Treesearch

The forests of each state are inventoried by the USDA-Forest Service and the state?s forestry agency on a periodic basis. In the Midwest, the North Central Forest Experiment Station coordinates the inventory. The job takes a long time-- sometimes several years from start to finish -- because lots of trees are measured on lots of plots. For example, during the last inventory of Minnesota, dated 1990, more than 12,000 forest plots were measured throughout the state. The job required finding and measuring more than 376,000 trees.

Walnut trees are well distributed and relatively abundant in Missouri according to the most recent forest inventory completed in 1989. The forest inventory (Hahn 1991) reports that 7.3 billion trees were found on Missouri timberlands and that 1 in 100 were black walnuts. Digging into the Eastwide Forest Inventory Data Base (Hansen et al. 1992) provides more interesting details about the walnut resource. In total, 234 thousand photo interpretation points were identified for the Missouri inventory and 4,672 plots were measured in the field or projected. The field crews found walnut trees on...

Trees are marked by foresters for retention or harvest to satisfy landowner objectives for timber sale revenues, stand improvement, wildlife habitat, water quality, and aesthetics. Another consideration when marking trees is the safety of the chainsaw feller. Can the tree that has been marked for harvest be felled safely? Will the feller be able to select and control a direction of fall such that the felled tree does not produce a hazardous reaction?

One management problem of the Southern Appalachian mixed hardwood forest is the lack of development of northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) seedlings on high quality sites. Regeneration of red oak is not the problem. Following the removal of a stand, a combination of new seedlings, advanced reproduction and stump sprouts ensure red oak's initial presence. However, seedlings and sprouts cannot compete with other hardwoods, specifically yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.). Advance reproduction is the exception-if present before harvest, it will usually be present in the new stand. A...

This report chronicles the status of forest health in West Virginia as of 1993. Primary data sources are the Forest Inventory and Analysis reports, West Virginia state forest pest reports, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration weather records and numerous other publications. We attempted to describe primary stressing agents affecting the forest, including drought, defoliation, fire and overstocking and to relate the occurrence of stress to the performance of the forest (growth, mortality, etc.). Furthermore, we divided the state into zones representing the major cover types...

Continuous time/motion studies have traditionally been the basis for productivity estimates of timber harvesting systems. The detailed data from such studies permits the researcher or analyst to develop mathematical relationships based on stand, system, and stem attributes for describing machine cycle times. The resulting equation(s) allow the analyst to estimate productivity and thereby cost, over a range of conditions, as set forth in the mathematical model. The traditional weakness in this process has been the time it takes to collect, synthesize, analyze, and implement the results of...

The underlying hypothesis of this study is that environmental ethics influence public attitudes toward wilderness management. To study this hypothesis, environmental ethics were defined, categorized, and measured empirically. Additionally, attitudes toward selected wilderness management issues were measured. Associations were found between beliefs in selected environmental ethics and attitudes toward selected wilderness management policies. These findings support the study hypothesis and suggest that environmental ethics can be studied empirically and provide insights into the future...

This is an investigation of the impacts on recreation participation observed at a large upstate New York resort as it converted to "all inclusive pricing." Findings indicate that both recreation participation and recreation revenue increased significantly after the implementation of the new pricing policy.

In field studies in the Russian Far East, five types of illuminating devices were evaluated for attracting adult gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar (L.), pink gypsy moth, L. mathura Moore, and nun moth, L. monacha (L.). Our objective was to determine if light from commercial lamps suited to out-of-doors floodlighting could be modified to reduce their attractiveness to moths without a reduction of illumination. During 17 nights of tests, fluorescent blacklight lamps captured significantly more adults than either phosphor mercury or highpressure sodium lamps. Captures were slightly higher for...

We have found that the majority of red oak boards generally have one end that is distinctly better than the other and believe this finding applies to hardwoods, in general. Application of this knowledge can have important implications for lumber processing, particularly in gang-rip-first operations. The better ends produce better overall yield, more primary yield, less salvage yield, and more yield in longer and wider cuttings.