Treesearch

An assessment was done of the lumber drying industry in Alaska. Part 1 of the assessment included an evaluation of kiln capacity, kiln type, and species dried, by geographic region of the state. Part 2 of the assessment considered the value-added potential associated with lumber drying. Various costs related to lumber drying were evaluated in an Excel spreadsheet. About 2.2 million board feet of lumber per year is currently being dried in Alaska, over 90 percent of which is softwoods. Total installed kiln capacity is about 94 thousand board feet. On a board-foot basis, lumber drying...

This atlas illustrates the spatial and temporal dimensions of social and economic changes in the social-economic assessment region in the decade since 1987/1988. Maps, interpretive text, and accompanying tables and graphs portray conditions, trends, and changes in selected social, economic, and natural resource-related indicators for the 26 counties of the diverse region during a period of particularly rapid and intense demographic, social, and economic change. This information about the people, communities, and resources of the region serves as a tool for natural resource planners and...

The concept of sustainability in the context of forest management holds a different meaning to almost every group that espouses it. Many of these differences arise because of the varying goals and objectives of those who promote the idea of sustainable forest management. When discussing this topic, the question of "sustainable of what" must be answered before reaching a common understanding of goals and objectives. In general, a sustainable approach to forest management uses innovative strategies to conserve biodiversity, improve the balance among alternative forest values, and maintain...

Economists and ecologists are often asked to collaborate on landscape-level analyses designed to jointly assess economic and ecological conditions resulting from environmental policy scenarios. This trend toward multidisciplinary projects, coupled with the growing use of geographic information systems, has led to the development policy scenarios. This trend toward multi-disciplinary projects, coupled with the growing use of geographic information systems, has led to the development spatially explicit models that can be used to examine and project land-use change. Although spatial land-use...

Realistic logging cost models are needed for long-term forest management planning. Data from numerous published studies were combined to estimate the costs of harvesting small trees in natural stands in the Interior Northwest of North America. Six harvesting systems were modeled. Four address gentle terrain: manual log-length, manual whole-tree, mechanized whole-tree, and mechanized cut-to-length systems. Two cable systems were included for steeper terrain: manual log-length and mechanized cut-to-length systems. A stand-alone program incorporating all the relationships is available.

Evidence for success of passive and active restoration is presented for interior conifer forest, sagebrush steppe, and riparian ecosystems, with a focus on the Columbia River basin. Passive restoration, defined as removal of the stresses that cause degradation, may be most appropriate for higher elevation forests, low-order riparian ecosystems, and for sagebrush steppe communities that are only slightly impaired. More active approaches, in which management techniques such as planting, weeding, burning, and thinning are applied, have been successful in forests with excessive fuels and in...

More than 300 vertebrate species are associated with western forests of Oregon and Washington (Table 1). Western and montane conifer-hardwood forests and oak woodlands are some of the more species-rich areas within the two states. Both the productivity and the mosaic of conditions within western forests contribute to the higher vertebrate diversity. These forests are exceeded in richness only by habitats encompassed by riparian wetlands urban, and agriculture and pasture designations Interestingly, these are habitats that either border or are found nested within western forests. A high...

This report presents historical trends and future projections of forest, agricultural, and urban and other land uses for the South-Central United States. A land use share model is used to investigate the relation between the areas of land in alternative uses and economic and demographic factors influencing land use decisions. Two different versions of the empirical model are estimated, depending on the stumpage price series used to calculate net returns from forest land: model 1 uses sawtimber prices and model 2 uses pulpwood price series. This leads to two sets of land use projections. We...

The first volume of the Cerrado photo series is a collection of sites that represent a range of physiognomic forms of the Cerrado in central Brazil including campo limpo, campo sujo, cerrado ralo, cerrado sensu stricto, and cerrado denso. Sites include wide-angle and stereo pair photographs supplemented with information on living and dead fuels, and vegetation structure and composition. The Cerrado photo series provides a basis for appraising and describing woody material, vegetation, and stand conditions in many areas across central Brazil.

Survival rates, causes of mortality, and reproduction in the American marten (Martes americana) were determined in northeastern Oregon from 1994 until 1997 with radiocollared martens. The probability of survival of martens ≥9 mo old was 0.55 for 1 yr, 0.37 for 2 yr, 0.22 for 3 yr, and 0.15 for 4 yr. The mean annual probability of survival was 0.63 for 4 yr. Twenty-two of 35 radiocollared martens died. Of the 18 martens killed by predators, 8 were killed by bobcats (Lynx rufus), 4 by raptors, 4 by martens, and 2 by coyotes (Canis latrans), based on necropsies and circumstantial evidence at...