Conference proceeding
Shear stress partitioning of overland flow on disturbed and undisturbed rangelands
View conference proceeding. Physically-based hillslope erosion models commonly estimate soil detachment and transport capacity based on overland flow shear stress applied to soil aggregates. However, vegetation and rock cover counteract the shear stress of overland flow where they occur. Accordingly, partitioning of total shear stress into components exerted on soil, vegetation, and rock cover is…
Read MoreEstimating expected fire suppression cost savings due to vegetation management on pinyon pine and juniper invaded sagebrush rangelands
View conference proceeding. Wildfire suppression costs in the United States have increased steadily over the last decades (Stephens and Ruth 2005, Calkin et al. 2005, Gebert et al 2007, Westerling et al. 2006, GAO 2007), with related expenditures by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management exceeding a billion dollars per year in…
Read MoreRanching, invasive annual grasses, and the external costs of wildfire in Great Basin: A stochastic dynamic programming approach
View conference proceeding. The spread of invasive annual grasses and resulting escalation of wildfire frequency and severity pose a significant and growing threat to the economic and ecological viability of the rangelands in the Great Basin. While private ranchers have the option to limit the severity of wildfires through fuels removal treatments, few ranchers engage…
Read MoreInvasive weeds, wildfire, and rancher decision-making in the Great Basin
View conference proceeding. In this article, a numerical dynamic model is developed to characterize the decision problem of a rancher operating on rangelands in northern Nevada that are affected by invasive annual grasses and wildfire. The model incorporates decisions about herd size management of a cow-calf operation and fuels treatment to reduce the size of…
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