Treesearch

A "minimum-standard" forest truck road that provides efficient and environmentally acceptable access for several forest activities is described. Cost data are presented for eight of these roads constructed in the central Appalachians. The average cost per mile excluding gravel was $8,119. The range was $5,048 to $14,424. Soil loss was measured from several sections of a minimum-standard road. Traffic was regulated the first year and unrestricted the second year. Losses ranged from 44 tons per acre on ungraveled road sections to 5 tons per acre on graveled sections. Soil loss from the...

Unmanaged 60-year-old cherry-maple stands in West Virginia were thinned to three levels of stocking according to the Allegheny hardwoods stocking guide. After the merchantable timber was removed, the basal area in saplings was reduced to less than 10 ft² per acre (2.3 m²/ha), as the guide recommends for stands with dense understories. A detailed time study revealed that cutting saplings with chain saws costs about $17.00 per acre ($42/ha). This amount may be recoverable in increased yield, tax deductions, and fuelwood sales.

In north-central West Virginia, unmanaged 60-year-old cherry-maple stands were thinned to 75, 60, and 45 percent residual stocking. Cut trees were skidded tree length by a rubber-tired skidder. Logging destroyed or severely bent over 22, 23, and 45 percent of the unmarked stems in the 75, 60, and 45 percent stocked plots. Because 99 percent of the destroyed and bent trees were less than 5.0 inches dbh, the effect on basal area and residual stocking was slight. Damage reduced the stocking by 5, 8, and 8 percent in the 75, 60, and 45 percent plots. For the 75, 60, and 45 percent plots, 18,...

Exports of oak lumber from the United States to the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and France were analyzed using ordinary least squares estimation procedures. The analyses indicated that the large increases in European demand for U.S. oak during the 1970's were caused by a combination of the dollar's depreciation against currencies of major European demanders, increases in prices of European oaks, increases in output prices in Europe, and furniture style changes.

Relative change in several types of stem defects were studied over a 16-year period to determine the effect of thinning intensity on the development of tree quality. We studied quality changes on sample white oak crop trees that were selected from five density levels created in a 1961 thinning. Branch-related and other stem defects on the butt 16-foot section were studied from stereo pairs of photographs taken in 1961 and 1977. The number of live and dead branches greater than 0.3 inch in basal diameter increased on all density plots. Except for extremely heavy thinnings, those below...

Photograph of 17 urban recreation sites in Chicago and Atlanta were evaluated by college students (n = 68) in Illinois, Georgia, and Michigan, for either perceived security, scenic quality, or both. For most raters, high visibility and developed park features significantly enhanced perceived security. Scenic quality, on the other hand, was enhanced for the majority of evaluators by a high degree of naturalness and vegetation. For both perceived safety and scenic quality, a small minority of raters held preferences quite different from the majority.

New York forests are made up of more than just the growing stock that is measured during conventional forest inventories. A biomass inventory, completed in 1980, showed that New York commercial forest lands contain nearly 1,164.4 million green tons of aboveground tree biomass, or an average of 75.6 green tons per acre. Conventional growing stock accounted for 57 percent of the total wood fiber supply. The rest was nongrowing stock that includes cull trees, previously noncommercial tree species, small trees, and tree tops. Utilization studies conducted in New York showed that 1.7 million...

Diversion terraces and detention basins constructed along the field-forest edge in the Driftless Area reduce farmland runoff and subsequent gullying in the forest below for many years. The structures are inexpensive and simple to build.

The 1982 forest inventory of Nebraska showed that 1.5 percent of the total land area is forested. Commercial forest land accounted for 75 percent or 537,837 acres of the forest land and ponderosa pine is the major forest type. An important Nebraska resouce is the 262,230 acres of natural wooded strips.

Good plantation establishment techniques along with fast growing clones result in minimal deer damage to hybrid poplar plantations. Although deer prefer certain clones, as food becomes scarce they eventually browse all clones. With proper establishment trees grow to or beyond the reach of browsing deer in the first year and well beyond in the second. Poorly established plantations result in slower growing trees that are likely to be browsed from several years and remain indefinitely in the shrub stage or even cause plantation failure.