This guidebook contains science-based principles, processes, and tools necessary to assist with developing adaptation options for national forest lands. The adaptation process is based on partnerships between local resource managers and scientists who work collaboratively to understand potential climate change effects, identify important resource issues, and develop management options that can capitalize on new opportunities and reduce deleterious effects. Because management objectives and sensitivity of resources to climate change differ among national forests, appropriate processes and tools for developing adaptation options may also differ.

This report investigates the interactions between household location decisions and community characteristics, including green space.

This report highlights key findings from the most recent (2001–2010) data collected by the Forest Inventory and Analysis program across all forest land in California, updating previously published findings from data collected from 2001 through 2005 (Christensen et al. 2008).

We reviewed the literature to synthesize what is known about the use of fire to maintain and restore oak forests, woodlands, and savannas of the upper Midwestern United States, with emphasis on Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

Over the past decade, wood-energy use in Alaska has grown dramatically.

These proceedings report invited presentations and contributions to the 2015 Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Symposium, which was hosted by the Research and Development branch of the U.S. Forest Service.

Outdoor recreation is a central way that people interact with the natural environment. Federal land agencies are key providers of settings, facilities, and landscapes for recreation.

Nonnative plants affect the composition and function of natural and managed ecosystems and have large economic effects through lost or degraded land use and eradication costs. In spite of their importance, very little comprehensive information on the abundance, distribution, and impact of nonnative invasive plants is available.

The Fuel Reduction Cost Simulator (FRCS) spreadsheet application is publicdomain software used to estimate costs for fuel reduction treatments involving removal of trees of mixed sizes in the form of whole trees, logs, or chips from a forest. Equipment production rates were developed from existing studies. Equipment operating cost rates are from December 2002 prices for new equipment and wage rates for the Pacific Northwest. These cost assumptions can be modified by the user. There are four ground-based systems, four cable systems, and two helicopter systems. Cost estimates are in U.S. dollars per 100 cubic feet, per green ton, and per acre.

The notorious North East prison has been dubbed 'Monster Mansion' due to list of violent killers and rapists it houses

The National Lottery draw and Thunderball numbers for Saturday, May 9, 2020 - live breaking updates and results below

TODAY, CUMULUS and WESTWOOD ONE are leading the charge for THE RADIO CARES: FEEDING AMERICA EMERGENCY RADIOTHON and is asking for all radio stations to get involved and … more

The RADIO CARES: FEEDING AMERICA EMERGENCY RADIOTHON raised $500,146 for FEEDING AMERICA's COVID-19 hunger relief efforts last THURSDAY (4/30). The daylong event included over 10,000 … more

AHA COVID-19 newsroom DALLAS, April 10, 2020 — Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, the world’s leading voluntary organization focused on heart and brain health, joined the chief executives of other leading national public...

How a group of street children formed a brass band in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A group of singers from Tampa Bay traveled to Israel and the West Bank to perform a play about Martin Luther King Jr. The play, "Passages of Martin Luther King," explores the philosophy of non-violence that guided the American civil rights movement. The U.S. Department of State sponsored the play's performance in Jerusalem and on the West Bank as a cultural exchange with the Palestinian National Theater and Palestinian director Kamel Elbasha. The play was performed with Palestinian and American artists who performed 10 shows over three and a half weeks as a way to share King's message of non-violence and peaceful resistance.

Matt Freitas, nurse practitioner, treats people with mental illness, including his daughter, who has schizophrenia. The number of patients seeking treatment for mental illness has tripled over the past three years, Freitas says. Photography, audio and production by Lauren M. Whaley, CHCF Center for Health Reporting.

Joyce Plis directs the National Alliance on Mental Illness in Modesto, California. She's a hero to sick people who have nowhere else to turn. Her son Eric, 46, has schizophrenia. Photography, audio and production by Lauren M. Whaley/CHCF Center for Health Reporting.

If there’s one industry that is known for openly embracing innovative technologies and techniques, it is undeniably Gaming.  The Gaming industry, over the last decade, has never seen being sitting still and letting the opportunities pass it by. It has, in fact, been declared as the earliest adopter of technologies that eventually go mainstream. A...

Homelessness is a global public health concern, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) could represent an underappreciated factor in the health trajectories of homeless and marginally housed individuals. We aimed to evaluate the lifetime prevalence of TBI in this population, and to summarise findings on TBI incidence and the association between TBI and health-related or functioning-related outcomes.

Editor's note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them are...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

The team will be offering carry-out ballpark food to fans on Fridays with orders placed during business hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays

Editor’s note: The Gazette sports staff has compiled lists of its top 15 favorite sports movies. Each day, a different staffer will share some insight into one of their favorites. Some of them...

In normal times, Chew on This focuses on restaurant openings and closings. These are not normal times, with restaurants closed except to carryout, curbside and delivery. We know these businesses...

CEDAR RAPIDS — Getting your hands on some fried food on a stick is going to be a little more difficult this summer for Iowans. With the COVID-19 pandemic imposing restrictions on life in the...

A 10th wedding anniversary traditionally is celebrated with a gift of aluminum or tin. For Sondy Daggett, her 10th year of marriage to Liz Hoskins was marked with a gift of Champagne and...

The Johnson County Board of Supervisors consists of five at-large members. Recently some people in the rural community have advocated for a board elected from districts within the county. A House Study Bill a few years ago would have required counties with a population greater than 150,000 to elect supervisors from districts, though a similar bill had failed earlier.

While districting a board of supervisors may appear to provide more representation to rural residents, the opposite would result. Currently, any resident anywhere in the county has five supervisors to whom they can communicate their needs. With districts, residents would have only one supervisor representing them.

There are many reasons electing supervisors from districts is not a good idea for Johnson County. But here is why, in fact, it’s a bad idea.

In Johnson County, our current practice for funding projects is determined using a needs assessment approach. This can be seen in our Five-Year Road Plan and works quite well. It is a triage of sorts, with the greatest need addressed first. With districts, it would become necessary to rotate projects based on the district in which it is located rather than the greatest need.

Imagine what might have happened in the 2016 emergency situation on the Highway 965 bridge over the Iowa River! During routine bridge inspections, county engineers determined repairs to that bridge to be our county’s greatest road need. It was an issue of public safety. Our at-large Board of Supervisors approved that project for immediate repairs.

Had we had districts, that project would land within my district and might have been put on hold, waiting for my district to have its turn at a big roads project. Just a couple years later, Swan Lake Road bridge over I-380, also in “my district” was deemed in need of immediate repair. While there is not a lot of traffic on that bridge, it is an essential route for farmers in the area. The closure was inconvenient during one farming season, but is now open and in good repair.

With districts, that bridge, in particular, would still be closed because it would be unfair for one district to have two big bridge repair jobs done before other districts had one done.

There are many other reasons why Johnson County’s Board of Supervisors should continue as an at-large body. Each county should be allowed to determine its own board of supervisors structure.

Lisa Green-Douglass is a candidate in the Democratic primary for Johnson County Board of Supervisors.

As most of us have spent the past two months in quarantine to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic, we recognize this unexpected crisis has dramatically changed our lives, country, economy and even our freedoms.

Just as the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the twin towers reframed and reshaped our national approach to security, this pandemic will have long-reaching effects on the way we interact with others at work, play and even how we worship from here on.

Make no mistake, COVID-19 is not finished with us. Even as it subsides in many states, we are being warned that it will resurge in the fall and winter months. Many lives and our economic stability will depend on elected officials’ ability to set aside the politics-as-usual, I-win-you-lose attitude.

These new times call not only for a Congress with a no-nonsense, solution-driven mind-set but members with the right experience and expertise. Among all of the candidates running to succeed Rep. David Loebsack, my life has uniquely prepared me for the challenges ahead to effectively protect us while minimizing the inevitable financial burden and social disruption.

I understand what it means to grow up in a working-class family and to work hard to achieve goals. I grew up as one of eight children of a father who was a U.S. Air Force enlisted man and a mother who had a general education degree. After being badly burned in an accident, I decided I would become a doctor.

I left home at 16 to attend community college, enlisted in the Army, eventually completing nursing school and then medical school. In all, I served 24 years on active duty and in the reserves. That experience taught me a great deal about discipline, organization and service to country.

Peers and former Gov. Terry Branstad have entrusted me in key leadership roles, electing me as president of the Iowa Medical Society and appointing me as director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, respectively.

In 2018, voters in southeast Iowa elected me in a Senate district that tilts Democratic. I believe it was because they see in me what they know to be true of themselves: the tenacity and perseverance to never quit fighting to better themselves and their communities and create a better future for their children and grandchildren.

The next session of Congress will require leaders with the knowledge and toughness to make difficult but necessary decisions based on facts, not emotion or partisanship. That’s why I’m running for Congress.

Mariannette Miller-Meeks is a candidate in the Republican primary for Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.

Multisite is a powerful tool that will help you create a network of sites to fulfill a variety of purposes, and which you can customize to make life easier for your users and help your network run more efficiently and make you money.

I am at the WordCamp convention in Las Vegas and

The post WordCamp Las Vegas: The WordPress codex appeared first on WPCult.

If you use pages and subpages or posts and parent posts on your WordPress blog, it should be a good idea to display parent page/post title while on a child page. Here’s a code to do that job easily by the recipe man: WpRecipes. photo by: Jean-Baptiste Jung

The post WPRecipes: Get parent page/post title appeared first on WPCult.

In normal times, Chew on This focuses on restaurant openings and closings. These are not normal times, with restaurants closed except to carryout, curbside and delivery. We know these businesses still need support from the community to survive, so each week we are going to highlight five local restaurants.

These are just a few of the many places offering barbecue; look up your favorite restaurants on Facebook or call to find out what they have.

If you don’t want to leave the house, try a delivery service like Chomp, GrubHub or MyTown2Go. Check with the restaurant to make sure they’re affiliated with a delivery service before ordering.

124 Second Ave. NW, Mount Vernon; (319) 535-1060, facebook.com/bigsbbq

Get a growler of house-brewed beer to pair with your barbecue. Every Wednesday features a wings special; check the Facebook page for additional daily specials.

6677 16th Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids; (319) 378-4777, facebook.com/austinbluesbbq

Call in advance orders from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday to Friday and pickup from the food truck parked in the parking lot or stop by the truck parked at Cassill Motors, 2939 16th Ave. SW, Cedar Rapids, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays.

1940 Lower Muscatine, Iowa City, (319) 354-7427 and 745 Community Dr., North Liberty, (319) 665-2486; jimmyjacksribshack.com

This Iowa City staple has classic dishes like ribs, smoked chicken and brisket and can even please vegetarians with a portobello sandwich.

525 S. Gilbert St., Iowa City, (319) 338-1419 and 125 E. Zeller St., North Liberty, (319) 626-4227; mosleysbarbecue.com

Try a family-style meal for curbside pickup, featuring four sandwiches or a slab of ribs, plus sides and cornbread, or order off the menu.

288 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE, Cedar Rapids; (319) 206-3806, willieraysqshack.com

This tiny establishment was made for social distancing, with drive-through the only option for service even before the pandemic. Get one of the daily specials or order a la carte.

Comments: (319) 398-8339; alison.gowans@thegazette.com

CEDAR RAPIDS — Getting your hands on some fried food on a stick is going to be a little more difficult this summer for Iowans.

With the COVID-19 pandemic imposing restrictions on life in the state, county fair organizers across Iowa are trying to decide if they should cancel, go virtual or wait and see if restrictions lift and their events can go on in a relatively normal manner.

One thing seems to be for certain: The fair experience won’t quite be the same this year.

“It’ll be different,” said John Harms, general manager for the Great Jones County Fair, known for attracting popular musical acts. “I can tell you that.”

Iowa is home to 106 county and district fairs, as well as the Iowa State Fair, according to the Association of Iowa Fairs. Those fairs are scheduled to begin June 17 with the Worth County Fair and continue through Sept. 20 with the conclusion of the National Cattle Congress in Black Hawk County.

Those early fairs already are beginning to announce decisions about their events. Organizers of the Wapello County Fair announced they are canceling for this year. On Thursday, the Linn County Fair Association announced it is canceling grounds and grandstand entertainment with plans to take the exhibition aspects of the fair online.

Linn County Fair Marketing Manager Heidi Steffen said the association met with county public health and Board of Supervisors officials in recent weeks. The focus of those discussions was on ensuring the safety of all fair exhibitors, workers, performers and visitors, Steffen said.

“We just couldn’t guarantee that,” she said.

Steffen was quick to point out the fair isn’t canceled — it’s just taking on a different form. The fair is scheduled for June 24-28.

The fair association is working with the Iowa State University Extension and Outreach of Linn County and Linn County 4-H to ensure 4-H and National FFA Organization members get a chance to exhibit their livestock and projects. Details on what that will look like are expected later this month.

Fair association members have been attending webinars and learning from other fairs across the country that have gone virtual. Steffen said they’ve received valuable suggestions and feedback.

“It’s been done,” she said. “We can learn from their mistakes. We can learn what went well with them and hopefully implement it here in Linn County.”

Steffen said they are already kicking around other ideas to engage the community during fair week, just in a virtual manner. Those ideas include livestreaming pie-eating contests, encouraging local businesses to offer fair foods on their menus and seeing if local artists who had been scheduled to perform at the fair would be interested in online performances instead.

“We’re open to ideas,” she said, encouraging anyone with suggestions to reach out via email or Facebook.

Up the road in Jones County, organizers there have a little more time to decide how to move forward. For now, Harms is confident that fair will go on July 22-26.

“We’re still going to have a fair,” he said. “It may look differently than what we have experienced and enjoyed in the past.”

How exactly it may look different still is up in the air. Harms said plans “a, b, c and d are all being studied.” At least one grandstand act, the Zac Brown Band, won’t be performing. But Harms said organizers have other acts they’re ready to announce “if it makes sense to have entertainment at the fair.”

Whatever takes place likely will be determined by proclamations covering social distancing made by Gov. Kim Reynolds, Harms said. He said the fair’s planning process has been dictated by her health orders.

“We’re just trying to keep everything on the table and make sensible decisions and directions based on what’s going on,” he said. “It’s going to be challenging, but I think for the most part we’ll take a deep breath, have a little more faith and we’ll get through it.”

Tim Rogers, vice president for the Johnson County Fair Board, said the decision whether to have a fair will be made in the next 40-plus days.

“That’s kind of a deadline we’ve set to either call it completely, proceed fully or proceed with what we can do and still stay in compliance with all of the laws,” he said.

The Johnson County Fair Board will discuss what a partial fair might look like once that decision has been made, Rogers said.

Tom Barnes, executive director of the Association of Iowa Fairs, said his group is providing resources to fair organizers, but is not making any recommendations on whether to proceed.

“We’re asking them to be fiscally responsible for their fair,” he said. “We don’t ask them to cancel. We don’t ask them to go ahead with their fair. They know better what they can do and not do.”

Barnes said fair organizers should be asking themselves: If your fair is open, will people buy tickets? And, if they come, will they buy food and beverages?

As long as they make good financial decisions, Barnes said, he believes county fairs have the resources to weather the COVID-19 storm and return in 2021.

“We’ll be back next year if the fairs don’t go ahead,” he said.

Comments: (319) 339-3155; lee.hermiston@thegazette.com

A 10th wedding anniversary traditionally is celebrated with a gift of aluminum or tin.

For Sondy Daggett, her 10th year of marriage to Liz Hoskins was marked with a gift of Champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries shared through a window.

Employees at Bickford of Marion, the assisted living and memory care center where Hoskins is a resident, surprised the couple with the anniversary gift on May 1. Despite the current coronavirus-related mitigation practices, the staff had created a special moment for the couple, who have been partners for 24 years.

Daggett burst into tears as employees played their wedding song — Billy Joel’s “The Longest Time.”

“It just touched my soul,” Daggett said.

Across the state, moments like this are relegated through windows or over a phone call. As the novel coronavirus pandemic sweeps through the country, long-term care facilities have locked down in an effort to keep residents healthy, which means their families are no longer able to hug their loved ones, or sit with them in their rooms.

For many families, the feelings at such times this time are conflicted. Typical Mother’s Day celebrations have been placed on hold, and recent milestones have been missed by those living in long-term care facilities. Simple visits through windows feel distant.

“Those are the moments you remember and you miss,” said Daggett, recalling memories of visits to Bickford of Marion from Hoskins’s grandchildren and family gatherings during the holidays.

Hoskins, who has dementia, has been a resident at Bickford since August 2019.

“The pandemic has taken this away,” Daggett said.

But beyond this new dynamic with which family members are left to grapple, they also have the constant worry that their loved one could fall ill.

So far, Bickford of Marion has not seen any cases.

“Every time you read about another outbreak — whether it’s close to home or anywhere in the country — it brings home how fortunate we are so far,” said Matt Hoskins, Liz Hoskin’s son. “I can’t imagine the anxiety the residents and staff are having once it breaks through the wall.”

As of Friday, 29 long-term care facilities across the state, which includes skilled nursing facilities and senior living centers, among others — have reported outbreaks of COVID-19 among hundreds of their staff and residents.

As a result, for some Iowans, that fear has become a reality.

Ruth Brackett’s son Jamie Degner, a 38-year-old resident at Harmony House Health Care Center in Waterloo, tested positive for COVID-19 this past week.

Degner, who has severe autism and intellectual disabilities, has been a resident there since he was 15 years old.

More than 60 residents and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 at Harmony House, an intermediate care facility. It’s one of two long-term care facilities in Black Hawk County reporting an outbreak, defined as three or more positive tests among residents.

Degner received his test results on Tuesday. He’s had lower-than-normal oxygen levels, but otherwise has recorded his usual vital signs and has not experienced symptoms.

Brackett said it is “unbelievably difficult to not be able to go be with him through this.”

As with many facilities across the state, Harmony House closed its doors to visitors in early March, when the first cases of COVID-19 began being reported across Iowa and the nation. Brackett said her son’s cognitive abilities make it impossible for him to understand that she is unable to visit because she might make him sick, so the staff instead tell Degner his mom is “at work.”

While she’s optimistic he’ll improve, Brackett worries whether Degner’s virus would take a turn for the worse.

“It’s tough because I have to trust” the staff, Brackett said. “There’s nothing I can do, so I can’t spend a lot of time dwelling on what I might do differently.”

The families that spoke to The Gazette believe the leadership at long-term care facilities are doing what they can to keep its residents safe and healthy.

At Bickford of Marion, officials have taken the unique step of promising public transparency of possible COVID-19 cases in its facility. On the website of every Bickford location is a feature recording the number of residents who have tested positive for COVID-19.

“Whether it’s COVID-19 or not, we want to be transparent with families about their loved ones’ care,” Bickford of Marion Executive Director Jacobi Feckers said. “I don’t know why other nursing homes haven’t taken that step because I haven’t spoken to other facilities, but I’m thankful that’s the route we’ve taken.”

It’s not just families who are placing their trust in management. Ron Moore is an independent living resident at Cottage Grove Place, one of the largest senior living centers in Cedar Rapids that has reported an outbreak of COVID-19 this past week.

According to the latest data from public health officials, five residents and staff there have tested positive.

The outbreak originated in the skilled nursing unit, and officials said they are working to ensure the virus doesn’t spread to the assisted-living and independent-living portions of the facility. They restricted movement between the facilities and conduct frequent temperature checks of staff.

So far, the general feeling among residents at Cottage Grove Place’s independent-living housing is that management has “done a good job” of controlling exposure.

“The feelings of the residents here are positive,” Moore said. “They appreciate what management has done to protect us.”

Still, life looks much differently at Cottage Grove Place. Moore said his schedule typically is packed with weekly book clubs and coffees with friends. Now he and his wife take walks, or try to connect with friends over email.

“I’ve found (residents) are not depressed at this time,” he said. “But in the future, if this goes on for many months? My prediction is yes, depression will be a serious thing.”

Local senior living centers have come up with unique ways to allow visitors to see their loved ones. Gina Hausknecht, a 55-year-old Iowa City resident, was able to see her mother in person for the first time in weeks after her assisted-living home, Oaknoll Retirement Community in Iowa City, created a “drive up” visit option this past weekend.

While Hausknecht sat in the car, she was able to speak with her mother, 93-year-old Ellen Hausknecht, for an hour outside the facility. Before this, it had been emotionally difficult for Hausknecht not to see her mom weekly as she usually does

“It sunk in that I don’t know when I’m going to see my mom again, and that felt really terrible,” Hausknecht previously told The Gazette.

Hausknecht said she hopes to take this year’s Mother’s Day as an opportunity to do something special, particularly given the difficult past few weeks.

“Our family isn’t super-big on these kinds of holidays but we do like to acknowledge them, and this year it feels important to take hold of any opportunity to celebrate,” she said.

Other facilities, including Bickford of Marion, also have eased restrictions on sending food and gifts to residents in time for Mother’s Day. Matt Hoskins, Liz’s Hoskins’ son, said the family’s usual Mother’s Day plans are impossible this year, so they hope to send Liz’s Hoskins artwork from her grandchildren along with other gifts.

Brackett, who will be apart from her son Degner this year, said she hadn’t planned anything for the holiday. She looks forward to her first in-person visit with him after the pandemic, when she will bring his favorite meal from McDonald’s and a new deck of Phase 10 cards.

Despite the feelings of being separated, their wedding anniversary on May 1 likely is something Daggett will cherish, she said. With Daggett acting as Hoskins caregiver since her dementia diagnosis in 2016, their wedding anniversary has been something the couple hasn’t celebrated in a significant way in some time, she said.

But that worry still creeps in the back of her mind. Daggett said she’s trying to remain “as confident as anyone can at this point.”

“I learned a long time ago you can’t worry about what you can’t control,” Daggett said. “But does that mean I still wake up at 2 in the morning worried about it? Of course I do.”

Comments: (319) 398-8469; michaela.ramm@thegazette.com

BIG NEWS: My custom Lightroom presets are now available and 50% off for a limited time with discount code HOLIDAY50. Link in profile!

This collection includes two styles (Everyday and Clean) that I use to edit every shot on this feed. I can’t wait to see what you all do with them! Stay tuned to my upcoming tutorials on how to put the presets to good use. ???? (at Toronto, Ontario)

Many people think the word “disability” means people who require a wheelchair or walker. In reality, however, there is much more to disability than meets the eye. 

Fonts took on a revival in handmade styles this year, from calligraphic, script and handwritten to brush painted and block-printed. Combined with the great visual appeal of hero images and typographic layouts in web design, handwriting fonts are a trend that you can expect to see more of. In this article you’ll find a fresh […]

The post 75+ High Quality Free Fonts: Handwriting, Script & Brush Fonts appeared first on Web Designer Wall.

13 Questions You Should Ask Before Backing A Crowdfunding Project on Kickstarter, Indiegogo and Beyond