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WERC Outreach News, Jan. 20-24, 2003

1. Highlights of WERC activities are also online at: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/news/highlights.html

Sonoran Desert: Fragile Land of Extremes: A new USGS HD video premiered January 23 at 9 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. PT on HDNet Direct TV. Gila monsters hunt, male desert tortoises battle, and saguaro cacti loom in the unusually lush Sonoran Desert. Biologists with the U.S. Geological Survey (Todd Esque, Cecil Schwalbe, Ray Turner) and their colleagues and partners study how plants and animals live in this desert and how human impacts such as urban growth, diseases in tortoises, and fire are changing life in this special place. Beautiful images of reptiles, landscapes, and the cacti convey the unique beauty of the Sonoran Desert. Viewing information: The video is expected to air twice a day every other day for two weeks, then off and on after that. For those without access to Direct TV, check HD.net online for additional information on locations in your town where the HDNet signal is received (e.g., some electronics stores, sports bars, restaurants). You can call ahead to stores listed to verify that they get HDNet channel 199 of Direct TV in their home theater/high-end TV section. (Gloria Maender, Tucson, AZ, 520-670-5596, gloria_maender@usgs.gov)

Big Blazes: A new Publication Brief by USGS fire ecologist Jon Keeley of the Western Ecological Research Center summarizes recent research on large chaparral fires by Keeley and colleague C. J. Fotheringham of University of California, Los Angeles. "Past, Present, and Future Fire Regimes in Chaparral" is online at: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/pubbriefs/keeleypbjan2003.html. (Additional information about this publication appeared in the Dec. 2002 WERC highlight -- see Man, Climate, and Fire Regimes: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/news/dec2002.html.) A past Publication Brief by Keeley and Fotheringham, "Historical Fire Regime in Southern California," was recently reprinted in the magazine Fire Management Today (vol. 63, issue 1, pages 8-9). (Jon Keeley, Three Rivers, CA, 559-565-3170, jon_keeley@usgs.gov) *** All WERC publication briefs are available online at: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/pubbriefs/index.html.

It Was Built and They Came: One of the major goals in using created wetlands for mitigation purposes is the establishment of successfully reproducing populations. In a recent article in the Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society, USGS biologist T’Shaka Toure' of the Western Ecological Research Center and G. A. Middendorf of Howard University in Washington, D.C., documented herpetofaunal colonization of a newly created, 52-hectare wetland site in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. A total of 28 species, 16 amphibians and 12 reptiles, colonized the new wetland, comparable to the adjacent forest along the Patuxent River, a source site for colonizing herpetofauna. (T'Shaka Toure', Irvine, CA, 714-227-1109, ttoure@usgs.gov)

2. WERC in the news (included online in WERC highlights):

Dry Tortugas: How desert tortoises of the Mojave Desert survive their demanding environment is the subject of "Dry, Dry Again," a story in the December 2000/January 2003 issue of Natural History magazine, pages 50-55. The story describes collaborative published research by an international team of scientists that includes Kristin Berry, a USGS herpetologist at the Western Ecological Research Center, and cites Berry’s leading role in current research to better understand the causes of diseases and death in wild tortoise populations. The story is featured online at: http://www.amnh.org/naturalhistory/. (Kristin Berry, Riverside, CA, 909-697-5361, kristin_berry@usgs.gov)

Nesting Murrelets: In a recent story on management of old growth forests and protected species, Environmental News Service cited a radio-tracking effort to locate nesting marbled murrelets, led by biologists at Humboldt State University and the USGS Western Ecological Research Center (Bill Boarman). In preliminary results of the study, all five murrelet nests located by the team were found in old-growth trees. The story is online at: http://ens-news.com/ens/jan2003/2003-01-16-06.asp. (William I. Boarman, San Diego, CA, 858-637-6880, william_boarman@usgs.gov)

3. Downloadable from the WERC Products web page: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/products/research.asp

van Wagtendonk, J. W., K. A. van Wagtendonk, J. B. Meyer, and K. J. Paintner. 2002. The use of geographic information for fire management planning in Yosemite National Park. The George Wright Forum. 19(1): 19-39.

Agee, J. K., B. Bahro, M. A. Finney, P. N. Omi, D. B. Sapsis, C. N. Skinner, J. W. van Wagtendonk, and C. P. Weatherspoon. 2000. The use of fuel breaks in landscape fire management. Forest Ecology and Manage. 127(1-3):55-66.

van Wagtendonk, J. W., and D. J. Parsons. 1996. Wilderness in the Sierra Nevada national parks. P. 281-294 In Halvorson, W. , and G. E. Davis (Eds.) Science and ecosystem management in the national parks. Univ. Arizona Press, Tucson. 364 p.

Keane, R. E., R. E. Burgan, and J. W. van Wagtendonk. 2001. Mapping wildland fuels for fire management across multiple scales: integrating remote sensing, GIS, and biophysical modeling. Int. J. Wildland Fire 10(3&4): 301-319.

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For other WERC outreach items (including announcements, highlights, news releases, fact sheets), visit the WERC Outreach web page at: http://www.werc.usgs.gov/outreach.html.