This book documents nearly 500 US and Canadian locations where wildlife refuges, nature preserves, and similar properties protect natural sites that lie within the North American Great Plains, from Canada’s Prairie Provinces to the TexasMexico border. Information on site location, size, biological diversity, and the presence of especially rare or interesting flora and fauna are mentioned, as well as driving directions, mailing addresses, and phone numbers or internet addresses, as available. US federal sites include 11 national grasslands, 13 national parks, 16 national monuments, and more than 70 national wildlife refuges. State properties include nearly 100 state parks and wildlife management areas. Also included are about 60 national and provincial parks, national wildlife areas, and migratory bird sanctuaries in Canada’s Prairie Provinces. Numerous public-access properties owned by counties, towns, and private organizations, such as the Nature Conservancy, National Audubon Society, and other conservation and preservation groups, are also described. Introductory essays describe the geological and recent histories of each of the five multistate and multiprovince regions recognized, along with some of the author’s personal memories of them. The 92,000-word text is supplemented with 7 maps and 31 drawings by the author and more than 700 references. Title page illustration: Greater sage-grouse Text, photos, and illustrations copyright © 2018 Paul A. Johnsgard ISBN: 978-1-60962-126-1 doi: 10.13014/K2CF9N8T Composed in Segoe types. Zea Books are published by the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries. Electronic (pdf) edition published online at https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/zeabook/ Print edition sold at ttp://www.lulu.com/spotlight/unllib UNL does not discriminate based upon any protected status. Please go to unl.edu/nondiscrimination

A Naturalist's Guide to the Great Plains

Mismatches between invasive species management policies and ecological knowledge can lead to profound societal consequences. For this reason, natural resource agencies have adopted the scientifically-based density-impact invasive species curve to guide invasive species management. We use the density-impact model to evaluate how well management policies for a native invader (Juniperus virginiana) match scientific guidelines. Juniperus virginiana invasion is causing a sub-continental regime shift from grasslands to woodlands in central North America, and its impacts span collapses in endemic diversity, heightened wildfire risk, and crashes in grazing land profitability. We (1) use land cover data to identify the stage of Juniperus virginiana invasion for three ecoregions within Nebraska, USA, (2) determine the range of invasion stages at individual land parcel extents within each ecoregion based on the density-impact model, and (3) determine policy alignment and mismatches relative to the density-impact model in order to assess their potential to meet sustainability targets and avoid societal impacts as Juniperus virginiana abundance increases. We found that nearly all policies evidenced doublethink and policy-ecology mismatches, for instance, promoting spread of Juniperus virginiana regardless of invasion stage while simultaneously managing it as a native invader in the same ecoregion. Like other invasive species, theory and literature for this native invader indicate that the consequences of invasion are unlikely to be prevented if policies fail to prioritize management at incipient invasion stages. Theory suggests a more realistic approach would be to align policy with the stage of invasion at local and ecoregion management scales. There is a need for scientists, policy makers, and ecosystem managers to move past ideologies governing native versus non-native invader classification and toward a framework that accounts for the uniqueness of native species invasions, their anthropogenic drivers, and their impacts on ecosystem services.

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Doublethink and scale mismatch polarize policies for an invasive tree

/pdf/guide-to-nebraska-s-wetlandsand-their-conservation-needs-f5knkyg734.pdf

GUIDE TO NEBRASKA’S WETLANDSand their conservation needs: Second Edition, 2005

/pdf/wetland-program-plan-for-nebraska-56crsbmmch.pdf

Wetland Program Plan for Nebraska

Loren Eiseley (1907-1977) a ete connu tour a tour comme archeologue, anthropologue, educateur, philosophe, poete ou bien encore auteur d’etudes en sciences naturelles Il remet en cause les theses sur la science, la nature et l’homme qui avaient cours a son epoque Il unit les sciences et les humanites au travers de sa prose et de ses poemes, anticipant le concept actuel d’humanites environnmentales En tant qu’archeologue, il utilise la science, l’imagination et l’observation tels des outils dans le but de reconstruire le passe Il a mis au point de nouveaux angles de vue permettant d’apprehender l’univers et la place de l’homo sapiens en son sein Il pense que l’homme moderne s’est denature en devenant le destructeur de la planete et, de ce fait, anticipe le point de vue eco-centrique qui s’est impose dans la periode qui a fait suite a la revolution industrielle, periode de plus en plus designee comme l’anthropocene Les ecrits de Eiseley pressent l’humanite de renouer avec notre passe animal de facon a respecter l’ordre naturel dont nous sommes issus Son œuvre force le lecteur a participer a son projet de renovation de notre univers mental et culturel

Bridging divisions in Loren Eiseley's writings on science and nature

https://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=10628&context=annals-of-iowa

John Pearson

Papers

The Nature of Nebraska: Ecology and Biodiversity