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Immigration Rights and Resources for the Campus Community

Dan Shyrock

Portrait of Dan Shyrock

Advisor

Steven R. Martin

Dan Shyrock, 2010

Thesis:
Ecological Conditions and Monitoring Standards for Meadows in the John Muir and Ansel Adams Wilderness Areas, CA.

Pack-stock impacts to wilderness meadows have received relatively little research attention. The few studies that have been conducted in high elevation wilderness environments have revealed that even moderate levels of grazing can result in substantial declines in meadow productivity. Despite this, active monitoring of Wilderness grazing areas has traditionally been given far less attention than monitoring of trails or campsites, and in many cases meadows are not monitored at all. As a result, wilderness managers must try to adaptively manage pack stock use with only limited qualitative, often anecdotal information of on-the-ground conditions. The Inyo National Forest has been involved in several lawsuits over the last seven years concerned with pack stock management in the John Muir and Ansel Adams Wilderness Areas. These lawsuits have led the Forest to reevaluate meadow conditions and monitoring needs. My research contributes to that effort by evaluating the ecological conditions of 14 wilderness meadows and examining the effectiveness of different types of resource standards and monitoring techniques. In particular, my research examines the effectiveness of frequency monitoring in rating meadow ecological conditions, the use and effectiveness of new types of standards, such as graminoid to forb ratios, and the effect of varying use levels on species composition and ground cover. Old monitoring plots were also re-measured in four meadows, allowing for an analysis of trends in species composition over the last 20 years.

Jessica Blackwell

Portrait of Jessica Blackwell

Advisor

Steven R. Martin

Jessica Blackwell, 2015

Thesis:

Through a wilderness visitor survey in Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness (n= 635) and follow-up personal phone interviews (n=65), this study offers insight in how personal locator beacon (PLBs) technology may influence wilderness visitors. Results show that wilderness visitors were able to enjoy the wilderness experience more worry-free and guilt-free than they had without a device. Many said that it was an added precautionary tool, such as a first aid kit, flare gun or whistle, making them more prepared in the case of an emergency. We also found that carrying a device helped wilderness visitors travel without feeling guilty for causing their loved ones back home to worry about their safety. Solo travelers in particular were able to enjoy the solitude of their wilderness experience more than they would have without a device. The only significant finding on how a device may influence risk-taking or decision making in the wilderness, was on the visitors' decision to travel alone. Many people felt they would be more likely to travel alone if they had a personal locator device. The device theoretically would replace the need for traveling in a group. Those that consider themselves to be risk takers said they would be just as likely to do the same activities with or without the device. Hand-held technology, by influencing the wilderness experience and risk behavior of the wilderness visitor, will lead to inevitable changes in what defines wilderness (solitude, sense of self-reliance, primitive experience, meeting nature on its own terms, developing self-rescue skills). The knowledge gained from this research may be used to develop best management practices and guiding principles for the appropriate use of technology in the wilderness.

Katherine Stonecypher

Portrait of Katherine Stonecypher

Advisor

Alison O’Dowd

Katherine Stonecypher, 2024

Thesis:

Kate’s research explored the trophic dynamics of aquatic food webs and life history diversity of Endangered Species Act-listed Coho Salmon. Her thesis project focuses on how diet affects growth and overwinter survival of juvenile Coho in Humboldt Bay tributaries. Humboldt Bay is the second largest coastal estuary in California and fifth largest along the conterminous Pacific Coast. During European colonization, tide gates and levees were installed in the lower elevation portions of Humboldt Bay’s tributary watersheds to control flooding and convert floodplains to agricultural land. This altered or destroyed side channel slough, tidal wetland, and floodplain habitats important to estuarine-rearing life histories of Coho Salmon. Recent habitat restoration efforts in the Humboldt Bay watershed have focused on the reconstruction or simulation of these habitats. Kate's research will examine diet, growth, and overwinter survival of Coho Salmon rearing in these restoration projects. Results of this study will be applicable to future estuarine and off-channel habitat restoration for salmonids.

Jolie Lonner

Portrait of Jolie Lonner

Advisor

Yvonne Everett

Jolie Lonner, 2004

Thesis:
Determining the Sustainable Harvest of Oregon Grape (Berberis nervosa)

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