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Reflecting on the insights from research development within Urban Biodiversity and Design Network (URBIO), this paper attempts to link the consequences of current global changes (ongoing urbanization, biodiversity loss, land-use changes, globalization, etc.) to the emergence and outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic. It analyses the main outcomes of the URBIO webinar (December 2021) and the URBIO conference (November 2022) and the results of the questionnaire survey among the URBIO experts on the impact of COVID-19 on the biodiversity, design and society in their local contexts as well as on the ongoing and future URBIO research directions. The survey also enabled to explore and assess a wide diversity of human-nature interactions as well as the novel actions and adaptation strategies established to have positive outcomes for both humans and nature. The results revealed the following aspects associated with the COVID-19 pandemic: silence, social distancing, isolation, conflict ideologies, and declined recreational and other human activities. Experts noticed the increase of urban green space visitation and interest in nature. The majority of the experts confirmed the impact (both positive and negative) of the COVID-19 on biodiversity and environment. General positive aspects refer to the value/significance of nature and biodiversity/wildlife and especially the contact with nature ("time outdoor", "time spent with family", "inspiration from nature" and "enjoying nature"). The positive consequence of the COVID-19 measures was also the improvement of wildlife habitats and the increase of spontaneous flora as well as fauna species. Experts confirmed the lower/decreased level of pollution, noise, traffic, light, anthropogenic pressure/impact, number of tourists, vehicles as well as less garbage. The analysis of leading research themes among the URBIO conference participants confirmed that the biggest number of presenters and participants were on the topic of biodiversity integration in urban planning, green infrastructure, and landscape design projects. Another popular theme was ecological restoration and urban wildlife and plant biodiversity. One particular research direction that emerged recently and clearly pronounced at URBIO 2022 was urban biodiversity in times of climate change and post-pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent rapid economic and infrastructure growth in India has led to degraded environmental conditions. Congested and densely populated urban areas have seen increased pollution, water pollution, and habitat and biodiversity loss. Urban green spaces (UGSs) are vital for improving such environmental qualities and coping with environmental challenges within cities. UGSs provide numerous tangible and intangible environmental, recreational/social, and economic benefits, also acknowledged as ecosystem services. This study assessed residents' perceptions of UGSs ecosystem services in Delhi, India. The main objectives were to (1) understand residents' visiting patterns of UGSs and corresponding socio-economic correlations (2) assess residents' knowledge and perceptions of ecosystem services and disservices, and (3) ranking of ecosystem services provided by UGSs based on significance to the residents. This study is based on a survey of 620 randomly selected respondents in UGSs throughout the city. Most respondents knew about ecosystem services in UGSs and believed the ecosystem services outweighed any ecosystem disservices. The results also showed the importance of improving urban microclimate and environmental quality was emphasized. Interestingly, ecosystem services like improve mental health and aesthetic beauty rated high. The improvement of wildlife habitat, fresh water, water flow regulation & runoff mitigation and the collection of fuelwood, fruits, honey and medicine were not seen as important by the respondents. Residents more readily recognized UGSs' direct benefits over the indirect benefits. Awareness of economic benefit was relatively high. Results from this research could help urban planners and developers to consider residents' perceptions and expectations when designing UGSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of roads as ubiquitous features of the modern landscape on wildlife habitat and biodiversity is now a serious global concern. In this regard, biodiversity has become a major environmental issue to promote sustainable development; due to transportation infrastructure around the world, habitat loss is now considered a major threat to biodiversity conservation. The development of communication roads has exerted devastating influences on the environment, especially on wildlife habitats and sensitive ecosystems. This catastrophe is unfortunately spreading in Iran. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to assess the impacts of the Darmian road which passes through the middle of a protected area and divides it into two southeast and northwest parts. The Leopold matrix method was used to identify potential impacts on wildlife habitats. The scoring process in the Leopold matrix was performed by collecting the opinions of a panel of environmental experts and specialists based on the criteria of magnitude and significance. The results of importance risks showed that vehicle traffic (244), vehicle traffic noise (67), salt defrosting (39), light attraction and attention (24), and warm road surfaces (21) have the greatest impacts on the environment, respectively. Also, the evaluation of environmental factors showed that the highest risks due to road functions include fragmentation and reduction of the habitat area (68), greater access to natural ecosystems (63), noise pollution (53), hunting and reduced habitat safety (44), and wildlife fatalities and accidents on roads (34). It showed that the exploitation of Darmian road has always caused negative impacts. It is inferred that, the environmental managers should pay more attention to the use of mitigation measures as management strategies to decrease the amount of negative impacts and further damage in the future. Finally, management strategies and solutions are suggested to reduce environmental damage according to the important impacts of road exploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed the land use and land cover (LULC) changes from 2000 to 2020 and examined its influence on wildlife distribution and abundance. LULC from satellite imagery for 2000, 2012 and 2020 were acquired from the United States Geological Survey (USGS). Supervised classification along with a maximum likelihood algorithm was used to classify satellite imagery into eight LULC classes: bareland, woodland, wetland, shrubland, grassland, waterbodies, cropland and built-up land. The results showed that grassland, wetland and woodland had declined, while shrubland, cropland and built-up land increased from 2000 to 2020. Grassland, wetland and woodland decreased from 48.1%, 14.1% and 4.4% in 2000 to 19.5%, 10.3% and 2.5% in 2020, respectively. Shrubland, cropland and built-up land expanded from 14.8%, 1.9% and 0.0% in 2000 to 39.0%, 17.2% and 1.9% in 2020, respectively. The findings suggest that the decline in grassland, wetland and woodland had affected terrestrial vertebrate species and their habitats through wildlife habitat destruction and land degradation leading to the changes in the wild animals' abundance and distribution. The research highlights the need for continuous monitoring and reporting of land use and land cover changes and its effects on wildlife distribution and abundance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thresholds can be used to interpret environmental data in a way that is easily communicated and useful for decision making purposes. However, thresholds are often developed for specific data products and time periods, changing findings when the same threshold is applied to datasets or periods with different characteristics. Here, we test the impact of different spatial discretizations of snow on annual estimates of wolverine habitat in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, defined using a snow water equivalent (SWE) threshold (0.20 m) and threshold date (15 May) from previous habitat assessments. Annual wolverine habitable area (WHA) was thresholded from a 36-year (1985 - 2020) snow reanalysis at three different spatial discretizations: 1) 480 m grid cells, 2) 90 m grid cells, and 3) 480 m grid cells with implicit representations of subgrid snow spatial heterogeneity. Relative to the 480 m grid cells, 90 m grid cells resolved shallower snow deposits on slopes between 3050 and 3350 m elevation, decreasing WHA by 10%, on average. In years with warmer and/or drier winters, grid cells with subgrid representations of snow heterogeneity increased the prevalence of 15 May snow deposits that exceeded the 0.20 m SWE threshold, even within grid cells where mean SWE was less than the threshold. These simulations increased WHA by upwards of 30% in low snow years, as compared to simulations without subgrid snow heterogeneity. Despite WHA sensitivity to different snow spatial discretizations, WHA was controlled more by annual variations in winter precipitation and temperature. However, small changes to the SWE threshold (± 0.07 m) and threshold date (± 2 weeks) also affected WHA by as much as 82%. Across these threshold ranges, WHA was approximately 18% more sensitive to the SWE threshold than the threshold date. However, the sensitivity to the threshold date was larger in years with late spring snowfall, when WHA depended greatly on whether the date SWE was thresholded was before, during, or after spring snow accumulation. Our results demonstrate that snow thresholds are useful but may not always provide a complete picture of the annual variability in snow-adapted wildlife habitat. Studies thresholding spatiotemporal datasets could be improved by including 1) information about the fidelity of thresholds across multiple spatial discretizations, and 2) uncertainties related to ranges of realistic thresholds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, the public forests of the Pacific Northwest were subject to widespread clearcutting of their old-growth trees as part of a federal policy promoting industrial logging. That era came to an end in the early 1990s, due to court injunctions enforcing environmental laws like the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Forest Management Act, as a response to diminishing old-growth dependent species like the northern spotted owl. Fulfilling a campaign promise to resolue the contentious issue by protecting both wildlife habitat and a logging industry important to local communities, President Clinton and his administration conducted a remarkable 1993 symposium on the economics and science of preserving rapidly disappearing habitat for Endangered Species Act-listed species like the northern spotted owl and several salmonids. The result was the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan (the NFP or the Plan), widely recognized as the largest commitment to ecosystem management worldwide. Somewhat surprisingly, the NFP is still in effect ouer a quarter-century later, despite determined efforts to euiscerate it. This Article examines the NFP, its antecedents, provisions, court interpretations, and future. In many respects, despite persistent controversy ouer the legal underpinnings of the NFP, the Plan has provided substantial protection for the Northwest's federal forests, and-although it did not end allpublic timber haruests-largely ended harvesting of public old-growth forests. Moreover, the Plan's aquatic protection strategy has proved quite effective and worthy of emulation elsewhere. A postscript to this Article considers the effect of the recent Biden Administration executive order concerning old-growth forests on the NFP. Although the Bush administration's repeated efforts to terminate the Plan failed, the Obama administration removed about ten percent of the federal forests subject to the Plan from its reach, substantially undermining its ecological premises. The courts have so far sustained these removals, casting a pall of uncertainty over efforts to update the NFP to reflect current challenges posed by witdfires and climate change. This Article suggests that the goals ofa revised NFP should be linked to the role that federal public Pacific Northwest forests can play in the U.S.' international obligations to combat climate change. We recommend a number of changes to the NFP, including ending both post-fire saluage sales and the logging of mature and old-growth forests. To accommodate these changes, we suggest providing a "just transition" for affected rural communities and increased flexibility concerning the boundaries of protective terrestrial reserues in the southern reaches of the Plan. We maintain that despite lingering uncertainty about its scope of coverage, the NFP can and should continue to provide the signature example of landscape planning worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study was conducted in the Kedarnath Valley located in the Garhwal Himalayan region of Uttarakhand. This valley is a rich repository of unique wildlife resources. Wildlife resources are represented in four vertebrate classes, 100 species belonging to 103 genera and 53 families, 26 species belonging to 21 genera and 14 families of mammals and 56 species belonging to 49 genera and 26 families of avian are present. However, 13 species belonging to 13 genera and 7 families of reptilians and 5 species belonging to 3 genera and 2 families of amphibians are also present in Kedarnath Valley. 17 species belonging to 17 genera and 4 families of butterflies are present in the Valley. Some vertebrates have been listed as threatened in IUCN RED List and are listed in different Schedules of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 of India. The present study finds many natural and anthropogenic activities to threaten biodiversity and finds future strategies for the better conservation and management of the wildlife and improvement of the habitat of the wildlife species in the Kedarnath Valley. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners are a dominant forest landownership group in the south-eastern United States and play a crucial role in regular fuel management for effective landscape-level wildfire hazard reduction. However, little is known about their intentions to implement fuel reduction treatments in the future. This study estimated the likelihood that NIPF landowner will implement a fuel reduction treatment in the next 5 years using a binary logistic regression model. This likelihood was associated with landowner attitudes towards wildfires, forest landownership and socioeconomic characteristics, and forest location attributes. Approximately 30% of landowners were likely to implement a fuel reduction treatment and a majority were interested in treating pine plantations. Management of undesired vegetation, promotion of tree growth, wildlife habitat improvements and reduction of wildfire severity were primary motivations for implementing treatments. Past implementation of fuel reduction treatments, previous wildfire experiences, concern about wildfire-related property damage, familiarity with wildfire prevention programs, ecosystem service maintenance as an ownership objective, forest land area owned and implementation of fuel treatments by neighbouring landowners were positively associated with the likelihood of fuel reduction treatments. Findings will be helpful in developing more effective programs encouraging landowners to regularly treat hazardous fuels in their forests. Approximately 30% of NIPF landowners will implement fuel reduction treatments to meet various forest management objectives, including wildfire hazard reduction, in the next five years. Landowners can potentially be motivated to regularly implement treatments through provision of technical assistance, prioritisation of areas with higher wildfire hazard and promotion of collaborative programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wildlife strikes are a threat to the safety of flight and a financial burden to aircraft operators. Although wildlife strikes are an unavoidable hazard in aviation, they can be mitigated through various methods, including airport wildlife management plans, deterring animal inhabitance around airports, and a national reporting system to bring awareness to the issue. This ex-post-facto research determined the difference in frequency of wildlife strikes at non-military class B airports in the contiguous United States by geographical region. Regions were defined as follows: (1) the Pacific coast, (2) the western mountainous areas and Texas, (3) the Midwest, (4) the Southeast, and (5) the Northeast. A total of 27,036 reports ranging from 1/1/2015 to 12/31/2019 were collected from the publicly available Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) database. The data analysis of regions showed that Region 2 had the greatest frequency of wildlife strikes, while Region 1 had the least frequency of strikes. Moreover, a between-subjects ANOVA suggested that there was a significant difference in the frequency of strikes between regions in the contiguous US. The airports in Region 1 underwent significantly fewer wildlife strikes than those in Regions 2, 3, and 4. Region 2 also had a significantly greater frequency of strikes than Region 5. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restoration and rehabilitation are globally implemented to improve ecosystem condition but often without tracking treatment expenditures relative to ecological outcomes. We evaluated the cost‐effectiveness of widely conducted woody plant and herbaceous invasive plant removals and seeding treatments in drylands of the western United States from 2004 to 2018 to determine how land managers can optimize efforts. Woody plant cover decreased at a similar rate per dollar spent regardless of vegetation removal type, and the dominant invasive species was reduced by herbicide application. Relatively inexpensive herbicide application also had a large positive effect on seeded perennial grass cover that was enhanced by additional cost; while expensive woody mastication treatments had little effect regardless of additional cost. High seed cost was driven by including a large proportion of native species in seed mixes, and combined with high seeding cost, promoted a short‐term (2–3 yr) gain in perennial forb cover and species richness. In contrast, seeding and seed mix cost had no bearing on seeded perennial grass cover, in part, because relatively cheap nonnative seeded species rapidly increased in cover. Our results suggest the differential benefits of commonly implemented treatments aimed at reducing wildfire risk, improving wildlife habitat and forage, and reducing erosion. Given the growing need and cost of restoration and rehabilitation, we raise the importance of specifying treatment budgets and objectives, coupled with effectiveness monitoring, to improve future outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]