The U.S. Geological Survey Puget Sound Ecosystem Portfolio Model is a decisions-support tool that uses scenarios to evaluate where, when, and to what extend future population growth, urban growth, and shoreline development may threaten the Puget Sound nearshore environment.

Threshold concepts are used in research and management of ecological systems to describe and interpret abrupt and persistent reorganization of ecosystem properties (Walker and Meyers, 2004; Groffman and others, 2006). Abrupt change, referred to as a threshold crossing, and the progression of reorganization can be triggered by one or more interactive disturbances such as land-use activities and climatic events (Paine and others, 1998). Threshold crossings occur when feedback mechanisms that typically absorb forces of change are replaced with those that promote development of alternative equilibria or states (Suding and others, 2004; Walker and Meyers, 2004; Briske and others, 2008). The alternative states that emerge from a threshold crossing vary and often exhibit reduced ecological integrity and value in terms of management goals relative to the original or reference system. Alternative stable states with some limited residual properties of the original system may develop along the progression after a crossing; an eventual outcome may be the complete loss of pre-threshold properties of the original ecosystem.

In 2012, the FAA and USDA continued to make great progress with its multifaceted approach for mitigating wildlife strikes. The FAA ensured that 100 percent of Part 139 airports have completed a Wildlife Hazard Assessment (WHA), are in the process of conducting a WHA, or have taken a Federal grant to conduct a WHA. Strike reporting continued to increase, especially with General Aviation (GA) aircraft, which increased strike reporting by 11 percent between 2011 and 2012. The FAA implemented three performance metrics to monitor strike reporting trends and GA wildlife mitigation. The performance metrics include percentage of damaging strikes, strike reporting rates, and tracking of General Aviation (GA) airports that conduct WHAs and site visits. We also issued a final Advisory Circular (AC) on strike reporting and draft ACs on WHA methodology and requirements for federally obligated public airports to conduct WHAs.

The myriad definitions of soil/ecosystem quality or health are often driven by ecosystem and management concerns, and they typically focus on the ability of the soil to provide functions relating to biological productivity and/or environmental quality (Doran and Parkin, 1994; Karlen and others, 1997). A variety of attempts have been made to create indices that quantify the complexities of soil quality and provide a means of evaluating the impact of various natural and anthropogenic disturbances.

A Kind of Magic is a three-volume novel of eco-magical realism. It's a book about transition: from childhood to adolescence; from isolation to community; from passivity to action. From fantasy to the real world. It is deliberately aimed at 4th - 6th graders, and can be read as a whole or as three short school library books. A Trick of the Light/Turtle Crossing/ThunderHawk: A Trilogy of short books for middle-grade readers; following a boy's awakening to the beauties and needs of the natural world around him, with the help of his friends, his family, his community and the mysterious spirit of the forest.

This document describes a protocol to monitor five terrestrial plant communities in seven national parks within the Pacific Island Network (PACN).

The purpose of the National Park Service (NPS) Inventory & Monitoring (I&M) Program is to develop and provide scientifically credible information on the current status and long-term trends of the composition, structure, and function of park ecosystems, and to determine how well current management practices are sustaining those ecosystems. As part of the NPS's effort to improve park management through greater reliance on scientific knowledge, a primary role of the I&M Program is to collect, organize, and make available natural resource data and to contribute to the NPS institutional knowledge by transforming data into information through analysis, synthesis, and modeling of specific key vital signs. The I&M Program defines vital signs as a subset of physical, chemical, and biological elements and processes of park ecosystems that is selected to represent the overall health or condition of park resources, known or hypothesized effects of stressors, or elements that have important human values.