Treesearch

Early results after 20 years of record keeping indicate that spruce-fir stands will respond to the selection system of silviculture. Stand quality is improved, species composition can be altered, diameter-class distribution approaches a stated goal, stand density is controlled, and yields are increased. Selection silviculture in spruce-fir can now be compared to early results from unregulated harvesting (commercial clearcutting) and no management for wood products (woodland preserve or wilderness). Lack of direct comparisons between selection silvicultural management and no management in...

Revenues received from managing Minnesota county land increased at a slower rate than the expenses incurred in their management over the 1960-74 period. However, due to a substantial land sale program, the revenues received exceeded the expenses incurred throughout the period.

Critics have said that we Americans have despoiled our land, wasted our natural resources, polluted our water and air, leveled our forests, and decimated our wild plants and animals. However, as a nation, we have made much progress in recognizing our mistakes and inadequacies and are taking steps to correct them. Among these steps, and related to this publication, are the Missouri Threatened and Endangered Species Act of 1972, the National Endangered Species Act of 1973, and the Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974. At first these laws pertained primarily to animal species, but they...

The year was 1904; the place the Bronx Zoological Park in New York City; the beginning of perhaps the greatest single natural catastrophe in the annals of forest history—the discovery of chestnut blight. In less than 50 years more than 80 percent of the American chestnut trees in the eastern hardwood forests were dead; the rest were dying. A tree species that once occupied an estimated 25 percent of the eastern forest, encompassing 200 million acres of forest land, was gone.

Resident populations of white-footed mice, Peromyscus leucopus Rafinesque, red-backed voles, Clethrionomys gapperi Vigers, opossums, Didelphis marsupialis L., chipmunks, Tamias striatus L., and raccoons, Procyon lotor L., were evaluated to detect any short term effects from aerial applications of the nucleopolyhedrosis virus (NPV) of the gypsy moth. NPV in 2 formulations was sprayed on woodland plots in central Pennsylvania at the rate of 2.5 x 1012 polyhedral Inclusion bodies (PIB)/ha. Comparisons of prespray and postspray censuses of whIte-footed mIce and red-backed voles in control and...

A new species of black fly, Simulium penobscotensis, is described from tributaries of the Penobscot River, Maine, U.S.A. This species is a major late-season biting pest of man. Adults are similar to other members of the subgenus Phosterodoros, but the larvae and pupae are quite distinct. The pupal cocoon is unique because it has a definite collar with no windows on the anterior margin, as do other members of this subgenus.

How well does a certain tree species grow on a specific tract of land? Foresters traditionally answer this question in terms of "site index"--the average height of dominant and codominant trees at age 50 years in fully stocked, even-aged stands. Site index is widely used as an index of site quality because it is easy to measure and because it correlates well with timber yields.

Ninety-two percent of the commercial forest land in Kentucky--11 million acres--is in the hands of some 455,600 private owners. Ninety-four percent of these owners are individuals. The "average" individual owner is in late middle age, has little formal education, receives a modest income, has a farm or rural background, has owned his woodland more than 10 years, and lives within 1 mile of his only wooded tract. Thirty percent of the owners, controlling 54 percent of the private woodland, have harvested timber previously. Forty-seven percent of the owners intend to harvest in the future....

A 24-ft3 (6.8-m3) fiberglass bin was constructed and tested for its effectiveness in composting privy wastes. A mixture of ground hardwood bark and raw sewage was used for composting. Temperatures in excess of 60°C for 36 hours were produced in the bin by aerobic, thermophilic composting. This temperature is sufficient to destroy most pathogenic microorganisms. Composting in a leak-proof bin seems a safe, practical, and economical method of handling privy wastes.

Estimates of the distribution of tree grades by diameter class were developed for six hardwood species on the Allegheny Plateau. These estimates can be used to calculate present and projected stand values when actual tree grade measurements are not available.