Treesearch

This article describes how GIS is increasingly being used to explore, analyze, and visualize qualitative social data across space. The authors applied a number of geovisualization and analysis approaches to spaces identified on maps by survey participants, in the context of a Human Ecology Mapping (HEM) project in western North Carolina. HEM is an applied research endeavor that has been used in a number of other locations to tease out relationships between people and landscapes by identifying both the activities people do in certain locations and the values they hold about those locations....

There has been a recent increase in use of an organized, forest ‘collaborative’ group approach for multi-stakeholder input on federal forestlands in the U.S. West. This approach relies on the creation of shared trust to achieve social agreement. Yet growing critiques suggest a lack of trust in the U.S. Forest Service [Forest Service], between stakeholders, and the collaborative process itself. We conducted three comparative case studies of established forest collaborative groups in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho to ask how trust is created and damaged or broken in this context. We found...

This is the executive summary of a three-volume science synthesis that addresses various ecological and social concerns regarding management of federal forests encompassed by the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP). Land managers with the U.S. Forest Service provided questions that helped guide preparation of the synthesis. It builds on the 10-, 15-, and 20-year NWFP monitoring reports and synthesizes the vast body of relevant scientific literature that has accumulated in the 24 years since the NWFP was initiated. Here we summarize scientific findings and considerations for management that were...

Estimating marten (Martes spp.) survival rates in managed forests is important for comparisons with vital rates in unmanaged forests, and data across populations in different forest types are needed in meta-analyses. We estimated survival rates of a Pacific Marten (Martes caurina) population from 1993 to 1998. This population experienced no fur trapping and occurred in an atypical habitat of sparse tree-canopy cover, small tree diameters, and many natural openings and logging clearcuts. In the beetle-damaged, salvage-logged Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta) forest, downed wood and snags were...

The Cascade red fox (CRF) occurred historically throughout subalpine and alpine habitats in the Cascade Range of Washington and southernmost British Columbia, but now appears to be extremely rare. Causes for its apparent decline are unknown, as is the current distribution and connectivity of its populations. Additionally, the introduction of nonnative (fur-farm) red foxes to surrounding lowland areas during the past century raises concerns about their expansion to higher elevations and potential hybridization with the CRF. We conducted noninvasive genetic sampling and analyses of CRFs in a...

Numerous factors are contributing to the loss of biodiversity. These include complex effects of multiple abiotic and biotic stressors that may drive population losses. These losses are especially illustrated by amphibians, whose populations are declining worldwide. The causes of amphibian population declines are multifaceted and context-dependent. One major factor affecting amphibian populations is emerging infectious disease. Several pathogens and their associated diseases are especially significant contributors to amphibian population declines. These include the fungi Batrachochytrium...

An important issue in biodiversity valuation is gaining a better understanding of how biodiversity conservation affects economic activities and human welfare. Quantifying the economic benefits of biodiversity for human well-being is not straightforward. Here, we expand the ecosystem service cascade by (i) attributing a methodology to the different steps of the cascade to assess the effects of changes in functional group diversity on economic activities; (ii) including multiple attributes for defining functional diversity and (iii) integrating a dynamic ecological model simulating complex...

This is a transcript of my 2017 Tane Mahuta public lecture.

Logging debris has the potential to benefit forest regeneration by increasing resource availability, modifying microclimate, and altering plant community structure. To understand potential mechanisms driving these benefits, we initiated research at a forested site on the Olympic Peninsula, WA that contained the invasive, nonnative competitor, Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius). Immediately after harvesting the stand of mature coast Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii) in late 2011, two levels of logging debris retention were created on replicated plots: 18.9 and 9.0 Mg ha−1,...

The northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) is a federally-threatened subspecies in the United States associated with late-successional forests. In mesic forests it nests primarily in tree cavities, but also uses various types of external platform nests in drier forests. We describe 1717 northern spotted owl nests in 16 different tree species in five study areas in Washington and Oregon in the Pacific Northwest, USA. The vast majority of nests (87%) were in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) trees, except on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, where nests were about equally...