Treesearch

The most active period of timber harvesting in the history of Alaska's interior occurred nearly a century ago (Roessler 1997). The beginning of this era was the year 1869, when steam-powered, stern-wheeled riverboats first operated on the Yukon River (Robe 1943). Gold was discovered in Alaska in the 40-Mile River area in 1886, a find that was overshadowed 10 years later by the discovery of gold in the Klondike, Yukon Territory. By 1898, Dawson City, Yukon Territory, was reported to have 12 sawmills producing a total of 12 million board feet of lumber annually (Naske and Slotnick 1987).

Nontimber forest products from southern Alaska (also called special forest products) have been used for millennia as resources vital to the livelihoods and culture of Alaska Natives and, more recently, as subsistence resources for the welfare of all citizens. Many of these products are now being sold, and Alaskans seek additional income opportunities through sustainable harvest and manufacture of such forest resources. We discuss the unique legal, regulatory, land tenure, geographic, vegetation, and climatic context that southern Alaska presents for marketing nontimber forest products;...

The objective of this study was to dynamically simulate the response of vegetation distribution, carbon, and fire to three scenarios of future climate change for California using the MAPSS-CENTURY (MCI) dynamic general vegetation model. Under all three scenarios, Alpine/Subalpine Forest cover declined with increased growing season length and warmth, and increases in the productivity of evergreen hardwoods with increased temperature led to the displacement of Evergreen Conifer Forest by Mixed Evergreen Forest. The simulated responses to changes in precipitation were complex, involving not...

Federal land management agencies in the United States are increasingly relying on contract crews as opposed to agency fire crews. Despite this increasing reliance on contractors, there have been no studies to determine what the optimal mix of contract and agency fire crews should be. A mathematical model is presented to address this question and is applied to a case study from the Pacific Northwest. Results show that the optimal number of agency crews is sensitive to assumptions about fire season severity and the availability of alternative work for agency crews on nonsuppression days.

Interest in mixed red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.)—conifer young-growth stands has grown in southeast Alaska, USA, because they appear to provide much more productive understory vegetation and wildlife habitat than do similar-aged pure conifer stands. We studied understory vegetation in nine even-aged young-growth stands (38-42 years old) comprising a gradient of red alder—conifer overstory composition, with red alder ranging from 0% to 86% of stand basal area. Conifers were Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.), western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.), and western...

We compared annual basal area increment (BAI) at different spatial scales among all size classes and species at diverse locations in the wet western and dry northeastern Olympic Mountains. Weak growth correlations at small spatial scales (average R = 0.084-0.406) suggest that trees are responding to local growth conditions. However, significant positive growth correlations between geographically adjacent forest types (R = 0.440-0.852) and between watersheds (R = 0.430) indicate that there is a common overarching growth-limiting factor (e.g., climate) that affects tree growth over large...

The Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) was listed as threatened in 1992, primarily because of loss of its old-forest nesting habitat. Monitoring conducted over the first 10 years following implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan shows at-sea murrelet populations appear to be stationary, but recruitment is very low and demographic models project a 4-6% annual rate of decline. Monitoring of nesting habitat indicated there were about 1.6 million ha of higher-suitability nesting habitat on all lands at the start of the plan, about half of which occurred on federal lands. Most...

Modern technology makes it easy to show how forested landscapes might change with time but it remains difficult to estimate how sampling error affects landscape simulation results. To address this problem we used two methods to project the area in late-sera1 forest (LSF) structure for the same 6070 hectare (ha) study site over 30 years. The site was stratified into patches by using aerial photos and data were collected on sample plots within the stratum. Our two methods differed in how the initial forest conditions in unsampled patches were attributed. Using method 1, we randomly assigned...

Phylogeographic and population genetic screens of chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) provide insights into seedbased gene flow in angiosperms, yet studies are frequently hampered by the low mutation rate of this genome. Detection methods for intraspecific variation can be either direct (DNA sequencing) or indirect (PCR-RFLP), although no single method incorporates the best features of both approaches. We show that screening universal chloroplast amplicons for length polymorphism provides an accurate and efficient method for identifying cpDNA variation. By sequencing 4500 bp of cpDNA from 17 accessions...

Effective policies for management of rare and little-known species (RLKS) must be not only scientifically valid and cost-effective but also consistent with prevailing social beliefs and values. Limited public awareness of RLKS, however; constrains efforts to frame such policies. Lacking public support, resistance to RLKS programs is likely, particularly when other uses and values are affected. The challenge lies in understanding how public judgments are formed, sustained, and altered. Although the lack of public support often is attributed to inadequate understanding of the scientific...