Treesearch

As carbon modeling tools become more comprehensive, spatial data are needed to improve quantitative maps of carbon emissions from fire. The Wildland Fire Emissions Information System (WFEIS) provides mapped estimates of carbon emissions from historical forest fires in the United States through a web browser. WFEIS improves access to data and provides a consistent approach to estimating emissions at landscape, regional, and continental scales. The system taps into data and tools developed by the U.S. Forest Service to describe fuels, fuel loadings, and fuel consumption and merges information...

Atmospherically deposited sulfur (S) causes stream water acidification throughout the eastern U.S. Southern Appalachian Mountain (SAM) region. Acidification has been linked with reduced fitness and richness of aquatic species and changes to benthic communities. Maintaining acid-base chemistry that supports native biota depends largely on balancing acidic deposition with the natural resupply of base cations. Stream water acid neutralizing capacity (ANC) is maintained by base cations that mostly originate from weathering of surrounding lithologies. When ambient atmospheric S deposition...

This report traces the flow of timber harvested in Alaska during calendar year 2011, describes the composition and operations of the state’s primary forest products industry, and quantifies volumes and uses of wood fiber. Historical wood products industry changes are discussed, as well as trends in timber harvest, production, export, sales of primary wood products, employment, and emerging issues important to Alaska’s forest industry.

Until recently, scientific understanding of the history and ecology of the Pacific Northwest's mixed-conifer forests east of the Cascade Range was minimal. As a result, forest managers have had limited ability to restore the health of publicly owned forests that show signs of acute stress caused by insects, disease, grazing, logging, and wildfire. A recent study co-authored by a Pacific Northwest Research Station research forester revealed that the traditionally used term "mixed-conifer forest" is too broad for ecological management. The study fills a knowledge gap by providing evidence...

Land management planning at broad scales requires integrative techniques to understand and synthesize the effects of different land management activities and address socioeconomic and conservation concerns. The Integrated Landscape Assessment Project was developed to support the vital but complex task of broadscale integration of information to assess ecological sustainability at multiple scales. The project supports ecosystem management planning at a regional scale across all lands of Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington by simulating landscape dynamics using state-and-transition...

Information on the effects of management activities such as fuel reduction treatments and of processes such as vegetation growth and disturbance on fire hazard can help land managers prioritize treatments across a landscape to best meet management goals. State-and-transition models (STMs) allow landscape-scale simulations that incorporate effects of succession, management, and disturbance on vegetation composition and structure. State-and-transition models have been used for many different types of landscape-scale assessments. However, STMs do not currently assess fuels and fire hazard for...

Forest land provides various ecosystem services, including timber, biomass, and carbon sequestration. Estimating trends in these ecosystem services is essential for assessing potential outcomes of landscape management scenarios. However, the state-and transition models used in the Integrated Landscape Assessment Project for simulating landscape changes over time do not directly compute the variables necessary for volume and biomass estimation. This study illustrates a methodology for modeling timber production and biomass supply potential over time in central Washington, and gives an...

Wildlife habitat analysis often is a central focus of natural resources management and policy. State-and-transition models (STMs) allow for simulation of landscape level ecological processes, and for managers to test “what if” scenarios of how those processes may affect wildlife habitat. This chapter describes the methods used to link STM output to wildlife habitat to determine how estimated habitat varies across the landscape, how habitat is affected by different land management scenarios, and how management might enhance estimated habitat for particular species. Using the Washington East...

As part of the Integrated Landscape Assessment Project, we developed a methodology for managers to include potential community benefits when considering forest management treatments. To do this, we created a watershed impact score that scores each watershed (potential source of wood material) with respect to the communities that are likely to benefit from increased wood supply. The communities we consider are census county subdivisions that correspond to all rural places in four states (Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington). Incorporated into the watershed impact score are indices...

Land managers and others need ways to understand the potential effects of climate change on local vegetation types and how management activities might be impacted by climate change. To date, climate change impact models have not included localized vegetation communities or the integrated effects of vegetation development dynamics, natural disturbances, and management activities. We developed methods to link a dynamic global vegetation model to local state-and-transition models. Our methods allow examination of how climate change effects might play out in localized areas given a combination...