ALWAS (Automated Lagrangian Water Quality Assessment System) is a relatively inexpensive, helicopter-deployable, free-floating, water quality measuring and watershed evaluation system. Three ALWAS systems, and its cousin BathyBoat (only in 2008), were successfully deployed on the North Slope of Alaska during the summers of 2006 and 2008. ALWAS and BathyBoat data have been used to provide baseline water quality characterization, determine change detection, document salt-water intrusion, investigate yellow billed loon habitat preference, and provide control and algorithm validation points for satellite remote sensing of the extensive North Slope region. Remote sensing algorithms have been used to extend estimate of turbidity, chlorophyll, and salinity (expressed in alterations of aquatic vegetation and shoreline communities) to lakes that have not been directly sampled. Robert Shuchman1, Guy Meadows2, Liza Jenkins1, Scott Guyer3, Chuck Hatt1, John Payne4 1 Michigan Tech Research Institute2 University of Michigan, Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratory3 Bureau of Land Management4 North Slope Science Initiative

This presentation will provide an overview of the Forest Service Natural Resource Manager (NRM) Application. Recently the NRM application was created by combining existing national applications, including Infra, TIM/FACTS, and NRIS. These applications were combined to blend the skills and corporate knowledge of the application teams, and to provide better coordination and interoperability between all of the applications at the Enterprise Data Center. The primary focus of NRM is centralizing information and technology infrastructures as well as standardizing data to facilitate inter-application data sharing, and retrieval of national data sets more efficient for the Forest Service. NRM also provides a common look and feel for our systems, applications, and data. NRM provides a user-friendly application interface for data entry, retrieval, analysis and display. It also allows for the integration of spatial and tabular data to support data analysis, map creation, and permit management. The combination of skills and corporate knowledge in NRM leadership will enhance future development of applications within and across many Forest Service business areas.

The NHD in the Pacific Northwest was built from a variety of sources supplied by partner agencies. In particular, the headwater streams in Oregon and Washington are not represented in a consistent manner in areas of similar topography and climatic regimes. This has led to challenges in both the governance of the NHD stewardship in the Pacific Northwest and the adoption of the NHD by researchers and modelers. This presentation will examine some of the strategies the PNW Framework has used to meet the business requirements of its partners and user groups. The utilization of newer technologies such as LiDAR offers a potential long-term solution to this problem.

Connecting Alaska Landscapes into the Future is a partnership-based project between federal Agencies and NGOs in Alaska to look at landscape connectivity under different climate change scenarios. The project initiated by FWS has two goals: 1) to identify lands and fresh waters in Alaska that likely serve as landscape-level linkages now and in the future given climate change; and 2) to identify conservation strategies with agency partners that will help maintain landscape-level connectivity by focusing conservation efforts, minimizing redundant research and monitoring, and sharing data and information for these areas. Climate models for Alaska are being used to investigate how vegetation classes at different scales and selected species with vastly different life strategies may respond to the climate shifts predicted for Alaska. This project will produce an initial report in 2009 which will provide the conceptual framework developed through this effort, identify shortcomings and research needs, recommend steps for bringing these concepts to finer scales, and identify conservation strategies to be explored. The initial modeling subjects used include biomes, vegetation communities (based on LANDFIRE), productivity/biodiversity (NDVI), caribou, Alaska marmot, trumpeter swan, and reed canary grass.

Meadows support foraging, and adjacent tree stands support nesting for the Great Gray Owl in the Sierra Nevada. A detailed land cover map of Yosemite N.P. was used to examine meadow environments with appropriate tree habitats nearby. Most of the 1500 meadow polygons are too small to support an owl territory, but a cluster of meadow fragments may be sufficient. We employed a GIS neighborhood evaluation to examine clusters of meadow within 800 meter circles (accepted estimate of an owl home range). From cases where at least 10 acres of meadow were present, we selected thirty-three additional survey locations within Yosemite N.P. Since the neighborhood analysis was based on a AML script, when the definition of meadow changed, the analysis could be (and was) re-run quickly. Of the thirty-three additional locations sampled in 2008 as part of this effort, twenty-one yielded Great Gray Owl presence.

Streams, lakes, springs, and artificial ponds are crucial to life in the arid west. These features act as oases in unforgiving lands. They are of utmost importance for natural resource planning. Both the BLM and USFS have demanded the use of GIS to assist in the characterization of biota and habitat along these areas across the West.

I-Web e-Permit provides internet-based applications allowing the public to purchase forest products and services on-line. Although this presentation is focused on the process for obtaining Mineral Material Permits for personal consumption, functionality will be expanded to Christmas Trees, Firewood, Mushrooms and more. Using FS Portal, the customer selects the permit site via a Google (or similar) Map-based interface that displays site location and materials available for purchase. All Google-specific functions are included. Site and commodity data will be sourced from the FS-corporate I-Web database. Permit transaction data is integrated into the I-Web corporate permit dataset. Program managers can track, report, and manage e-Permit activity for their Program Area using existing applications. Payments are processed through Pay.gov, with credit card or ACH. Once authorized, the customer prints a completed permit. Financial transaction data will be sent through the FS accounting system for reconciliation of cash receipts to credit-card/ACH payments.

The Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project systematically maps the location, extent and severity of current and historical large fires in the continental United States, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. By the end of 2011, MTBS will complete the mapping of all large fires occurring between the years 1984 and 2010. For each MTBS fire, the project generates a suite of standardized GIS-ready datasets, and associated mapping and visualization products. These data are intended to support a variety of information needs and geospatial applications that require consistent data about fire effects through space and time. This presentation highlights available MTBS geospatial data products, their current status and extent, and methods for users to access these data. Additionally, MTBS historical fire severity mapping results, including a summarization of discernible patterns and trends, are presented for the western United States for the years 1984 to 2006.

North American sagebrush steppe extent and quality have dramatically decreased since European settlement. Operational and cost effective remote sensing solutions to assess and monitor sagebrush steppe habitats over large areas with sufficient detail are still lacking. In Wyoming, new research to assess and monitor eight sagebrush steppe components in greater detail (shrub, shrub height, sagebrush, big sagebrush, Wyomingensis sage brush, herbaceous, litter, and bare ground) is being developed by the U.S. Geological Survey. Ground sampled measurements are first made on segmented QuickBird data, and then extrapolated to coarser resolution images as continuous fields on 30m Landsat and 56m AWIFS using a regression tree. Results are validated with an independent accuracy assessment with typical root mean square error values for Landsat sagebrush predictions at 6.34 %. These assessment models are now supporting baseline habitat modeling and monitoring, with first phase change comparisons back to 1988 now being completed.

The Geo-spatial Photo Archive project has taken forest monitoring techniques to a new level. Through an easy to use interface, users can easily maintain photo data, and see the results in real time. Hyperlink functionality is provided in conjunction with supporting datasets, making decision making easier.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of visible visitor-cause impacts on judgments about the perceived restorative character in natural areas. Research participants were obtained through undergraduate and graduate classes at the University of Utah. Photo elicitation will be used for data collection. Each participant viewed panoramic images (n=5) of landscapes characterized by different degrees of visible visitor-caused impacts as characterized by user-created campsites. Campsites were mapped using mapping-grade GPS technology, post-processed, and added to a GIS. While viewing the image set, participants will complete the Perceived Restorative Scale (Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989). Data will be analyzed using linear modeling techniques. This research will test the hypothesis that perceived restorativeness declines with increased landscape scarring. This study will inform land managers who set Limits of Acceptable Change on public lands (i.e., preserve natural restorative qualities for certain recreation opportunities).

Introduction: This outlines the process for estimating practical recreation demand from existing information sources using GIS and Google earth for application in spatial orientation, project planning, forest planning, Capital Improvement Projects (CIP), ARRA, Recreation Site Improvement (RSI), education and interpretation. When the forest is using this process to focus on analysis beyond the forest plan, the main data sources discussed below can be dissected for specific activities or segments of the recreating public. Additionally, greater emphasis on other studies that pertain to specific activity or local issues will be needed. Process Framework The framework to analyze recreation demand is:

1. Use a limited number of data sources. The two primary data sources include Resources Planning Act (RPA) and National Visitor Use Monitoring (NVUM). Limiting data sources will reduce confusion and promote national consistency.
2. Incorporate spatial analysis. Spatial analysis will clarify data through visual representation and will aid in communication with the public and other providers.
3. Focus efforts on no more than 20 recreation opportunities. By focusing on a limited number of recreation opportunities, forests will be able to use limited resources and concentrate on high priority recreation opportunities instead of losing focus and strategy on all recreation opportunities.
4. Engage the public. Interfacing with the public early and often with focused efforts will lead to greater success in understanding and strategizing around demand. In addition, when using the demand analysis for forest planning purposes, documented public participation will aid in meeting requirements in the 2008 Planning Rule.
5. Incorporate other providers. Considering all providers in the market area will aid in assessing the appropriate facilities and services to be offered by the forest.

The new fully spatial TESP and IS application uses a suite of output tools (GI, Corporate Data Warehouse (CDW), I-Web User Views, and MS Access/Excel Add-in Tool) that provide data from the application for a multitude of uses. The most common and useful to the end user, is the Geospatial Interface. The overview will show how an array of tools can be used to obtain useful outputs for analyzing TESP and IS data.

Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) is a national, design-based, strategic forest inventory program of the USDA Forest Service. FIA data are extremely relevant to National Forest information needs, appropriate for strategic forest planning inside and outside forest boundaries. In this case study, FIA permanent plot data measured over the period 2003 to 2007 and two independent map classifications: (1) the National Land Cover Data tree canopy density map; (2) FSSDE vegetation stand density, size class maps for the Chippewa, Superior, Hiawatha, Huron–Manistee, Ottawa, and Chequamegon–Nicolet National Forests are used for stratified estimation of forest area and growing-stock volume. Relative efficiency is used to measure estimate precision gain, which is the ratio of the stratified estimate variance to the simple random sample estimate variance of the population parameter of interest. Stand density, size class maps yield greater precision gains for volume and smaller to no differences for forest area.

Forests and rangelands of the western United States are vulnerable to environmental stresses and disturbances such as fire, insect infestation, disease, invasive species, drought, and development. These stresses can have significant and long-lasting effects on ecological and socioeconomic values. Land managers need state-of-the-art information and tools that help them anticipate and solve problems. Many geospatial datasets describing these threats to wildlands have been created; what is lacking is comprehensive viewing application displaying and summarizing these threats and their spatial co-occurrence with highly valued resources. This presentation will describe a cooperative effort by the Western Wildlands Environmental Threat Assessment Center (WWETAC) and the Remote Sensing Applications Center to develop a Threat Mapper that will serve as a decision support tool for land managers.