Treesearch

A custom-built bark blower truck (MOBLOW) developed in Oregon was tested for its effectiveness in applying bark mulches, sawdust, and shavings in the eastern United States. Tests determined the bark blower's performance and cost in mulching grass-legume seedings and shrub beds with 10 bark products or wood residues. Bark blower trucks built to MOBLOW specifications can effectively apply pine and hardwood bark products, sawdust, and wood shavings, but cannot handle unprocessed bask residues. Blower trucks can be used to blow shredded bark, sawdust, and shavings into barns, cattle sheds,...

Labor turnover in hardwood sawmills of the Appalachian Region was studied by using data collected during interviews with 68 mill managers. Job-quitting was highest among young unskilled workers who had less than 6 months of service with their employers. Half of the mills surveyed had annual quit rates of more than 100 percent. Variation among mills was associated with the age of mill employees, wages and the number of paid holidays received by the workers, and the general wage level and unemployment rate in the local labor market. Lumber output per man-hour varied inversely with quit...

Revised quality index (QI) tables for white ash, beech, black cherry, birch, hard maple, soft maple, red oak, white oak, and yellow-poplar are based on 1970-74 lumber prices for the Appalachian and northeastern marketing areas. Changes in QI since 1964-68 were greatest for white oak; there also were significant changes in QI for red oak, white ash, and yellow-poplar.

Eight years of streamflow data are analyzed to show the effects of strip mining on chemical quality of water in six first-order streams in Breathitt County, Kentucky. All these watersheds were unmined in August, 1967, but five have since been strip mined. The accumulated data from this case history study indicate that strip mining causes large increases in the concentrations of most major dissolved constituents in the runoff waters, the concentration of most of these reaching a maximum some time after mining has ceased, then holding steady for several years. The maximum concentration of...

Management of backcountry recreation areas in the eastern United States should be based in part on information about the identity of backcountry users and what they seek in their backcountry experiences. Because little of this kind of information is now available, managers may be adopting some strategies with inadequate knowledge of the consequences of their decisions. Results of a study of users of the Cranberry Backcountry in West Virginia describe the potential impact of several management alternatives. Cranberry Backcountry visitors and western Wilderness Area visitors are compared.

Growth of northern hardwoods over a 10-year period was studied in plots that were treated to produce residual densities of 40, 60, 80, and 100 square feet of basal area per acre with stand structures of 30, 45 and 60 percent sawtimber. Both diameter and basal area growth are tabulated by treatment and species.

A study of the market performance of natural Christmas tree retailers in Winston-Salem, North Carolins, revealed that success was strongly related to location in active retail shopping areas. Christmas tree retailers in shopping centers or areas high in retail sales sold more trees, received a higher average price, and had fewer trees left unsold than retailers in suburban or residential areas. Market factors that contributed to the success of these lots were better merchandising practises, better quality trees, ample parking space, high customer traffic, and better advertising. Consumer...

Sugar maple cuttings were collected twice a week throughout June from four mature trees. Some of the cuttings were analyzed for carbohydrate (starch and sugars) and nitrogen content; the others were stuck in rooting beds. Rooting response showed significant daily and clonal variations. Cuttings rooted best when their terminal leaves were mature, as judged by size and color. Daily changes in rooting response were only weakly correlated with sugar and nitrogen concentrations, but rooting response peaked soon after a marked rise in starch.

A large portion of logging residues and materials removed in thinning consists of trees 1 to 10 inches dbh (diameter at breast height). As part of research to achieve increased utilization of these small trees, whole-tree weight tables and prediction equations were developed for small Appalachian hardwoods, based on a sample of 200 trees of 17 species from a site in central West Virginia, Average green weight of the trees (all material above a 6-inch stump) was 433 pounds, 80 percent of which was in material greater than 3 inches d.o.b. (diameter outside bark). The weighted average...

Changes in the nutrient concentration in the forest floor and in the mineral soil were assessed on a mature spruce-fir stand in central Maine that had been harvested in 1965 by strip clearcutting. On part of the site, slash was left in place; on other parts it was removed, and on some it was burned. Eight years after the harvest, the clearcut areas tended to have increaed pH and increased concentrations of bases and percentages of base saturation, but the amounts of N and P were comparable to those in the residual forest. Soil drainage class and differences in parent material were the...