Treesearch

The use of water increasingly involves complex tradeoffs among biophysical, economic, ecological, and societal values. Knowledge about the value of water to different users and methods with which to evaluate biophysical, economic, ecological, and social tradeoffs associated with allocating limited water resources among competing uses is vital to devising appropriate and effective water resource policies. A review and synthesis of water resource economics research can contribute to a foundation on which to plan and conduct interdisciplinary research evaluating tradeoffs regarding water. It...

Dead wood is a crucial component of healthy, biologically diverse forests. Yet basic information about the distribution and characteristics of snags and down trees in forest of the Pacific Northwest is lacking. Such information is needed to assess wildlife habitat, carbon stores, fuel conditions, and site productivity. Current guidelines for dead wood management are based on limited or dated scientific data.A recent study by the Pacific Northwest Research Station delved into existing resource inventories to create new information estimating density, volume, and percentage cover for dead...

Wildfire was a natural part of ecosystems in east-side Oregon and Washington before the 20th century. The fire regimes, or characteristic patterns of fire—how often, how hot, how big, what time of year—helped create and maintain various types of forests.Forests are dynamic, and fire interacts with other ecological processes. Fires, forests, and their interactions are closely studied by scientists from the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station and their partners.Over the past century, land use and land management practices changed fire regimes in east-side...

Based on data from various sources, this report describes the extent and nature of recreation and tourism in south-central Alaska. Current activities, past trends, and prospective developments are presented. Particular attention is given to activities that occur on, or are directly affected by management of, the Chugach National Forest. Recreation and tourism in and around the forest are also placed in a larger context. The Chugach National Forest is heavily used as a scenic resource by motorists and waterborne passengers; road access to the forest supports recreation activities such as...

Northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus) in the USA Pacific Northwest are keystone species that disseminate the spores of ectomycorrhizal fungi symbiotic with Pinaceae and that are preyed upon by a variety of vertebrate predators. Substantial research has shown that these squirrels tend to be most abundant in naturally regenerated forests >100 years old (old growth and younger mixed-age forest with legacies from old growth), whereas abundance in second-growth forests is highly variable and often quite low. Flying squirrels vary in life history attributes from north to south, including...

A workshop was held to address specific questions related to altered rangeland ecosystems within the interior Columbia basin. Focus was primarily on public lands administered by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Altered ecosystems were considered to be those where human induced or natural disturbances are of sufficient magnitude to affect ecosystem processes, causing long-term loss or displacement of native community types and loss of productivity, making it difficult or impossible to restore these ecosystems to historical conditions. Seventeen rangeland potential vegetation...

The Wood Compatibility Initiative (WCI) addresses options that may increase the compatibility between wood production and other societal values derived from forestlands. The set of 25 papers included in this proceedings presents the summaries of WCI-related research, compiled from a workshop held December 4-7th 2001 at the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington. The workshop proceedings papers are grouped into six general topics: 1) workshop keynote papers, 2) aquatic related studies, 3) issues relating to scale, 4) silviculture studies, 5) nontimber forest products related research, and...

Wood volume recovery, lumber grade yield, and mechanical properties of young-growth Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) and western hemlock (Tsuga heterophyla (Raf.) Sarg.)were examined. The sample included trees from commercially thinned and unthinned stands and fluted western hemlock logs obtained from a sort yard. Mean cubic recovery of lumber volume from all sawn logs was 44.9 percent. More than 90 percent of the lumber was graded as No. 2 or better; about 5 percent was Clear (C-Select or D-Select),and about 10 percent was Select Structural. No differences in volume recovery...

The cotton genus (Gossypium) includes approximately 50 species distributed in arid to semi-arid regions of the tropic and subtropics. Included are four species that have independently been domesticated for their fiber, two each in Africa–Asia and the Americas. Gossypium species exhibit extraordinary morphological variation, ranging from herbaceous perennials to small trees with a diverse array of reproductive and vegetative characteristics. A parallel level of cytogenetic and genomic diversity has arisen during the global radiation of the genus, leading to the evolution of eight groups of...

Provides historical information on log harvest; employment in the forest industries; international trade in logs, lumber, and chips; and volume and average prices of sawtimber stumpage sold by national forests.