Influence of Mowing <Emphasis Type="Italic">Artemisia tridentata</Emphasis> ssp. <Emphasis Type="Italic">wyomingensis</Emphasis> on Winter Habitat for Wildlife

Mowing is commonly implemented to Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis (Beetle & A. Young) S.L. Welsh (Wyoming big sagebrush) plant communities to improve wildlife habitat, increase forage production for livestock, and create fuel breaks for fire suppression. However, information detailing the influence of mowing on winter habitat for wildlife is lacking. This information is crucial because many wildlife species depended on A. tridentata spp. wyomingensis plant communities for winter habitat and consume significant quantities of Artemisia during this time. Furthermore, information is generally limited describing the recovery of A. tridentata spp. wyomingensis to mowing and the impacts of mowing on stand structure. Stand characteristics and Artemisia leaf tissue crude protein (CP), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) concentrations were measured in midwinter on 0-, 2-, 4-, and 6-year-old fall-applied mechanical (mowed at 20 cm height) treatments and compared to adjacent untreated (control) areas. Mowing compared to the control decreased Artemisia cover, density, canopy volume, canopy elliptical area, and height (P < 0.05), but all characteristics were recovering (P < 0.05). Mowing A. tridentata spp. wyomingensis plant communities slightly increases the nutritional quality of Artemisia leaves (P < 0.05), but it simultaneously results in up to 20 years of decrease in Artemisia structural characteristics. Because of the large reduction in A. tridentata spp. wyomingensis for potentially 20 years following mowing, mowing should not be applied in Artemisia facultative and obligate wildlife winter habitat. Considering the decline in A. tridentata spp. wyomingensis-dominated landscapes, we caution against mowing these communities.     

Assessing anthropogenic impact on Mediterranean sand dunes from aerial digital photography

The Mediterranean region plays host to ca. 33% of the world’s tourism industry. This population of visitors (ca. 147 million in 1990) inevitably exerts an enormous impact on the natural resources of this coastal zone. In May 1997, a new generation Aerial Digital Photographic System [ADPS] configured with a Kodak Digital Science 460 CIR digital camera was used to acquire colour infrared digital photographs of the sand dune systems along the Mediterranean coast of France, from Le Barcares to St-Cyprien-Plage. These have been used to assess the condition of the dunes along this coast. A series of simple analytical techniques to identify and measure features indicative of public pressure using image processing software has been devised. The dune manager with basic computer skills can analyse such indicators as path length, vegetation cover (and conversely the extent of bare sand) to enable monitoring of the performance of their dune systems under particular management regimes. These photographs have been compared with similar digital photographs of dune sites in SW France to allow a comparison of dune degradation in a region with a different population pressure and climate regime. Dune systems sampled from the Mediterranean coastal zone showed more evidence of anthropogenically induced change than those sampled in SW France.     

Book reviews

Land and Leisure — Concepts and Methods in Outdoor Recreation

Second Edition — edited by C. S. Von Doren, G. B. Priddle and J. E. Lewis.

Methuen & Co., £5.95. 1979.

Countryside Planning — The First Three Decades, 1945–76

Andrew W. Gilg.

Methuen & Co. £3.50. 1979.

Social Problems and the City

D. T. Herbert and D. M. Smith

Oxford University Press. £8.50. 271 pp.

Slum Housing and Residential Renewal — The Case of Urban Britain

D. A. Kirby

Topics in Applied Geography Series. Longmans. £2.95. 1979.

From Blacksmiths to White Elephants: Benwell's Changing Shops

Benwell Community Project Final Report, Series No. 7, Newcastle upon Tyne 1979. 72 pp. 80p.

The Debate on Urban Policy — Decentralisation versus Improvement

Robert Coursey

Retailing and Planning Associates 1977. 93 pp.

Urban Deprivation and Government Initiatives

Paul Lawless

Faber. £8.95 (hard‐back), 251 pp.

A Guide to Historic Buildings Law Fourth Edition

Peace, D., and Purdy, I. M.

Cambridgeshire County Council, County Planning Department, 1979.

98 pp. (paperback), £5.35 post paid.

Research and Intelligence

Papers delivered at the Annual Conference 1978, Inlogov University of Birmingham Edited by E. M. Davies

£4.30. 257 pp.

Geography and the Urban Environment : Progress in Research and Applications

Vol. II. Edited by D. T. Herbert, R. J. Johnston.

Wiley, London. 308 pp.

Facts about the New Towns : A Socio‐Economic Digest

A. G. Champion, K. Clegg and R. L. Davies

R.P.A., Corbridge, 1978.

Physical Planning in the Member States of the E.E.C.

C. Wood and N. Lee, Occasional Paper No. 2.

Department of Town and Country Planning, University of Manchester, 1978. 59pp.     

Book reviews

French Land Use Planning in the Fifth Republic: Real or imagined decentralisation?

Irene B. Wilson, Nijmeegse Planologische Cahiers No. 27, Geografisch en Planologisch Instituut, Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, Netherlands, 1988. 228pp. ISBN 90–70219–23–9.

Environmental and Resource Economics: an Introduction

Common, M. (1988). Longman i‐xiv 1–319.

The Greening of Aid: Sustainable Livelihoods in Practice.

C. Conroy & M. Litvinoff (Eds.) Earthscan Publications Ltd, London, 1989, pp.293, £8.95 (pb).

Private Supply of Public Services: Evaluation of Real Estate Exactions, Linkage, and Alternative Land Policies.

Rachelle Alterman (Ed), New York University Press, 1988. 273pp, ISBN 0–8147–0589–8.

City Politics

Hegemonic Projects and Discourse, by Maarten A. Hajer, published by Avebury Press, the Gower Publishing Company Ltd 1989, 140 pp.

The Genius Of The Place

The English Landscape Garden 1620–1820

John Dixon Hunt and Petér Willis. Price £12.50 (Paperback) & £26.95 (Cloth). M.I.T. Press.

Vacationscape

Designing Tourist Regions — 1988 2nd Ed.

Clare A. Gunn, New York, Van Nostrand Reinhold, $34.95 (cloth)

Loft Living — Culture and Capital in Urban Change

Sharon Zukin. Published, British Edition ‘Radius (Century Hudson) London, 1988 Price £8.95.

First Pub. U.S. John Hopkins University Press, 1982. Note: The British Edition has an added Chapter ’More Market Forces’.

William Kent Landscape Garden Designer

John Dixon Hunt. A. Zwemmer Ltd London. 1987, 176pp.

The Pattern of Landscape

Sylvia Crowe and Mary Mitchell (1988). Packard Publishing Ltd, Chichester. 127pp, 161 photographs. Price £30. ISBN 185341 020.

International Environmental Diplomacy

Edited by J. E. Carroll     

Estimation of septic tank setback distances based on transport of E. coli and F-RNA phages

Setback distances between septic tank systems and the shorelines of Lake Okareka, New Zealand were determined from model simulations for a worst-case scenario, using the highest hydraulic conductivity and gradient measured in the field, removal rates of the microbial indicators (Escherichia coli and F-RNA phages) determined from a column experiment, and maximum values of the design criteria for the disposal system, and assuming an absence of an unsaturated zone, a continuous discharge of the raw effluent from a failed or non-complying treatment system (both indicators at concentrations of 1x10(7) counts/100 ml) into the groundwater and no sorption of pathogens in the aquifer. Modelling results suggest that the minimal setback distances were 16 m to satisfy the New Zealand Recreational Water Quality Guidelines for E. coli <126 per 100 ml (Ministry for the Environment, 1999) and 48 m to meet the Drinking-Water Standards for New Zealand 2000 for enteric virus <1 per 100 l (Ministry of Health, 2000). These distances may be applicable for other lakeshores in pumice sand aquifers with groundwater velocities <7 m/day. Findings of laboratory column and batch experiments provided an insight into the microbial attenuation and transport processes in pumice sand aquifers. Bacterial removal was predominately through filtration (87-88%) and partially by die-off (12-13%), while viral removal was by both die-off (45%) and filtration (55%). In addition, microbial die-off in groundwater without aquifer material (i.e., free microbes) was much lower than die-off in groundwater with aquifer material (i.e., sorbed microbes) and contributed only 2-6% to the total removal. This implies that the setback distances estimated from die-off rates for the free microbes, determined in the laboratory without considering aquifer media and other removal processes, which are often reported in the literature, could be larger than necessary.     

Protective values for soil lead with respect to child health: a critique of UK guidelines

In 2002, The (UK) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) together with the Environment Agency published document SGV10 “Contaminants in soil: collation of toxicological data and intake values for humans. Lead”. This publication sets out the derivation of Soil Guideline Values for lead contamination. Values for soil lead that are protective of the health of children and also for adults are derived using the model recommended by an international task force working under the auspices of the Society for Environmental Geochemistry and Health (SEGH) (Wixson and Davies 1993, 1994). Detailed examination of the DEFRA publication shows it uses unrealistic values for two variables in the SEGH model. The consequence is both actual and has potential adverse societal impacts. These impacts could be avoided if the appropriate scientific community were regarded as stakeholders in the legislative outcome and not simply the providers of the research data.