Treesearch

Oak-dominated ecosystems in the eastern United States rely on periodic fire to create conditions that are conducive to oak regeneration. However, concern about reducing timber quality has made some managers wary of using fire as a management tool. A team of Northern Research Station scientists, foresters, and ecologists are collaborating to assess timber quality by inventorying trees across multiple national forests that have varied prescribed fire histories. Their findings indicate that economic damage to overstory timber value from prescribed fire is usually minimal, particularly...

When a tree falls in the woods, should it be removed? In managed forests, common practices call for cleaning up and removing timber following a blowdown. But when Northern Research Station research forester Christel Kern sees the root mass of a fallen tree, she's more likely to see it as an opportunity. Her work is described in a 2019 Forest Ecology and Management article entitled Mounds Facilitate Regeneration of Light-Seeded and Browse-Sensitive Tree Species After Moderate-Severity Wind Disturbance.

For 20 years, the Climate Change Tree Atlas has given foresters insight into tree species trends and how possible future climate scenarios may affect eastern tree species' habitat suitability. The Climate Change Tree Atlas recently underwent a major overhaul. Now even more resources are available to land managers looking for detailed data sets and maps on species traits, habitat quality, land cover, and dispersal potential for most tree species in the eastern United States. Tables and maps on the website are intended to inform land managers and landowners about their forests and enable...

Models of relationships among forest inventory sampling efficiency and cluster plot configuration variables inform decisions by inventory planners. However, relationships vary under different spatial heterogeneity scenarios. To improve understanding of how spatial patterns of forests affect these relationships, we implemented a factorial experiment by simulating forest pattern at both the landscape and stand scales. We sampled these simulated forests with a variety of cluster plot configurations, calculated coefficient of variation (CV) of trees per hectare for each replicate, and tested...

Small area estimation is a powerful modeling technique in which ancillary data can be utilized to "borrow" additional information, effectively increasing sample sizes in small spatial, temporal, or categorical domains. Though more commonly applied to biophysical variables within the study of forest inventory analyses, small area estimation can also be implemented in the context of understanding social values, behaviors, and trends among types of forest landowners within small domains. Here, we demonstrate a method for deriving a continuous fine-scale land cover and ownership layer for the...

Hurricanes cause billions of dollars in damage annually in the United States and are projected to increase in intensity in the coming years. By exploring historical patterns of hurricanes and exposure of these hurricane-force winds across the landscape, areas of potentially high threat to future hurricane winds can be revealed. Combining potential threats from hurricane winds with forest data reveal the areas with the greatest potential threats to this important resource. Not surprisingly, most of the threats to forests occur in the Southeast, but the greatest threats to urban forests...

Trees and forests in our cities and towns are assets to all who live there. Whether on public or private property, tree canopy and woods or forests add beauty, habitat, and a cooling, calming presence for all to see, feel, and enjoy, if only from a distance. Accessibility implies a different level of engagement, however, and for public trees, lands, and easements this means that everyone can peaceably enjoy these natural and cultural resources in perpetuity. Arborists and urban foresters can play a role in helping residents to sustainably enjoy the many benefits derived from trees. This...

The purpose of this report is to aid in understanding the future impacts of urban forests on climate change mitigation at the county level across the conterminous U.S. This report combines projected changes (2010 to 2060) in urbanization and associated urban tree cover to better understand urban forest impacts related to climate changes. The report estimates projected changes in urban forests related to carbon storage, building energy use and power plant emissions. Two types of projections were developed: Part 1 addresses projected changes in these effects given projected urban growth;...

This resource update is a brief look at some of the basic metrics that describe the status of and changes to forest resources in Indiana. 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 Indiana, 2020 can be found at https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-332-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.

This resource update is a brief look at some of the basic metrics that describe the status of and changes to forest resources in New Hampshire. 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 New Hampshire, 2020 can be found at https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-335-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.