Treesearch

As part of a recent synthesis addressing fuel management in dry, mixed-conifer forests we analyzed more than 5,000 Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots, a probability sample that represents 33 million acres of these forests throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and extreme northern California. We relied on the BioSum analysis framework that integrates several models to evaluate the economics of treating fuels by using 13 different mechanical fuel treatments per plot. We are extending this analysis to explore the carbon dynamics associated with these fuel treatments and...

Urban forests are a critical element in sustainable urban areas because of the many environmental, economic, and social benefits that city trees provide. In order to increase canopy cover in urban areas, residential homeowners, who collectively own the majority of the land in most cities, need to engage in planting and retaining trees on their properties. This collaborative research project surveyed homeowners in Seattle, Washington, U.S., to examine their behaviors and attitudes toward the trees on their property. Attitudes toward trees were mapped to examine geographic distribution, as...

Processes that influence habitat selection in landscapes involve the interaction of habitat composition and configuration and are particularly important for species with complex life cycles. We assessed the relative influence of landscape spatial processes and local habitat characteristics on patterns in the distribution and abundance of spawning steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), a threatened salmonid fish, across approximately 15,000 stream km in the John Day River basin, Oregon, USA. We used hurdle regression and a multi-model information theoretic approach to identify the relative...

Climate change in the 21st century will affect tree growth in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, although complex climate–growth relationships make it difficult to identify how radial growth will respond across different species distributions. We used a novel method to examine potential growth responses to climate change at a broad geographical scale with a focus on visual inspection of patterns and applications beyond sampled areas. We examined projected changes in climate within species distributions of mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana), subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa),...

Many plant species have been introduced to the United States by humans since European settlement, sometimes deliberately and sometimes inadvertently, such as in contaminated crop seed or soil. Some species have successfully escaped cultivation and become invasive, spreading and establishing new populations distant from original population centers. Indeed, introduced plant species have forever changed the vegetative landscape of North America.

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.

Ethanol in sapwood was analyzed along vertical transects, through small spot cankers and larger basal cankers, of Phytophthora ramorum-infected stems of Quercus agrifolia at three sites in California. Trees with large basal cankers, known to attract scolytid beetles, had a 4.3 times higher ethanol level than trees with spot cankers that attract fewer beetles. We conclude that ethanol in P. ramorum cankers functions as a primary host attractant for scolytid beetles and is an important link in colonization of these cankers and accelerated mortality of Q. agrifolia. The results of this...

The Fuel Characteristic Classification System (FCCS) is a software module that records wildland fuel characteristics and calculates potential fire behavior and hazard potentials based on input environmental variables. The FCCS 3.0 is housed within the Integrated Fuels Treatment Decision Support System (Joint Fire Science Program 2012). It can also be run from command line as a stand-alone calculator. The flexible design of FCCS allows users to represent the structural complexity and diversity of fuels created through natural processes (e.g., forest succession and disturbance) and management...

The U.S. Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory (FPL), located in Madison, Wisconsin, celebrated its centennial in 2010, and one of the lab’s signature research areas during this century of achievement has been lignocellulosic transportation fuels. Many of these research advances have occurred either during wartime emergencies or times of economic crisis. Although great progress has been made, commercial production of lignocellulosic fuels has been limited. In this paper, we take an indepth look at advances, breakthroughs, and motivating factors in liquid fuels research both at the FPL...

We reviewed energy efficiency measures in facilities across the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, examining opportunities and obstacles, and identifying factors of project success. The adoption of energy efficiency measures at Forest Service sites was seen to be most likely when decision control was local to the site and when budget timing and structures were familiar to decisionmakers and planned for in advance. The role of information diffusion is an important factor in both the planning and demonstration phases of energy efficient projects. The findings presented can help...