Treesearch

As a young geologist in 1980, I felt a powerful attraction to volcanoes, and I thought I knew volcanoes rather well. I had studied volcanology. I had climbed volcanic peaks in the Cascades. And I had tried to be an attentive citizen of my volcanic region, the Pacific Northwest. But when I had a chance to go with other scientists to Mount St. Helens within days of its May 18th, 1980, eruption, that all changed. I stepped out of a helicopter into the dust and mist of the blasted landscape, and I could barely comprehend where I was. Everything was gray in the normally green Pacific Northwest...

As forest biomass utilization becomes cost effective to harvest, more areas at risk of catastrophic wildfire can be thinned of dense brush and small-diameter trees. In an effort to increase biomass utilization, the USDA Forest Service granted more than $36 million in National Fire Plan-Economic Action Program funds in the Western United States during fiscal years 2001 to 2003. Interviews with program coordinators and grant recipients were used to characterize the types of investment strategies used and to assess accomplishments relative to national fuels reduction objectives. Findings...

The high altitude spruce-fir (Abies fraseri (Pursh) Poiret.-Picea rubens Sarg.) forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains, USA, experience frequent cloud immersion. Recent studies indicate that cloud bases may have risen over the past 30 years, resulting in less frequent forest cloud immersion, and that further increases in cloud base height are likely in the event of continued climate warming. To assess the impact of this trend on the regeneration of high altitude spruce-fir forests and the migration of plant communities, in particular the encroachment of spruce-fir forests and...

Given the vision and mission statements for GRAPHIC above, this document provides an updated framework for the GRAPHIC program. The approach to addressing global issues under the GRAPHIC umbrella involves case studies designed to cover a broad range of the identified Subjects, Methods, and Regions. Interdependencies of factors and processes affecting subsurface water are discussed first, followed by Subjects and Methods, including water quantity, geochemical indicators, paleo-indicators, proxy information, geophysical methods, remote sensing, information systems, simulation and modeling...

Many species of toads (family Bufonidae), including the western toad (Bufo boreas), are declining in-the western United States. The ability of this species to recover from declines depends, in part, on its reproductive success. This study examined the breeding frequency in both sexes of B. borelis in northeastern Oregon compared to that observed in other populations. We recaptured 0 to 8.7 percent (n = 844) of adult female toads that were tagged between 2002 and 2007. Twenty-one females oviposited during two consecutive years, and two females laid eggs in three consecutive years. We...

Decline of yellow-cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis D. Don) Spach) has occurred on 200 000 ha of temperate rainforests across southeastern Alaska. Because declining forests appeared soon after the Little Ice Age and are limited mostly to low elevations (whereas higher elevation forests remain healthy), recent studies have hypothesized a climatic mechanism involving early dehardening, reduced snowpack, and freezing injury. This hypothesis assumes that a specific suite of microclimatic conditions occurs during late winter and declining cedar populations across the region have responded...

This study uses a multiscale, multimethods approach to examine the effects of declining timber harvests on the well-being of forest communities in the Pacific Northwest as a result of the Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan). We found that the effects of declining timber harvests were variable and depended on the importance of the timber sector in a community in the late 1980s, the extent to which federal timber supported that sector, and the degree to which local residents depended on US Forest Service jobs. In addition, we found that other goods, services, and opportunities associated with...

Effective decisionmaking in environmental management requires the consideration of multiple objectives that may conflict. Common optimization methods use weights on the multiple objectives to aggregate them into a single value, neglecting valuable insight into the relationships among the objectives in the management problem.

The US Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station funded research to assess community responses to forest disturbance by mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) and public reaction to invasive plants in north central Colorado. In the Spring of2007, 4,027 16-page questionnaires were mailed to randomly selected households with addresses in Breckenridge, Dillon, Frisco, Granby, Kremmling, Silverthorne, Springs Steamboat, Vail, and Walden, Colorado (see map below). After adjusting for 589 undelivered surveys due to incorrect addresses, the 1348 completed surveys yielded an...

Ecological disturbances of forests by insects have a complex array of associated human dimensions presenting complications for natural resource decision making and relationships between stakeholders and managers. This article discusses the human context of forest disturbances by insects by reviewing four cases of bark beetle forest disturbance from British Columbia in Canada, Bavarian Forest National Park in Germany, the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska, and the north central region of Colorado. Findings and lessons learned from these studies are outlined along with their implications for...