Treesearch

Climate change affects nearly every aspect of the interdependent biophysical and social systems in California’s Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. Mitigating and adapting to these effects will require effective climate governance: referring to the actors, rules, and processes through which decisions are made to prevent and respond to climate change. How governance systems effectively achieve these goals has become an increasingly central question in climate social science and climate policy debates, both at global and local scales. This paper reviews the state of science on climate governance...

Longitudinal data are essential to assessing change in environmental parameters over space and through time. This is particularly true in forest ecosystems where demographic patterns are controlled by many biotic and abiotic factors that may only be observed through repeated measures of tree (e.g., height, diameter, status), stand (e.g., tree density, litter depth), and site conditions (e.g., evidence of disturbance). Data from the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program (FIA), support a variety of research and reporting efforts in...

An analysis of the urban forest in Portland, Oregon, revealed that this area had an estimated 7.7 million live trees (≥ 1.0 inch in diameter) or 2.7 million live trees (≥ 5.0 inches in diameter) across public and private lands. The most common tree species (≥ 5.0 inches in diameter) were bigleaf maple, Douglas-fir, northern white-cedar, western redcedar, and red alder. Trees in Portland were estimated to store about 1.6 million tons of carbon (equivalent to 5.9 million tons of carbon dioxide [CO2]) valued at $267.3 million. In addition, these trees were estimated to remove about 50,000...

A 2018 analysis of the urban forest in Washington, DC reveals that this area has an estimated 2 million live trees across all ownerships. The most common tree species by number are American beech, red maple, American holly, yellow-poplar, and American elm. Trees in Washington, DC are estimated to store about 487,163 tons of carbon (1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide [CO2]) valued at $83.1 million. In addition, it is estimated that these trees remove about 15,000 tons of carbon per year (or 55,000 tons CO2 per year, valued at $2.6 million per year, an amount roughly equivalent to the annual...

The first annual Timber Products Output survey was completed for the northern United States for the 2018 production year. We surveyed a randomly selected sample of 1,546 primary wood-using mills from a total population of 2,941 active mills. We received 927 responses, for a 60 percent cooperation rate. Industrial roundwood production (harvested and utilized) in the region was an estimated 2,421.8 million cubic feet (MMCF). Saw logs accounted for 51 percent of production. Pulpwood accounted for 31 percent of production. Hardwood species accounted for 72 percent of roundwood production....

Forest mesophication threatens the regeneration and potential future perpetuation of oak (Quercus spp.) forests throughout southern Appalachia and eastern United States (US). We explored methods to produce stand-scale oak site suitability maps, within the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina, which can be used to prioritize site-specific treatments to allow for oak regeneration and recruitment using silvicultural strategies to reduce forest mesophication. To establish initial conditions, USDA Forest Service common stand exam quick plot protocol was followed, and plot data collected...

Peatlands store significant amounts of carbon, which is released as greenhouse gases when peatlands are degraded. Restoration and rewetting can help prevent these emissions, while continuous monitoring is critical for evaluating their success. Using satellite-derived observations of essential climate variables, we conducted the first large-scale assessment of how peatland restoration influences land surface temperature (LST), albedo, and vegetation across 72 sites in North America and Europe. Our findings indicated that before restoration, degraded peatlands had a commonly lower daytime...

1. Addressing social and ecological values is a central aim of democratic environmental management and policymaking, especially during deliberative and participatory processes. Agencies responsible for managing public lands would benefit from a deepened understanding of how various publics value those lands. 2. Federal land management agencies receive millions of written comments from the public on proposed management actions annually, providing a unique source of insights into how the public assigns value to public lands. To date, little attention has been directed towards methods for...

A 2019 analysis of the urban forest in Chicago, Illinois, reveals that this area has an estimated 4.7 million live trees across all ownerships. The most common tree species by number are common buckthorn, white mulberry, and Siberian elm. Trees in Chicago are estimated to store about 754,787 tons of carbon (2.8 million tons of carbon dioxide [CO2]) valued at $128.7 million. In addition, it is estimated that these trees annually remove about 77,000 tons of CO2 and 774 tons of air pollution. Chicago’s urban forest is estimated to reduce annual energy costs of residential buildings by $1.8...

Aim: Predicting climate driven species range shifts requires knowledge of mechanisms limiting species fitness under various climatic conditions. The traditional approach of modelling ranges of herbivorous insects by fitting environmental niche models to occurrence records is generally incapable of differentiating direct effects of climate on insect populations versus indirect effects acting on the range of their host plants. Here, we delimit the southern extent of a major forest defoliator, the spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana, in North America, and investigate whether its range is...