Treesearch

Conversion of rural lands to urban and other built-up uses affects the mix of commodities and services produced from the global land base. In the United States, there was a 34% increase in the amount of land devoted to urban and built-up uses between 1982 and 1997. This increase came predominantly from the conversion of croplands and forestland, with the largest increases in deveIoped area happening in the southern region of the country. In an analysis of drivers influencing developed land uses in the US. we found results that were consistent with hypothesized relationships, including...

The effects of roads on both habitat and population responses of elk (Cervus elaphus) have been of keen interest to foresters and ungulate biologists for the last half century. Increased timber harvest in national forests, beginning in the 1960s, led to a proliferation of road networks in forested ecosystems inhabited by elk (Hieb 1976, Lyon and Christensen 2002). Among disturbances to elk habitat, roads have been viewed as a major factor influencing distributions of elk across the landscape (Leege 1984, Lyon 1984, Lyon et al. 1985, Roloff 1998, Lyon and Christensen 2002, Wertz et al....

This report is a summary of timber resource statistics for eastern Oregon, which includes Baker, Crook, Deschutes, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wasco, and Wheeler Counties. Data were collected as part of a statewide multiresource inventory. The inventory sampled all private and public lands except those administered by the National Forest System. The National Forest System provided area statistics from their regional inventories of the various forests. Statistical tables summarize all ownerships and provide estimates...

Wildfires represent one of the most common disturbances in boreal regions, and have the potential to reduce C, N, and Hg stocks in soils while contributing to atmospheric emissions. Organic soil layers of the forest floor were sampled before and after the FROSTFIRE experimental burn in interior Alaska, and were analyzed for bulk density, major and trace elements, and organic compounds. Concentrations of carbon, nutrients, and several major and trace elements were significantly altered by the burn. Emissions of C, N, and Hg, estimated from chemical mass balance equations using Fe, Al, and...

This document is a report on work carried out to update the LTER Network Data Access Policy. The current LTER Network Data Access Policy, approved by the coordinating committee in 1997, has been in use since 1990. An analysis of the current policies related to the release, access, and use of LTER data has been undertaken by a sub-committee of the LTER Network Information System Advisory Committee with the goal of standardizing policies across the network. Recommendations for revising LTER Network data policies, especially with respect to those defining requirements for access to LTER data...

The Wind River Experimental Forest, known as the cradle of forest research in the Pacific Northwest, is a major center for ecological and silvicultural research in west-side Pacific Northwest forests. In the state of Washington, Wind River Experimental Forest is in the south-central area of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, north of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. The experimental forest is about a 1.5-hour drive east of Vancouver, Washington, on the Mount Adams Ranger District. It is administered cooperatively by the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station...

Genetic resource management has historically called for altering the genetic structure of plant populations through selection for traits of interest such as rapid growth. Although this is still a principal component of tree breeding programs in the Pacific Northwest, managing genetic resources now also brings a clear focus on retaining a broad diversity within and among genetic populations. Genetic diversity, after all, allows species to adapt to the ever-changing environmental and biological stresses they experience through time, and provides the material for new traits of interest. Wise...

Prior to 1994, the pileated woodpecker was a management indicator species (MIS) of mature and old-growth forest conditions on 16 of 19 national forests in the Pacific Northwest Region. This status required each of those national forests to establish pileated woodpecker habitat areas that included tracts of mature and old-growth forest with minimum densities of large, hard snags for nesting and foraging. The Northwest Forest Plan removed special management provisions for MIS because it was believed that late-successional reserves and new standards and guidelines for green-tree and snag...

Forest management throughout the world is producing simplified forests. There is growing concern that these forests maintain neither complete vertebrate communities nor conditions favorable to maintenance of genetic diversity of those vertebrate populations that do find habitat in simply structured stands. Genetics is increasingly being used as a basis for management recommendations, yet few field data exist to support these recommendations. To test the effectiveness of management alternatives in providing and maintaining healthy, resilient ecosystems, carefully selected species like...

Wild harvest of nontimber forest products (NTFP) contributes to an international commercial trade in plant material—thought to be thousands of tons of raw product valued at billions of dollars. From 1991 through 1998, international trade in pharmaceutical plants alone was valued at over $1 billion, with the United States second only to China in value of export (United Nations Statistics Division, New York). Perceptions of economic opportunity and plentiful resources have encouraged people to collect wild plants with relatively little inventory, monitoring, or effective oversight. When...