Treesearch

The distribution of trees and access to nature is rarely equitable across urban neighborhoods. This injustice is present in many cities, and its origins are predominantly rooted in enduring procedural and recognitional injustices. The purpose of this research was to systematically investigate Urban Forest Management Plans (UFMPs) prepared by municipalities across the United States (107 total) for their mention and explanation of environmental justice themes relevant to urban forestry. UFMPs describe municipal urban tree-planting and stewardship goals as well as pathways for both implementat...

Landscape change is an ongoing process for even the most established landscapes, especially in context to urban intensification and growth. As urbanization increases over the next century, supporting bird species' populations within urbanizing areas remains an important conservation challenge. Fundamental elements of the biophysical structure of urban environments in which bird species likely respond include tree cover and human infrastructure. We broadly examine how tree cover and urban development structure bird species distributions along the urban-rural gradient across multiple spatial...

Urban foraging provides city dwellers with numerous ecosystem services, but this humannature interaction is largely missing from the urban ecosystem services scholarship. This exploratory study aims to address this gap in the literature and examines the benefits and values associated with foraging in New York City, United States. We focus on Russianspeaking mushroom foragers, a previously unstudied community. Data from 10 interviews reveals that for some groups, foraging is primarily about cultural ecosystem services, with a provisioning attribute. Foraging supports multiple benefits, most...

Conservation practices (CPs) are integral to maintaining the long-term viability of agro-ecological systems. Because farming systems and farmers’ values and attitudes are heterogeneous, factors that consistently predict conservation behaviors remain elusive. Moreover, heterogeneity is present among studies regarding the type of CPs examined, and whether behavioral intentions or actual behaviors were measured. This study considers the characteristics of each CP, and whether a given study measured behavioral intention or actual behavior, to better understand farmers' adoption of CPs. We...

Firewood and wood packaging material (WPM) are major pathways for moving bark- and wood-infesting insects (borers). Heat treatment regulations for interstate firewood movement vary among U.S. states: from 56°C for 30 min to 71.1°C for 75 min. Current WPM international standards (ISPM 15) require heating to a minimum of 56°C for 30 min throughout the profile of the wood. Using bolts from infested ash (Fraxinus), birch (Betula), oak (Quercus), and pine (Pinus) trees in Michigan, we assessed borer mortality at core temperatures of 50, 53, 56, and 60°C maintained for 30 min in chambers set to...

Chestnut blight is the primary factor that constrains American chestnut populations in North America. However, genetic and environmental factors unrelated to blight tolerance also infl uence chestnut health and productivity. Furthermore, these infl uences may be particularly important in novel environments, such as a species' range limit. One way to examine the infl uences of genetics and the environment on tree performance is to grow trees from across a species’ range together in a common garden where environmental conditions are more uniform and diff erences among seed sources can be...

Eruptive population dynamics of forest insect species regularly attract the interest of ecologists but also often evoke debates among stakeholders concerning impacts that outbreaks or pest control activities have on forest communities including insectivorous birds. Lymantria dispar is the most serious native defoliator in mixed oak-broadleaf forests in Central Europe. To investigate the treatment effects of L. dispar density, aerial application of the insecticide Mimic (tebufenozide) and nest box accessibility for L. dispar caterpillars on nest box success of cavity nesting birds, we...

The geographical distributions of non-native forest insects and pathogens (pests) result from a multitude of interacting abiotic and biotic factors. Following arrival, the presence of suitable host trees and environmental conditions are required for pests to establish and spread, but the role of forest biodiversity in this process is not well-understood. We analyzed county-level data for 22 non-native forest pests in the conterminous United States, developing species-specific models to investigate the effects of spatial contagion, human activities, and host and non-host tree biomass or...

Lycorma delicatula, White (Hemiptera: Fulgoridae), spotted lanternfly, is a univoltine, phloem-feeding, polyphagous and invasive insect in the USA. Although a primary host for this species is Ailanthus altissima, tree of heaven, L. delicatula also feeds on a wide range of hosts important to the USA including cultivated grapevines. Due to the need for classical or augmentative biological control programs to reduce impacts of L. delicatula across invaded areas, we developed a laboratory-based rearing protocol for this invasive species. Here, we evaluated the use of A. altissima apical...

This resource update is a brief look at some of the basic metrics that describe the status of and changes to forest resources in North Dakota. This information is based on field data collected using the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) annualized sample design, and it is updated yearly.Tables for Forests of North Dakota, 2021 can be found at https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-361-TablesThe FIA one-click application that generated this report can be found at https://doi.org/10.2737/FIA-One-Click-State-Report-v1.2.