"Ecosystem management" is a term used frequently in land managing agencies today. It signals a shift in focus from managing resources separately on the landscape, to managing resources holistically as interconnected parts of environmental systems. The notion that components of an environment function together and affect one another is not new, but the manner in which it is being emphasized by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is changing the way our resource management professionals approach their work and interact with each other. The BLM's cultural resource program is uniquely equipped to...

Although hundreds of stilling basins and energydissipating devices have been designed in conjunction with spillways, outlet works, and canal structures, it is often necessary to make model studies of individual structures to be certain that these will operate as anticipated. The reason for these repetitive tests is that a factor of uncertainty exists regarding the overall performance characteristics of energy dissipators. The many laboratory studies made on individual structures over a period of years have been made by different personnel, for different groups of designers, each structure...

The Gulf of Mexico is a priceless national treasure. Its natural resources - water, fish, beaches, reefs, marshes, oil and gas - are the economic engine of the region. The Gulf of Mexico is likewise vitally important to the entire nation as a bountiful source of food, energy and recreation. The Gulf Coast's unique culture and natural beauty are world-renowned. There is no place like it anywhere else on Earth. On April 20, 2010 the eyes of the world focused on an oil platform in the Gulf, approximately 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The mobile drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, which was...

The Gulf of Mexico (Gulf) is a priceless national treasure. Its natural resources - water, fish, beaches, reefs, marshes, oil and gas - are the economic engine of the region. The Gulf is likewise vitally important to the entire nation as a bountiful source of food, energy and recreation. The Gulf Coast's unique culture and natural beauty are world-renowned. There is no place like it anywhere else on Earth. On April 20, 2010 the eyes of the world focused on an oil platform in the Gulf, approximately 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. The mobile drilling unit Deepwater Horizon, which was being...

The Alaskan landscape is changing, both in terms of effects of human activities as a consequence of increased population, social and economic development and their effects on the local and broad landscape; and those effects that accompany naturally occurring hazards such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Some of the most prevalent changes, however, are those resulting from a changing climate, with both near term and potential upcoming effects expected to continue into the future. In 1990, Congress passed Public Law 101-606 (1990), which established the U.S. Global Change...