Rugged Mountains Research Articles

Surface Rupture of 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake Yields Insights on Active Tectonics of Central Taiwan

The 1999 Chi-Chi earthquake was caused by rupture of the Chelungpu fault, one of the most prominent active thrust faults of Taiwan. This largest of Taiwan's historical fault ruptures broke the surface for over 90 km at the western base of the rugged mountain range. A short right-lateral tear extended southwestward from the southern end of the Chelungpu fault, and a complex assemblage of shallow folds and faults ran northeastward from the northern end. Vertical offsets averaged about 2 m along the southern half of the Chelungpu fault and about 4 m along the northern half, and offsets of 5 to 7 m were typical along the northern part of the major thrust. The sinuous nature of the surface trace is consistent with seismographic data that indicate a dip of about 30°. The 1999 rupture draws attention to the fact that this active fault system is highly segmented and that this segmentation influences the characteristics of seismic ruptures. Active faults to the south, north, and west of the Chelungpu fault have distinctly different characteristics. Faults to the south and north broke the surface during earthquakes in 1906 and 1935. The active Changhua fault to the west, a blind thrust similar in length to the Chelungpu, has not ruptured in the historical period and should be considered a prime candidate for generating a future earthquake. Manuscript received 4 October 2000.

Ecotourism in Appalachia: marketing the mountains

Tourism is the world's largest industry, and ecotourism is rapidly emerging as its fastest growing segment. As interest in nature travel increases, so does concern for conservation of the environment and the well-being of local peoples and cultures. seems an ideal destination for ecotourists, with its rugged mountains, uniquely diverse forests, wild rivers, and lively arts culture. And ecotourism promises much for the region: protecting the environment while bringing income to disadvantaged communities. But can these promises be kept? Ecotourism in Appalachia examines both the potential and the threats that tourism holds for Central Appalachia. The authors draw lessons from destinations that have suffered from the tourist trap syndrome, including Nepal and Hawaii. They conclude that only carefully regulated and locally controlled tourism can play a positive role in Appalachia's economic development.

Usoi Landslide Dam and Lake Sarez, Pamir Mountains, Tajikistan

In 1911, a 2-km 3 (0.5-mi 3 ) earthquake-triggered rock slide blocked the Murgab River, southeastern Tajikistan, forming a still-existing, 600-m-high (1,970-ft-high) natural dam—the highest dam, natural or man-made, in the world. Lake Sarez, impounded by this blockage, is 60 km (37 mi) long, with a maximum depth of 550 m (1,800 ft) and a volume of approximately 17 km 3 (∼4 mi 3 ). This lake, which has never overtopped the dam, exits the downstream face as a series of large springs that regroup as the Murgab River. Freeboard between lake surface and the lowest point on the dam crest currently is approximately 50 m (∼165 ft), and the lake is rising at an average rate of 18.5 cm/yr (7.3 in./yr). If the blockage were to fail, a worst-case scenario could endanger tens or possibly hundreds of thousands of people in the Murgab, Bartang, Panj, and Amu Darya valleys downstream. Dam failure potentially could result from: 1) seismic shaking, 2) catastrophic overtopping caused by a landslide entering the lake from the valley wall at high velocity, 3) surface erosion caused by natural overtopping by the rising lake, 4) internal erosion (piping), 5) instability caused by lake pressure against the dam, or 6) slope instability of the dam faces. Occurrence of an overtopping wave resulting from a potential landslide high on the right bank of Lake Sarez seems to be the most realistic of these slight possibilities for failure. Because of the high cost of installing physical remediation to the dam in this rugged mountain area (no roads lead to the site), the main protective measures now being undertaken are hydrological monitoring at the dam and installation of a flood early warning system downstream.

Identification of an active fault in the Japanese Alps from DEM-based hill shading

Shaded-relief images created from digital elevation models (DEMs) are helpful in identifying faults in rugged mountains. Unlike airphoto interpretation, the method enhances lineaments by simulating topographic illumination under varied light directions. Interpretation of shaded-relief images of the Japanese Alps led to the discovery of a lineament unrelated to bedrock structure. Field surveys and analysis of large-scale maps and airphotos reveal the lineament to be a fault with high rates of vertical and lateral slip. The new fault is the southernmost segment of a known adjacent fault, and the rate and direction of its slip provide fresh insight into the late Quaternary history of the fault system. Because previous research mistook the fault scarp for a fluvial terrace scarp, discovery of the fault also changed the correlation of river terraces in the Northern Japanese Alps. The new corrections affect Pleistocene glacial chronology in the upstream area.

High-mountain cartography of the German and the Austrian Alpine Clubs

For 100 years now, the German and the Austrian Alpine Clubs have been producing their own maps of the high ranges of the Eastern Alps, because, to this day, suitable official maps of all their mountain areas are not available. As far back as 1912, Alpine Club cartographers participated in the development of the photogrammetric surveying method and applied this to the rugged mountain terrain. Since 1935, contour lines have been included in the rock representation of the maps. Starting 1967, aerial photogrammetry was used to establish the topographic foundation for map production and to achieve both high-quality geometrically controlled delineation of rock and differentiated representation of surface vegetation. Since 1935, in addition to maps of the Eastern Alps, Alpine Club cartography has produced maps of extra-Alpine high mountain ranges. In recent years, Alpine Club cartography has concentrated almost entirely on updating existing maps. The “Arbeitsgemeinschaft für vergleichende Hochgebirgsforschung,” associated with the German Alpine Club (DAV), has published numerous maps of the high ranges in Nepal.

Using satellite remote sensing for DEM extraction in complex mountainous terrain: Landscape analysis of the Makalu Barun National Park of eastern Nepal

The design and management of national parks and other protected areas requires a broad base of physiographic and geo-ecological information about the landscape. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of satellite remote sensing for photogrammetric stereo-mapping and digital elevation model (DEM) extraction within remote mountainous terrain. As a case study, a landscape analysis of the Makalu Barun National Park and Conservation Area of east Nepal (27.5° N, 87.0° E) was examined. The study area is a highly complex and rugged mountain landscape, with extreme topographic relief and an elevation gradient spanning more than 8300 m. A DEM extracted from stereo SPOT imagery resulted in a median disagreement of 58 m when compared to a DEM generated from a conventionally digitized GIS dataset of topographic contours (scale=1:250 000). Visual comparison of the two DEMs showed substantial agreement at the landscape scale, while larger scale comparison of 100 m contours revealed some localized differences. The SPOT extracted DEM provided equal or better basis for orthorectification of satellite imagery when compared to the conventional DEM. Derivative landscape analysis outputs, such as hydrological modelling, drainage networks and watershed boundaries, compared well with results based upon the conventional dataset. Intermediate map products useful for field research and mapping included production of an orthorectified satellite base-map image. Additionally, a fused multisensor high resolution image of the study area, combining Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and SPOT imagery at 10 m resolution, was orthorectified to produce a false-colour satellite image map highlighting the spectral discrimination between land cover classes.

Ferdinand V. Hayden: Entrepreneur of Science

By 1865 the American West had been thoroughly explored, but the knowledge obtained was by no means comprehensive. Though Americans generally agreed that the West was full of opportunities, exactly what those opportunities were and how they might best be exploited was not completely clear. Agriculture as it was then practiced was unsuitable for the rugged mountains and arid plains. Mining success depended upon identifying mineral deposits and developing effective means of extracting them. Science could contribute to answering these questions, but at the time there were no bureaus or agencies that could apply scientific expertise to these challenges. Ferdinand V. Hayden helped fill this gap beginning with his 1867 survey of Nebraska. The story of this and later Hayden expeditions illustrates the evolving relationship of government patronage and science in Gilded Age America. By sheer force of personality and persistence, Hayden succeeded in selling the federal government something it was not at all sure it wanted: science. In the process he created a secure niche for several branches of science within the federal bureaucracy. He was the one person most responsible for the creation of the United States Geological Survey as a civilian bureau. Most importantly, Hayden's surveys led to the production of detailed topographic maps and inspired--for good or ill--the intensive development of the West's resources. James G. Cassidy is an associate professor of history at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Predicting floodplain boundary changes following the Cerro Grande wildfire

AbstractA combined ArcView GIS–HEC modelling application for floodplain analysis of pre‐ and post‐burned watersheds is described. The burned study area is located on Pajarito Plateau near Los Alamos National Laboratory (the Laboratory), where the Cerro Grande Wildfire burned 42 878 acres (17 352 ha) in May 2000. This area is dominated by rugged mountains that are dissected by numerous steep canyons having both ephemeral and perennial channel reaches. Vegetation consists of pinon–juniper woodlands located between 6000 and 7000 ft (1829–2134 m) above mean sea level (MSL), and Ponderosa pine stands between 7000 and 10000 ft MSL (2134–3048 m). Approximately 17% of the burned area is located within the Laboratory, and the remainder is located in upstream or adjacent watersheds. Pre‐burn floodplains were previously mapped in 1990–91 using early HEC models as part of the hazardous waste site permitting process. Precipitation and stream gauge data provide essential information characterizing rainfall–runoff relationships before and after the fire. They also provide a means of monitoring spatial and temporal changes as forest recovery progresses. The 2000 summer monsoon began in late June and provided several significant runoff events for model calibration. HEC–HMS modelled responses were sequentially refined so that observed and predicted hydrograph peaks were matched at numerous channel locations. The 100 year, 6 h design storm was eventually used to predict peak hydrographs at critical sites. These results were compared with pre‐fire simulations so that new flood‐prone areas could be systematically identified. Stream channel cross‐sectional geometries were extracted from a gridded 1 ft (0·3 m) digital elevation model (DEM) using ArcView GIS. Then floodpool topwidths, depths, and flow velocities were remapped using the HEC–RAS model. Finally, numerous surveyed channel sections were selectively made at crucial sites for DEM verification. These evaluations provided timely guidance that influenced the decision to construct several flood detention structures that were completed in September 2000. Published in 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Mountain roads development in Nepal: engineering geological concerns

Road construction in the mountainous regions of Nepal has not only added to the road building experience in the rugged mountain terrain but also created awareness that development of linear infrastructure in the mountainous regions requires multidisciplinary approach from social, economic, engineering, environmental, and biotechnical considerations besides substantial engineering-geological inputs. This paper tries to provide a brief account of the practices and developments in mountain-specific planning and management of infrastructure on the basis of experiences from Nepal.

Altitudinal variation for B chromosome frequency in the characid fish Astyanax scabripinnis.

The analysis of three populations of the characid fish Astyanax scabripinnis located at different altitudes along the same stream has revealed the presence of a macro B chromosome in two high-altitude populations (1800 m and 1920 m) but its absence from a low-altitude population (700 m). Because the stream flows through very rugged mountains, with numerous falls ensuring that any gene flow occurs downstream only, the absence of B chromosomes from the low-altitude populations is best interpreted in the light of the parasitic theory of B chromosome evolution. Under this theory, we would expect B chromosomes to be more frequent where environmental conditions are more favourable for the species, because Bs are best tolerated there. The widespread presence of these B chromosomes in numerous Brazilian river headwaters, which are the preferred habitat for this species, support this possibility.

The Indian Ocean Coast of Somalia

Somalia has the longest national coastline (3025 km) in Africa with an estimated shelf area (depth 0–200 m) of 32 500 km 2. The country is divided into the northern coastal plain of Guban, which has a semi-arid terrain; the northern highlands with rugged mountain ranges containing the country’s highest peak (2407 m); and the Ogaden region which descends to the south from the highlands and which consists of shallow plateau valleys, wadis and broken mountains. The latter region continues to the Mudug plain in central Somalia. From Ras Caseyr to the Kenya border, the coast runs north-east to south-west, coinciding with the displacement caused by the Mesozoic marginal subsidence. This general structure is complicated by sedimentary troughs crossing the Horn of Africa, and by large sedimentary basins, cutting the coastline and extending inland into Southern Somalia and Northern Kenya (Juba–Lamu embayment, Mogadishu basin). Offshore, the western Somali Basin extends from Socotra to the Comores. The open shelf environments developed along the Somali coast are a consequence of an extensive marine transgression, connected to coastal subsidence or inland uplift. The rocks along the southern coastal belt are Pliocene–Pleistocene, and are characterized by a sequence of both marine and continental deposits of skeletal sands, coral build-ups, eolian sands and paleosols. As well as eolian and biogenic sedimentary processes, sea-level fluctuations, Holocene climatic changes and neotectonic movements have combined to produce the modern coastline. A notable feature is an ancient dune ridge complex, known as the Merka red dune, which rims the coast extending beyond the Kenyan border and which separates the narrow coastal belt from the Uebi Shebeli alluvial plain. Two features of note are the Bajuni Archipelago, which consists of islands, islets and skerries, forming a barrier island separated from the coast by a narrow marine sound, and a braided, channelized coastal area, which originated from the drowning of a paleofluvial net. The southern Somali coast, with that of Kenya and Tanzania, forms part of the Somali Current Large Marine Ecosystem, encompassing 700 000 km 2, and extending 800 km between Dar es Salaam and Ras Hafun. Abundant biomass develops here due to upwelling. The shelf area has a wide variety of coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass meadows, beaches and estuaries. In shallow water areas the abraded flats are colonized by scattered coral communities with variable cover. A true fringing reef is achieved in places only in the Bajuni archipelago. All along the southern Somali coastal shelf there are spreading meadows of Thalassodendron seagrass, and benthic communities typical of mobile sandy substrates are limited to beach ridges and shoals developed along the coastline. Around the Bajuni barrier island and the channelized area there is more diversity. Mangroves grow on the tidal belts of the channels, and there are expanses of salt flats. Large-scale alteration produced by man on the Somali coast is relatively recent, but has accelerated in the last few decades, especially around major cities. This alteration affects especially backshore areas where the Pleistocene coral reefs are quarried. At present, the continental shelf is not adequately monitored or protected, so coastal habitats are being degraded, living marine resources are overexploited, and pollution levels are increasing, all of which affect natural resources and biodiversity. Somalia is one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries, with few resources and devastated by civil war, but since 1993 it has been part of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). This will affect fisheries and aquaculture in terms of the investment, production, trade and fish consumption of the member states. There are currently no marine protected areas and no legislation concerning their establishment and management, although the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) Protected Areas Database lists Busc Busc Game Reserve as an MPA. In 1992, The WCMC also listed the following coastal sites as proposed protected areas: Zeila (important sea bird colonies on offshore islets), Jowhar–Warshek, Awdhegle–Gandershe. The area from Kisimayo to Ras Chiambone is probably of highest priority, as it is important for coral reefs, marine turtles, and mangrove resources, although it is still poorly known.

Notes on Pazeh Phonology and Morphology

Notes on Pazeh Phonology and Morphology Robert Blust Abstract Pazeh, once the heritage of a substantial language community in the Puli basin of central Taiwan, appears to be down to its last fluent speaker. Several linguists have worked on the language in recent years, all drawing on the same resource, but arriving at somewhat different transcriptions and analyses. This paper presents an analysis of the synchronic and historical phonology of Pazeh, and provides the most complete inventory of affixes described to date. Loanwords suggest a period of fairly intensive contact with Taokas, thereby implying that the Pazeh were on the western plain within the relatively recent past. The linguistic position of Pazeh remains obscure, because some apparent exclusively shared innovations point to a closer relationship with Saisiyat, while others point to a closer relationship with Thao and the core group of Western Plains languages (Taokas, Papora, Hoanya, Favorlang/Babuza). Both in its phonology and its morphology, this little-studied language sheds light on aspects of Proto-Austronesian that are only feebly attested in the language family as a whole. 1. Introduction. Nearly half of the 26 known Formosan aboriginal languages are extinct, their speakers culturally and linguistically absorbed into the dominant Taiwanese-speaking population that began to reach the island in significant numbers around the beginning of the seventeenth century. As in other parts of the world, the prospects for cultural and linguistic survival of the native peoples in Taiwan have tended to vary inversely with the quality of their lands. In the western plains, where the best agricultural lands are found, competition with incoming Taiwanese rice farmers forced the aboriginal peoples to an early decision: remain and be assimilated, or flee into the rugged Central Mountains. Groups such as the Taokas, Papora, Hoanya, Favorlang/Babuza, and Siraya chose the first alternative, and their former presence in the area is now detectable only through traces in the physical features of some elements of the population. Groups such as the Thao, on the other hand, fled into the high country, and were thereby able to postpone the day of reckoning that is now upon them (Blust 1996, 1999). The Pazeh (also known as Kahabu) live in the Puli Basin, an enclosed natural sink near the western flank of the Central Mountains at an elevation of about 1,000 meters. Given its advantages for agriculture, the Puli Basin attracted Taiwanese settlers from a relatively early time, and the Pazeh thus came under assimilatory pressure later than the peoples of the western plains, but sooner than most mountain aborigines. Little useful information of any kind was available for Pazeh until Ferrell (1970) published a vocabulary of about 800 lexical items, with some accompanying remarks on phonology and grammar. At about the same time, Tsuchida (1969) compiled a draft dictionary that remains unpublished, but is the most complete source of lexical information available to date. More recently, Li (1978, to appear) and Lin (1988, 1999) have described various aspects of the morphology and syntax of the language. All later work, the present publication included, has benefited greatly from the foundations laid by the pioneering descriptions of Ferrell and Tsuchida. Ferrell, who collected his data between 1967 and 1969, reports that some 2,000 persons in the vicinity of the town of Puli at that time identified themselves as Pazeh-Kahabu, "although about their only cultural distinctiveness from their Chinese neighbors is the fact that since the 1870s nearly all the Pazeh-Kahabu have been Presbyterians. Minnan-Chinese is now the primary language of all. Only people in their sixties and seventies have any knowledge of Pazeh-Kahabu, and few if any individuals under 50 know anything whatsoever of the language." Given this statement, written over 30 years ago, the prospects of recovering further information on Pazeh did not appear promising when I arrived in Taiwan in 1994 in the hope of doing salvage linguistics with some of the most endangered Austronesian languages. Fortunately, Ferrell's prognosis, while generally true, has turned out to be overly pessimistic, as at least one full speaker of Pazeh is still alive. The data in this paper are based entirely on the speech of Mrs. Pan Jin-yu, born...

Panama's poor: victims, agents, and historymakers

One of a very small number of studies on the history of survival strategies in peasant communities in Latin America. . . . The transformations Rudolf has witnessed they occurred in the course of the many visits she has made to Loma Bonita . . . [provide] a window onto the social, political, and economic dynamics in the community and their relation to national and global processes.--Hans C. Buechler, Syracuse University An excellent long-term, in-depth study of a rural community in Panama. It is essential reading for scholars interested in rural Latin America and the forces which shape it.--John R. Bort, East Carolina University Examining the impact of global economic forces on a small rural community in the rugged mountains of central Panama, s Poor illustrates peasant survival strategies and their cumulative effects on patterns of change throughout Latin America.When Gloria Rudolf began visiting Loma Bonita 25 years ago, most residents lived as poor but relatively independent subsistence farmers. Today, most are paid workers who experience greater economic insecurity, dependence, and inequality than before. Nonetheless, Rudolf says, they are agents of their own destiny as well as victims, an argument that challenges the commonly held view of peasants as passive victims of history. Although they have not been able to reverse their general course of poverty, they sometimes have managed to improve their immediate life circumstances by undertaking small-scale, undramatic actions in the course of their daily lives. Over time, the cumulative effects of these actions occasionally have influenced larger historical developments sometimes to their benefit. Throughout, Rudolf shows how economic and gender differences within the community play a critical role in determining people s choices for action and the course of short- and long-term change.In writing that is both lucid and sophisticated, Rudolf describes the four generations she came to know during frequent visits to Panama, from elders who were raised as farmers to their great-grandchildren who live today in squatter settlements near Panama City--conveying respect for the complex lives of the poor and a sense of their successes and failures.In one of the few existing studies of a non-indigenous peasant community in Panama, Rudolf sets her work in the context of national and global political and economic history. Her 25 years of research in a single community enable her to trace how people have responded to and shaped the major events that have characterized Latin American society during this time: population explosion, rural-urban migration, colonization of new regions, debt crisis, U.S. economic and political involvement, liberation theology and reformed Catholicism, trends in development, the rise of large-scale industrial agriculture, and structural adjustment policies.Gloria Rudolf teaches anthropology and development studies at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont. She is the author of articles on economic development and political and religious movements in Panama and rural Latin America in journals including Urban Anthropology and Cultural Survival Quarterly.

Development of an Antarctic digital elevation model by integrating cartographic and remotely sensed data: A geographic information system based approach

We present a high‐resolution digital elevation model (DEM) of the Antarctic. It was created in a geographic information system (GIS) environment by integrating the best available topographic data from a variety of sources. Extensive GIS‐based error detection and correction operations ensured that our DEM is free of gross errors. The carefully designed interpolation algorithms for different types of source data and incorporation of surface morphologic information preserved and enhanced the fine surface structures present in the source data. The effective control of adverse edge effects and the use of the Hermite blending weight function in data merging minimized the discontinuities between different types of data, leading to a seamless and topographically consistent DEM throughout the Antarctic. This new DEM provides exceptional topographical details and represents a substantial improvement in horizontal resolution and vertical accuracy over the earlier, continental‐scale renditions, particularly in mountainous and coastal regions. It has a horizontal resolution of 200 m over the rugged mountains, 400 m in the coastal regions, and approximately 5 km in the interior. The vertical accuracy of the DEM is estimated at about 100–130 m over the rugged mountainous area, better than 2 m for the ice shelves, better than 15 m for the interior ice sheet, and about 35 m for the steeper ice sheet perimeter. The Antarctic DEM can be obtained from the authors.

Kea, bird of paradox: the evolution and behavior of a New Zealand parrot

The kea, a crow-sized parrot that lives in the rugged mountains of New Zealand, is considered by some a playful comic and by others a vicious killer. Its true character is a mystery that biologists have debated for more than a century. Judy Diamond and Alan Bond have written a comprehensive account of the kea's contradictory nature, and their conclusions cast new light on the origins of behavioral flexibility and the problem of species survival in human environments everywhere. New Zealand's geological remoteness has made the country home to a bizarre assemblage of plants and animals that are wholly unlike anything found elsewhere. Keas are native only to the South Island, breeding high in the rigorous, unforgiving environment of the Southern Alps. Bold, curious, and ingeniously destructive, keas have a complex social system that includes extensive play behavior. Like coyotes, crows, and humans, keas are 'open-program' animals with an unusual ability to learn and to create new solutions to whatever problems they encounter. Diamond and Bond present the kea's story from historical and contemporary perspectives and include observations from their years of field work. A comparison of the kea's behavior and ecology with that of its closest relative, the kaka of New Zealand's lowland rain forests, yields insights into the origins of the kea's extraordinary adaptability. The authors conclude that the kea's high level of sociality is a key factor in the flexible lifestyle that probably evolved in response to the alpine habitat's unreliable food resources and has allowed the bird to survive the extermination of much of its original ecosystem. But adaptability has its limits, as the authors make clear when describing present-day interactions between keas and humans and the attempts to achieve a peaceful coexistence.

Accuracy of wet snow mapping using simulated Radarsat backscattering coefficients from observed snow cover characteristics

Wet snow cover mapping by means of airborne and spaceborne SAR is operational today and successfully applied in rugged high mountain terrain and in agricultural area. This paper proposes a numerical study to estimate the accuracy of wet snow mapping by using a radar backscattering model that simulates backscattering from a multi-layer snowpack for various snow cover conditions and for SAR parameters specific to Radarsat (C-HH). Field measurements carried out in numerous sites during the winters of 1994 to 1996 in several areas of Quebec (Canada) have allowed to choose some typical snow profiles and the corresponding snow/soil parameters. Results indicate that under the assumptions used in the model and the simulations, for the standard mode S1 of Radarsat (20 to 27.4) and in the case of wet snow cover with liquid water content of 1%, the optimum relative under-and over-estimation of wet snow pixels are of the order of 23.9% and 13.4%, respectively. For wet snow cover at 2%, the algorithm operates with a relative under-estimation of wet snow pixels around 8.5% and a relative over-estimation of the order of 1.7%. For wet snow with liquid water content of 4%, the relative under-and over-estimation of wet snow pixels is around 0.8% and 0.3%, respectively. They are negligible for wet snow with liquid water content higher than 4%. With the standard mode S7 of Radarsat (44.9 to 49.4), the wet snow mapping algorithm leads to a slightly lower performance than with the standard mode S1. The accuracy of the method for wet snow mapping demonstrates the high potential of SAR for snow monitoring. It is considered sufficient when the liquid water content of the snowpack is higher than 1% for actual snow conditions similar to those eight observed conditions used in this study.

Loops and Fireworks

HEIRLOOM Loops and Fireworks Les Brown North Cove, North Carolina, lies in one of "The Loops" of the Clinchfield Railroad, a series of switchbacks that gently descend the rugged Blue Ridge Mountains from Spruce Pine. The grade is gouged through nineteen tunnels and many deep cuts to level out in the foothills at Marion. The railroad carries coal from the mines ofWest Virginia and Kentucky to the soudieast coast. Among my most vivid memories ofNorth Cove are those ofthe huge black steam locomotives and the lonesome wail ofthe whistle. I remember the sound abruptly dying as the train went into Honeycutt Tunnel behind the house where I was born. The hot boxes ofthe brakes glowed bright red as hundreds ofwheels pressed against the steep four-mile loop. High clouds ofsteam rushed from the stacks on cold winter days as the powerful locomotives crawled up the mountains. Now and then one of the trains derailed, folding itself in a cut or down a fill, interrupting the slow pace ofthe vaUey. Folks would rush to pick up the free coal for their winter fires. I always hoped for candy or toys. Sometimes a box would break, sending glowing steel off the tracks, catching the mountain on fire. The men ofthe cove would hurry to keep the fires from racing with the converting wind up the side ofthe mountain. North Cove had a Uttle depot on the CUnchfield called Linville Station. The name didn't make sense, but the wealthy who summered fifteen miles away in the resort town of Linville wanted the name recognition . Until the late 1940s the station served passenger trains, which have since disappeared from the route. IronicaUy, as isolated from the world as we were, we could catch the train to anywhere from just a mile up the road. We can't do that today. The depot also served a huge packing house owned by Ed Robbins. He hauled shrubbery from Blue Ridge Nursery at Pineola, about ten miles up Linville Mountain, to be shipped out by rail Les Brown, born and raised in North Cove Valley of northern McDowell County, North Carolina, isprofessor ofbiology at Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. He haspresented papers at the North Carolina Academy ofScience and the Appalachian Studies Conference. 48 My family used the depot as a way to get fireworks, which were illegal in North Carolina. We had great shipments brought in from Zebra Fireworks Company up north. We saved our money all year and pored over the Zebra catalog for our Christmas order; we bought them by the case. Excitement built for weeks until the train brought the prized cargo. The Christmas fireworks display and the powerful reports ofnow-ülegal M80's, double shots, aerial and cherry bombs were shared by the whole valley. My dad was never content with the power ofthe fireworks, but he always wanted the biggest, loudest aerial bomb ever built. Maybe it was because he was the youngest and smallest offive brothers. So he searched all ofthe catalogues ofthe fireworks companies for the pinnacle ofpower. He found it. Everyone would know that the explosion that was to rock the silence from a thousand feet above the valley was caused by Gene Brown's big red ten-dollar aerial bomb. It stood eighteen inches high with a diameter of four inches, a five-inch fuse and six-inch square wooden base. It was magnificent, made by Black Cat Fireworks in Akron, Ohio. The money he saved for it would have bought a large assortment of Roman candles, rockets, double shots, pinwheels, fountains, ladyfingers, side loaders, and cherry bombs, not counting the regular little firecrackers with the gray paper fuses that came in packs you could light all at once. Instead, all his money went for the big show. Dad was at the depot early each day, sitting on one ofthe big green freight wagons on the platform beside the tracks, waiting. FinaUy, one day, the train hissed to a stop. Sam Brown, the Stationmaster, shoved the latch open, disappearing into the darkness ofa red boxcar. He came back with a single box and handed it down to Dad, label side up. "To Gene...

Subaltern Struggles and the Politics of Place: Remapping Resistance in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands

In August 1996, I climbed a steep ridge overlooking a portion of the Kaerezi River valley in Zimbabwe's Eastern Highlands, its rugged mountains cascading toward the sunrise over Mozambique. The well-worn path, carved by the feet of children's daily travels to the small school in the next river valley, snaked its way up the slope. Fresh tracks bore the imprint of an oxen-drawn sledge, a popular mode of transport despite its violation of state conservation law. Nationalist guerrillas and Rhodesian forces traversed the same terrain in the 1970s, when armed skirmishes dotted what was then the white-owned Gaeresi Ranch. At Independence, the land became the state-administered Kaerezi Resettlement Scheme.' Fields were to be allocated to household heads, spatially separated from concentrated residential grids, to promote the administrative vision of orderly land use. Yet more than 15 years after Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, the planned linear resettlement grids consisted of unpeopled, barren plots marked by rusted metal stakes. Beyond these demarcated zones, local defiance of government policy inscribed the landscape with mud-and-wattle and sundried brick huts scattered across the river valley. Maize fields emanated from thatched huts in the heart of most homesteads, spreading out into pastures that climbed toward Mount Nyangani, Zimbabwe's highest peak. A bright blue cement house stood out sharply from the agrarian mosaic of green and brown hues. The construction of this brightly painted house precipitated a heated controversy in the early 1990s when I was conducting fieldwork on popular perceptions of resettlement policy in Kaerezi. Built upon colonial land use planning principles that physically and functionally separated residential, grazing, and arable spaces, state resettlement efforts sought to move Kaerezi farmers from their historically dispersed residences, placing them in concentrated linear residential grids. In the early 1990s, government officials repeatedly voiced threats to evict all Kaerezians who refused to move into the planned linear villages, demarcated spaces located far from the natural water points and springs where settlers had sited their homesteads.2 The local chief, in an effort to assert his

Notations of the wild: ecology in the poetry of Wallace Stevens

In the summer of 1903, just before he turned twenty-four, Wallace Stevens joined a six-week hunting expedition to the wilderness of British Columbia. The adventure profoundly influenced his conceptions of language and silence, his symbolic geography, and his sensibilities toward wild nature as nonhuman other. The rugged western mountains came to represent that promontory of experience - green's green apogee - against which Stevens would measure the reality of all his later perceptions and conceptions and by which he would judge the purpose and value of works of the human imagination. Notations of the Wild views his poetry as a radical reimagining of the nature/culture dialectic and a reinstatement of its forgotten term - Nature. Gyorgyi Voros focuses on three governing metaphors in Stevens' poems - Nature as house, Nature as body, and Nature as self. She argues that Stevens' youthful wilderness experience yielded his primary subject - the relationship between human beings and nonhuman nature - and that it spurred his shift from a romantic to a phenomenological understanding of nature. Most important, it prompted him to reject his culture's narrow humanism in favor of a singular vision that in today's terms would be deemed ecological.

Survival and Recruitment of Captive-Reared and Wild-Reared Takahe in Fiordland, New Zealand. Sobrevivencia y Reclutamineto del Takahe Obtenido en Cautiverio y en Condiciones Silvestres en Fiordland, Nueva Zelanda

Captive rearing for release back into the wild is considered a useful management tool for endangered species because it can potentially increase the rate of recruitment by bypassing the early, high-risk stages in an individual’s life history. In evaluating the benefits of captive rearing to conservation, it is important to monitor the survival rate of animals after release, to be sure that they have the skills necessary for survival in the wild. Using radio telemetry, we compared the movement and survival of captive-reared Takahe ( Porphyrio mantelli), a large flightless rail endemic to New Zealand, to wild-reared Takahe in the rugged mountains of Fiordland over a 5–year period. The results indicated that captive-reared birds survived at least as well as wild-reared birds. Survival of wild-reared Takahe up to 1 year of age, which is prior to the release of captive-reared birds, was poor over two winters marked by particularly cold temperatures, which made the benefits of captive rearing more pronounced. Differences in post-release movements and habitat selection of the two groups did not have a detrimental effect on survival rate of captive-reared birds. Although there was no difference in the survival rate of captive-reared females versus males, eight out of nine (89%) surviving females have formed pairs since their release compared with only two of eight (25%) males. This unexpected result suggests there may be a shortage of females in the wild population. We conclude that captive rearing for release back into the wild increases the adult Takahe population in Fiordland. La reproducción en cautiverio para posterior liberación en áreas silvestres es considerada una herramienta de manejo muy valiosa para especies en peligro de extinción, puesto que potencialmente incrementa la tasa de reclutamiento al sobrepasar los estados de desarrollo temprano de la historia de vida de un organismo con altos riegos. Durante la evaluación de los beneficios de la reproducción en cautiverio, es importante monitorear la tasa de sobrevivencia de los animales después de ser liberados, para estar seguros de que han adquirido las habilidades necesarias para sobrevivir en condiciones silvestres. Usando radiotelemetría, comparamos el movimiento y sobrevivencia de organismos obtenidos en cautiverio del Takahe ( Porphyrio mantelli), un ave no voladora endémica de Nueva Zelanda, con organismos silvestres de las montañas de Fiordland, por un periodo de cinco años. Los resultados indican que los organismos obtenidos en cautiverio sobrevivieron al menos tan bien como los silvestres. Sobrevivencia de organismos silvestres por mas de un año de edad, el cual es previo a la liberación de aves cautivas, fue pobre durante dos inviernos marcados por temperaturas particularmente bajas. Este evento ocasionó que los beneficios de producción en cautiverio fueran mas pronunciados. Las diferencias en movimientos post-liberación y selección de hábitat de los dos grupos no tuvieron un efecto negativo en la tasa de sobrevivencia de organismos de cautiverio. A pesar de que no existió diferencia en la tasa de sobrevivencia entre hembras y machos de organismos de cautiverio, ocho de nueve (89%) de las hembras sobrevivientes formaron parejas desde su liberación, comparados con dos de ocho machos (25%). Estos inesperados resultados sugieren que podría haber una escasés de hembras en la población silvestre. Concluímos que la producción de organismos en cautiverio para liberación en condiciones silvestres incrementa la población adulta de Takahe en Fiordland.