We report a fine-scale assessment of cross-boundary wildfire events for the western US. We used simulation modeling to quantify the extent of fire exchange among major federal, state, and private land tenures and mapped locations where fire ignitions can potentially affect populated places. We examined how parcel size affects wildfire transmission and partitioned the relative amounts of transmitted fire between human and natural ignitions. We estimated that 85 % of the total predicted wildfire activity, as measured by area burned, originates from four land tenures (Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, private, and state lands) and 63 % of the total amount results from natural versus human ignitions. On average, one-third of the area burned by predicted wildfires was nonlocal, meaning that the source ignition was on a different land tenure. Land tenures with smaller parcels tended to receive more incoming fire on a proportional basis, while the largest fires were generated from ignitions in national parks, national forests, and public and tribal lands. Among the 11 western states, the amount and pattern of cross-boundary fire varied substantially in terms of which land tenures were mostly exposed, by whom, and to what extent. We also found spatial variability in terms of community exposure among states, and more than half of the predicted structure exposure was caused by ignitions on private lands or within the wildland–urban interface areas. This study addressed gaps in existing wildfire risk assessments that do not explicitly consider cross-boundary fire transmission and do not identify the source of fire. The results can be used by state, federal, and local fire planning organizations to help improve risk mitigation programs.

New Perspectives in Cultural Resource Management, by Francis P. McManamon, ed.

<i>New Perspectives in Cultural Resource Management</i>, by Francis P. McManamon, ed.

Contentious Federalism: Sheriffs, State Legislatures, and Political Violence in the American West

Despite the extensive literature probing individual motivations for committing political violence, little existing academic research directly examines the role of local governments in encouraging political violence. I use a federalism perspective to consider how subnational governments can decrease the perceived costs of high-risk political violence against the state. This paper introduces three novel datasets to substantiate my theories: political violence against Bureau of Land Management employees, land transfer legislation in state legislatures, and a roster of constitutionalist sheriffs. As emblems of the contentious relationship between rural land users and the federal government, employees of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) routinely deal with threats, harassment, and physical violence from civilians who are incensed by restrictions on the use of federal land. Counties with constitutionalist sheriffs are 50% more likely to have violence against BLM employees than other counties, even when controlling for other factors. Additionally, levels of political violence are higher in years following the passage of land transfer legislation in the state legislature. Elected officials’ legislative activity, campaign promises, and law enforcement decisions all may promote political violence against federal employees. Incorporating federalism into the study of political violence uncovers how the actions of elected officials at the state and county levels can lower the perceived costs of violence against the national government.

“Now is Not the Time to Take a Breather”: United States Federal Land Management Agency Professionals’ Perceptions at the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977

Poor air quality has long been one of the dominant transboundary issues facing protected areas worldwide. In 1977, the United States Congress amended the Clean Air Act to address federally-managed lands containing valued air resources (i.e. scenic views). Forty years later, we interviewed professionals from the U.S. National Park Service, Forest Service, and Bureau of Land Management (n=38) regarding their perceptions of the legacy of the Clean Air Act and other federal policies relevant to air resources, as well as their perceptions of the future of air resource management on U.S federal lands. Results were analyzed using a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis supported by in vivo, thematic, and salience coding. Our findings illustrate national progress in air resource management, potential policy directions, and highlight the influence of emerging technologies and governance in air resource management within protected areas.

Environmental Knowledge Cartographies: Evaluating Competing Discourses in U.S. Hydraulic Fracturing Rule-Making

In this article, we evaluate competing environmental knowledge claims in U.S. hydraulic fracturing (HF) regulation. We conduct a case study of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) rule-making process over the period from 2012 to 2015, which was the first attempt to update federal oil and gas regulations in thirty years. Our study addresses a gap in the energy geographies and environmental governance literatures, which have yet to evaluate systematically HF-related decision-making processes at the policymaking scale. We mobilize theoretical insights from science and technology studies on boundary objects and critical environmental discourse analysis to conduct a “cultural cartography” of the BLM’s rule-making process. Our analysis of a subset of 1.4 million public comments submitted to the BLM, combined with fifteen stakeholder interviews, focuses on (1) who participated in the rule-making process; (2) the types of knowledge claims advanced in support or opposition of the rule; and (3) how these claims affected the rule-making process. In contrast to recent literature that finds increased “horizontality” of environmental knowledge production, we find a clear hierarchy that privileges government knowledge—including federal government–sponsored research and existing laws—above all other categories of evidence cited. As such, we argue that government knowledge—which in this case brought disparate stakeholder groups together to debate HF regulation—functions as a key boundary object in the rule-making process. We conclude with a discussion of implications for both research and policy. Key Words: boundary work, Bureau of Land Management, hydraulic fracturing, regulation, rule making.

Evaluating and using existing models to map probable suitable habitat for rare plants to inform management of multiple-use public lands in the California desert.

Multiple-use public lands require balancing diverse resource uses and values across landscapes. In the California desert, there is strong interest in renewable energy development and important conservation concerns. The Bureau of Land Management recently completed a land-use plan for the area that provides protection for modeled suitable habitat for multiple rare plants. Three sets of habitat models were commissioned for plants of conservation concern as part of the planning effort. The Bureau of Land Management then needed to determine which model or combination of models to use to implement plan requirements. Our goals were to: 1) develop a process for evaluating the existing habitat models and 2) use the evaluation results to map probable and potential suitable habitat. We developed a method for evaluating the construction (input data and methods) and performance of existing models and applied it to 88 habitat models for 43 rare plant species. We also developed a process for mapping probable and potential suitable habitat based on the existing models; potential habitat maps are intended only to guide future field surveys. We were able to map probable suitable habitat for 26 of the 43 species and potential suitable habitat for 41 species. Forty percent of the project area contains probable suitable habitat for at least one species (43,338 km2), with much of that habitat (43%) occurring on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Lands prioritized for renewable energy development contain 3% of the habitat modeled as suitable for at least one species. Our products can be used by agencies to review proposed projects and plan future plant surveys and by developers to target sites likely to minimize conflicts with rare plant conservation goals. Our methods can be broadly applied to understand and quantify the defensibility of models used in conservation and regulatory contexts.

Agency Legitimacy: A Reputational Power Analysis of the Bureau of Land Management

This article examines the organizational reputation of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) using Daniel Carpenter’s reputation and power theory as a theoretical and methodological base. Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) is utilized to guide and organize case selection, as it is the legal mandate behind BLM authority and represents the fullest extent of the agency’s activities. The findings of this case study indicate that the BLM has a negative reputation in all but the legal-procedural dimension. Three implications are identified: (a) FLPMA serves only to define the procedural-legal aspect of public planning process, (b) the inability of FLPMA to define a purpose to public lands management has its root in the large scope of activity required of the BLM by FLPMA, and (c) finally, retention has placed the BLM and the federal government in a precarious position of an owner rather than custodian of the public lands.

Applied Ethnobiology and Advocacy: A Case Study from the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe of Death Valley, California

Attention has turned in the past 30 years to the situation of Indigenous Peoples in National Parks and protected areas worldwide. Their position brings historical problems, as well as new opportunities, for applied ethnobiology to contribute to cooperative management situations that could help rectify past injustices. In the mid-1990s, the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe began a struggle for land within and surrounding Death Valley National Park, California. This was capped by the passage of the Timbisha Shoshone Homeland Act in 2000. It granted the Tribe trust lands and the right to co-manage additional lands held by the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Ethnobiology was used during negotiations to document the extent and uses of Timbisha traditional lands through ethnobotanical, ethnozoological, traditional resource and environmental management (TREM), and place name studies. The Tribe then initiated a pilot project in applied ethnobiology to bring TREM back to their lands through a honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) and singleleaf pinyon pine (Pinus monophylla) management project, designed to demonstrate to the agencies the value of traditional care practices. The project was in place for two years when problems arose that could not be easily resolved. This case study outlines some of the procedures used and the problems encountered. It also illustrates the value of the project, as well as some of the frustrations that can occur during the course of an applied ethnobiology project.

Carbon stocks and stock change on federal forest lands of the United States

AbstractForest land in the United States offsets more than 11% of total domestic greenhouse gas emissions each year through growth of live woody biomass and accumulation of carbon in trees, dead organic matter, and harvested wood products. Forest lands owned and managed by various agencies of the U.S. government cover 77 million hectares, which is 29% of U.S. forest land and an estimated 33%, or 17.2 Pg C, of forest carbon stocks. Here, we summarize forest inventory‐based estimates of forest carbon stocks and indications of carbon stock change on forest lands managed by agencies within the U.S. federal government. Within the conterminous USA, the proportion of forest land that is federally owned is higher in the West representing two‐thirds of forest carbon stocks; in the East, federal lands represent 9% of forest carbon. The majority of federal forests and forest carbon are managed by the U.S. Forest Service (13.8 Pg C), but 20% of federal forest carbon stocks, or 3.5 Pg C, are managed by other federal agencies (e.g., National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management). We also briefly review some broad characteristics of the forest inventory that affect forest carbon reported for the USA as included in greenhouse gas inventories such as for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change reporting.

Nullify, Postpone, Suspend, Stay, and Replace: The Trump Administration and the Methane Waste Prevention Rule

The words nullify, postpone, suspend, stay, and replace encapsulate the actions taken during the first two years of the Trump Administration to reverse existing environment and energy policies. Although President Trump’s policy initiatives have touched on a variety of issues, such as coal, wetlands, air quality, and public lands, this article focuses on one particular rule promulgated during the Obama Administration: the 2016 methane waste prevention rule (MWPR). To provide context, Part I briefly reviews how the executive branch can act to change existing laws, regulations, and policies. Parts II and III describe the 2016 methane waste prevention rule and efforts of the Trump Administration to nullify, postpone, suspend, stay, and replace the rule. While efforts to suspend or delay “Obama rules” have achieved mixed results, in most instances the courts have not yet determined whether President Trump’s replacement regulations will be upheld under the “arbitrary and capricious” standard of review set forth in the Administrative Procedure Act. Part IV discusses whether the Bureau of Land Management’s 2018 rule, which replaces the 2016 MWPR, is a lawful agency action. Part IV also looks at Indigenous Environmental Network v. United States Department of State, a federal district court decision that held the State Department engaged in unlawful agency action when it disregarded prior factual findings and reversed course regarding the Keystone XL pipeline project. Indigenous Environmental Network could be a harbinger of future court decisions that will likewise strike down attempts by the Trump Administration to reverse and replace environmental and energy policies.

Performing the Empty Archive: Feeling and Public Lands in the Bundy Case and Percival Everett’s Grand Canyon, Inc.

Performing the Empty ArchiveFeeling and Public Lands in the Bundy Case and Percival Everett’s Grand Canyon, Inc. Meagan Meylor (bio) The only remaining structure in the ghost town of Bundyville, Arizona, is a schoolhouse.1 On top of a mountain, two hours into the desert, the schoolhouse was burned down in 2000 and then rebuilt as a “pioneer replica” by members of the local community and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Arizona Strip field office. This remote structure serves as an important physical archive for Cliven Bundy, the American cattle rancher known for his role in the 2014 armed standoff between antigovernment protestors and federal agents in Nevada. The schoolhouse walls hold historic portraits of the Bundy family dating back to 1916, when Cliven’s Mormon great-grandparents first settled the region to escape persecution and build a polygamous community of almost two hundred Bundys, a harsh little piece of utopia. In the 2018 podcast Bundyville, we hear host Leah Sottile walking up and down the echoing schoolhouse and commenting on the photographs, men in military costume with thick, white mustaches alongside the stern-faced “Three Mothers of Bundyville.”2 Although the names, images, and letters first appear as antiquated traces of a mostly forgotten past, Sottile explains how these objects have a direct connection to current political conflict in the American West. Throughout his twenty-one-year legal dispute with the BLM over cattle grazing on public lands, Cliven used his family tree—as embodied by the schoolhouse—to trace what he sees as his personal dominion over the public land in Nevada. Although there is no legal evidence to support his claims, the podcast suggests that Cliven has made a living off failure. In other words, his very inability to [End Page 37] “prove” his land rights is what drew his large following. As Sotille states, “His power to attract people doesn’t come from land or water rights. It comes from his ability to tell a story about himself. Cliven will let anyone who listens know that he’s trying to squeeze out a living against a government that’s trying to end him. Just like his ancestors in Bundyville. And that’s the story that his most zealous followers love: a tough old cow, sticking it out, and winning.” This story is easier to tell when there is nothing at the core. Instead of being able to point to material documents or discrete remains that legitimize his claims, Cliven relies on the retelling of a usable past made up of fictive origin stories that open the flood-gates for emotional “freedom.” Likening himself to a founding father fighting a tyrannical government, Cliven transmits affect attached to the interpretations, desires, visions, and sentiments that many Americans feel are being stifled by the federal government and liberal society. Hiding the structural inequality embedded within his concept of sovereignty, Cliven foments these feelings through his anachronistic readings of the Constitution, an origin text that he injects with his own narratives that collapse the past and future into a divinely ordained here and now. As Percival Everett’s 2001 novella Grand Canyon, Inc. will help illuminate, these western narratives about the history and nature of public lands are told in ways that intensify fantasy, release internal noise, and reproduce fictions that often leave marginalized communities and the environment irreparably damaged. Cliven’s calls for nativism and his rights to public lands have taken on a performative quality, as seen in the heavily broadcast standoffs, aesthetically heightened protests, and dramatic clashes among police and citizens. In both the Bunkerville standoff and the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge led by Cliven’s son Ammon in 2016, a constituency of ranching supporters, far-right “patriots,” and militia men came head-to-head with the federal government to voice their anger and execute their “divine mission” to reclaim freedom from federal encroachment. According to the Bundys and many of their supporters, the federal government lacks the constitutional authority to own vast tracts of land, an argument repeatedly rejected by federal courts. When sifting through [End Page 38] the articles and videos documenting these events, I was struck by the...

Supporting Public Lands in an Uncertain Age: The Wasatch Front Urban Ranger Program

Open space and parks in urban and urban-proximate areas provide vital social, economic, and health benefits to people and communities. Specific benefits include offering opportunities for people to connect with nature, improving air quality, supporting wildlife habitat, and improving community identity and attachment. Management and maintenance of these areas can be expensive and challenging, particularly when multiple agencies oversee different components of the same resource. In the Salt Lake Valley in Utah, the Jordan River Parkway (JRP) and the Bonneville Shoreline Trail (BST) provide recreation opportunities to local citizens. Multiple agencies and private land owners are charged with managing elements of each entity, resulting in inconsistent application of management plans including patrols and maintenance. Subsequently, there are aspects of these outdoor recreation spaces that need increased support, maintenance, and overall stewardship. In 2015, the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Tourism at the University of Utah and the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA) created the Wasatch Front Urban Ranger Program (WFURP), a trail ambassador program featuring student volunteers from the University of Utah. Each Urban Ranger has three primary duties: public engagement, performing light maintenance, and collecting data on various aspects of trail use. During daily patrols, Rangers inform the public of land management issues and direct them to appropriate resources. They perform trail maintenance, including removing litter, cleaning dog waste, and plucking noxious weeds. They collect data about visitor use and conditions in each area, and regularly report the data to respective management agencies and/or law enforcement and health officials. Rangers recruit a student volunteer for each patrol, which helps increase engagement and enhance knowledge about public lands issues among University students. The program is funded through a number of small grants and the majority of the funding supports a graduate student to coordinate the program. Program partners include the National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Jordan River Commission (JRC), and Utah Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Support from additional local and national agencies help train the Rangers, including personnel the Salt Lake City Open Space District, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the USDA Forest Service (USFS), and local law enforcement agencies. Subscribe to JPRA

Whitewater Recreationists’ Tradeoffs among Social, Resource, and Managerial Attributes Segmented by Specialization Level

Recreation specialization is a leisure concept used frequently in outdoor recreation; applied here to further understand heterogeneity among whitewater boaters. This study used a sample of two low-use Oregon rivers (one managed by the U.S. Forest Service and one by the Bureau of Land Management). To provide for the best possible low-use experience, managers should understand boaters’ preferences of social, resource, and managerial attributes and the relative importance placed on those attributes. This research analyzed whether preferences and tradeoffs of 308 whitewater boaters for social, resource and managerial attributes of riverscapes differ in level of recreation specialization in whitewater boating. A visual discrete choice experiment explored the differences in preferences and tradeoff behavior for river trip scenarios between three specialization groups. The results revealed that boaters with different specialization levels had similar preferences for two social attributes (number of people on the river, waiting time for parking). Paddlers of all specialization levels placed high importance on the attribute number of people on the river, suggesting that this attribute plays a significant role for boaters recreating in low-use settings. Most boaters were willing to tolerate managerial restrictions (e.g., river access fee) to achieve the desired low-use river experience. River management can ensure low-use levels by using direct management systems such as user fee up to eight dollars, or partial allocation systems. The resource attributes (river difficulty, trip length) differed among the specialization groups confirming that more specialized boaters are looking for a more challenge-driven experience. Resource managers can use this information to define a target group for a specific river. Finally, length can be adjusted according to the specialization level of the target group by offering more river access areas. Study findings suggest that preferences and tradeoff behavior are not always consistent along the specialization continuum and that a low-use river setting attracts a particular target group of boaters. Subscribe to JPRA

The Bureau of Land Management's Infirm Compensatory Mitigation Policy - Addendum

This addendum includes two documents from the BLM that are not otherwise publicly available related to compensatory mitigation.

Black faces, black spaces: Rethinking African American underrepresentation in wildland spaces and outdoor recreation

The Wilderness Act of 1964 defines wilderness as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain”. It goes on to limit acceptable activities in designated wilderness areas to those associated with leisure, scenic viewing, education, and scientific inquiry. These precepts are the basis for federal wilderness management in national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management. They are derived from the interests and values held by the early environmental movement's predominantly white middle and upper class patrons, and imposed on diverse groups who may not hold the same views. This study examined how the imposition of wilderness management at Congaree National Park greatly restricted local African Americans' traditional fishing practices and how fishers made meaning of their displacement. Participants' experience of alienation is a result of their perceptions of racial discrimination in the park's preferential treatment of white visitors. This study argues that African American presence in the Great Outdoors is erased both materially and symbolically by racial bias in the Wilderness Act, a general lack of attention to black outdoor spaces, and the use of white outdoor values and pursuits as the criterion for which to assess African American outdoor ethos.

State of Wyoming v. U.S. Dep’t of the Interior Confused Agency Overlap with Preclusion: BLM Had Authority to Promulgate the Fracking Rule for Public Lands, Not Tribal Lands

State of Wyoming v. U.S. Dep’t of the Interior Confused Agency Overlap with Preclusion: BLM Had Authority to Promulgate the Fracking Rule for Public Lands, Not Tribal Lands

Brandishing Guns: Performing Race and Belonging in the American West

This article examines the racial dynamics and performative nature of US gun culture by analyzing the 2014 standoff between Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management. The standoff followed discernible scripts of white masculine privilege and drew on scenarios of conquest in the US American West, as Bundy’s supporters gathered at his ranch and brandished their weapons in open defiance of the federal government. The act of brandishing their guns was a ‘performance of belonging’, a public, theatrical gesture that marks the bearer as a full participant in civic life and all its attendant rights and privileges. This belonging, however, is predicated on histories of white supremacist laws and settler colonialist violence. By reading gun culture in the United States through the lens of performance, this article traces the profound discrepancies between legal and practical gun rights and illuminates one of the most intractable debates at the center of US American life.

Territory occupancy by breeding yellow‐billed loons near oil development

ABSTRACTLess than 4,000 yellow‐billed loons (Gavia adamsii) breed in remote and disjunct locations in northern Alaska, USA. Over 75% of the United States population of yellow‐billed loons nests in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPRA), where impending oil and gas development will intersect their breeding range. We investigated the relationship of recent oilfield development to occupancy of yellow‐billed loon territories by breeding pairs (indicated by active nests) and broods using 14 years of aerial surveys on the Colville River delta. We also evaluated the survey requirements prescribed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for NPRA. We began aerial surveys for yellow‐billed loons in 1993, prior to construction of the Alpine oilfield in 1998, and followed territories through 2008, after construction of 2 additional satellite drill sites. We used records from 37 breeding territories on 36 lakes in model selection analyses to examine how habitat and disturbance factors (proximity to facilities and construction time period) influenced occupancy by breeding pairs and broods. Annually, 13 ± 2.5 (SE)% (n = 14 yr) of broods (n = 19) moved from nesting lakes to adjacent brood‐rearing lakes, and the remainder stayed in nesting lakes (n = 128). Lakes used for nesting and brood‐rearing were almost 25 times larger ( = 95.9 ± 25 ha, n = 23 lakes) than nesting lakes from which broods left ( = 4.0 ± 1.1 ha, n = 7 lakes, P &lt; 0.001). Thirty‐eight percent of territories (n = 14 territories) were on lakes shared by &gt;1 breeding pair. Lake type (deep open lakes with islands or polygonized margins, deep open lakes without islands or polygonized margins, and tapped lakes with high‐water connections) was the most influential covariate on occupancy by breeding pairs, and lake area was most influential on occupancy by broods. Time period and distance to facilities (as discrete zones at 1.6 km and 3.2 km and as linear distance) were factors in the highest‐ranked models for 5 of the 6 model sets that included disturbance parameters. Interaction terms for time period and distance to oilfield facilities were factors in 3 of 6 model sets. The pattern of occupancy of breeding territories, however, was not consistent with disturbance‐related effects. Occupancy of territories by breeding pairs was lower in the pre‐development period (lowest human activity) than in the latest development period (highest human activity) and higher in the zones near oilfield facilities than far from facilities. Occupancy of territories by broods was highest in the latest development period and similarly high in zones near and far from facilities. Application of BLM minimum survey requirements (3 yr with 2 surveys/yr) to the initial 3 years of surveys in this study resulted in detecting 81% of the known territories on the Colville River delta. The BLM restrictions on development were judged conservative in maintaining breeding territories around oilfield developments. Our results did not demonstrate displacement of nests or broods from long‐standing territories by oil development. Our findings suggest that territory occupancy by breeding pairs and broods of yellow‐billed loons on the Colville River delta was resilient to levels of human activity at recently constructed oilfield facilities. © 2018 The Authors. Journal of Wildlife Management published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of The Wildlife Society.

Do socio-cultural traits and other demographics affect outdoor recreation constraints? The case for Mesa County, Colorado

Physical activity from outdoor recreational pursuits is well known to be beneficial and has been encouraged by the US Surgeon General. Specific constraints, often reflected in sociocultural issues, can be impediments to individuals participating in outdoor recreational activities. Data were collected in conjunction with the Bureau of Land Management and the Mesa County Health Department in Colorado via surveys involving 580 residents of Mesa County regarding access to outdoor recreation. Ordinal logistic regression was used to test whether ten different constraints to outdoor recreation were important to the respondents, given their age, sex, education, race/ethnicity, native language, and residential density. The results indicated that the probability of experiencing outdoor constraints increased with lower education, Hispanic ethnicity, native Spanish speaking, and young age. A second model, albeit with fewer respondents, was tested to include income. The results of the second model were similar to the first model and also showed that lower incomes were associated with a higher probability of outdoor constraints. The results of the two models indicated that socioeconomic status was a driving factor behind constraints to outdoor recreation.