Treesearch

Oak woodland regeneration and restoration requires that seedlings develop mycorrhizas, yet the need for this mutualistic association is often overlooked. In this study, we asked whether Quercus garryana seedlings in nursery beds acquire mycorrhizas without artificial inoculation or access to a mycorrhizal network of other ectomycorrhizal hosts. We also assessed the relationship between mycorrhizal infection and seedling growth in a nursery. Further, we compared the mycorrhizal assemblage of oak nursery seedlings to that of conifer seedlings in the nursery and to that of oak seedlings in...

The developmental trajectories of communities are routinely explained by reference to economic history, human capital deficits, or the structure of local labour markets. The role of local culture in understanding community development or in interpreting empirical research has received less attention. We believe culture plays an important independent role in shaping community debate and action. Framing community as an interactional field emphasises the opportunities created when people who share interests come together to address local problems. Interaction and local culture are essential...

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is incorporated into the planning and decisionmaking culture of all natural resource agencies in the United States. Yet, we know little about how the attitudes and internal interactions of interdisciplinary (ID) teams engaged in NEPA processes influence process outcomes. We conducted a Web-based survey of 106 ID team leaders involved with environmental analyses (EA) or environmental impact statements (EIS) for projects dealing with recreation and travel management on national forests. We explore how they define success in these processes and...

In recent years, the Forest Service and the public have placed increasing priority on making sure that management of public lands takes into account the needs of nearby communities, regional residents, national residents, and even members of the public who may not currently visit public lands. As awareness and commitment to this wide range of stakeholders grows, so does the need for forest managers and planners to understand the dynamic linkages among the forest, surrounding communities, and other stakeholders, including the national public. Knowing about public values, beliefs, and...

The original Forests on the Edge report (FOTE 1) indicated that 44.2 million acres of private forest land was projected to experience substantial increases in residential development in the coming decades. In this study, we examined the sensitivity of the FOTE 1 results to four factors: (1) use of updated private land and forest cover spatial data and a revised model of housing density change, (2) projection of residential development on woodland identified as shrub/scrub land cover, (3) inclusion of very-low-density residential development (i.e., more than 40 acres/ housing unit) in the...

The wolverine is one of the rarest and least-known mammals in North America. A lack of understanding regarding its historical distribution in the contiguous United States and its broad-scale habitat needs has hampered conservation efforts. Using a suite of research methods, including the assemblage of historical data on wolverine occurrence, analyses of habitat factors, GIS mapping, radio-telemetry tracking, and genetic studies, researchers were able to address these information gaps.

Biomass resources in Alaska are extensive and diverse, comprising millions of acres of standing small-diameter trees, diseased or dead trees, and trees having lowgrade timber. Limited amounts of logging and mill residues, urban wood residues, and waste products are also available. Recent wildfires in interior Alaska have left substantial volumes of burned timber, potentially usable for biomass energy. Motivated,in part, by rising fuel prices, organizations across the state--including businesses, schools, and government agencies--have all expressed an interest in wood energy applications....

Old-growth forests provide unique habitat features and landscape functions compared to younger stands. The goals of many forest management plans in the Pacific Northwest include increasing the area of late-successional and old-growth forests. The goal of this study was to describe existing old-growth forests in the northern Oregon Coast Range that might serve as examples of desired future conditions and developmental pathways. In addition, the abundance of specific stand attributes associated with old-growth stands was estimated from regional inventory data. Most of the old-growth stands...

Models and effect-size metrics for meta-analysis were compared in four separate meta-analyses quantifying surface fuels after prescribed fires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) forests of the Western United States. An aggregated data set was compiled from eight published reports that contained data from 65 fire treatment units. Downed woody and organic fuels were partitioned into five classes, and four meta-analyses were performed on each in a 2 by 2 factorial combination of fixed-effects vs. mixed-effects models with a difference-based metric (Hedges’ d) vs. a ratio-based...

This report documents the history and results of the Rocky Brook installation of the cooperative levels-of-growing-stock (LOGS) study in Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco), over the 41-year period 1965 to 2006. This 1938 plantation is one of the two site-IV installations among the nine installations in the study. Much public ownership in the region is on similar poor-site lands. Results are generally consistent with those from the other LOGS installations, although growth has been much slower than in the installations on more productive sites. Volume production increased...