Treesearch

Resource managers have long mapped biophysical forest data. Often lacking, however, is relevant social science data for understanding the variety of human needs a given landscape fulfills. For nearly a decade, Lee Cerveny has been exploring how to provide this data on public lands around the Pacific Northwest. Cerveny is a research social scientist with the Pacific Northwest Research Station. In collaboration with several colleagues, she is using in-person mapping exercises and workshops with graphic information system software to capture social values, ecosystem benefits, and resource...

Unprecedented outbreaks of defoliating insects severely damaged blueberry crops near Port Graham on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska from 2008-2012. The Native people in this region rely heavily on gathered blueberries and other foods for sustenance and nourishment. Influences of topography and stand structure on blueberry abundance and fruiting were examined and used to develop spatial models to predict abundance and productivity of blueberry plants. Fruiting was associated with decreased canopy density, a low basal area and southwesterly aspects. Stands with relatively high site indices...

Forest wildfires consume fuel and are followed by post-fire fuel accumulation. This study examines post-fire surface fuel dynamics over 9 years across a wide range of conditions characteristic of California fires in dry conifer and hardwood forests. We estimated post-fire surface fuel loadings (Mg ha _1) from 191 repeatedly measured United States national inventory plots in dry conifer and hardwood stands of 49 California forest wildfires and identified differences across fire severity classes – low, moderate and high. No significant change in duff load was detected within the first 9...

Poor condition of many streams and concerns about future droughts in the arid and semi-arid western USA have motivated novel restoration strategies aimed at accelerating recovery and increasing water resources. Translocation of beavers into formerly occupied habitats, restoration activities encouraging beaver recolonization, and instream structures mimicking the effects of beaver dams are restoration alternatives that have recently gained popularity because of their potential socioeconomic and ecological benefits. However, beaver dams and dam-like structures also harbor a history of social...

This chapter illustrates how data and context described in previous chapters were used to develop strategies to address human use management in the Sound through an issue-driven planning process. The results provide guidance toward providing keystone recreation experiences in the Sound while simultaneously protecting cultural and ecological values of the region. This chapter represents the culmination of the Prince William Sound Framework process that was initiated by Forest Service leaderships in 2006 (Chapter 6). We identify seven priority issues that could be addressed by Chugach...

Natural resource managers of federal lands in the USA are often tasked with various forms of social and economic impact analysis. Federal agencies in the USA also have a mandate to analyze the potential environmental justice consequences of their activities. Relatively little is known about the environmental justice impacts of natural resource management in rural areas. Quantitative environmental justice analyses have so far heavily favored urban populations, in part owing to the difficulty of quantitative analysis of rural U.S. Census data. We developed a spatial method for integrating...

Coal is the primary fuel source for electrical power generation in interior Alaska, with more than 600,000 tons burned annually at five different power plants. Woody biomass could be used as part of this fuel mix, offering potential environmental and economic benefits. In this research, debarked chips were cofired with locally mined coal at the Aurora Power Plant facility in downtown Fairbanks, Alaska. During two days of testing, aspen chips were successfully cofired with coal at average rates of 2.4 percent and 4.8 percent of total energy value. Combustion gases were analyzed during...

The Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is federally threatened in part of its range in western North America. Information on density and productivity is important for managing populations. Over an 18-yr period, we monitored murrelet density and productivity ratios during the breeding season along 170 km of shoreline of the San Juan Islands, Washington, USA. While murrelets occur throughout the coastal marine waters of Washington, the San Juan Islands support higher densities of murrelets during the breeding season than most other areas. From 1995 to 2012, the average density of...

Provides current information on lumber and plywood production and prices; employment in the forest industries; international trade in logs, lumber, and plywood; volume and average prices of stumpage sold by public agencies; and other related items. Current data and downloadable Excel files are available online.

Cropping system diversity can help build greater agroecosystem resilience by suppressing insect, weed, and disease pressures while also mitigating effects of extreme and more variable weather. Despite the potential benefits of cropping systems diversity, few farmers in the US Corn Belt use diverse rotations. This study examines factors that may influence farmers’ decisions to use more diversified crop rotations in the US Corn Belt through a parallel convergent mixed methods approach, using a multi-level analysis of Corn Belt farmer survey data (n = 4,778) and in-depth interviews (n = 159)....