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Numerous studies have concluded that forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) are effective at mitigating erosion and sedimentation caused by forest operations; however, the complex relationship between forestry BMPs and erosion is largely unexamined. In this study, BMP implementation rates, which are percentages ranging from 0 to 100% that indicates how well an operator instituted recommended practices in the field, and predicted erosion rates, obtained by using USLE-Forest, were calculated for 108 recent harvests in twelve states and three physiographic regions in the southeastern U.S. BMP implementation rates were subdivided into three levels of application: BMP+ (>90% implementation), BMP-standard (80-90% implementation), and BMP- (<80% implementation). Skid trails (86.5 Mg ha -1 yr -1 ) and haul roads (90.3 Mg ha -1 yr -1 ) eroded at relatively high rates at the BMP- level across the southeast. This emphasizes the importance of adequate BMP measures such as utilizing water diversion structures and cover management at these features to better protect water quality. The overall weighted average erosion estimates for all regions at the BMP-standard (10.4 Mg ha -1 yr -1 ) and BMP+ (6.6 Mg ha -1 yr -1 ) levels were <11 Mg ha -1 yr -1 , indicating that water quality and site productivity are largely protected when adequate BMPs are implemented, and Streamside Management Zones (SMZs) are utilized along streams. Approximately 94% of the sites sampled were classified as either BMP-standard or BMP+, demonstrating that BMPs are being implemented consistently throughout the southeast. Spearman ρ correlation analyses were performed for all variables. Forestry BMP implementation and erosion estimates had significant negative correlations, especially for skid trails (Spearman ρ = -0.59, p-value < 0.0001) and haul roads (Spearman ρ = -0.39, p-value = < 0.0001), as well as for all regions across the southeast. These variables, however, were poorly correlated for stream crossings, indicating that current audit questions in the southeast may not fully address erosion. Additionally, BMP implementation and erosion estimates exhibited a significant negative correlation (R 2  = 0.28, p-value < 0.0001) based on a quadratic regression line for all features, reinforcing that as BMP implementation increases, predicted erosion generally decreases., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Water and land resource management planning benefits greatly from accurate prediction and understanding of the spatial distribution of wetness. The topographic wetness index (TWI) was conceived to predict relative surface wetness, and thus hydrologic responsiveness, across a watershed based on the assumption that shallow slope-parallel flow is a major driver of the movement and distribution of soil water. The index has been extensively used in modeling of landscape characteristics responsive to wetness, and some studies have shown the TWI performs well in landscapes where interflow is a dominant process. However, groundwater flow dominates the hydrology of low-slope landscapes with high subsurface conductivities, and the TWI assumptions are not likely to perform well in such environments. For groundwater dominated systems, we propose a hybrid wetness index (Wetness Index based on Landscape position and Topography, WILT) that inversely weights the upslope contributing area by the distance to the nearest surface water feature and the depth to groundwater. When explicit depth to groundwater data are not available, height above and separation from surface water features can act as surrogates for proximity to groundwater. The resulting WILT map provides a more realistic spatial distribution of relative wetness across a low-slope Coastal Plain landscape as demonstrated by improved prediction of hydric soils, depth to groundwater, nitrogen and carbon concentrations in the A horizon of the soil profile, and sensitivity to DEM scale., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Drainage is a globally common disturbance in forested peatlands that impacts peat soils, forest communities, and associated ecosystem functions, calling for informed hydrologic restoration strategies. The Great Dismal Swamp (GDS), located in Virginia and North Carolina, U.S.A., has been altered since colonial times, particularly by extensive ditch networks installed to lower water levels and facilitate timber harvests. Consequently, peat decomposition rates have accelerated, and red maple has become the dominant tree species, reducing the historical mosaic of bald cypress, Atlantic white-cedar, and pocosin stands. Recent repair and installation of water control structures aim to control drainage and, in doing so, enhance forest community composition and preserve peat depths. To help inform these actions, we established five transects of 15 plots each (75 plots total) along a hydrologic gradient where we measured continuous water levels and ecosystem attributes, including peat depths, microtopography, and forest composition and structure. We found significant differences among transects, with wetter sites having thicker peat, lower red maple importance, greater tree density, and higher overall stand richness. Plot-level analyses comported with these trends, clearly grouping plots by transects (via nonmetric multidimensional scaling) and resulting in significant correlations between specific hydrologic metrics and ecosystem attributes. Our findings highlight hydrologic controls on soil carbon storage, forest structure, and maple dominance, with implications for large-scale hydrologic restoration at GDS and in other degraded forested peatlands more broadly., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Wetlands self-organize through reciprocal controls between vegetation and hydrology, but external disturbance may disrupt these feedbacks with consequent changes to ecosystem state. Imminent and widespread emerald ash borer (EAB) infestation throughout North American forested wetlands has raised concern over possible ecosystem state shifts (i.e., wetter, more herbaceous systems) and loss of forest function, calling for informed landscape-scale management strategies. In response, we employed a large-scale manipulative study to assess the ecohydrologic response of black ash wetlands to three alternative EAB management strategies: 1) a do-nothing approach (i.e., simulated EAB infestation via tree girdling), 2) a preemptive, complete harvesting approach (i.e., clearcut), and 3) an overstory replacement approach via group selection. We analyzed six years of daily water table and evapotranspiration (ET) dynamics in six blocks comprising black ash wetlands (controls) and management strategy treatments to quantify potential for hydrologic change and subsequent recovery. In both the do-nothing approach and complete harvesting approach, we found persistent changes in hydrologic regime defined by shallower water tables and lower ET rates coupled with increased herbaceous vegetation growth, indicating ecosystem state shifts driven by vegetation-water table interactions. The do-nothing approach showed the least hydrologic recovery after five years, which we attribute to reduction in overstory transpiration as well as greater shade (via standing dead trees) that reduces open water evaporation and herbaceous layer transpiration compared to complete harvesting. We found no evidence of ecohydrologic disturbance in the overstory replacement approach, highlighting its potential as a management strategy to preserve forested wetland habitat if periodically executed over time before EAB infestation. Although the scale of potential disturbance is daunting, our findings provide a baseline assessment for forest managers to develop preemptive mitigation strategies to address the threat of EAB to ecological functions in black ash wetlands., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Risk and liability concerns regarding fire affect people's attitudes toward fire and have led to human-induced alterations of fire regimes. This has, in turn, contributed to brush encroachment and degradation of many grasslands and savannas. Efforts to successfully restore such degraded ecosystems at the landscape scale in regions of the United States with high proportions of private lands require the reintroduction of fire. Prescribed Burn Associations (PBA) provide training, equipment, and labor to apply fire safely, facilitating the application of this rangeland management tool and thereby reducing the associated risk. PBAs help build networks and social capital among landowners who are interested in using fire. They can also change attitudes toward fire and enhance the social acceptability of using prescribed fire as a management practice. PBAs are an effective mechanism for promoting the widespread use of prescribed fire to restore and maintain the biophysical integrity of grasslands and savannas at the landscape scale. We report findings of a project aimed at determining the human dimensions of using prescribed fire to control woody plant encroachment in three different eco-regions of Texas. Specifically, we examine membership in PBAs as it relates to land manager decisions regarding the use of prescribed fire. Perceived risk has previously been identified as a key factor inhibiting the use of prescribed fire by landowners. Our results show that perceived constraints, due to lack of skill, knowledge, and access to equipment and membership in a PBAs are more important factors than risk perceptions in affecting landowner decisions about the use of fire. This emphasizes the potential for PBAs to reduce risk perceptions regarding the application of prescribed fire and, therefore, their importance for restoring brush-encroached grasslands and savannas., (Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

In its recent history, the U.S. Forest Service is among many federal land management agencies struggling with questions concerning why its planning procedures are sometimes inefficient, perform poorly in the eyes of the public, and fail to deliver outputs that advance agency mission. By examining a representative sample of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) processes conducted by the agency between 2007 and 2009, we provide new insights into what drives outcomes in these planning processes. We examined team leaders' perceptions of the following outcomes: achievement of agency goals and NEPA mandates, process efficiency, public relations, and team outcomes. The most consistently important predictors of positive outcomes were team harmony and a clearly empowered team leader. Other factors, such as perceptions of the use of best science, a clear and unambiguous purpose and need, team turnover (personnel changes during the process), extra-agency engagement, and intra-agency relations, were also important, but played a less consistent role. The findings suggest the importance of empowering team leaders and team members through enhancing elements of discretion, responsibility, clear role definition, collaborative interdisciplinary deliberation, and perceived self-efficacy. The results also suggest the importance of genuine concern and respect for participating publics and effective inter-agency coordination., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Nepal's conservation areas and community forests are generally considered as successful community-based conservation models. The paper's goal is to investigate the factors that consistently predict the level of trust local governing bodies have on administering agencies in these models. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected through field research in the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) in the summer of 2007 and adjacent community forests in the fall of 2008. The Conservation Area Management Committee (CAMC) and the Community Forest User Committee (CFUC) are the functional decision-making entities at the local level in ACA and the community forests, respectively. I conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 66 executive members of 10 CAMCs and 67 members of 9 CFUCs. In multiple regression models relating the levels of trust committee members had for administering staff and agencies to a set of 7 theoretically informed covariates, 4 were statistically significant in ACA and 3 in the community forests. In ACA, committee members' overall assessment of the agency's performance, perceptions regarding the agency staff's understanding of local culture, perceptions regarding the equitable distribution of conservation benefits, and perceptions regarding the dependence upon the agency were statistically significant variables that influenced trust. In the community forests, committee members' overall assessment of the agency's performance, perceptions regarding the agency staff's understanding of local culture, and rational assessments of the benefits and costs associated with being a member explained significant variations in the levels of trust. The most consistent predictors of agency trust in both the models were committee members' overall assessment of the agency's performance, and perceptions regarding the agency staff's understanding of local culture. These findings suggest that natural resource management agencies can devise strategies for building trust with local governing bodies by a combination of above average performance and deeper understanding of local culture., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We conducted a survey of 3321 Forest Service employees involved in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) followed by five focus groups to investigate agency views of the purpose of agency NEPA processes and their appropriate measures of success. Results suggest the lack of a unified critical task for Forest Service NEPA processes and that employees' functions relevant to NEPA influence their views of its meaning. Compared to other agency personnel, members of interdisciplinary teams who carry out most day-to-day NEPA-related tasks placed greater emphasis on minimizing negative environmental and social impacts, satisfying multiple stakeholders and avoiding litigation and appeals. Line officers, who typically serve as the decision makers following NEPA processes, placed greatest emphasis on efficient implementation and least emphasis on minimizing impacts. Advisory personnel placed greatest emphasis on effective disclosure of analyses and decision-making. We discuss the structural origins of these differences as well as their implications., ((c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

We conducted an online survey (n = 3321) followed by five focus groups with Forest Service employees involved in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to explore agency views of how NEPA should be implemented within the agency. We filter these perceptions through the lenses of different functional groups within the agency, each with its own role in agency compliance with NEPA and its own suite of perceived accountabilities. In doing so, we uncover areas of consensus regarding valued practices as well as tensions between employees with different roles in NEPA compliance. General consensus exists regarding the importance of the effective functioning of interdisciplinary teams, but opinions about what constitutes an effective team vary. Findings suggest that NEPA serves as a playing field for competing accountabilities felt by line officers, disciplinary specialists, and advisory personnel within the agency, as each attempts to exert influence over NEPA processes and their outcomes., ((c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)