Mining is recognized as the "highest and best use" of U.S. Forest Service lands that are also designated for multiple use through statutes that often give precedence to extractive mineral development over local livelihoods and recreation. The complexity associated with governance of these lands arises from the need to reconcile political- legal mandates with the cultural, economic, and other interests of different stakeholders (i.e. agency decision-makers, public land users, and market interests) and the changing natural processes shaping the landscape (e.g. ecological, geologic, hydrologic). Theory from political ecology and socio-ecological systems provide a framework to understand the natural resource management challenges of public lands in an era of increasing resource demand, ecological scarcity, changing climatic conditions, and land use conflict. Together these fields of study have not explicitly addressed how different valuation methods and stakeholder values towards nature shape management of common property resource public lands with a dual mandate of extractivism and conservation. My research fills this gap with the case of a proposed rare earth mine in the Black Hills National Forest - the nation's first multiple use public land - to show how the value and values associated with one use and the many compete. My focus takes three parts: 1) the historic role of the regulatory state in creating conditions for present day land use conflict; 2) the competing economic and environmental perspectives that emerge from public participation in environmental review; and 3) a comparison of social and ecological valuation techniques to assess commensurability in the acquisition of additional land for the siting of mine waste. Methods used in this research include: geographic information systems, archival data collection, Q-sort discourse analysis, real estate property valuation, ecological diversity transects, and recreational user surveys. Findings from this research indicate that project decision-making between land managers, land users, and market forces could be greatly bolstered by integrating economic, ecological, and socio-cultural valuation techniques with competing biocentric and anthropocentric stakeholder perspectives, and by realizing the historical role that the regulatory state plays in shaping present day outcomes.

Movement throughout the greater Yosemite National Park region is regularly disturbed by climate change-exacerbated events, from rockslides to wildfires. Regional transportation corridors navigate static and dynamic thresholds influenced by politico-legal, social, ecological, and economic factors across multiple spatial and temporal scales. This dissertation addresses three components influencing connectivity in this region, whose economic viability heavily depends on access to and from the park through just four main corridors. Madeline's mixed-methods research identifies factors leading to reduced resilience within regional transportation policy, including loss of valuable local knowledge when agencies outsource plan development. Her research highlights how parks of varying sizes and popularity experience consistent visitation during poor air quality, causing adverse impacts and reduced resilience. Her recently published work on displacement reveals that visitors choose to displace to other gates rather than disperse into gateway communities when some, but not all, of Yosemite's gates close- thereby condensing increasing numbers of vehicles and visitors into constrained, high wildfire risk corridors. Visitors maintain certain habits reflected in spending in gateway communities- with routine expenditures remaining stable and dynamic spending increasing. These findings significantly affect park management, gateway communit

The escalating frequency and severity of wildfires in California have precipitated substantial economic losses and social strains, underscoring the imperative to comprehend the dimensions of wildfire management. This dissertation amalgamates three pivotal research endeavors focusing on different dimensions of wildfire risk: perceptions among wildland-urban interface residents, predictions of wildfire burn severity, and visualization of uncertainty. The surge in wildfires, coupled with the increasing population moving to Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas, highlights the urgency of understanding both the physical and human dimensions of wildfire risk management. While various management practices involving communities have emerged as favored solutions, barriers to their implementation persist. Understanding public attitudes and perceptions regarding these practices is essential for successful fire management efforts.Furthermore, the warming climate and increasing fuel loads due to fire exclusion, compounded by climate change and drought, have led to more frequent, extensive, and severe wildfires. Burn severity, a metric that measures the ecological impact of fire on vegetation, is crucial for post-fire management. The Composite Burn Index (CBI) emerges as a preferred method of characterizing fire effects due to its comprehensive approach, offering a systematic and visually intuitive estimation of ecological impacts following a fire. Effective wildfire severity and risk information to stakeholders is paramount for enhancing understanding and promoting resilience. However, conveying complex information poses significant challenges. Visualization techniques play a vital role in conveying risk information and aiding comprehension of complex wildfire-related information. This research introduces a scalable visualization model for a use in predicting and managing the complex dynamics of wildfire occurrences. This dissertation advances our understanding of wildfire management by elucidating the complex interplay between public perceptions, burn severity estimation, and risk visualization. By integrating social perspectives with empirical modeling and visualization techniques, it offers multifaceted approach to addressing the challenges posed by wildfires in California. The insights garnered from this dissertation are crucial for informing policy decisions, guiding mitigation efforts, and fostering community resilience in the face of escalating wildfire threats.