ScholarWorks

ScholarWorks is an open access repository for the capture of the intellectual work of Montana State University (MSU) in support of its teaching, research and service missions. MSU ScholarWorks is a central point of discovery for accessing, collecting, sharing, preserving, and distributing knowledge to the Montana State University community and the world.

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Scholarship & Research

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The Choice among Sales Mechanisms: Auction v. Negotiated Sales of Private Timber
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2025-05)
Rucker, Randal R.
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Leffler, Keith B.
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Munn, Ian A.
For many non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners, the standing timber on their property is an important component of their investment portfolios. The value of their timber is determined not only by the biological and physical attributes of their timber tracts, but also by the transaction costs associated with different contracting practices, pricing schemes, and sales mechanisms. In this paper, we examine the determinants of the choice by landowners between the two predominant sales mechanisms for selling standing timber—auctions and negotiations. Our examination provides industry participants with a framework for thinking about the benefits and costs of the choice between these two alternatives. Further, it provides them with information on empirical relationships among sales mechanisms and their determinants. We also discuss potential implications of our results for the USDA Forest Service (Forest Service), which is required to sell almost all of its tracts through auctions.
A remote sensing and GIS-based analysis of forest cover changes and carbon sequestration trends over three decades
(Elsevier BV, 2025-05)
Raza, Ali
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Rubab Syed, Neyha
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Fahmeed, Romana
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Acharki, Siham
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Hussain, Sajjad
Reducing deforestation is essential to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and protect vulnerable forest ecosystems. Afforestation initiatives have significantly reduced deforestation effect in Pakistan through large-scale plantation efforts. This study uses Landsat imagery to determine land use land cover changes (LULCC) for assessing carbon changes from which emission and sequestration can be deduced in the Nasirabad (district of Balochistan), Pakistan. For this purpose, Landsat imagery from 1993, 2003, 2013, and 2023 years were processed using geographic information system (GIS) software and classified based on maximum likelihood classification (MLC) algorithm to prepare land use land cover (LULC) maps. The LULCC analysis revealed a significant decline (21.9 %) in forest area from 1993 to 2003, followed by a notable recovery (2003–2013: 24.53 %, 2013–2023: 6.33 %) over the two decades. Under government led afforestation-initiatives, forests covered approximately 994.13 km2, indicating a 30.85 % increase over twenty years. The rise in forest cover due to these initiatives has increased carbon storage from 2003 to 2023. However, forest area decreased by 705.85 km2 between 1993 and 2003, resulting in total annual emissions (TAE) of approximately, 117612.13 tons per year. This study provides critical data to promote afforestation and forest conservation, aiding climate change mitigation.
Fabrication and optical characterization of a silicon bilayer wire-grid polarizer at a wavelength of 1550nm
(SPIE, 2025-03)
Baker, Jordan L.
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Graham, James C.
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Oliver, Andrew
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Dickensheets, David L.
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Nakagawa, Wataru
Wire-grid polarizers (WGPs) are subwavelength metallic nanostructures that transmit the transverse magnetic (TM) linear polarization state and reflect the transverse electric (TE) linear polarization state. BilayerWGPs are devices composed of two sets of wire grids that are vertically offset via a surface-relief dielectric grating. Bilayer WGPs generally have higher extinction ratios for transmitted light, higher efficiency of the reflected state, and lower angular sensitivity than standard WGPs. We experimentally demonstrate an aluminum and silicon bilayer WGP optimized for operation at a wavelength of 1550nm. While bilayer WGPs at this wavelength tend to be fabricated with lower-index dielectric materials for better transmission efficiency, using silicon allows us to leverage existing expertise in nanoscale silicon etching methods and to create a device that is compatible with future integration into microoptoelectromechanical systems (MOEMS). This demonstration device achieved a measured TM transmission efficiency of 58.8% at normal incidence with a transmission extinction ratio of at least 2400:1. If the loss due to Fresnel reflection at the silicon substrate’s back interface is accounted for, we calculate that the bilayer grating’s TM transmission efficiency is greater than 80% at normal incidence. The measured TE reflection efficiency was greater than 94.5%, which is comparable to reported reflection efficiencies of bilayer WGPs on lower-index substrates since the TE reflectance is primarily driven by interaction with the metallic nanostructures. Therefore, with the addition of an antireflection coating on the back of the silicon substrate, these bilayer devices could achieve high TM transmission efficiency, high TE reflection efficiency, and a high transmissive extinction ratio, while being compatible for integration into MOEMS devices.
Clarifying the role of the resist–accept–direct framework in supporting resource management planning processes
(Wiley, 2025-05)
Schuurman, Gregor W.
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Carr, Wylie
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Hawkins Hoffman, Cat
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Lawrence, David
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Miller, Brian W.
The resist–accept–direct (RAD) framework was developed by and for conservationists, resource managers, and climate change adaptation practitioners and scientists to foster strategic and collaborative thinking about responses to anthropogenic ecological change (Lynch et al., 2021; Schuurman et al., 2020, 2022; Thompson et al., 2021). Prevailing management approaches, which emphasize managing for ecosystem stationarity and maintaining historical ecological conditions or dynamics (e.g., Landres et al., 1999), are increasingly inadequate in this time of rapid, directional change (Jackson, 2021; Schuurman et al., 2022). Resisting anthropogenic environmental change has been the traditional approach in the resource management community. However, thinking beyond persistence alone is critical, given that preservation of all ecological components and processes in any given place will not be possible as the environment in which they developed transforms. This change in thinking constitutes a paradigm shift that calls for new tools and approaches, and the RAD framework is gaining traction in conservation and resource management agencies (e.g., the United States Department of the Interior [USDOI, 2021], the National Park Service [NPS, 2021, 2024], Australia's Parks Victoria Board [PVB, 2022], and South African National Parks [van Wilgen-Bredenkamp et al., 2024]).
RAIN: a multistate research alliance to facilitate collaboration, increase student opportunities, and share core facility resources
(American Physiological Society, 2025-02)
Bothner, Brian
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Lusetti, Shelley L.
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Seville, R. Scott
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Baker, Josh E.
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Barnes, Brian M.
Since 2001, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have funded the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) Network of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) to expand biomedical research capacity among states in which NIH funding was historically low. The Western IDeA Region comprises seven states: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wyoming. Beginning in 2017, these states developed an interstate “supernetwork”: the Regional Alliance of INBRE Networks (RAIN). RAIN’s four initiatives are: 1) holding regular INBRE program director/principal investigator (PD/PI) communication and strategy sessions; 2) sharing research Core Facilities and programs; 3) developing interstate undergraduate student research exchanges; and 4) promoting interstate research collaborations. The seven INBRE PD/PIs meet monthly, usually virtually, to share administrative best practices, help each other problem-solve, and support one another’s competitive renewals. Sharing IDeA-built Core Facilities and programs offers unique and/or faster services for researchers, without states needing to duplicate core capabilities. This substantially reduced costs. In 2019, ID-, MT-, and NM-INBREs estimated that sharing their existing Core Facilities and services saved $27.6 million over the course of one 5-yr funding cycle. Each undergraduate summer research program is open to other RAIN state students, with 29 student participants thus far. Faculty interdisciplinary research is promoted by a Collaboration Studio and special funding. To date, RAIN support has led to 18 scientific presentations, 12 peer-reviewed publications, and generated $1,400,000 in new NIH grants. RAIN is a model for other programs to share best practices, enhance interdisciplinary collaborations, limit redundant infrastructure, and share research/mentoring expertise.