Preface

Abstract

The geographic region of the United States that is the focus of this journal, that which most of us know as the "Intermountain West," conjures images of sagebrush-covered plains, foothill grasslands, clear rivers lined with cottonwood forests, and the mountain ranges of the middle and northern ranges of the middles and northern Rockies. These images usually are accompanied by ones of abundant wildlife, including the grizzly bear, trumpeter swan and American bison. These and other species, once common throughout large portions of the conterminous United States, exist today in viable populations primarily in the Intermountain West, which contains the largest expanses of relatively undisturbed land in the Lower 48.