Federal Partner: National Park Service

Impacts of Fuels Treatments on an Endangered Salamander

Project Description: High-severity wildfires have been identified as a significant threat to the Jemez Mountains Salamander (JMS) that results in the loss of critical habitat elements and initiates rapid population declines (USFWS 2013). Fuels treatments (forest thinning and prescribed fire) that reduce fuel loads on the forest floor are planned as a strategy to reduce high-severity fire. Without adequate information to guide design and implementation, treatments may adversely alter JMS critical habitat elements and long-term population trajectories. No studies to date have evaluated the performance of fuels treatments for reducing the risk of high-severity fires, while protecting critical habitat elements for JMS. Without this effort, Valles Caldera National Preserve (VALL) and partners will not be able to make informed decisions, possibly resulting in further habitat loss and unintentional harm to JMS populations. Although the species was listed as federally-endangered in 2013, a recovery plan has not been developed in part because of a lack of information about how ongoing forest fuels management impacts JMS populations. Without this information, we will not be able inform range-wide recovery actions.

At present no information exists to enable an evaluation of the tradeoffs between treatment impacts and benefits to JMS populations in core habitat areas versus the potential of wildfire impacts. The proposed work expands on several years of research effort by the Principal Investigators, conducted in the Jemez Mountains and including: 1) refinement of methods for monitoring populations of P. neomexicanus, Karraker, unpublished data, 2018-2019; 2) assessments of site occupancy and surface activity patterns for P. neomexicanus associated with environmental monitoring (rainfall, surface temperature and relative humidity, subsurface temperature and moisture (Karraker and Loehman, unpublished data, 2020-present); 3) landscape-scale, spatial modeling of fire regimes and forest structure (Loehman, 2016-2019); and 4) instrumental monitoring of soil properties (biological activity and chemistry; surface and subsurface soil heating associated with varying fuel loads) before and after fuel treatments and prescribed fire (Loehman, unpublished data, 2018-2020). We also leverage decades of salamander surveys (1940s-present), forest inventories (National Park Service and U.S. Forest Service fire ecology monitoring networks, 1990-present), and spatial data characterizing fire severity, management activities, and stand composition and structure to evaluate the impacts of
active forest and fuels management versus wildfires of varying severities. The specific objectives of this work are to:

1) Quantify the relationships among JMS populations, forest characteristics, and temperature and moisture regimes prior to and following fuels treatments.

2) Identify surface active periods for JMS relative to temperature and moisture.

3) Create science-based BMPs and recovery actions for JMS.

Lead Principal Investigator: Dr. Nancy Karraker, University of Rhode Island

Partner Institution: University of Rhode Island

Federal Agency: National Park Service

Federal Agency Technical Contact: Robert Parmenter

Project Type: Research

Project Discipline: Natural Resources

Project Sub-Discipline: Biological (Ecology, Fish, Wildlife, Vegetation, T&E)

Start Year: 2023

End Year: 2025

Initial Funding Amount: $89,400.00

Federal Grant Number: P23AC00979

National Park or Protected Area: Valles Caldera (NPS)

State(s): New Mexico

Restore Forest Health: Implement Best Management Practices in the NPS

Project Description: National Capital Region parks have monitored vegetation responses to overabundant white-tailed deer populations for more than 30 years. Despite 2-13 years of deer population reductions, the regeneration of forest tree species in most parks remains below targets, indicating hidden interacting variables in the response of tree regeneration to deer removals. Indeed, many studies suggest that in addition to reducing deer density, it may be necessary to increase the light levels on the forest floor and remove other plants that, by their presence or abundance, cause decreased native forest biodiversity to achieve management goals.

The overarching goal of this proof-of-concept project is to build toward resilient ecosystems in parks and rehabilitate plant communities after long-term disturbance from overabundant white-tailed deer by actively shaping change using forest management under RAD (Resist, Accept, Direct) climate change framework. Our objective is to implement a program of on-the-ground active and adaptive management derived from recent, ongoing resource studies and years of deer and forest vegetation monitoring. We will use existing models of deer and forest vegetation interactions that are embedded into a decision-support tool. Catoctin Mountain Park has very low to medium resilient Natural Landscape Blocks, which are groupings of ecosystems. This project will support the at risk forest ecosystems to improve resilience to changing climatic conditions to increase and maintain biodiversity.

Management actions to be explored include the manipulation of existing and created canopy gaps, mechanical removal of shrubs in the understory that shade the forest floor, mechanical removal of recalcitrant herb layer plants that may suppress or inhibit tree seedling growth and planting bare rooted tree seedlings. The results of the gap manipulation BMPs will be transferable to other parks and conservation lands to help them achieve their deer and forest management objectives.

Lead Principal Investigator: Dr. Brian Underwood, SUNY, College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Donald Leopold, SUNY, College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Partner Institution: SUNY, College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Federal Agency: National Park Service

Federal Agency Technical Contact: Dr. Diane Pavek

Project Type: Research

Project Discipline: Natural Resources

Project Sub-Discipline: Biological (Ecology, Fish, Wildlife, Vegetation, T&E)

Start Year: 2023

End Year: 2028

Initial Funding Amount: $216,102.31

Federal Grant Number: P23AC01176

Location: Catoctin Mountain Park

National Park or Protected Area: Catoctin Mountain (NPS)

State(s): Maryland

Development, Maintenance, and Facilitation of NAC-CESU Experts Database and Environmental Emergency Response Network

Project Description: In 2018, the host institution for the Chesapeake Watershed Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit (CHWA CESU), the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science’s Appalachian Laboratory (UMCESAL) developed a searchable and filterable web-based Experts Database that resides within the CHWA CESU website (https://chwacesu.org/experts_database/). Launched successfully in early 2019, the purpose of the database is to help connect federal agencies with non-federal research partners within the CHWA CESU network as well as to foster collaboration across the network. As of April 2022, the CHWA CESU Experts Database has 176 active experts and has been an important tool helping connect federal agency research needs with qualified experts who can meet those needs.

The CHWA CESU Experts Database is an excellent model for the rapid building of partnerships between federal agencies and experts, thereby saving time and an unnecessary search burden. This reduces cost prior to the completion of the proposal process and allows federal agencies to identify multiple experts for potential projects. Through the database, agencies are able to consider new and more diverse experts that they may not have otherwise located. The database fosters convenient access to specialties and transmission of opportunities to like-minded partners. Furthermore, it serves as a hub for prospective researchers who are seeking postdocs, graduate students, specific technical expertise or interdisciplinary partnerships to review the accessible talent pool to meet specific project needs.

NAC-CESU plans to adopt the concept used by the CHWA CESU and expand its functionality to automate database functions and incorporate a federal emergency response component. This expansion will, in part, rely on the model of the University of Rhode Island’s Scientific Support for Environmental Emergency Response (SSEER), which assists the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Office of Emergency Response, in the assessment, reduction, or remediation of threats to environmental and public health and safety in a natural or manmade emergency.

With the escalation of climate change, increased extremes in heat, drought, flooding, hail, tornadoes, and tropical cyclones/hurricanes will inevitably increase environmental emergencies. The Experts Database will give its members the option to include information about emergency training completion and readiness to assist with emergency response. This will provide a valuable source of environmental experts to assist with a variety of emergency situations. An emergency response network will encourage the use of relevant science to prevent acceleration of or calculate the extent of damages during high-risk events (Goode et al., 2021). This will allow federal entities to foster proactive predictions rather than risk uninformed reactions and to have more detailed assessment of species losses, habitat destruction, and evolving intensification of damage through the use of mitigation techniques (Legge et al., 2022; Abdel-Fattah, 2011).

Lead Principal Investigator: Dr. Elin Torell, University of Rhode Island

Partner Institution: University of Rhode Island

Federal Agency: National Park Service

Federal Agency Technical Contact: Dr. Brian Mitchell

Project Type: Technical Assistance

Project Discipline: Other: Transdisciplinary project

Start Year: 2022

End Year: 2027

Initial Funding Amount: $140,807.37

Federal Grant Number: P22AC02216

Location: Narragansett, RI

State(s): Rhode Island

Rhode Island Counties: Washington

Student and Other Involvement:

  • Staff: 2

Summary of Student Involvement: Student involvement is not anticipated for this project.