Abstract
As climate change continues to impact temperature regimes and precipitation dynamics across the Intermountain West, there are important implications for flora and fauna of the region. In the case of subalpine forests, for example, reductions in plant-available-water associated with regional snowpack loss could serve to dramatically alter the establishment, growth, and mortality of tree species across the region. Similarly, as climate change continues to reduce snowpack depth and persistence, the availability of suitable habitat for snow-adapted wildlife species (e.g., wolverines; Gulo gulo) is expected to diminish. In addition to the projected influence of climate change, rapid and ongoing changes to sociocultural phenomena continue to affect peoples’ sense of connection to nature, a construct directly related to pro-environmental behavior. In light of these ongoing trends, the goal of this dissertation was to utilize multi-disciplinary research to investigate contemporary issues of forest and wildlife conservation. In Chapter 2, I investigated the potential of satellite-based estimates of canopy temperature (TC) and soil moisture (SM) to provide insights into daily and annual tree growth dynamics in a subalpine forest. My models predicted daily growth with up to 87% accuracy, and annual growth performance (%; i.e., how much a tree grew relative to its average growth across years) with high degrees of precision (R² = 0.76) and accuracy (RMSE = 7.63%). These findings highlight the efficacy of thermal satellite remote sensing data for tracking intra- and inter-annual tree growth dynamics, and the potential for scaling satellite-based tree growth estimates across broad regions. In Chapter 3, I investigated the potential of snowpack phenology (e.g., snow onset date) and structure (e.g., snow depth) to influence the winter habitat use of wolverines. To do this, I utilized a high resolution (100 meters), physically-based snow evolution model (SnowModel) alongside 11 years of wolverine snow tracking data. Continuous measures of snowpack phenology were found to have a significant influence on wolverine habitat use, with wolverines being more likely to occupy regions with earlier snow onset dates (μβstd = -0.86**), later snow offset dates (μβstd = 1.01**), and more total snow days (μβstd = 0.95**). Similarly, measures of snowpack structure (e.g., maximum and median snow depth) were found to significantly influence the probability of wolverine occurrence (μβstd = 0.83**; and μβstd = 0.88**, respectively). This study supports previous findings of the wolverine’s reliance on snow while highlighting the potential for continuous measures of snowpack phenology and structure to offer novel insights into the wolverine-snow relationship. In Chapter 4, I investigated a key stakeholder group’s (winter recreationists) acceptance of wolverine management in Central Idaho. My findings indicate that recreationists were significantly more accepting of scenarios that allowed for travel via designated travel routes (DTRs; βstd = 0.47, p < 0.001). This suggests that recreationists’ acceptance of wolverine management is largely contingent upon its effect on their broader recreation habits (i.e., does a given management scenario impact access to down-trail recreation opportunities). The findings of this study offer practical information for wildlife managers to aid in the design of management scenarios that balance ecological benefits with social acceptance. In Chapter 5, I investigated how a single-day K-12 environmental education program could cultivate understanding of, and empathy for, the wolverine. Mixed-method analysis of pre- and post-education data revealed that students’ understanding of the wolverine substantially improved after participating in environmental education. Fear of the wolverine was dramatically reduced, with 35.4% of students indicating fear of the species prior to education and only 4.3% after. These findings highlight the ability of environmental education not only to improve student understanding of local wildlife species but also to reduce the prevalence of fear held toward them. Through the implementation of multi-disciplinary study, the chapters of this dissertation offer important insights into pertinent issues of forest and wildlife conservation across the Intermountain West.