Treesearch

Human settlement and land management have radically altered the composition and structure of eastern Washington forests. Restoring high-functioning landscapes and habitat patterns have broad implications for the future sustainability of native species, ecosystem services, and ecosystem processes. Many land managers and scientists have turned their attention to whole landscapes to decipher key changes in the terrestrial and aquatic systems. A goal is to formulate landscapelevel prescriptions for re-establishing broad functionality and resilience to disturbances and changing climate....

We examined slash from thinning treatments in a 21-year chronosequence of young-growth stands in southeast Alaska to determine the strength and persistence of slash effects on two key features of deer habitat quality: forage availability and deer mobility within thinned areas. We describe the main deterioration processes and their dynamics over time. We measured wood density of slash of various ages and present a model to estimate changes in wood density over time. This report also discusses factors that contribute to initial slash loading, slash deterioration, and effects on deer habitat.

This paper describes methods developed to (1) assess current risks, vulnerabilities, and gaps in knowledge; (2) engage internal agency resources and external partners in the development of options and solutions; and (3) manage forest resources for resilience, not just in terms of natural ecosystems but in affected human communities as well. We describe an approach designed to characterize certain climate change effects on forests, and estimate the effectiveness of response options ranging from resistance to a realignment of management objectives. Field testing on a 6,300 km2 area of...

We reared juvenile Oncorhychus mykiss with low and high standard metabolic rates (SMR) under alternative thermal regimes to determine how these proximate factors influence life histories in a partially migratory salmonid fish. High SMR significantly decreased rates of freshwater maturation and increased rates of smoltification in females, but not males, after 1 year of rearing. Warmer water temperatures significantly decreased rates of freshwater maturation and increased rates of smoltification in both sexes. Variation in individual growth influenced the probability of adopting anadromy or...

Mastication is an increasingly common fuels treatment that redistributes ‘‘ladder’’ fuels to the forest floor to reduce vertical fuel continuity, crown fire potential, and fireline intensity, but fuel models do not exist for predicting fire behavior in these fuel types. Recent fires burning in masticated fuels have behaved in unexpected and contradictory ways, likely because the shredded, compact fuel created when trees and shrubs are masticated contains irregularly shaped pieces in mixtures quite different from other woody fuels. We review fuels characteristics and fire behavior in...

Various methods have been used to estimate the amount of above ground forest biomass across landscapes and to create biomass maps for specific stands or pixels across ownership or project areas. Without an accurate estimation method, land managers might end up with incorrect biomass estimate maps, which could lead them to make poorer decisions in their future management plans. The goal of this study was to compare various imputation methods to predict forest biomass and basal area, at a project planning scale (

This paper examines the permanence of agricultural land afforestation under stylized carbon markets at the regional level in the US. Attention is focused on Southern and Midwest regions which historically have experienced a relatively large amount of land-use change between the agriculture and forest sectors. The Forest and Agriculture Sector Optimization Model–Greenhouse Gases model is used to examine responses between sectors as part of the regional afforestation policy analysis. Main findings suggest that most of afforested area in the Midwest regions remains unharvested by mid-21th...

Patterns of salmon distribution throughout a riverscape may be expected to change over time in response to environmental conditions and population sizes. Changing patterns of use, including identification of consistently occupied locations, are informative for conservation and recovery planning. We explored interannual patterns of distribution by juvenile Coho Salmon Oncorhynchus kisutch in 11 subbasins on the midcoast of Oregon. We found that juvenile Coho Salmon distribution expanded and contracted around stream sections that were continuously occupied (core areas). Timing of expansion...

We provide new cost estimates for carbon sequestration through afforestation in the U.S. We extend existing studies of carbon sequestration costs in several important ways, while ensuring the transparency of our approach. Our costs estimates have five distinguishing features: (1) we estimate costs for each county in the contiguous U.S., (2) we include afforestation of rangeland, in addition to cropland and pasture, (3) our opportunity cost estimates account for capitalized returns to future development (including associated option values) in addition to returns to agricultural production,...

Characteristics of annual rings are reliable indicators of growth and wood quality in trees. The main objective of our study was to model the variation in annual ring attributes due to intensive silviculture and inherent regional differences in climate and site across a wide geographic range of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco). Ring specific gravity and ring width of Douglas-fir were examined at five long-term Levels-Of-Growing-Stock (LOGS) installations, three in the US and two in Canada, covering a latitudinal gradient between 43°N and 50°N. At each location, increment...