Treesearch

The forest sector-forestry and forest industries-plays an important role in the global climate change debate. The sector influences the global carbon cycle through the sequestration of atmospheric carbon in forests and is in turn influenced by global climate change through its impacts on the rates of forest growth and climate-induced changes in natural disturbances such as fire. Similar to agriculture, the effects of climate variability and change on forests and forest industries were examined in the US National Assessment (Joyce et al., 2001). Climate change may alter the productivity of...

Human settlement and management activities have altered the patterns and processes of forest landscapes across the inland northwest region of the United States (Hessburg et al. 2000C; Hessburg and Agee in press). As a consequence, many attributes of current disturbance regimes (e.g., the frequency, duration, severity, and extent of fires) differ markedly from those of historical regimes, and current wildlife species and habitat distributions are inconsistent with their historical distributions. Just as human-caused changes in ecological processes have led to alterations in landscape...

The Biodiversity Initiative strives to provide innovative solutions to the complex problem of managing forests for biodiversity. Although this initiative is in its beginning stages, an initial scoping meeting has already taken place and planning for the next steps is underway. The initiative is developing plans to conduct extensive scoping efforts in the management, agency and private sectors, and to deliver usable products through publications, workshops and meetings. The Biodiversity Initiative will focus most of its efforts in Oregon and Washington.

Systematic research on growth and yield of Douglas-fir began in 1909. This line of early research evolved over time and culminated in publication of USDA Bulletin 201, The Yield of Douglas-fir in the Pacific Northwest. B201 had an enormous influence on development of Douglas-fir forestry and was arguably the most influential single research publication ever produced in the Pacific Northwest. We review the evolution of this research and some associated topics, and the role of the major personalities involved.

Fresh water is a valuable and essential commodity in the Pacific Northwest States, specifically Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and one provided abundantly by forested watersheds in the region. The maintenance and growth of industrial, municipal, agricultural, and recreational activities in the region are dependent on adequate and sustainable supplies of fresh water from surface and ground-water sources. Future development, especially in the semiarid intermountain area, depends on the conservation and expansion of the region’s water resource. This synthesis reviews the state of our knowledge...

An Aquatic and Riparian Effectiveness Monitoring Plan (AREMP) for the Northwest Forest Plan is intended to characterize the ecological condition of watersheds and aquatic ecosystems. So to determine the effectiveness of the Northwest Forest Plan to meet relevant objectives, this report presents the conceptual foundation of options for use in pilot testing and implementing an effectiveness monitoring program for aquatic and riparian systems. The base program would evaluate status and trends of watershed, stream, and riparian conditions by using decision-support models. Although the focus of...

During the 1990s, forest inventories for California, Oregon, and Washington were conducted by different agencies using different methods. The Pacific Northwest Research Station Forest Inventory and Analysis program recently integrated these inventories into a single database. This document briefly describes potential statistical methods for estimating population totals, means, and associated sampling errors for these inventories. Differences in estimates using past methods for periodic inventories compared to estimates from proposed methods for a new annual inventory system were generally...

In spring 2001 and 2003, sawmill capacity and utilization information was collected directly from 20 producers (usually the largest and most active) in southeast Alaska. The estimated mill capacity in southeast Alaska for calendar year (CY) 2000 was 501,850 thousand board feet (MBF) (log scale) and for CY 2002 was 453,850 MBF (log scale). The actual production by these mills for CY 2000 was 87,117 MBF (log scale) and for CY 2002 was 39,701.6 MBF (log scale).

Past tools for modeling and setting guidelines for snag and down wood management have been based on theory, professional judgment, models of wildlife species use as habitat and empirical data. However, recent studies reveal that guidelines for amounts of snags and down wood on national forests of Washington and Oregon may have been lower than the new field data on use by wildlife. Wildlife studies also show that decayed wood elements consist of more than just snags and down wood and that decayed wood provides habitat and resources for wider array of organisms and beneficial ecological...

Effects of wildfire on water quantity and quality are issues of major concern. Much has been learned from previous research, although site specific data from both before and after wildfire are rare. The Entiat Experimental Forest (EEF) in central Washington State provides such a hydrologic record. In August 1970 a severe wildfire occurred following 10 years of stream gauging as part of a controlled land use experiment. A modified data collection program continued through 1977. Existing data from the EEF are available on the intemet. Data housed at the site include downloadable daily...