Browsing by Author "Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee member"
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Item Open Access Assessing wildlife habitat suitability for ecological sites and state and transition models(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Hibbs, Willow Bo, author; Roath, Roy, advisor; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee member; Noon, Barry, committee memberWildlife habitat is an important component of rangeland management plans. Unfortunately, there are few practical tools to assist managers in understanding how management and environmental variation affects habitat suitability. Ecological site descriptions (ESDs) have the potential to fill this role because they contain information on the biophysical features of the land and contain state-and-transition models (STMs) which describe ecological sites in terms of their potential vegetation dynamics. These characteristics can be the primary indicators of suitable wildlife habitat. Researchers and managers using ESDs and STMs have suggested that information on other aspects of ecosystem functions should be included so that they can be evaluated along with soils and vegetation. I developed greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) habitat models using published literature and a fuzzy logic knowledge representation and evaluation system. The resulting outputs were 0-1 scaled indices representing the relative suitability of habitat based on measured habitat attributes in different states of two ecological sites common in NW Colorado, claypan and mountain loam. In Chapter 1, I tested hypotheses related to the habitat suitability of differing states in these two structurally divergent ecological sites. Results support the hypotheses that states with degraded attributes or that were associated with aerial herbicide spraying are generally lower in habitat suitability, and that states with similar components as the reference state do not have significantly different habitat suitability than the reference states. In Chapter 2, I developed sage grouse habitat maps and compared the results with current habitat mapping procedures. The ecological site/STM framework allowed for an understanding of the distribution, abundance, and value of habitat to be linked to management and environmental variation. This work is an important contribution towards incorporating wildlife habitat information into ESDs and understanding trade-offs in wildlife habitat suitability associated with different vegetation states.Item Open Access Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.) management and native plant community recovery on sites selectively treated with Imazapic in Rocky Mountain National Park(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2017) Davis, Christopher, author; Brown, Cynthia S., advisor; Paschke, Mark W., committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberCheatgrass, a winter annual grass introduced to North America from Eurasia, has invaded much of the Western United States over the last century. Recently, cheatgrass has become a threat to the montane and subalpine plant communities and ecosystems of Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP). Cheatgrass aggressively invades disturbed sites and competes with native plant species by rapidly establishing a root system capable of depleting soil moisture and available nitrogen, making cheatgrass control a priority when restoring disturbed areas within RMNP. The purposes of this study were to determine the effectiveness of imazapic for cheatgrass control, its effects on non-target native species, and how the plant community recovers following cheatgrass control. In 2008, 12 permanent monitoring plots were established in six sites in RMNP, each with one reference and one imazapic treatment plot. Reference plots were chosen to represent the desired final condition for each imazapic treatment site. Imazapic (23.6% a.i.) was applied to cheatgrass infestations post-emergence in 2008 (105 g a.i./ha) and pre-emergence in 2009 (105 g a.i./ha) and 2010 (70 g a.i./ha). Imazapic was applied to cheatgrass patches selectively, avoiding application to native species as much as possible. Cheatgrass cover was reduced more than fourfold to approximately 5% in 2013, and there was no decrease in cover of native forbs, grasses, or shrubs. There was no subsequent increase in native species abundance following cheatgrass removal, suggesting further action is needed if the ultimate management goal is to encourage native species recovery in treatment plots after satisfactory cheatgrass control is achieved.Item Open Access Diversifying ranch business models: challenges and opportunities in Larimer County, Colorado(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2011) Christensen, Megan, author; Goldstein, Joshua, advisor; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee member; Reid, Robin, committee memberPrivate, working ranches provide valuable "ecosystem services," the benefits people derive from ecosystems including food, water, open space, carbon sequestration, recreational opportunities, and many more. While ranchers are compensated for services such as food and other livestock products, they are generally not compensated for other public benefits derived from their land stewardship. Development pressure compounded by low profit margins in the livestock industry make ranching an economically difficult undertaking, and conversion of working ranches to other land uses is a well-established trend across the western US. New income sources are being explored to create more diversified ranch business models in order to deliver financial benefits to ranchers and conservation benefits to the public. The objective of this study was to investigate the barriers and opportunities for developing more diversified business models for working ranches that integrate traditional livestock income sources with additional conservation-oriented sources. As part of this investigation, we examined the potential role of payments for ecosystem services (PES), a major new market-based tool for conservation in working landscapes. We investigated this topic through a detailed case study of ranchers and natural resource practitioners in Larimer County, Colorado - a region with a long tradition of ranching that continues today amidst escalating pressures that threaten the viability of ranching and conservation values in the region. Using a qualitative semi-structured interview approach, we interviewed 18 ranchers (comprising 16 ranch operations) and 7 natural resource practitioners who work closely with ranchers in the study region. We concentrated on topics including current ranch business models and practices, challenges ranches are facing, and barriers and opportunities for more diversified future ranch business models, including a particular focus on PES. Participants identified 58 current challenges, 70 concerns for the future, and 85 opportunities for diversification in the future. Costs of inputs, unprofitability, development pressure, time and energy, and water scarcity were mentioned most often within the wide range of challenges. Invasion of privacy, traditional thinking or fear of change, and regulations emerged as concerns important to participants. Future business opportunities were divided into three main categories: (1) reducing costs (e.g. tax credits), (2) enhancing revenue (e.g. carbon credits) and (3) building regional capacity (e.g. capitalizing on the increasingly collaborative ranch culture). After discussion regarding a hypothetical PES program, all participants were at least potentially interested in a new payment program. This interest was tempered, however with caution and questions about how such a program would be structured. Any new program developed would need to provide complete, transparent information regarding costs, benefits, rules, and requirements. This research contributes to diverse efforts at local (e.g., rancher coalitions) to national (e.g., USDA Office of Environmental Markets) scales working to develop a model for the "ranch of the future", which aims to integrate conservation and agricultural production practices on working ranches.Item Open Access Drought & conservation: exploring the relationship between drought and grazing land conservation program enrollment(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Hensen, Reid, author; Mooney, Daniel, advisor; Hill, Alexandra, advisor; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberFinancial loss from drought can have devastating impacts on the livelihoods of land and livestock managers. Conservation practices are one of the drought adaptation strategies for mitigating the damage of drought and are particularly useful for long-term adaptation. Using the largest known database of grazing conservation practice implementation, this study analyzes the effect of drought conditions on enrollment into the USDA Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) at the national scale. Specifically, we explore the impacts of drought on the number of EQIP grazing practices implemented in a given county from 2009-2018. We exploit exogenous variation in drought exposure at the county level to estimate the effect of drought conditions on grazing practice implementation. We find that severe drought increases drought-related conservation practice implementation for up to two years. Additionally, we find that following a severe drought, there is a meaningful increase in practices related to long-term drought adaptation such as ponds, livestock pipelines, and range planting. When analyzed by agricultural region, our findings suggest that each region uniquely uses conservation practices to respond to drought. We complement our national econometric model with a brief analysis of a 2013 survey of Colorado and Wyoming ranchers. We use results from the survey to examine management and drought adaptation differences in producers who had enrolled in EQIP and those who had not. We find that ranches enrolled in EQIP are more likely to add alternative on-farm enterprises and incorporate pasture rest into their grazing system as part of their drought adaptation strategy. Results from both data sources work in concert to provide insight into the relationship between drought, EQIP, and livestock management.Item Open Access Evolving institutions of environmental governance: the collaborative implementation of stewardship contracts by the USDA Forest Service(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Mattor, Katherine Marie Detmar, author; Cheng, Antony S., advisor; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee member; Dean, Thomas, committee member; Taylor, Peter, committee memberCollaborative forest management policies are increasingly being enacted in the U.S. Increased pressure to implement collaborative forest management processes emphasizes the need to understand the extent to which such policies are being adopted, the factors influencing their implementation, and how well these efforts are meeting policy intentions. This dissertation provides practical and theoretical insight to the adoption of collaborative forest management approaches by focusing on the implementation of stewardship-end-result contracting (stewardship contracting). A mixed-methods research design was used to systematically assess the collaborative implementation of stewardship contracts by the USDA Forest Service (USFS). The first phase of this research employed a statistical analysis of the adoption of USFS stewardship contracts from 1999 to 2011 to provide a foundational understanding of its use. This analysis identified consistent adoption of stewardship contracts across USFS regions, with a significant increase in the number of contracts and associated acres during this time period. The second phase of this research statistically analyzed the levels of collaboration associated with USFS stewardship contracts. This large-N analysis determined collaboration has a significant role in meeting stewardship contract objectives. Key process indicators identified in the collaborative governance literature - the number of interests involved, the amount of outreach used, the roles of the community, and who initiated the project - have a strong association with the levels of collaboration. This analysis identified a significant variation in the levels of collaborative stewardship contract implementation across USFS regions. The third phase of this research utilized a qualitative multiple-case study approach to build upon the previous statistical analyses and to attain an in depth understanding of the contextual factors influencing the levels of collaboration associated with stewardship contracts in the USFS Rocky Mountain Region. The results reveal a combination of institutional, community, and individual attributes are essential for the use of collaboration in USFS stewardship contracting processes. These attributes include guidance and support from the USFS, high levels of social capital within the community, and strong leadership from individuals within both the agency and community. The results indicate the collaborative forests identified and achieved a greater number of objectives than the non-collaborative forests and thereby confirm previous findings of this dissertation in which collaborative stewardship contracting processes achieved more forest management and community social and economic objectives than non-collaborative processes. Collaboration therefore has a critical role in achieving the policy intentions of stewardship contracting. This dissertation advances the existing collaborative governance literature by quantitatively analyzing collaborative process components and outcomes across a large population of similar efforts, while providing a detailed qualitative analysis of the factors influencing the adoption of collaborative processes and the associated outcomes. Additional comprehensive evaluations of the adoption of collaboration, the factors associated with its use, and its role in achieving the policy intentions are necessary to determine the first- and second-tier influences and outcomes of collaborative processes. Such comprehensive evaluations of collaboration can improve its application in policy and management and prevent it from being falsely identified as a panacea to address all social-ecological management issues.Item Open Access Governing complexity: polycentricity and customary property rights in the commons(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Carlisle, Keith M., author; Gruby, Rebecca L., advisor; Basurto, Xavier, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee member; Gavin, Michael, committee memberBroadly, this dissertation research examines natural resources governance approaches that may facilitate the achievement of desirable social and ecological outcomes. It takes, as its point of departure, a nearly half-century-old concept that is experiencing a renaissance among natural resources governance scholars: polycentricity, a complex and multilevel form of governance comprised of a plurality of semi-autonomous decision makers. Despite its age and apparent popularity, the concept of polycentricity remains conceptually fuzzy and empirically underdeveloped in the commons. This dissertation addresses these deficiencies through conceptual and empirical contributions to the growing scholarship on polycentricity. In its conceptual contribution, this dissertation develops a theoretical model of a functional polycentric governance system for natural resources governance. For this purpose, "functional" refers to the capacity of the governance system to exhibit particular advantages that are commonly attributed to polycentric governance systems by scholars. In doing so, it builds greater clarity around the concept and the conditions under which it may lead to predicted or desired outcomes. This dissertation then examines the functioning of a polycentric governance system through a qualitative case study of small-scale fishery governance in the Northern Reef region of the Republic of Palau, a small island nation in the western Pacific. Deficiencies in institutional features are identified that partly explain why the governance system does not fully achieve the advantages commonly attributed to polycentric governance systems. In addition, analysis of the historical transition of the governance system from community based to polycentric reveals that the path to polycentricity, the particular form of polycentricity, and contextual conditions constitute additional distal explanations of deficiencies in functionality. The case underscores the need for more refined theory concerning the emergence and functionality of different forms of polycentricity in various contexts. In its empirical contributions, this dissertation also speaks to small-scale fishery policy through a finer-scale examination of the social function of customary marine tenure institutions in the Northern Reef state of Ngarchelong. These informal institutions define, among other things, eligibility criteria for those having a recognized right to fish in the state. Flexible administration of customary marine tenure institutions enables Ngarchelong residents to secure material support from nonresident community members and also strengthens social bonds and networks as the community becomes more dispersed in Palau. This research calls attention to the possible social impacts of fishery policies that redefine or formalize fishery access and use rights, and it describes a general approach for better harmonizing fishery policy with local social context and customary institutions.Item Open Access Grazing management in Inner Mongolia, China(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Byrne, Anne Teresa, author; Hadrich, Joleen, advisor; Suter, Jordan, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberThis thesis takes the form of two essays, both addressing issues of grazing management in Inner Mongolia, China. Inner Mongolia is home to numerous sheep and goat producers. Sheep and goat production has increased substantially in the past two decades as demand for meat in China has risen. This increase in production has placed pressure on the grasslands, leading to degradation and increased incidences of Mongolian locust outbreaks. The first essay addresses the question of economic vulnerability to grass loss. We use an equilibrium displacement model to model the livestock market in Inner Mongolia and simulate a market shock imposed by pasture grass loss. We find that herders are vulnerable to even small amounts of grass loss (~10%). The second essay addresses long term management strategies over the typical herder’s 30-year leasehold. We find that herders are better off changing their herd size from year to year in response to grass availability and that by using this strategy they can double their long-term profits.Item Open Access Integrative geospatial modeling: combining local and indigenous knowledge with geospatial applications for adaptive governance of invasive species and ecosystem services(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Luizza, Matthew Wayne, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor; Evangelista, Paul, advisor; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee member; Stohlgren, Tom, committee memberWith an unprecedented rate of global change, diverse anthropogenic disturbances present growing challenges for coupled social-ecological systems. Biological invasions are one such disturbance known to cause negative impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and an array of other natural processes and human activities. Maps facilitated by advanced geospatial applications play a major role in resource management and conservation planning. However, local and indigenous knowledge are overwhelmingly left out of these conversations, despite the wealth of observational data held by resource-dependent communities and the potential negative impacts biological invasions have on local livelihoods. My integrative geospatial modeling research applied adaptive governance mechanisms of knowledge integration and co-production processes in concert with species distribution modeling tools to explore the potential threat of invasive plants to community-defined ecosystem services. Knowledge integration at the landscape scale in Alaska provided an important opportunity for re-framing risk assessment mapping to include Native Alaskan community concerns, and revealed the growing potential threat posed by invasive aquatic Elodea spp. to Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and whitefish (Coregonus nelsonii) subsistence under current and future climate conditions. Knowledge integration and co-production at the local scale in northeastern Ethiopia facilitated shared learning between pastoral communities and researchers, leading to the discovery of invasive rubber vine (Cryptostegia grandiflora), which was previously unknown to my research team or a number of government and aid organizations working in the region, thus providing a potentially robust early detection and monitoring approach for an invasive plant that holds acute negative impacts on a number of endemic ecosystem service-providing trees. This work revealed knowledge integration and co-production processes and species distribution modeling tools to be complimentary, with invasive species acting as a useful boundary-spanning issue for bringing together diverse knowledge sources. Moreover, bridging and boundary-spanning organizations and individuals enhanced this rapid appraisal process by providing access to local and indigenous communities and fostered a level of built-in trust and legitimacy with them. Challenges to this work still remain, including effectively working at broad spatial and governance scales, sustaining iterative processes that involve communities in validating and critiquing model outputs, and addressing underlying power disparities between stakeholder groups. Top-down, discipline-specific approaches fail to adequately address the complexity of ecosystems or the needs of resource-dependent communities. My work lends evidence to the power of integrative geospatial modeling as a flexible transdisciplinary methodology for addressing conservation efforts in rural regions with mounting anthropogenic pressures at different spatial and governance scales.Item Open Access Knowledge integration in transdisciplinary research: a case study of the socio-ecological complexity project(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Allegretti, Arren Mendezona, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Pickering, Kathleen, advisor; Thompson, Jessica, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberKnowledge integration has been crucial for gaining a holistic picture of the inner workings of socio-ecological systems. Integrating local and scientific knowledge sustains biological and global cultural diversity, and may fill gaps in understanding that cannot be elucidated by individual scientific disciplines. Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research teams face the challenge of collaborating and integrating their varying disciplinary paradigms and epistemologies along with stakeholders' local knowledge for understanding and adapting to global and local environmental issues. Communication and knowledge integration across funders, researchers, and research end-users in transdisciplinary research are critical for meeting diverse stakeholder needs and genuinely engaging multiple knowledge systems. These knowledge systems may include a combination of researcher and local ecological knowledge embedded in institutions, disciplines, and cultures. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate and apply knowledge integration tools for examining socio-ecological systems and transdisciplinary research communication. Specifically, I examine the Socio-ecological Complexity (SEC) project as a case study. The SEC is a pseudonym for an actual project examining the role of Community-Based Rangeland Management (CBRM) institutions in influencing the resilience of Mongolian socio-ecological rangeland systems to climate change. I apply two tools for the integration of knowledge within SEC: participatory reflection and participatory mapping. I apply participatory reflection among the SEC research team and provide stakeholder engagement indicators for reflecting, communicating, and incorporating the needs of funders, researchers, and research end users as major stakeholder groups in transdisciplinary research. These specific indicators allow transdisciplinary research teams to assess the current level of knowledge integration, communicate and target stakeholder needs that may influence project outcomes in communicating their research. To integrate the local ecological knowledge (LEK) of research end users, I apply participatory mapping to explore herders' knowledge of their rangelands and their perceptions of socio-ecological boundaries imbedded in their pastures. The process of participatory mapping revealed emic narratives on physical and human demarcated boundaries influencing landscapes, adaptive practices, and local governance arrangements for accessing pasture resources. Participatory mapping and participatory reflection serve as tools for integrating and communicating diverse knowledge systems in transdisciplinary research. To examine how knowledge and world views may be communicated among diverse actors in transdisciplinary research, I provide a reflexive account of the role of voice in transdisciplinary fieldwork. My reflexive account reveals the complex network of actors and how identity, language, financial structures and hierarchy within a multi-cultural and transdisciplinary project shape actors' voices and opinions. The application of knowledge integration tools (participatory reflection and participatory mapping) and the open dialogue about the role of voice in transdisciplinary research provide diverse views for evaluating transdisciplinary research outcomes and analyzing coupled human-environment relationships in socio-ecological systems.Item Open Access Knowledge management for adaptive planning and decision-making in federal land management agencies(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Wurtzebach, Zachary Pyne, author; Schultz, Courtney, advisor; Cheng, Antony, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee member; Opp, Susan, committee memberScholarship on environmental governance emphasizes the importance of institutions with the capacity to integrate scientific knowledge from multiple scales of assessment into decision-making processes at multiple levels of governance. A major gap in our knowledge exists around the design of policies and administrative strategies that can support knowledge management and address scalar challenges for adaptive governance in public organizations such as land management agencies. This research examines challenges and opportunities for improving knowledge management for multiscale monitoring, which is a fundamental component of public land planning and decision-making for the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the National Park Service (NPS). My objective is to expand our understanding of the governance institutions that support improved knowledge management, looking specifically at the legal and administrative variables that impede and promote improved knowledge generation and application in a hierarchical public bureaucracy. In the U.S. Forest Service, I found that limited capacity, decentralized decision-making structures, and organizational culture are critical barriers for implementing forest and broader-scale monitoring associated with recent regulations for National Forest planning under the National Forest Management Act of 1976. However, there are opportunities for addressing these challenges through partnerships, investment in "administrative knowledge brokers," and formalized collaborative processes. While these policies and practices can generate efficiencies and address scalar challenges for knowledge management, leadership commitment and capacity are needed for implementation. Both the BLM and NPS used similar policy tools to address capacity and commitment challenges for effective knowledge management among administrative actors, including: clear goals linked to agency mission and mandates; funding and specialized staffing positions dedicated to inventory and monitoring at multiple levels of administration; centralized authority for implementation, coordination, and budgetary allocation; and structured collaborative processes. However, there are also differences in tools that reflect the unique administrative context and constraints faced by each agency. Collectively, my findings highlight several important considerations for future research on environmental governance. Rather than characterizing institutional actors as knowledge users, producers, and intermediaries, I argue that it is more appropriate to evaluate the specific capabilities and multiple roles of diverse actors in different knowledge management processes. Given the complexity of today's management challenges, administrative structures dedicated to knowledge management and embedded in public organizations are needed to link knowledge to action across scales of governance. I also highlight the problematic assumption that decentralization and flexibility are essential for adaptive practice; the critical barrier in my findings is not limited flexibility, but limited administrative capacity. My research suggests that hierarchical governance structures and a diverse mix of policy tools are essential for addressing mismatches between the temporal and spatial scales of assessment and decision-making, realizing efficiencies for implementation, and linking knowledge to action across levels of governance.Item Open Access Local understanding of hydro-climate changes in Mongolia(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Sukh, Tumenjargal, author; Fassnacht, Steven, advisor; Laituri, Melinda, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee member; Butters, Greg, committee memberAir temperatures have increased more in semi-arid regions than in many other parts of the world. Mongolia has an arid/semi-arid climate where much of the population is dependent upon the limited water resources, especially herders. This paper combines herder observations of changes in water availability in streams and from groundwater with an analysis of climatic and hydrologic change from station data to illustrate the degree of change of Mongolian water resources. We find that herders' local knowledge of hydro-climatic changes is similar to the station based analysis. However, station data are spatially limited, so local knowledge can provide finer scale information on climate and hydrology. We focus on two regions in central Mongolia: the Jinst soum in Bayankhongor aimag in the desert steppe region and the Ikh-Tamir soum in Arkhangai aimag in the mountain steppe. As the temperatures have increased significantly (more in Ikh-Tamir than Jinst), precipitation amounts have decreased in Ikh-Tamir which corresponds to a decrease in streamflow, in particular, the average annual streamflow and the annual peak discharge. At Erdenemandal (Ikh-Tamir) the number of days with precipitation has decreased while at Horiult (Jinst) it has increased. Herders observed that the amount of precipitation has decreased (71% in Jinst; 100% in Ikh-Tamir) in recent years. The long-term average streamflow of the Tuin River at Jinst has not changed significantly while the herders have seen a depletion of water resources (73% of respondents). The Khoid Tamir River at Ikh-Tamir has seen a statistically significant decline in the average annual streamflow and the annual maximum daily discharge, which was also observed by all herders surveyed.Item Restricted Still, the West(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Mucklow, David, author; Dungy, Camille, advisor; Cooperman, Matthew, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberStill, the West is a collection of poems organized in two sections. The first section centers around the history of barbed wire, mending fences, and a familiarity with the place of Northwest Colorado. The second section deals with displacement, centering around poems exploring Eastern Colorado plains towns, and prairie landscapes. As a whole, the collection examines the place of the American West in work, landscape, and place.Item Open Access The Cache la Poudre AquaBlitz: exploring watershed ecology with elementary and middle school students(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Skach, Sky, author; Laituri, Melinda, advisor; Newman, Gregory, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberEvidence suggests that experiential environmental education is both effective and influential on student knowledge and attitudes. The Cache la Poudre AquaBlitz, was designed as a rapid-assessment of watershed health and as an educational experience for 4th-6th grade students combining current best practices in environmental education and citizen science with a local, place-based focus. This manuscript provides a summary of the project curricula and an assessment of knowledge acquisition by students. Data analysis suggests that the curricula were successfully written for the targeted grade levels and that student understanding of watershed ecology was increased.Item Restricted The family contracts(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2021) Wernsing, Sarah, author; Dungy, Camille, advisor; Cooperman, Matthew, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberThe family contracts is a manuscript of poetry that explores the nexus of motherhood, family history, and place, particularly the suburbs as the site of the family home. It is a work at once expansive in its reach toward the past and also incredibly insular in its exploration of the construct of the suburbs and their place in American life and motherhood. It interrogates the demands of motherhood and the ways in which motherhood is shaped by family inheritance. The manuscript attempt to marry ecopoetics with a feminist perspective to recognize the damage that American suburban life inflicts upon women as well as the land around us. The manuscript is divided into four sections, the first and third of which are section-length poems and the second and fourth of which are a collection of multiple poems put together. The first section brings into conversation the life cycle of plant with the movement of generations of mothers and daughters. The second section focuses more on epistolary poetry that explores family inheritance and what motherhood means within the speaker's particular family context. The third section moves back and forth in time and place between William Bradford's Of Plimouth Plantation, the speaker's grandmother's life, and the interactions between speaker and daughter. The fourth section issues out of the personal and family history of the first three sections. It is entitled "suburban georgic" and follows the georgic tradition of recording the season changes, attempts at farming, and instruction on living in a particular location within a particular climate.Item Open Access The vitality of ice and bone: known uncertainty and awareness in change through Dolpo, Nepal(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Pierce, Gregory Edward, author; Snodgrass, Jeffrey G., advisor; Sherman, Kathleen P., committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberAt least one thousand years of caravanning yaks through the remote Himalayas have significantly shaped the practices of the Dolpo-pa, a culturally Tibetan population dwelling through the highlands of Midwestern Nepal. In turn, those practices have significantly affected how the Dolpo-pa conceptualize their world, the models by which they frame the experiences that effect those practices being directly and continuously synergized with the ecological realities of the existential present in persistently confirming, contesting or altering their awareness of those experiences. Physical reality at the biometabolic scale of ecological processes, therefore, which is as a rule perfunctorily and uncritically framed by observers descended from the specific histories of the European Enlightenment as the second-order reification labeled the environment, is schematized by the Dolpo-pa as something more like an "entanglement" in the uncertainty inherent to dwelling through that scale. As such, unlike the Cartesian divide elemental to the Western model that distorts reality by a cognitive trick of circular framing in reifying second-order conceptualizations and taking those reifications as first-order realities in the world, ethnographic evidence indicates that the Dolpo-pa culturally model themselves as unique and distinct as humans but not as separate from their domain of metabolic entanglement. The difference in these representations is significant, not only because it highlights the emergent cultural model of the Dolpo-pa after extended engagement within that unforgiving mountain environment but also because it suggests what is being lost with the increasing contravention of the Western model of development into that domain. The Dolpo-pa's increasing acquiescence to the distortions of that model is beginning to disentangle at very basic levels their unique awareness, which is especially evident in new forms of social fragmentation that have only since around 2005 begun to influence how individuals in Dolpo constellate schemas of intra-entanglement arrangements and extra-entanglement connotations there. Worryingly, such new, second-order constellations have been concurrent with an increasing decline in the reliability of deep-rooted cultural models of known ecological uncertainties to effectively frame recent experiences with rapidly changing phenological conditions as average weather patterns (i.e. climate) have steadily altered in recent years. The Dolpo-pa's cultural model of entanglement is unfortunately incapable of proficiently conceptualizing let alone adequately representing and responding to changes at the technometabolic scale of industrial processes, whence such phenological changes have originated but at which few among the Dolpo-pa have experience or proficiency negotiating. This thesis concludes with a brief discussion of how continued decline in the efficacy of the Dolpo-pa's cultural model of entanglement is progressively leading to greater existential dissonance, a concept introduced here in conclusion that qualitatively gauges how such disentanglement gives rise to an increased likelihood of physical loss of life or livelihood within experiences no less physically entangled at the scale of ecological processes.Item Open Access U.S. Forest Service citizen science: improving monitoring capacity, ecological literacy and outreach(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Pitt, Aleksandra N., author; Schultz, Courtney, advisor; Vaske, Jerry, committee member; Fernandez-Gimenez, Maria, committee memberThe Forest Service is integrating citizen science projects and data into the management of national forests around the country. I selected three citizen science projects that involve the Forest Service collaborating with secondary school students in direct field collection of monitoring data to: understand the objectives and design of the programs, determine the impacts on participants; and identify the benefits, if any, for the agency. I conducted eight interviews with the project leads and teachers to understand their goals, design, and objectives for the program. To determine the impacts to the participants I interviewed and surveyed 25 current students before and after their participation in the project. I also interviewed five students who participated in the projects in previous years. My findings show that both students and the agency achieved their desired outcomes for beginning the citizen science projects. I found that the objectives and design of these programs have a significant influence on student outcomes and should be designed with objectives in mind. My findings suggest enhanced ecological literacy is a potential outcome of these youth based, citizen science monitoring programs. I found evidence of increased environmental stewardship, although I was unable to determine whether this persists. The projects experienced some minor challenges with the students' data reliability; however, project leads and students alike concluded that these projects, although they did produce valuable data, had greater value for the relationships built between students and the agency, their teachers, and the natural world.