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Livestock depredation by grizzly bears on Forest Service grazing allotments in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2017) Wells, Smith Laura; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Lance McNew
Grizzly bear population growth and range expansion over the last several decades in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) has led to increased human-bear conflicts, including livestock depredation on public land grazing allotments. A better understanding of patterns and relationships between grazing allotment management and grizzly bear depredation of livestock is needed for adaptive, sustainable management in the ecosystem. Historic U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service livestock grazing records, grizzly bear habitat attributes, and documented livestock depredations by grizzly bears were collated for 316 public land grazing allotments within the grizzly bear Demographic Monitoring Area (DMA) during 1992-2014. Spatio-temporal relationships between annual livestock depredation counts and grazing allotment characteristics were modeled for each allotment during the study period at two spatial extents, representing daily and annual grizzly bear activity areas. As the Yellowstone grizzly population expanded during the last several decades, more public land grazing allotments were exposed to potential livestock-grizzly bear interactions and results indicated that both livestock stocking and grizzly bear habitat characteristics in and around allotments were related to documented depredations during 1992-2014. Annual numbers of livestock and grizzly bear density on allotments had a large, positive effect on average livestock depredation event counts. Allotment size and summer grazing both were related to higher depredation event counts while the presence of bulls and/or horses was related to lower counts. Allotments with less rugged terrain, lower road density, relatively higher vegetative primary productivity, greater amounts of whitebark pine, and further from forest edge on average were associated with higher average livestock depredation event counts. Managers and livestock producers could use these results to support adaptive management approaches and long-term planning such as increasing herd supervision, especially in areas with quality grizzly bear habitat and high grizzly bear density, or altering grazing management strategies and grazing locations to limit potential livestock depredation events. Results provide insight into historic livestock-grizzly bear conflicts on public lands in a large, complex ecosystem and although challenging, results could support cooperative management strategies to sustain the grizzly bear population and livestock operations in the GYE.
Magruder Ranger Station, Bitterroot National Forest
(Montana State University - Bozeman, 1972) Woods, Robert F.
A Forest Service complex for the Thompson Falls Ranger District
(Montana State University - Bozeman, 1970) Silbaugh, Earl E.
National forest timber harvest variability
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1984) Forrester, Albert Ayers
It has long been the goal of the United States Forest Service to stabilize timber dependent communities via a sustained yield, even-flow of timber from the National Forests. This policy has been based upon the assumption that timber markets have a destabilizing impact on these communities since private timber operators harvest at varying rates. This paper examines the question of whether or not private harvests are more variable than Forest Service harvests. Statistically, it is shown that Forest Service harvests are not stable and that private harvests are much less variable than national forest harvests. The focus of the paper then turns to an explanation of the variability in Forest Service harvests. Timber sales policies and the Forest Service contract are given as two possible sources of this variability. Regression analysis shows that, for the most part, timber harvests are not significantly related to sales and that apparently there is enough slack in the timber contracts to allow operators time to alter harvest rates according to changes in the economy. Econometric analysis shows that harvests do respond to changes in the economy. Thus harvest variability is not solely due to variability in Forest Service timber sales. Because of the apparent lack of rigidity in timber contracts, evidenced by contract extension, termination, alteration, and slack in the contract period, it is proposed that firms harvesting national forest timber will behave differently than firms harvesting under private contracts. Specifically, it is proposed that firms reduce harvest rates dramatically when prices fall, perhaps ceasing operations altogether, and increasing harvest rates when prices rise. Econometric analysis shows that such behavior in national forest timber supply is present. The evidence provides a partial explanation of national forest harvest variability.
The national forest imperative : a historical geography of national forest landscapes, northern Rockies, Montana
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2014) Fockler, Matthew Neil; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: William Wyckoff
The United States Forest Service manages over 193 million acres of American public land. Management of these landscapes is often contentious. National forests have emerged as landscapes where conflicting ideas about nature and complex value systems are displayed in tangible ways. Current research concerning public lands of the American West has recognized the necessity of attaching material, social, and landscape changes to larger theoretical and cultural structures. This dissertation informs these dialogues by exploring national forest landscape change along the Rocky Mountain Front region of the Crown of the Continent ecosystem in north-central Montana. Using the current Rocky Mountain Division of the Lewis and Clark National Forest as a case study, this research reconstructs landscape change associated with Forest Service management and connects these tangible landscape changes to larger national political, economic, and cultural drivers that shaped agency policies, the national economy, and American society. Furthermore, it explores how local forest users have influenced and shaped forest management and landscape change. In doing so, it draws parallels between these changes and larger American attitudes towards nature, suggesting in this process the role played by the national forests in that larger national narrative. Finally, this dissertation provides a methodology in which these place-based changes on the land can be stored and assessed within a historical geographic information systems (HGIS) database schema. By incorporating significant archival, landscape, and HGIS methodologies, this research finds that national forest landscapes are shaped by national and local cultural trends. The Forest Service has modified its management imperative to address these changes. National forest landscapes are therefore the result of a largely informal negotiation process between the Forest Service, other federal and state agencies and authorities, the public, and the natural world. National forest landscapes are shown to be meeting points where diverse and complex social relations and value systems are transferred to the landscape. This dissertation therefore provides a meaningful set of interpretive tools and a methodology for examining how America public land resources and the ecological world are valued and understood.
Does wilderness matter? : an examination of the political causes and economic consequences of wilderness designation
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 2013) Regan, Shawn Edward; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Randal R. Rucker.;
This thesis improves upon previous cross-sectional analyses of the economic effects of wilderness designation in two important ways. First, a political economy analysis of wilderness selection is developed using data from a comprehensive inventory of all potential wilderness areas managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Second, the economic consequences of wilderness designation are examined using a novel county-level panel data set of western U.S. counties from 1969 to 2010. The Forest Service and Congress are found to act as arbitrators of competing interest groups by designating areas with high levels of wilderness attributes but low development potential. Wilderness designations are found to not have a significant effect on levels of per capita income, population, employment, or average wage per job. These finding are robust to a broad range of specifications. The results suggest that the Forest Service and Congress have made wilderness selection decisions that do not impose significant costs on local economies.
Technological forests : engineering nature with tree planting on the Great Plains, 1870-1944
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2013) Gardner, Robert Charles; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Tim LeCain
As Euro-American settlers moved onto the Great Plains in the 19th century they planted trees to try and reshape the landscape and influence society and the environment. The federal government, through land grant laws and its forestry bureau encouraged this tree planting. In 1902 the federal government established the first federal tree nursery and used seedlings produced there to plant a 30,000 acre forest in the sand hills of central Nebraska. After three decades of tree planting experience the U.S. Forest Service undertook the Prairie States Forestry Project, planting shelterbelts across the continent from Canada to Texas, as a response to the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. Over the course of the 20th century, as these forests grew they became naturalized, both as developing ecosystems and in the public perception as natural spaces for recreational activities. An envirotechnical analysis of this history shows the interactions of environment, culture, and technology; illustrates the historical use of organic technologies; and challenges the traditional categorization of natural and artificial.
An analysis of bidding behavior at U.S. Forest Service timber auctions
(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Agriculture, 1996) Brenner, Brenda Lee; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Randal R. Rucker.
The Forest Service is mandated to receive a "fair market value" for its timber. Noncompetitive bidding may lead to lower than fair market values of timber and thus large losses in federal revenues. Knowing where noncompetitive bidding is most likely to occur may allow the Forest Service to effectively mitigate noncompetitive bidding and antitrust resources to be allocated efficiently. A multi-stage procedure is developed for identifying the market areas where bidding is least competitive. The third stage of the procedure introduces an innovative method for analyzing the competitiveness of bidding behavior. This new method compares the differential impacts of regular and nonregular bidders on bid price. The application of the multi-stage procedure to nine forests in Washington and Oregon reveals noncompetitive bidding may have been present in two forests between 1973 and 1981. Analyses of later years (1985-90) reveal, however, that the noncompetitive bidding that may have been present in earlier years greatly diminished.

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