USDA Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges (EFRs) are scientific treasures, providing secure, protected research sites where complex and diverse ecological processes are studied over the long term. This book offers several examples of the dynamic interactions among questions of public concern or policy, EFR research, and natural resource management practices and policies. Often, trends observed – or expected -- in the early years of a research program are contradicted or confounded as the research record extends over decades. The EFRs are among the few areas in the US where such long-term research has been carried out by teams of scientists. Changes in society’s needs and values can also redirect research programs. Each chapter of this book reflects the interplay between the ecological results that emerge from a long-term research project and the social forces that influence questions asked and resources invested in ecological research. While these stories include summaries and syntheses of traditional research results, they offer a distinctly new perspective, a larger and more complete picture than that provided by a more typical 5-year study. They also provide examples of long-term research on EFRs that have provided answers for questions not even imagined at the time the study was installed.

With the advent of LANDFIRE fuels layers, an increasing number of specialists are using the data in a variety of fire modeling systems. However, a comprehensive guide on acquiring, critiquing, and editing (ACE) geospatial fuels data does not exist. This paper provides guidance on ACE as well as on assembling a geospatial fuels team, model calibration, and maintaining geospatial data and documentation. The LANDFIRE Data Access Tool (LFDAT), an ArcMap extension, and the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS) are the primary tools outlined in this guide to obtain the Fire Area Simulator (FARSITE) landscape file (LCP) for geospatial fuels application. Other useful geographic information system (GIS) data acquisition websites and layers for geospatial fire analysis are also provided. Critiquing the data consists of (1) a tabular critique of the inputs using LCP Critique and (2) a geospatial critique of the inputs and outputs using FlamMap and ArcMap. Detailed information is provided on many of the layers that constitute the LCP (fuel model, canopy cover, stand height, crown base height, crown bulk density). Inputs are spatially critiqued using FlamMap and ArcMap in combination with the existing vegetation type layer. Outputs critiqued include flame length, rate of spread, fireline intensity, crown fire activity, and fire growth. Compare-Models-Four and Minimum Travel Time (MTT) are discussed, the WFDSS landscape editor is demonstrated as a tool to edit and update an LCP and a section on model calibration using FARSITE and MTT is included. The paper concludes with direction and discussion on data maintenance, documentation, and complexities of a national fuels dataset for field application.

Hydrologic processes in the pinyon-juniper woodlands of the western region of the United States are variable because of the inherent interactions among the occurring precipitation regimes, geomorphological settings, and edaphic conditions that characterize the ecosystem. A wide range of past and present land-use practices further complicates comprehensive evaluations of these hydrologic processes. Heterogeneous vegetative covers make it even more difficult to generalize hydrologic processes and the effects of land management practices on the water balance. Nevertheless, estimates of interception, infiltration, evapotranspiration, soil moisture storage, and hillslope soil erosion of these on-site hydrologic processes have been obtained in plot studies. Estimates of off-site streamflow volumes, sediment yields and transport, and quality of streamflow water are available from the results of watershed-level investigations. Estimates of these respective hydrologic processes are presented in this general technical report.