State Natural Resource Research Articles

Some issues of improvement of criminal legal protection of relations in the field of environment

The scientific article is devoted to the analysis of certain provisions of the draft of the new Criminal Code of Ukraine aimed at regulating legal relations in the field of combating criminal offenses against the environment. Based on the analysis of scientific publications related to the reform of criminal legislation, attention is focused on the expediency of improving the system of combating environmental crime, adapting the national Criminal Code of Ukraine to the requirements of the European Union and achieving compliance with its requirements and goals. A scientific study of the content of the fifth and sixth Books of the Project, which are an attempt to normalize legal relations in the field of criminal and legal protection of the environment, was carried out. Arguments are given regarding the expediency of adjusting the structure and content of the Project's prescriptions in connection with the different location of individual norms of its Special Part, united by a common generic object. In particular, an opinion has been developed regarding the separation of the Book on criminal offenses against the environment, which should include the chapters devoted to criminal offenses against environmental safety and criminal offenses against the order of use and protection of natural resources placed in other Books of the Project. In addition, based on the results of the research, the need to determine the most appropriate name for the corresponding section of the future criminal law, which would take into account the content and meaning of the terms "Criminal offenses against nature and environmental safety” used in it, which characterize primarily the generic object of criminal offenses in the studied sphere It is noted that certain actions provided for by the Project are of a "complex” nature and may encroach both on relations against environmental safety and on the procedure for using the state's natural resources, while directly or indirectly affecting public health. It has been proven that such a subsection of the Special Part of the future Criminal Code of Ukraine should contain both criminal offenses against environmental safety and torts against nature (the surrounding natural environment), which are actually equated with criminal violations against the order of use of natural resources.

Landscape-Scale Epidemiological Dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in White-Tailed Deer

Understanding pathogen emergence in new host species is fundamental for developing prevention and response plans for human and animal health. We leveraged a large-scale surveillance dataset coordinated by United States Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and State Natural Resources Agencies to quantify the outbreak dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 in North American white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus; WTD) throughout its range in the United States. Local epidemics in WTD were well approximated by a single-outbreak peak followed by fade out. Outbreaks peaked early in the northeast and mid-Atlantic. Local effective reproduction ratios of SARS-CoV-2 were between 1 and 2.5. Ten percent of variability in peak prevalence was explained by human infection pressure. This, together with the similar peak infection prevalence times across many counties and single-peak outbreak dynamics followed by fade out, suggest that widespread transmission via human-to-deer spillover may have been an important driver of the patterns and persistence. We provide a framework for inferring population-level epidemiological processes through joint analysis of many sparsely observed local outbreaks (landscape-scale surveillance data) and linking epidemiological parameters to ecological risk factors. The framework combines mechanistic and statistical models that can identify and track local outbreaks in long-term infection surveillance monitoring data.

Micronesian States Natural Resource Law Features

The object of the study is the relations of environmental management in the Micronesian states, the subject is the legislation and doctrine in the field of exploitation of natural resources of the countries of Micronesia: Wake Island, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariinsky Islands, the Territory of Guam, the possessions of the United States of America. The author examines the features of the state natural resource mechanism in the listed jurisdictions. The article examines the institution of ownership of natural resources, the permissive procedure for the use of natural objects. In addition, the author addresses the problems of implementing the norms of international maritime law, explores the legal regime of the Micronesian waters. The work completes the "Oceanic Sonata" in the theory of natural resource law of foreign countries and takes it to the next scientific level, qualitatively raising the "bar" for followers. The relevance of the research is due to the theoretical and practical significance of the content of the article, which reflects domestic interests in Oceania. The author in the article operated with dialectical, logical, historical, formal legal, comparative legal, deduction, induction and other methods of cognition. The scientific novelty of the presented work lies in the originality of the conclusions and the work itself, which contains fundamentally new information on the subject of research. Legal publications about Micronesia are insignificant, "living classics" is presented to your attention - one of the few Russian scientific articles about this Pacific region, while the available works are largely outdated, and some jurisdictions are covered in the domestic sciences for the first time. The author discusses with foreign scientists, analyzing foreign doctrine and legislation, and suggests using the experience of the United States of America in the Russian Federation. At the same time, violations of the norms of international maritime law in the Pacific Ocean are noted, as well as cases of declaring the existence of an exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf of the United States of America in the waters of sovereign States and unoccupied atolls, but also their inclusion in the American Empire as possessions of the United States of America, acting as a possessor of other States.

Water and Hydroelectric Power Sharing

A rational, defensible water allocation plan for current and future water supply conditions is critically important. According to the request and suggestion of State natural resources negotiators, our team developed a water allocation plan for five states (AZ, CA, WY, NM, and CO) Since general industrial water and power generation water are very important, we comprehensively analyze and establish a multi-objective optimal allocation model, which involves social benefits, economic benefits and water environmental benefits. Using the foal attain function in MATLAB to solve the model, we get Satisfaction of water demand for electricity generation and general industry in each state.

Prevalence of Depression Among Jordanian University Students During COVID-19 Pandemic

Objective: The global COVID-19 pandemic has a significant impact on individuals, physical and mental health. This study aims to investigate the relationship between the COVID-19 pandemic and depression as a mental health problem among students of Jadara University. Methods: a cross-sectional study among Jadara University students by survey forms was conducted between 6 -12 of May 2020. The CES-D scale was used to assess depression. Result: Out of 200 participants, 45% were classified as high risk for depression and 55% as low risk for depression. Our resulting study revealed that the academic year and the professional status of the student had a significant relationship with depression. Conclusion: COVID-19 pandemic gives insight into the importance of universities and states natural resources to respond to mental health problems among the most vulnerable.

Engaging Stakeholders to Develop a Decision Support Model of Conservation Risk and Management Capacity to Prioritize Investments in Bull Trout Recovery

AbstractRarely are sufficient resources available to support the full suite of management actions to promote recovery of a species across its entire distribution. Decision support models are a tool that can inform natural resource management decisions with consideration of the perspectives from a variety of stakeholders who work across large geographic and jurisdictional extents. We offer an example of a decision support model that was developed by several federal and state natural resource agencies to rank Bull Trout Salvelinus confluentus core areas for prioritizing conservation investment within Oregon, USA. We engaged state‐level decision makers to identify parameters that were believed to be influential in determining funding allocations for Bull Trout core areas. Parameters were linked in a model framework that was further refined with input from local Bull Trout experts with knowledge specific to the various core areas. The model produces a relative priority value that is a combination of the conservation risk to the species and the management capacity to address threats. A series of sensitivity analyses suggested that Bull Trout persistence and threat score were most influential in determining the relative priority of a core area, whereas life history and genetic diversity were least influential. One of the more powerful products from this work is an interactive Web‐based application (https://das.ecosphere.fws.gov/public/obts/) that anyone can use to explore how their beliefs in parameter values will affect the relative priority of Bull Trout core areas across Oregon. Our modeling effort is an example of engaging stakeholders with different roles in species recovery and across a large geographic area to create a clearer path forward in allocating limited resources for species recovery. This approach can be employed to address a number of natural resource management situations across species and habitats.

Legal Basis and Problems Regarding the Application of a Higher Tax Rate on State Natural Resources

This Article in the context of common rules of liability for infringements of tax laws discloses the legal regulation establishing a higher tax rate on State natural resources and problems related to its application in Case Law.

Environmental values and images: an analysis of Facebook images from Ojibwe and state natural resource management agencies

Drawing from research on media sociology and environmental values, the present study compares the visual content shared on Facebook by state and Ojibwe natural resource management agencies in the Great Lakes region. The study examines whether the image content most frequently shared by these agencies suggests similarities or differences in value orientations between agencies and audiences. Results showed that state and Ojibwe agencies differ in their image sharing priorities. Results also indicated that state agencies prioritized sharing images of people, but their audiences liked images of fish and wildlife more than other image content.

Restoration of bighorn sheep: History, successes, and remaining conservation issues

Mammals are imperiled worldwide, primarily from habitat loss or modification, and exhibit downward trends in their populations and distributions. Likewise, large-bodied herbivores have undergone a collapse in numbers and are at the highest extinction risk of all mammals. Bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) are among those large-bodied herbivores that possess a slow-paced life history, suffer from debilitating diseases, and have experienced range contractions across their historical distribution since the late 1800s. Translocations and reintroductions of these mountain ungulates are key aspects of restoration and often are used to re-establish populations in historical habitat or to supplement declining herds. Millions of US dollars and much effort by state and federal natural resource agencies, as well as public and private organizations, have been expended to restore bighorn sheep. Despite those efforts, translocated populations of bighorn sheep have not always been successful. We assessed restoration of bighorn sheep to provide insights in the context of conservation of populations of bighorn sheep, because this management tool is a frequently used to re-establish populations. We focused briefly on past efforts to restore bighorn sheep populations and followed with updates on the value of habitat enhancements, genetic issues, the importance of ecotypic or phenotypic adaptations when restoring populations, predation, and disease transmission. We also raised issues and posed questions that have potential to affect future decisions regarding the restoration of bighorn sheep. This information will help conservationists improve the success of conserving these iconic large mammals.

Melanesian States Natural Resource Law Features

The object of the study is the relations of nature management in the Melanesian States, the subject is the legislation and doctrine in the field of exploitation of natural resources of the countries of Melanesia: the Commonwealth of Australia, the French Republic, the Republic of Vanuatu, the Republic of Fiji, the Solomon Islands, the Republic of Nauru, the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, the Republic of Indonesia. The author examines the features of the state natural resource apparatus in various jurisdictions, first of all, the management of the environment and subsoil use by executive authorities. The article examines the institution of ownership of land and subsoil, the permissive procedure for the use of natural objects, as well as contractual and directive grounds. In addition, the author addresses the problems of implementing the norms of international maritime law, explores the legal regime of the Australian Antarctic territories. The work is a new round in the theory of natural resource law of foreign countries, the relevance of the research is due to the theoretical and practical significance of the content of the article, which reflects domestic economic interests in Oceania. The scientific novelty of the presented work lies in the originality of the conclusions and the work itself, which contains fundamentally new information on the subject of research. Legal studies of Melanesia are insignificant, one of the few Russian scientific publications about this Pacific region is presented to your attention, while the available works are largely outdated, and some jurisdictions are covered in the domestic press for the first time. The author discusses with foreign scientists, analyzing foreign doctrine and legislation, and suggests using the experience of the Solomon Islands in the Russian Federation. At the same time, violations of the implementation and implementation of the norms of international maritime law in the Pacific Ocean by the Melanesian States are noted, as well as cases of the establishment of a national legal regime of Antarctic territories; it highlights not only the seizure of resource bases by the collective West, but also the incorporation of sovereign States, which is a modern form of establishing colonial dependence.

Polynesian Natural Resource Law Features

The object of the study is the relations of nature management in the Polynesian States, the subject is the legislation and doctrine in the field of exploitation of natural resources of the Polynesian countries: the United States of America (Hawaii, American Samoa, unincorporated territories), the Kingdom of New Zealand (Cook Islands, Niu, Tokelau), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (Pitcairn Islands), an Independent State Samoa, the Republic of Kiribati, the Kingdom of Tonga, the Kingdom of Tuvalu, the French Republic (French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna), the Republic of Chile (Isla de Pasqua and Juan Fernandez). The author examines the features of the state natural resource apparatus in various jurisdictions, first of all, the management of the environment and subsoil use by executive authorities. The article examines the institution of ownership of land and subsoil, the permissive procedure for the use of natural objects. In addition to the traditional, the researcher identifies a new type of property – family ownership of land, distinguishing it from communal, tribal and ancestral, and also draws attention to the inequality of ownership forms and discrimination in this area by the English crown of formally independent states and their citizens. The work is a new round in the theory of natural resource law of foreign countries, the relevance of the research is due to the theoretical and practical significance of the content of the article, which reflects domestic economic interests in Oceania. The scientific novelty of the presented work lies in the originality of the conclusions and the work itself, which contains fundamentally new information on the subject of research. This is one of the few scientific publications in the World on the natural resource law of the Polynesian States. The author discusses with foreign scientists, analyzing foreign doctrine and legislation. At the same time, violations are noted in the implementation and implementation of the norms of international maritime law in the Pacific Ocean; the creation by the collective West of natural resource reserves, regulatory legal bases and state mechanisms for the exploitation of the Polynesian environment in case of need (economic need and (or) global conflict).

What Are You Doing Here? A Sculpin Endemic to Arkansas and Missouri (Cottus immaculatus) Appears in Connecticut

Reductions in cold-water habitat owing to anthropogenic stressors are focusing attention on indicator fish species. We investigated an apparent range expansion in Connecticut of a native cold-water fish, Slimy Sculpin (Cottus cognatus). Unexpectedly, genetic and morphological analyses identified the new population as a non-native cottid from the Ozark region, the Knobfin Sculpin (C. immaculatus). This is the first record of C. immaculatus outside of its native range. The new occurrences were not recognized for over a decade despite comprehensive watershed inventories by state natural resource managers. The mechanism by which the non-native Knobfin Sculpin first arrived in Connecticut is currently unknown. Our findings suggest that unintentional species introductions may occur more frequently than is currently recognized and highlight the need for more comprehensive assessments of non-native species distributions.

Contested Sacredness: The Struggle for Bears Ears

Abstract Southern Utah and the Four Corners region is home to five Tribal nations, united by shared experiences of settler colonialism and a tie to the landscapes of Bears Ears National Monument. After years of Tribal advocacy to protect the site, President Obama designated the monument under the Antiquities Act in December 2016. A year later, President Trump reduced the 1.35-million-acre national monument by 85 percent to make way for uranium mining, officially sanctifying state control and natural resource extraction. Protests and lawsuits ensued. The legal status of Bears Ears continues to be contested. Religious freedom, capitalism, nationalism, environmental protection, and tourism have coalesced at the site in an example of the production, shift, and conflict of spatial relations. By mapping the constellation of spaces produced by the stakeholders, this article argues that a spatial lens points to moments of overlap and resolution as the case moves forward.

The economic costs of chronic wasting disease in the United States.

Cervids are economically important to a wide range of stakeholders and rights holders in the United States. The continued expansion of chronic wasting disease (CWD), a fatal neurodegenerative disease affecting wild and farmed cervids, poses a direct and indirect threat to state and federal government agency operations and cervid related economic activity. However, the scale of this disease's direct economic costs is largely unknown. I synthesized existing publicly available data and stakeholder-provided data to estimate CWD's costs within the continental United States. Federal government agencies collectively spent over $284.1 million on CWD-related efforts between 2000 and 2021, with $203.6 million of this total being spent by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. In fiscal year 2020, state natural resources agencies and state agriculture/animal health agencies spent over $25.5 million and $2.9 million, respectively, on CWD-related work. Natural resources agencies in states with known CWD cases spent over 8 times as much on CWD as agencies from states with no known cases. The farmed cervid industry spent at least $307,950 on CWD sampling in 2020, though a lack of available data prevented a complete assessment of costs to this industry. Based on limited data, CWD's economic effects on the hunting industry (i.e., outfitters and guides, companies leasing land to cervid hunters), may be negligible at this time. Overall, however, the realized economic costs of CWD appear considerable, and it is likely that the number of stakeholders financially affected by this disease and regulations meant to stem its spread will continue to grow. By understanding the current economic impacts of CWD, we are better positioned to assess the costs and benefits of investments in management and research and to understand the magnitude of this disease's broader societal impacts.

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor: Meeting Security Challenges in Balochistan Through Trade and Development

The article explores the prospects of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) for developing the Balochistan province of Pakistan. Balochistan is the largest province of Pakistan, full of natural resources; it has geostrategic importance due to its location, long coastal line, Gwadar port, and the recently launched CPEC project. It remains an economically underdeveloped and socially and politically marginalized province, facing extensive poverty and lack of economic opportunities despite the enormous economic potential, separatism movements, terrorism, and severe clashes with the federal government over its financial share in the state's divisible pool and natural resources found in the province. Economic backwardness is one of the main reasons behind the critical challenges in the province. In this regard, it is essential to analyze the prospects of CPEC projects for the province's economic, social, and political redevelopment and how CPEC can improve the security situation and resolve the separatist movements in the province. CPEC provides potential opportunities for improving the economic and security situation in the province and the region on the whole, as it brings a huge amount of Chinese foreign direct investment to the province, creates jobs, encourages infrastructure development, establishes special economic zones, and turns the province into a corridor of regional trade connecting it with other economies. The article substantiates that CPEC has prospects to cool down the Baloch uprising, bring peace, prosperity, and stability, solve the economic crises, decrease poverty and improve the country's living conditions and region.

A Long-Term Vision for an Ecologically Sound Platte River

The Platte River extends about 310 mi (499 km) from North Platte, Nebraska, to its terminus at the Missouri River confluence near Plattsmouth, Nebraska. The Platte River Valley is a continentally significant ecosystem that serves as a major stopover for migratory waterbirds in the Central Flyway including the endangered Whooping Crane (Grus americana) and >1 million Sandhill Cranes (Antigone canadensis) at the peak of spring migration. However, the Platte River Valley also supports a great diversity of avifauna including grassland breeding birds, native stream fish, vascular plants, herpetofauna, mammals, pollinators, and aquatic macroinvertebrates. Despite ongoing conservation efforts since the mid-1970s the ecosystem remains largely conservation dependent and an increasing number of species across taxa are being considered at risk of regional extirpation or outright extinction. However, given the attention provided to conservation in the Platte River Valley and the need to maintain ecologically functional stopover sites in the Central Flyway, there is a great opportunity to create a resilient refugium for biodiversity conservation in the central Great Plains. To that end we convened a working group of >18 individuals representing >9 organizations including representatives from non-profit conservation organizations, universities, and state and federal natural resource agencies to develop a long-term vision for an ecologically sound Platte River Valley (PRV). We met in groups of varying size for >170 hours throughout a more than 3-year period and developed conservation priorities and objectives using a landscape design process. Landscape design is an interdisciplinary conservation planning process that incorporates components of landscape ecology and social dimensions of natural resources with the explicit intention of improving conservation implementation.

Analysis of the regional “green” finances and identification of their vulnerable areas: Republic of Bashkortostan case study

This article systematizes approaches to the management of public finances directed to the environmental sphere both at the national and regional levels. The author highlights the main trends based on the use of synchronous (within the framework of the analysis of the structure of the management system) and diachronic (in terms of studying the dynamics of financing) analysis of the public administration system in the field of ecology and natural resources in the Republic of Bashkortostan, carried out on the materials of the state program Ecology and natural resources of the Republic of Bashkortostan dated 18 February 2014 No. 61 in its 20 editions. The study identifies vulnerable areas in terms of financing the management of the environmental sphere and natural resources at the regional level (on the example of the Republic of Bashkortostan). Leveling the identified negative factors will increase the economic connectivity of the place, and also contributes to the strengthening of the resilience of the territory. Improving the existing mechanism for financing the environmental sector is achievable by applying best practices, including tax incentives for introducing environmental innovations and investing in environmentally friendly and resource-saving technologies, environmental insurance, grants, debt swaps, national and international climate funds, public procurement of environmental goods and other.

Curve number estimation using rainfall and runoff data from five catchments in Sudan

Abstract The United States Natural Resources Conservation Services Curve Number (NRCS-CN) method uses the CN and rainfall to calculate runoff. However, there are still some uncertainties in the method, such as choosing the most appropriate CN value. Therefore, this study attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of using the NRCS-CN method to estimate the runoff of five catchments in Sudan. For each catchment, CN values were obtained from the number of observed rainfall-runoff events using the NRCS table, arithmetic mean, median, and geometric mean methods. For each method, Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) was obtained to evaluate the fit between the observed and runoff, and negative NSE values were found for all methods. Negative values of NSE indicate that the observed runoff and estimated runoff are not well fitted, and the NRCS-CN method is not suitable for runoff calculation in the study areas.

The U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat): Development, Applications, and Opportunities

Inland recreational fishing, defined as primarily leisure‐driven fishing in freshwaters, is a popular pastime in the USA. State natural resource agencies endeavor to provide high‐quality and sustainable fishing opportunities for anglers. Managers often use creel and other angler survey data to inform state‐ and waterbody‐level management efforts. Despite the broad implementation of angler surveys and their importance to fisheries management at state scales, regional and national coordination among these activities is minimal, limiting data applicability for larger‐scale management practices and research. Here, we introduce the U.S. Inland Creel and Angler Survey Catalog (CreelCat), a first‐of‐its‐kind, publicly available national database of angler survey data that establishes a baseline of national inland recreational fishing metrics. We highlight research and management applications to help support sustainable inland recreational fishing practices, consider cautions, and make recommendations for implementation.

Updating the Distribution of American Black Bears (Ursus americanus) in Texas Using Community Science, State Agencies, and Natural History Collections

The American black bear (Ursus americanus) is one of largest terrestrial mammals found in Texas. Despite the black bear's large size and charismatic nature, its distribution across the state has been difficult to determine due to outdated distribution maps. Although recent sighting reports indicate that the current distribution of black bears in Texas may be expanding in some areas, researching changes in black bear populations can be difficult and cost prohibitive. Data from community science initiatives and natural history collections can be useful to better understand species distributions and ecology. We used records from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, iNaturalist, and VertNet to describe the distribution of U. americanus in Texas. Our results indicate that black bears may not be widely distributed across Texas and may be breeding in only a small number of counties. Our study highlights the usefulness of successful community science programs and the long-term historical importance of natural history collection records and natural resource agency data sets in better understanding geographic distributions of various species, including U. americanus. These initiatives paired with improved communication and collaboration between natural history collections, community scientists, and municipal, state, and federal natural resource and wildlife agencies can provide valuable information for a variety of species and facilitate future research.