Treesearch

Forests provide significant long-term carbon (C) storage, but have the potential to increase future C emissions with a changing climate. Aboveground biomass, C stores, and the effect of disturbance were examined using forest inventory data collected across all ownerships on 6.2 million ha in Coastal Alaska. We modelled six C pools using empirical data, estimated two others using the literature, and quantified estimate uncertainty. The average (±SE) aboveground live (218.9 ± 4.6 Mg/ha) and log (28.1 ± 1.8 Mg/ha) biomass in the Alaskan Temperate ecoregion were among the lowest in the Pacific...

A riverscape perspective considers the ecological and social landscape of the river and its valley. In this context, we examined the spatial arrangement of protective policies for river networks. Riparian land-management standards are policy efforts that explicitly restrict certain management actions, e.g., timber harvest or land clearing, in stream-adjacent lands in order to protect water quality and aquatic habitat. In western Oregon, USA, management standards for riparian lands vary across federal, state, and private landownerships and land uses, projecting a patchwork of protective...

The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a threatened coastal bird that feeds on fish and nests in old-growth forests. In northwest Washington, murrelet populations are declining despite protections provided by the Northwest Forest Plan. Wildlife biologists Martin Raphael and Tom Bloxton, with the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, used radio telemetry—the first study of its kind in Washington—to develop a detailed picture of the challenges faced by marbled murrelets. Teresa Lorenz analyzed the resulting data to gain further insights into the ecology of these...

Owyhee County, Idaho, covers much of the Owyhee Uplands, an arid landscape characterized by sagebrush habitat where cattle grazing is a dominant land use. Because this landscape is home to many sensitive sagebrush-obligate species as well as species that require high-quality riparian and aquatic habitat, it has garnered attention from state and federal wildlife agencies and various nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) interested in restoring and conserving habitat on working landscapes. The installation of beaver dam-like structures such as beaver dam analogues, and the reintroduction of...

Landscape values mapping (LVM) is a participatory process used to gather public input for park and forest management. Respondents assign landscape values or ecosystem benefits to places on a map using a typology that usually includes the value “recreation.” Whereas other landscape values in the typology reflect personal guiding principles and enduring beliefs, recreation represents a diverse set of human behaviors influenced by their values and beliefs. For a more accurate comparison to other mapped values, and to better inform land managers of the underlying factors determining people's...

Long-term occupancy by homeless individuals in U.S. national forests and grasslands results in persistent management challenges and resource concerns. Management challenges associated with non-recreational campers (homeless long-term occupants) include: maintaining sanitary conditions, public safety, vandalism, and conflict with other forest visitors. These management challenges may already be a substantial concern for district rangers and law enforcement officers (LEOs) in many parts of the U.S. This exploratory study compares the social impacts of various types of non-recreational...

The northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) was listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1990. We applied modern spatial conservation theory and models to evaluate several candidate critical habitat networks, and sought an efficient conservation solution that encompassed the highest value lands for spotted owl recovery rather than maximizing the total area of potential critical habitat. We created a map of relative habitat suitability, which served as input to the spatial conservation prioritization program Zonation. We used the spatially-explicit...

Quantifying the spatial and temporal dynamics of stream metabolism across stream networks is key to understanding carbon cycling and stream food web ecology. To better understand intra-annual temporal patterns of gross primary production (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (ER) and their variability across space, we continuously measured dissolved oxygen and modeled stream metabolism for an entire year at ten sites across a temperate river network in Washington State, USA. We expected GPP and ER to increase with stream size and peak during summer and autumn months due to warmer temperatures...

Environmental DNA (eDNA) is an emerging biological monitoring tool that can aid in assessing the effects of forestry and forest manufacturing activities on biota. Monitoring taxa across broad spatial and temporal scales is necessary to ensure forest management and forest manufacturing activities meet their environmental goals of maintaining biodiversity. Our objectives are to describe potential applications of eDNA across the wood products supply chain extending from regenerating forests, harvesting, and wood transport, to manufacturing facilities, and to review the current state of the...

Stubble height, streambank alteration, and woody species use are indicators used to monitor livestock impacts on riparian areas in the western United States. Effects of wild ungulates on riparian conditions are often not monitored and assumed to be represented by indicators developed for livestock. We tested this assumption by evaluating effects of elk (Cervus canadensis) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) on grazing indicators along Meadow Creek, a salmonid-bearing stream in northeastern Oregon. Wild ungulates reduced stubble height by 20% to 30%. Mean streambank alteration was 1.1%...