Treesearch

Technical specialists may experience difficulties in presenting information to non-technical policymakers and having that information used. Eight maxims are discussed that should help the silviculturist successfully provide technical information to non-technical audiences so that it will be considered in the formulation of policy.

Silviculture modifies the environment. Past monitoring of silvicultural practices has been usually limited to vegetation responses, but parallel monitoring of the environment is needed to better predict these responses. In an example of monitoring temperatures in two studies of northern hardwood forests in Wisconsin, we found that different silvicultural practices modified the environment significantly. Temperatures become more extreme as openings in the forest canopy become larger. Temperatures in some cases reached lethal levels. By monitoring the microenviroment along with vegetation...

Individual identification, especially in rare species, can provide managers with critical information about demographic processes. Traditionally, banding has been the only effective method of marking individuals. However, banding's drawbacks have led some researchers to suggest vocal analysis as an alternative. We explore this prospect for Mexican Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis lucida) using a visual examination of the male four-note location call. While there appears to be a low level of within-individual variation, preliminary investigation suggests there is enough pattern overlap...

Management of giant sequoia groves has been and continues to be a hotly debated issue. The debate has reached Congress, with all parties seeking resolution as to what constitutes an ecologically and publicly acceptable management approach. Determining the correct management approach and communicating that approach to the general public is the crux of the problem. Emerging concepts and principles of forest ecosystem management may provide a mechanism to seek resolution of these management problems related to giant sequoia.

Long term changes in concentrations of available Ca in soils of red spruce forests have been documented, but remaining questions about the magnitude and regional extent of these changes have precluded an assessment of the current and future status of soil Ca. To address this problem, soil samples were collected in 1992-93 from 12 sites in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine to provide additional data necessary to synthesize all available research results on soil Ca in red spruce forests. Sites were chosen to encompass the range of environmental conditions experienced by red spruce....

Owls are one of the least studied groups of birds not only in the Moscow region but throughout Russia.

Tree regeneration response following the use of the group selection method was studied within 36 group openings on the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division in south central Indiana. Two different aspects and three time periods since cutting were examined. The objectives were to determine whether aspect, age, species group, location within the opening, or their interactions had any influence on the number of stems or average height of the tree regeneration. Among openings up to 20 yr since cutting, yellow-poplar and dogwood were most abundant for stems greater than 2.5 cm diameter...

Summarizes research findings of the USDA Forest Service's Global Change Research Program. Research highlights are presented at national and regional scales within the following topic areas: atmosphere/biosphere gas and energy exchange; ecosystem dynamics; disturbance ecology; and human activities and natural resource interactions. Selected topics are reviewed in depth with individual papers covering the global carbon cycle, climate scenarios, multiple stress studies, changes in vegetation distribution, the United States carbon budget, and the human dimensions of global change. Also...

This paper summarizes research results on deferment cutting, a silvicultural practice that promotes a two-age stand structure, as it has been applied in central Appalachian hardwoods on the Monongahela National Forest (MNF) since 1979. Ten-year results from experimental cuts that were applied from 1979 to 1983 indicated that 89% of residual trees survived, 76 to 100% of the survivors maintained their initial grade depending on species, and d.b.h. growth increased for most species. Reproduction that developed following the experimental cuts included a wide variety of desirable commercial...