Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
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Item American Zion: Mormon perspectives on landscape from Zion National Park to the Bundy family war(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Quammen, Betsy Gaines; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael ReidyThis dissertation is about Mormon views on landscape and resource use from Euro-American settlement in what is today southern Utah and southeastern Nevada, to the current range battles over public lands. In journals, articles, interviews, videos, and blog posts, a record of grazing and extraction during early settlement through the opening of tourism and modern federal management exists; these materials portray religious and utilitarian views on landscape and justify land use accordingly. Opinions over the appropriate use of federal lands, cultural biases and differing notions of ownership present a wide disparity on regional and national perceptions of suitable uses of federal property. Most urban Americans want to access public lands for reasons other than resource extraction. Western ranchers and their supporters, on the other hand, want to use public land for economic purposes. A group of Mormon ranchers justify their position through ancestry, entitlement and religious beliefs. The result has been a protracted conflict, in Mormon homeland, between the federal government, regional residents and the broader American public. This dissertation tracks early land use by Southern Paiute and Mormons; the history of grazing on federal lands and the establishment of national parks and monuments in Mormon country; and current armed conflicts over land use.Item Coping with the landscape: an aesthetic analysis of the intermediate zone(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 2018) Parker, Ryan Keith; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Jim ZimpelNumerous studies have been conducted into the aesthetics of landscape, both through objects (sculptures and installations) and through pictorial devices (painting, printmaking, photography, etc.). The fact being that, as long as the horizon line is interrupted these studies by artists will continue in hope of understanding and changing their own reality. Aligning with the history of the photographic land survey, the emphasis of this work is to direct the reading of landscapes towards an aesthetic analysis of the modern mobile landscape. Considering the accumulation of capital as the driving force of the aesthetic change in the landscape, this analysis will focus on the geography of the highest concentration of visible indicators, the intermediate zone. Within this transitional space, as is similarly true with ecological systems, the highest concentration for diversity has the ability to manifest at the edges of converging zones, due to the overlapping of multiple systems in one geographic locality. Accumulation of indicators, both those failing in the system and those entering the system will be present. Recognizing that this survey considers the use and misuse of utilitarian objects and architecture as a method of evaluating time, purpose, and relative availably to the general population, it will present an argument for the intentional denial of the legibility for this landscape, leading to a further lack of understanding within the general population. This result will further lead to the alienation of the population from its landscape.Item Master plan for landscape development of the Montana State College campus(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1964) Post, Richard LelandItem Contemporary luminous landscapes(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1987) Park, Bruce RodmanMy thesis work is about exploring the environment through my intuitive vision; a quest to seek new truths about a traditional subject, the landscape. What I could contribute to landscape's long and extensive history became the challenging issue. Curiously, the problem was resolved by my children. Through them, I understood that each person enters this life as an autonomous individual soul, seeing the world again through innocent eyes. To perceive the land as if completely new is the attitude I seek, and then to present the landscape's grandeur and beauty in my paintings. Light infuses life into the earth and sky, and I choose to render my experiences of this energy as it affects the land at different times of the day, the season and atmospheric turbulence. My art is of idealized, luminous landscapes that carry on in a new way the grand tradition of the American landscape.Item Monotypes(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Arts & Architecture, 1984) Moss, Lynda Bourque; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Francis J. Noel IIISpace... vast, endless, personal or intimate, permeates my work. Oblique and haunting as well as curious and humorous, the monotypes are landscapes offering divergent elements. They hold images suggesting questions rather than answers. The Western landscape, a big place with vague boundaries, is my source for these works. By visually wandering across a prairie, gazing at an expanse of water or observing the sky, I acknowledge a sense of spaciousness and immediacy. These sensations call for a focal reference. This may be something physical and tangible or it may be an internalization. Both provide a meditative response. I believe a duality of vision allows an acceptance of experience in an individual way. Agnes Martin suggests a similar concern: 'It is from our awareness of transcendent reality and our response to concrete reality that our mind commands us on our way - not really on a path or to a gate - but to a full response.' My perception of the landscape is similar to that of many artists, from the nineteenth century to the present. Walt Whitman wrote of the 'strange mixture of delicacy' evident in the plains and mountains. David Smith spoke of the rawness and harshness of the American landscape. The process of monotypes - a combination of painting and printmaking - and the consequent characteristics of the process suited my interests and visual language. The spontaneity and immediacy of painting transfer in a direct and sensitive manner. Luminosity, layering and compressed imagery are utilized. These works share complicity and economy. In all the monotypes a paradox is present, an expanse is occupied by defined independent marks. Foggy ambiguous ground/atmosphere exists with strange awkward rudiments. Borrowing from Jack Burnham in 'The Great Western Salt Works', these may be referred to as very primitive 'signifiers'. Each monotype presents a syntax for divergent qualities. Each represents time; time of thought and time of action. They are my record of seeing. Richard Hugo expressed a parallel attitude in 'Open Country': '...And you come back here where the land has ways of going on and the shadow of a cloud crawls like a freighter, no port in mind, no captain, and the charts dead wrong.'Item Hydrology and landscape structure control subalpine catchment carbon export(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2009) Pacific, Vincent Jerald; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Brian L. McGlynn.Carbon export from high elevation ecosystems is a critical component of the global carbon cycle. Ecosystems in northern latitudes have become the focus of much research due to their potential as large sinks of carbon in the atmosphere. However, there exists limited understanding of the controls of carbon export from complex mountain catchments due to strong spatial and temporal hydrologic variability, and large heterogeneity in landscape structure. The research presented in this dissertation investigates the control of hydrology and landscape structure and position on two major avenues of carbon loss from mountain watersheds: soil respiration and stream dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export. Measurements of soil respiration and its biophysical controls (soil water content, soil temperature, vegetation, soil organic matter, and soil physical properties) and stream and groundwater DOC dynamics are presented across three years and multiple riparian-hillslope transitions within a complex subalpine catchment in the northern Rocky Mountains, Montana. Variability in soil respiration was related to hydrologic dynamics through space and time and was strongly influenced by topography and landscape structure. Cumulative soil CO 2 efflux was significantly higher from wet riparian landscape positions compared to drier hillslope locations. Changes in hydrologic regimes (e.g. snowmelt and precipitation timing and magnitude) also impacted soil respiration. From a wet to a dry growing season, there were contrasting and disproportionate changes in cumulative growing season surface CO 2 efflux at wet and dry landscape positions. Stream DOC export was also influenced by landscape structure and hydrologic variability. The mobilization and delivery mechanisms of DOC from the soil to the stream were dependent upon the size of DOC source areas and the degree of hydrologic connectivity between the stream and the riparian and hillslope zones, which varied strongly across the landscape. This dissertation provides fundamental insight into the controls of hydrology and landscape structure on carbon export from complex mountain watersheds. The results of this research have large implications for the carbon source/sink status of high elevation mountain ecosystems, the influence of changing hydrologic regimes on soil respiration, and the use of landscape analysis to determine the locations of large source areas for carbon export.Item A review of landscape influences on riparian zone processes in mountainous headwater catchments(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2012) Stoy, Padraic Fitzgerald; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Lucy Marshall.Understanding the drivers of riparian zone hydrology is crucial for informed management of water quality, especially in headwater catchments. This study reviews landscape influences on riparian zone processes in mountainous headwater catchments, and combines recent findings and management techniques into a conceptual analysis of riparian zone hydrology and nutrient export. A case study synthesizing recently published work in Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (TCEF) is developed outlining riparian zone hydrology, riparian buffering, and nutrient export. We demonstrate that a major influence on the hydrology and nutrient export in mountainous catchments can be landscape structure, and use this finding as a framework to develop a conceptual approach to riparian zones in mountainous areas. The conceptual analysis is intended to inform management through the identification of riparian areas that are important for stream water quality depending on hydrologic drivers in the catchment. Understanding the variability of riparian zone hydrology and subsequent water quality impacts will allow for more focused and informed management decisions for riparian areas.Item Creating the Old and New Wests : landscape and identity in Anaconda and Hamilton, Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2006) Bryson, Jeremy Glen; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: William WyckoffThis research employs case studies of Anaconda and Hamilton, Montana to explore the creation of the Old and New Wests. For nearly a century, Anaconda functioned as a copper smelting city. However, since the smelter closed the community has witnessed withering population losses, economic contraction, and investment withdrawal. Alternatively, Hamilton has a long history of recreational and leisure amenity investment. Recently, Hamilton's rapid population growth, economic expansion and considerable investment have transformed the community. This research seeks to understand and interpret the changes occurring in the contemporary Old and New Wests as well as to understand and interpret their historical geographic roots. By using the tools of cultural landscape analysis combined with the concept of place identity, this research argues that the shifting imprint of capital and the industrial and middle landscape ideals have been central forces in the creation of these distinctive modern regions.