Forest Governance and Climate Change in Driving Native Insect Outbreaks
PI
Cassandra Moseley, Director-Ecosystem Workforce Program, Research Professor - Institute for a Sustainable Environment, and Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Innovation, University of Oregon
Project Researchers
Heidi Huber-Stearns, Assistant Research Professor, Associate Director - Ecosystem Workforce Program and Director- Institute for a Sustainable Environment, University of Oregon
Michael France Nelson, Postdoctoral Scholar, Ecosystem Workforce Program, University of Oregon
Jesse Abrams, Assistant Professor of Natural Resource Policy and Sustainability, University of Georgia
Chris Bone, Assistant Professor of Geography, University of Victoria
Mark Altaweel (ADD LINK), Reader in Near East Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology, University College of London
Michelle Steen-Adams, Affiliate Forest Social Scientist, US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station
Emily Jane Davis, Assistant Professor and Extension Specialist, Oregon State University and Associate Director and OSU Lead-Ecosystem Workforce Program
Summary
This is a National Science Foundation-funded research project studying drivers, governance responses, and social-ecological feedbacks associated with Mountain Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreaks on national forestlands in the western US. The project includes case studies of national forests and surrounding landscapes affected by Mountain Pine Beetle outbreaks as well as construction of an agent-based model that integrates forest conditions, climatic variables, and management decision-making. The case studies of national forests and surrounding communities come from Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming. The project has the goal of better understanding the ways that social and ecological variables interact in complex ways to both affect forest conditions (and therefore Mountain Pine Beetle susceptibility) and socio-political responses that take the form of formal or informal changes to forest governance and management practices.
Webinar
Management Responses to Mountain Pine Beetle Infestations on National Forestland in the Western US
Project Publications
Scientific Manuscripts
Steen-Adams, M.M., Abrams, J.B., Huber-Stearns, H.R., Moseley, C., Bone, C. 2020. Local-level transitions toward network governance within the U.S. Forest Service: A case study of mountain pine beetle epidemic from Colorado, USA, Forest Policy and Economics, 118:102204, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2020.102204
Gandhi, K. J., Campbell, F., & Abrams, J. (2019). Current Status of Forest Health Policy in the United States. Insects, 10(4), 106. https://doi.org/10.3390/insects10040106
Altaweel, M., Bone, C., & Abrams, J. (2019). Documents as data: A content analysis and topic modeling approach for analyzing responses to ecological disturbances. Ecological Informatics, 51, 82-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2019.02.014
Abrams, J., Huber-Stearns, H., Palmerin, M. L., Bone, C., Nelson, M. F., Bixler, R. P., & Moseley, C. (2018). Does policy respond to environmental change events? An analysis of Mountain Pine Beetle outbreaks in the Western United States. Environmental Science & Policy, 90, 102-109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2018.09.019
Nelson, M. F., Murphy, J. T., Bone, C., & Altaweel, M. (2018). Cyclic epidemics, population crashes, and irregular eruptions in simulated populations of the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae. Ecological Complexity, 36, 218-229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecocom.2018.08.006
Abrams, J. B.; Huber-Stearns, H. R., Bone, C.; Grummon, C. A.; & Moseley, C. (2017). Adaptation to a landscape-scale mountain pine beetle epidemic in the era of networked governance: The enduring importance of bureaucratic institutions. Ecology and Society, 22(4), 22. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-09717-220422
Bone, C., Moseley, C., Vinyeta, K., & Bixler, R. P. (2016). Employing resilience in the United States Forest Service. Land Use Policy, 52, 430-438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2016.01.003
Policy and Practitioner Publications
Briefing Paper
Strategies for Addressing Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreaks on National Forests
Working Paper
Regional Approaches to Addressing the Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak on US Forest Service Lands