Treesearch

We conducted a census of the 2020 Washington forest products industry. We asked any facility that purchased roundwood or purchased residuals from roundwood users about their mill characteristics, employment, inputs, outputs, residual production and disposition, and sales value. We also collected data from facilities in surrounding states that purchased roundwood from Washington. We identified 83 primary processing facilities, nearly 3 billion board feet Scribner of timber harvest, and more than 4 billion bone-dry units of generated residuals. We compared the census results to similar...

While there is near unanimous agreement that for tourism to be considered sustainable, residents need to be empowered, few researchers have asked residents which dimensions of empowerment should be prioritized. This research seeks to fill this gap and give residents a voice in sharing their empowerment priorities by conducting an Importance Performance Analysis using the Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale within the nature-based tourism destination of Brevard, located in Transylvania County, NC, USA. Results found residents to be generally apathetic towards empowerment, with...

Tree spacing during reforestation is a critical decision that influences the trajectory and rate of stand development over time, but there is limited quantification of responses at meaningful time scales for management. Here we report on ∼40 year response of coast Douglas-fir (DF, Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii), noble fir (NF, Abies procera) and western white pine (WWP, Pinus monticola) to five or six spacing treatments that ranged from 1 to 6 m in the western Cascades of Washington, USA. Spacing effects were tested separately for each species in completely randomized designs...

Recent climate and disturbance conditions in Western U.S. forests have led to significant reforestation needs, necessitating the development of climate-informed management strategies. Promising adaptation strategies include assisted population migration, the movement of seed sources or populations to new locations within the historical species range, combined with silvicultural establishment practices that can improve short-term seedling survival and longer term stand resilience to future climate. Presently, there are challenges to the operational use of assisted population migration and...

Multiple studies have found that exposure to greenspace during pregnancy is associated with increased birthweight (Hu et al., 2021) and a reduced probability of a small-for-gestational-age birth. However, because exposure to greenspace is associated with demographic correlates of health, studies may suffer from residual confounding. In addition, results may be influenced by the self-selection of healthier women into greener neighborhoods. We address these limitations by using the number of trees planted around maternal address as a novel exposure metric. Compared to existing tree cover,...

The protection of headwater streams faces increasing challenges, exemplified by limited global recognition of headwater contributions to watershed resiliency and a recent US Supreme Court decision limiting federal safeguards. Despite accounting for ~77% of global river networks, the lack of adequate headwaters protections is caused, in part, by limited information on their extent and functions—in particular, their flow regimes, which form the foundation for decision-making regarding their protection. Yet, headwater streamflow is challenging to comprehensively measure and model; it is...

Because riparian ecosystems are highly valued for their diverse ecological services, past and ongoing disturbances in riparian zones have led to extensive restoration efforts, litigation, and compliance monitoring of the effects of livestock grazing. Better understanding of the factors that influence cattle riparian use, especially in landscapes supporting threatened or endangered fish, could lead to improved predictions of management outcomes and riparian recovery for sustainable grazing systems. Although published models predict habitat selection by cattle, there is a gap in our understan...

The Fender’s blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides fenderi) is a federally listed threatened species occurring in the Willamette Valley, Oregon. The species depends on intact, native prairie environments with plants used for nectar sources and egg-laying. This report provides photos of selected locations with the species presence and provides views of conditions and changes under seasonal and management activities, particularly focused on conditions providing suitable habitat.

The repatriation of species is common, especially in conservation efforts aimed at restoring trophic interactions. Whether the Eltonian niches of restored species are conserved in reassembled ecological communities is largely unknown. Within mammalian carnivores, we hypothesized that the Eltonian niches of sympatric competitors would be structured by trophic facilitation from subsidies provided by large carnivores (i.e. carrion) and humans (i.e. food subsidies). Using stable isotopes (δ13C, δ15N), we quantified the Eltonian niches of an apex predator, the grey wolf Canis lupus and two...

Human-induced land use practices can result in the bioaccumulation of metals in turtles. We assessed relationships between land use and pollutant concentrations in painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) and snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) through non-destructive tissue sampling across 22 sites within a mixed-use watershed in north-central West Virginia, U.S.A.. Metal concentrations were consistently higher in nails than in blood. Selenium levels in soil and turtle nails were positively correlated with proximity to mine land. Lead levels in turtle nails were positively correlated with Pb...