Browsing by Author "Cross, Gerald H."
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- Adoption-diffusion of wildlife management innovations by nonindustrial private forestland ownersGreen, Champe Brockenbrough (Virginia Tech, 1992-08-15)An experiential forest and wildlife management training program, based on the adoption-diffusion model, was conducted for 49 nonindustrial private forestland (NIPF) owners. Participant-owners were surveyed 6 months after their training to monitor adoption and diffusion activity. Owners who were nominated by local natural resources professionals adopted significantly more management innovations than those owners not nominated. Farmers demonstrated the most adoption and diffusion activity, business people the least. Farmers and business people were more oriented towards timber production objectives than others, professionals were more oriented towards wildlife management objectives. An a priori developed predictive opinion-leadership model was not correlated with either adoption or diffusion activity. Owners living less than 8 km from their tract spent significantly more time in dissemination efforts than others, as did those who had voluntarily stated an intrinsic motivation to "share what they learned" upon application to the project. Those owners who had gained extensive knowledge from past contact with natural resource professionals were significantly more active in adoption-diffusion activity than others, and those with self-perceived high interpersonal skills engaged significantly more peer owners in diffusion efforts than did others. Size of forest ownership, time residing in a community, primary objectives for owning forestland, and number of local leadership positions held had no significant effect upon adoption diffusion activity by NIPF owners. A significant and negative correlation was found between an owner's self-perceived level of education and one-onone diffusion outreach activity. NIPF owners were generally ambivalent about involvement in informal resource management clubs. It is suggested that future educational projects conducted for NIPF owners be scheduled for late winter or spring versus the fall season, particularly if a short (6 mo.) monitoring of adoption and diffusion activity is a constraint. This investigator hypothesizes that the same methodology used in this study of adoption-diffusion behavior of NIPF owners would be effective in instructing opinion-leading, professional change agents about adoption diffusion theory and techniques.
- Aquatic pest control : a training program for certification of pesticide applicatorsCross, Gerald H.; Chappell, William E.; Kates, Allan H.; Swader, Jeff (Virginia Cooperative Extension, 1980)
- Community Based Backyard Conservation for Wildlife in Loudoun County Virginia's Evergreen Rural Village- A Planned Residential DevelopmentKordella, Lesley Ann (Virginia Tech, 2005-04-15)Centex Homes initiated the development of a wildlife management plan for Evergreen Rural Village, a planned residential development in Loudoun County, Virginia. The county's landscape has changed from rural to suburban in the past decade, prompting the need to integrate natural resource management into land planning processes. Centex Homes partnered with Virginia Tech to develop a long term management plan for wildlife living in and around the property that incorporates community outreach and resident education. Specific recommendations in this plan incorporate habitat enhancement projects designed for a 148-acre lot donated to Loudoun County Parks and Recreation Department and community outreach activities. The plan also specifies recommendations for managing buffer areas that exist within the perimeters of large "conservancy lots" of Evergreen, which measure approximately 20 acres to 108 acres, and consist of limited agricultural use. Lastly, the management plan includes recommendations for the design of small scale habitat enhancement projects for central village lots and low impact development sites. The management plan relies on the participation of community members to become environmental stewards of their own backyards and natural space. Recommendations from this management plan are designed for a wildlife management based covenant for the Home Owners Association.
- A comprehensive evaluation of Virginia's hunter education programHampton, Ed L. (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1987)Hunter education began in the 1930's and 1940's in response to an increasing number of hunting accidents. Early programs focused on gun safety. Later, emphasis shifted to a balance between gun safety and hunter ethics. Virginia's Hunter Education Program in 1980 had been operating on a voluntary basis for 20 years and had more than 250,000 graduates. The program was six hours in duration and was taught by game wardens and volunteer instructors. Classes were given to anyone 12 years of age or older, but students in public schools were the primary targets. Though Virginia's program had been in effect for many years, no formal evaluation as to the effectiveness of hunter education had been conducted. The present study was designed to provide a comprehensive evaluation of Virginia's Hunter Education Program. The study was conducted in three phases. Phase one involved development of a new student examination for use in pre- and post-test knowledge assessment. Seven typical hunter education classes and one class of game warden recruits were tested in 1982. Test scores improved approximately 16 percent. The hunter education program seemed to be increasing students' knowledge of safe and ethical hunting. However, due to design and measurement weaknesses, no strong conclusions about the effectiveness of the hunter education program in improving students' knowledge can be made. Phase two was a participant observational study of dove hunters at two wildlife management areas in Virginia. The purpose of this phase was to compare hunting behavior of hunter education graduates versus those hunters who had not taken the course. The 112 hunters observed during the 1981 and 1982 season were later mailed a questionnaire designed to gather information on the individual hunter's experience, interest in, commitment to, and knowledge of hunting as well as some demographic characteristics. Observational and questionnaire data were combined into 32 variables and correlated with the hunter education variable. No meaningful correlations were found. Therefore, hunter education seemed to have little effect on hunters' behavior in the field. Phase three was a naturalistic inquiry evaluation of how the program was being implemented and received throughout Virginia. In-depth interviews were conducted with 57 people closely involved with hunter education. The primary purpose of this phase was to discover problems in the program and recommend solutions. The primary problems were lack of effective leadership and lack of internal agency support. Major recommendations included moving the entire program into the Education Division and creating a strong hunter safety coordinator position. Overall, the three-phased evaluation revealed that Virginia's Hunter Education Program lacked effective leadership, was being poorly implemented, and seemed to have little effect on hunters' behavior in the field. Though these results were obtained in Virginia, the investigator believes that the same results might apply to most other hunter education programs across the country.
- Consumerism, Nature, and the Human SpiritEmerald, Neal D. (Virginia Tech, 2004-11-02)Advertising and marketing have shaped the behavior and psychological profile of the American consumer. Consumerism is at the crux of a number of important issues affecting the nation and the world -- creation and maintenance of the false self, spiritual emptiness, detachment from nature, and sustainability. Current levels of consumption are ecologically destructive and unsustainable. Understanding the psychological and spiritual effects of consumerism may be important to reverse the trend of increasing consumption. Opportunities for ecosophical development are key to promoting the behavioral changes necessary to reestablish our connection with nature and address the problems of consumerism and sustainability.
- Continuing educational needs of state agency fish and wildlife biologistsMurphy, William F. (Virginia Tech, 1994)Fishery and wildlife biologists employed by state fish and wildlife agencies were surveyed to determine their continuing education needs related to specific job tasks. In addition, proficiency levels required for job tasks were rated. An organizational analysis was also conducted to ascertain agency climate for support of continuing education programs. Forty-seven state fish and wildlife agencies responded to the organizational analysis. Agencies valued their employees and understand the benefits of continuing education, but did not allocate many resources to support programs. A positive climate does not presently exist for the development and implementation of continuing education programs. Continuing education was not an important part of state fish and game agencies’ organizational culture. Differences in continuing education needs of fishery and wildlife biologist have little correlation to undergraduate/graduate curricula, highest degrees attained, or length in the profession. Biologists’ greatest needs for continuing education related to technical tasks in research/data collection and analysis, and specifically computer and software usage. Other continuing education needs were related to population and habitat tasks. Biologists identified low proficiency levels needed for modeling and genetic tasks, but indicated a high need for continuing education. Continuing education needs for non-technical tasks related to communication, interpersonal relations, management and leadership skills were rated significantly higher by agency administration than fishery and wildlife biologists. Additional data were provided on proficiency levels identified for job tasks. Recommendations are made to state fish and wildlife agencies, providers of continuing education programming, and university faculty.
- Developing a Natural Resource Database for Geographic Information SystemHassouna, Khaled M. (Virginia Tech, 1997-03-13)Geographic information systems ( GIS ) are an effective tool for land management. By studying the land formations and land cover of a site, much information about the tree and animal species inhabiting a site can be estimated. The managers of public or private lands may find the concept of a multi-layer analysis of their land useful in discriminating locations based on their many characteristics. I created a database of a small area with no previously specified objective. I produced a group of map layers emphasizing the methodology and the ability of making any number of overlays or combinations of layers. I estimated the time and cost involved in producing these layers. I produced layers of: elevation, slope, aspect, watershed-depression, watershed-flow direction, watershed-streams, and roads. I created a group of categorized data layers: elevation, slope, aspect, erosive slope, watershed-flow accumulation, buffered roads, and buffered streams. I made some combinations of different layers explaining the potential uses of such combination. I used the work of my graduate colleagues to illustrate the importance of such work when combined in natural resources management. Combinations were made of: forest cover, average temperature, solar radiation, and slope position.
- Evaluating wildlife law enforcement agent and agency effectiveness: a methodologyBullard, Clifford Owen (Virginia Tech, 1992-12-03)A project was completed that 1) developed a list of potential primary law enforcement objectives; 2) analyzed the arrest component of agency and agent objectives; and 3) developed a computer model that produced an agent arrest score. A methodology to select law enforcement objectives using a hierarchy was developed. The objective hierarchy and example objectives are shown. A crime wildlife related list was developed. Game wardens and wildlife biologists with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, foresters with the Virginia Department of Forestry, and members of 2 private interest groups were surveyed to determine the relative importance of the crimes. Respondents ranked violations on a scale from 1 ("not very wrong") to 9 (livery wrong") relative to a given standard violation. The survey contained 3 sections: (A) specific violation list, (8) species list, and (C) list of violation categories. Differences among groups, consistency in responses, and relative consensus about importance of violations were analyzed.
- Forage Improvements and Riparian Buffers for Water Quality and Sustainability: A Small Farm Management PlanSlusser, Robert S. (Virginia Tech, 2004-12-10)Black Hawk Creek was included in the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) 303(d) list of impaired waters in 1998 due to non-point sources of fecal coliform bacteria. Water quality degradation in the stream network is also impacted by excess nutrients in surface runoff from cropped fields and pastures, sedimentation erosion of streambanks from the high volume of water flow following storm events, and the pulse of enriched groundwater drained into the streams from the subsurface tile network. Rotational grazing will replace the current continuous grazing management system. Implementation includes controlling both sides of Black Hawk Creek in the permanent pastures with electric fencing, installing reinforced controlled stream crossing sites, establishing a permanent clean water distribution system and enhancing the Kentucky bluegrass dominated pastures with three cool season naturalized grass and three legume species adapted to the north central Iowa loess landscape. Multi-species ripariain buffers based on the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture's model and other models based on simulating the functionality of presettlement ecosystem savannah grassland will be created between monocultures of corn and soybean fields and the stream network. Follow on studies will monitor the effectiveness of a managed forage sward, riparian buffers, and natural healing of streambanks to mitigate excess nutrient movement into the streams.
- Geographic Information System Topographic Factor Maps for Wildlife ManagementMcCombs, John Wayland II (Virginia Tech, 1997-07-24)A geographic information system (GIS) was used to create landform measurements and maps for elevation, slope, aspect, landform index, relative phenologic change, and slope position for 3 topographic quadrangles in Virginia. A set of known observation points of the Northern dusky flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) was used to build 3 models to delineate sites with landform characteristics equivalent to those known points. All models were built using squirrel observation points from 2 topographic quadrangles. The first model, called "exclusionary", excluded those pixels with landform characteristics different from the known squirrel pixels based on histogram analyses. Logistic regression was used to create the other 2 models. Each model resulted in an image of pixels considered equivalent to the known squirrel pixels. Each model excluded approximately 65% of the Highland study area, but the exclusionary model excluded the fewest known squirrel pixels (12.62%). Both logistic regression models excluded approximately 10% more known squirrel pixels than the exclusionary approach. The models were tested in the area of a third quadrangle with points known to be occupied by squirrels. After the model was applied to the third topographic quadrangle, the exclusionary model excluded the least amount of full-area pixels (79.30%) and only 14.81% of the known squirrel pixels. The second logistic regression excluded 81.16 % of the full area and no known squirrel pixels. All models proved useful in quickly delineating pixels equivalent to areas where wildlife were known to occur.
- Insolation, Precipitation, and Moisture Maps for a Virginia Geographic Information SystemKlopfer, Scott D. (Virginia Tech, 1997-07-25)Climate information is valuable in understanding the ecology of systems affecting wildlife. This information is often unavailable at the landscape scale. This study evaluated the applicability of several climate factor estimates at the landscape-scale, and illustrated the usefulness of estimated climate factors in ecological investigations. Climate variables estimated for each month of the year were solar radiation, temperature, precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration. Map layers for combined temperature and precipitation, and a moisture index were also created. Accuracy of the estimates for temperature and precipitation for each 300 m x 300 m pixel were quantitatively assessed. The methods used estimated mean monthly temperature within 1 degree C. Precipitation estimates were within 9 mm of actual recorded value. The estimates for monthly solar radiation were qualitatively assessed, and provided a reasonable relative index to actual solar radiation. Estimates of potential evapotranspiration were determined to be reasonably accurate. Landscape-scale estimated climate factors were used in 2 case studies. The first used logistic regression to examine the importance of climate factors to the observed distribution of 21 select forest cover-types in Virginia.The second compared the observed climate characteristics for the distributions of 3 species of terrestrial salamanders in Virginia. Winter temperature was the most important climate variable in determining forest cover-type distribution. Several differences in the climate characteristics of the 3 salamander distributions were observed and discussed. The conclusions of this study were that landscape-scale climate factors can be accurately estimated, and the estimates may be helpful in ecological investigations.
- A Methodology for Inventorying Stored Carbon in An Urban ForestGann, Sara Beth (Virginia Tech, 2003-06-13)Trees in urban areas store carbon directly through photosynthesis, but they also provide the added benefit of reducing carbon emissions produced by fossil-fuel burning power plants, by means of energy conservation from strategically-planted trees near buildings, as well as by area-wide reductions in the urban heat island effect. Quantifying the role of urban forests is an important prerequisite to managing the vegetation to optimize benefits, and also serves to assign value to the important ecosystem services provided by urban trees. Decisions by policy-makers regarding the management and use of urban trees requires accurate and precise information about the state of the resource. This paper creates a methodology for conducting a carbon inventory in an urban forest in the Washington, DC area, one that requires a minimum of data gathering. The methodology could serve as a tool for other similar high-density urban areas to measure carbon resources in urban forests and to serve as the basis for further research. Carbon trading systems may provide opportunities for forest owners to sell carbon credits to entities that produce CO2 in excess of national or international limits; quantifying urban forest carbon would be necessary as a baseline for future carbon offset projects.
- Renewable natural resources: woodchuck controlCross, Gerald H. (1974-10)A discussion of woodchuck and their control.
- Select geomorphological components of wildlife habitat in the ridge and valley province of VirginiaMartin, Steven M. (Virginia Tech, 1988-12-05)I examined geomorphology as it relates to wildlife and wildlife habitat I sought to make dimensions of land surface shape (terrain) available for use by natural resource professionals. Most geomorphic processes operate on longer time scales than the life spans of organisms that inhabit a landscape. So, it is the shape of the land surface, not formative processes that are considered in most environmental sciences. Terrain molds and is molded by climate, vegetation, and geology. Terrain influences site-specific temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, and winds. Through these climatic effects, terrain influences the distribution of plant species and plant phenologies. I examined the role of terrain in applied environmental sciences including forestry, soil science, hydrology, and fisheries. Terrain also affects the distribution, movements, energetics, cover, and food habits of wildlife species. I identified 8 parameters of land surface shape: elevation, slope, aspect, relief, length, area, roughness and texture, pattern and shape. From physical science literature, I identified over 120 descriptors of surface shape that measure 1 or more of these parameters. Through an objective-weighting procedure, I selected 60 descriptors to include in a computer-based system for quantifying land surface shape. The resulting system, GEODES, integrates a raster-based GIS, vector mapping programs, and a relational data base management system to present these land surface shape descriptors. Specific applications of individual descriptors and of GEODES are suggested. Individual descriptors or the larger system (GEODES) may be used to reduce variance in wildlife research and management, and to increase managerial control.
- Utilization of natural nest sites by Eastern Bluebirds in southwestern VirginiaPierson, Thomas A. (Virginia Tech, 1978-11-05)Eastern Bluebirds (Sialis sialis) were found to be utilizing natural nest sites in the vicinity of Blacksburg, Virginia, during 1976 and 1977. Forty-seven natural nest sites, 37 in fencepost cavities and ten in tree cavities were discovered by driving roads in rural areas, scanning fencerows and utility wires with binoculars, and by searching fencerows on foot. Ninety-one percent of nest cavities used by bluebirds were made by woodpeckers. Height of cavity entrance, entrance diameter, and distance from entrance to cavity bottom were best able to distinguish anong bluebird fencepost nest cavities, nest demonstration display sites, and Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) fencepost nest cavities, using discriminant function analysis. Four nest cavities used by bluebirds in 1976 were no longer available in 1977 due to the replacement of fenceposts and tree limb breakage. No new cavities in fenceposts were observed being excavated by woodpeckers.
- Vegetation, wildlife, and human foraging in prehistoric western VirginiaDiamond, Seth J. (Virginia Tech, 1989-02-15)To improve the study and management of Havens Wildlife Management Area (HWMA) in Roanoke County, Virginia, the ecological history of the Ridge and Valley Province of Virginia was investigated. Palynological, paleontological, archaeological, and historical data were synthesized into a comprehensive history of the region's vegetation, fauna, and humans from 25,000 B.P. to Euroamerican settlement. A linear programming model was developed to examine the relationship between the energy demand of a human band and the food resources of HWMA 2,500 years ago. The model was based on the assumption that prehistoric human foraging was impelled by the need to satisfy energy requirements and that prehistoric human foragers strove for maximum energetic efficiency. The model was driven by an objective function, that minimized the cost (expressed in hours of labor) of the human foragers' diet. Constraints on the achievement of this goal were the available metabolizable energy in selected mountain food resources and the energy demand of a 25-person band. The product of the model was a regimen of food resources that met the band's annual energy requirement at the lowest cost. The model predicted that fall was the dominant foraging season on HWMA. Chestnut was the major food resource, satisfying 54% of the bandâ s annual energy demand. Additional primary resources were opossum and raccoon, elk, woodchuck, white-tailed deer, and black bear. Secondary and tertiary resources were passenger pigeon, bitter acorns, hickory nuts, and false Solomon's seal rhizomes. Marginal food resources were wild turkey, Jack-in-the-pulpit corms, eastern cottontail, gray squirrel, sweet acorns, and box turtle. An annual foraging strategy with a fall-winter focus in mountain ecosystems and a spring-summer focus in lowland ecosystems was suggested by the model. A comparison of the model results with an archaeological data indicated that hickory nuts were over represented and chestnuts underrepresented at archaeological sites, and that clothing, not food, limited human population density in upland western Virginia ecosystems.