Treesearch

Biodiversity has at last become a familiar term outside of scientific circles. Ways of measuring it and mapping it are advancing and becoming more complex, but ways of deciding how to conserve it remain mixed at best, and the resources available to manage dimishing biodiversity are themselves scarce. One significant problem is that policy decisions are frequently at the local scale, where as biodiversity mapping is more often at the regional or national scale. Building on gap analysis techniques, one hierarchical, objective approach to conserving biodiversity is based on prioritizing sets...

Twentieth century fire patterns were analyzed for two large, disparate wilderness areas in the Rocky Mountains. Spatial and temporal patterns of fires were represented as GIS-based digital fire atlases compiled from archival Forest Service data. We find that spatial and temporal fire patterns are related to landscape features and changes in land use. The rate and extent of burning are interpreted in the context of changing fire management strategies in each wilderness area. This research provides contextual information to guide fire management in these (and similar) areas in the future and...

Bioregional assessments to deal with critical, even crisis, natural resource issues have emerged as important meeting grounds of science, management, and policy across the United States. They are placing heavy demands on science, scientists, and science organizations to compile, synthesize, and produce data, for policy decisions. There is no blueprint for their conduct, but lessons from past experience can help stakeholders—Forest Service scientists, Research Station, land managers, policymakers, and the public—to proceed productively in future assessment.

A concern among land managers is land use. Who is using the land? What is it being used for? Is the amount of farm and forest land lost to development really increasing? Research forester and economist Jeff Kline and research forester Ralph Alig at the PNW Research Station are conducting studies to answer questions about land development in western Oregon and Washington.A key finding of that research includes the projections of land use through 2050 indicate an increase in urban lands of 31.5 percent in western Oregon and 34.4 percent in western Washington. Potential reduction in the area...

Many elk populations in the Northwest are declining (20 to 40 percent or more). Why? Nobody really knows. But the situation calls for a more explicit understanding of the influence of habitat management on elk herd demography and productivity. John Cook and Larry Irwin, scientists with the National Council of the Paper Industry for Air and Stream Improvement; Larry Bryant and Jack Ward Thomas, scientists formerly with the PNW Research Station; and Bob Riggs, wildlife biologist with Boise Cascade Corporation, conducted a 4-year study in the Blue Mountains of northeast Oregon to clarify elk...

Although the dwarf mistletoes (Arceuthobium spp., Viscaceae) are widespread and common parasites of Pinaceae in the United States and Mexico, only five species are known from Central America: Arceuthobium aureum ssp. aureum, A. globosum ssp. grandicaule, A. guatemalense, A. hawksworthii and A. hondurense. Some of these taxa are considered to be among the rarest dwarf mistletoes in the Western Hemisphere. Another species, A. nigrum, has been reported from western Guatemala and Chiapas. As discussed below, we now have morphological and molecular evidence that show a close relationship...

A multiperiod, regional, mathematical programming economic model is used to evaluate the potential economic impacts of global climatic change on the US forest sector. A wide range of scenarios for the biological response of forests to climate change are developed, ranging from small to large changes in forest growth rates. These scenarios are simulated in the economic forest sector model and results are summarized in response functions that may be used instead of rerunning the model as improved or altered biological response scenarios arise. The response functions are used to characterize...

This paper reviews recent studies that have addressed how US timber markets may adapt to climate change, and how US forests could be used to mitigate potential climate change. The studies are discussed in light of the ecological and economic assumptions used to estimate adaptation. Estimates of both economic impacts and carbon sequestration costs depend heavily on the assumptions and methods used, although some general conclusions can be drawn. Studies of economic impacts suggest that average market effects in the United States may range from +$1.3 to +7.4 billion per year by the middle of...

A model of the U.S. forestry and agricultural sectors is used to simulate the consequences of growing short-rotation woody crops on agricultural lands as a fiber source for pulp and paper production. Hybrid poplar, a short-rotation woody crop, annually produces 4 to 7 dry tons per acre of hardwood pulpwood over a 6- to 10-year rotation. When harvested, the material competes with pulpwood from traditional forests. The model- estimated optimal acreage varies from 1.5 to 2.8 million acres, less than 1 percent of cultivated U.S. cropland and less than 1 percent of U.S. existing timberland....

Provides current information on lumber and plywood production and prices; employment in the forest industries; international trade in logs, lumber, and plywood; volume and average prices of stumpage sold by public agencies; and other related items. View an updated online version of this publication with downloadable excel files athttps://www.fs.usda.gov/pnw/ppet/.