Environmental impacts associated with the degradation of off-highway vehicle (OHV) trails have become a serious concern in many regions. Where OHV trails indiscriminately cross alpine areas, wetlands, steep slopes, and other areas with sensitive soil conditions, trails can become rutted, mucky, and eroded. Such areas are referred to as degraded trail segments. Degraded trails develop when trail use exceeds the trail's natural carrying capacity. This document provides land managers and trail users with an introduction to OHV trail degradation and outlines a framework for management responses.

"Wetlands" has become a hot word in the current environmental debate. But what does it signify? In 1991, proposed changes in the legal definities of wetlands stirred controversy and focused attention on the scientific and economic aspects of their management. This volume explores how to define wetlands. The committee--whose members were drawn from academia, government, business, and the environmental community--builds a rational, scientific basis for delineating wetlands in the landscape and offers recommendations for further action. Wetlands also discusses the diverse hydrological and ecological functions of wetlands, and makes recommendations concerning so-called controversial areas such as permafrost wetlands, riparian ecosystems, irregularly flooded sites, and agricultural wetlands. It presents criteria for identifying wetlands and explores the problems of applying those criteria when there are seasonal changes in water levels. This comprehensive and practical volume will be of interest to environmental scientists and advocates, hydrologists, policymakers, regulators, faculty, researchers, and students of environmental studies.

A Pulitzer Prize Finalist, this powerful elegy for our disappearing coast “captures nature with precise words that almost amount to poetry” (The New York Times). Hailed as “the book on climate change and sea levels that was missing” (Chicago Tribune), Rising is both a highly original work of lyric reportage and a haunting meditation on how to let go of the places we love. With every record-breaking hurricane, it grows clearer that climate change is neither imagined nor distant—and that rising seas are transforming the coastline of the United States in irrevocable ways. In Rising, Elizabeth Rush guides readers through these dramatic changes, from the Gulf Coast to Miami, and from New York City to the Bay Area. For many of the plants, animals, and humans in these places, the options are stark: retreat or perish. Rush sheds light on the unfolding crises through firsthand testimonials—a Staten Islander who lost her father during Sandy, the remaining holdouts of a Native American community on a drowning Isle de Jean Charles, a neighborhood in Pensacola settled by escaped slaves hundreds of years ago—woven together with profiles of wildlife biologists, activists, and other members of these vulnerable communities. A Guardian, Publishers Weekly, and Library Journal Best Book Of 2018 Winner of the National Outdoor Book Award A Chicago Tribune Top Ten Book of 2018

Understand the current concept of wetland and methods for identifying, describing, classifying, and delineating wetlands in the United States with Wetland Indicators - capturing the current state of science's role in wetland recognition and mapping. Environmental scientists and others involved with wetland regulations can strengthen their knowledge about wetlands, and the use of various indicators, to support their decisions on difficult wetland determinations. Professor Tiner primarily focuses on plants, soils, and other signs of wetland hydrology in the soil, or on the surface of wetlands in his discussion of Wetland Indicators. Practicing - and aspiring - wetland delineators alike will appreciate Wetland Indicators' critical insight into the development and significance of hydrophytic vegetation, hydric soils, and other factors. Features Shows 55 color plates, documenting wetland indicators throughout the nation - with more than 34 soil plates and aerial photos Illustrates other wetland properties with more than 50 figures Provides over 60 tables, including extensive tables of U.S. wetland plant communities and examples for determining hydrophytic vegetation Contents Wetland Definitions Wetland Concepts for Identification and Delineation Plant Indicators of Wetlands and Their Characteristics Vegetation Sampling and Analysis for Wetlands Soil Indicators of Wetlands Wetland Identification and Boundary Delineation Methods Problem Wetlands and Field Situations for Delineation Wetland Classification Wetlands of the United States: An Introduction, With Emphasis on Their Plant Communities Wetland Mapping and Photointerpretation