Treesearch

Global warming: Is it real or not? Ron Neilson, PNW Research Station bioclimatologist, has been studying the phenomena for about 25 years. He also is the lead author on one of three models in the world designed to track climate-driven vegetation change patterns on the planet.Neilson's findings, featured in this issue of "Science Findings," may be able to assist land managers to prepare for global warming impacts. Neilson and his colleagues developed a model called the mapped atmosphere-plant-soil system (MAPSS).The MAPSS model can simulate changes in vegetation distribution and runoff...

This issue of "Science Findings" focuses on remote sensing research and how it can be used to assess a landscape. The work of PNW Research Station scientists Tom Spies and Warren Cohen and their use of satellite technology in developing the coastal landscape analysis and modeling study (CLAMS) is featured. The CLAMS study area includes more than 5 million acres in Oregon extending from the Pacific Ocean to the Willamette Valley fringe. Field and satellite data are combined to produce a picture of current vegetation and other resources in the Oregon Coast Range. The data are then used to...

Commercial, recreational, and subsistence harvesting of chanterelle mushrooms in Washington's Olympic Peninsula has long been an issue for managers and harvesters alike. What guidelines should be used to manage nontimber products?Is there concern about possible increased commercial harvesting? Pacific Northwest Research Station scientist Leon Liegel and botanist David Pilz initiated a study to help public and private forest land owners interested in cooperative management of the chanterelle resource. Liegel's and Pilz' study offer insights into who is harvesting and possible guidelines to...

What lessons does historical disturbance hold for the management of future landscapes? Fred Swanson, a researcher at the Pacific Northwest Research Station and John Cissel, research liaison for the Willamette NF, are members of a team of scientists and land managers who are examining the way we think about and manage landscapes. The team found that past ecosystem processes are an important reference point for guiding the design of timber sales, fire prescriptions, cutting rotations, and aquatic conservation strategies. Complex disturbance regimes result in highly complex forest structure...

Grazing and how it impacts the landscape is a concern for public and private land managers. This issue of "Science Findings" examines the issue of cattle and grazing and provides some background, perspective, and research results on various grazing systems. Researchers Jim McIver, of the Forest Service's Blue Mountains Natural Resources Institute, and Mike McInnis, of Oregon State University, share their findings.Work by collaborators at the University of Idaho and Oregon State University show that the presence of water, salt, and upland forage can attract cattle away from riparian areas...

Twenty years after publication of a report on wildlife habitat in managed east-side forests, Pacific Northwest Research Station scientists Evelyn Bull, Catherine Parks, and Torolf Torgersen, are updating that report and discovering that the current direction for providing wildlife habitat on public forest lands does not reflect findings from research since 1979. More snags and dead wood structures are required for foraging, denning, nesting, and roosting that previously thought. In this issue of Science Findings, Bull, Parks, and Torgersen, share their latest findings, which include the...

Adaptive management. What is it and how can it help us learn? Bernard Bormann, a PNW Research Station scientist, is leading a study on the subject. He defines the term this way: the management of complex natural systems by building on common sense and learning from experience. Experience can often mean change. The challenge of implementing adaptive management is how to adapt to constant change--in society and in the ecosystem. The learning process is often not fast enough, however, to deal with quickly emerging land management issues. Bormann proposes that management produce knowledge...

This issue of "Science Findings" focuses on ecologist Mary Willson's research in Alaska that has revealed anadromous fish to be "cornerstone species." A cornerstone species provides a resource base to support much of an ecosystem. Anadromous fish, in this case, have been found support much of the Pacific coastal ecosystem. Key findings of Willson's team research are that the productivity of freshwater and riparian ecosystems is fueled by marine-derived nutrient subsidies from anadromous fishes. Many wildlife species depend seasonally on anadromous fish runs. In some cases predator species'...

Ecosystem function—the internal dynamics of a forest—is now recognized as a crucial component to forest health and biological diversity.Pacific Northwest Research Station scientist Andy Carey and others propose that the presence of small critters can be a measure of a forest's health. His research also shows that thinning, rather than legacy retention, produces higher quality trees for timber and plant diversity.Carey's findings suggest that concurrent management of decadence, stand structure, and plant species composition is required for ecosystem management. High-quality wood may result...

Variation in belowground traits of herbaceous species may influence their ability to persist and spread during and after the closed-canopy period of forest development. In 40- to 60-year-old closed-canopy, coniferous forests of the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, we excavated root and rhizome systems of 11 herbaceous species to compare morphology, vegetative spread, and proportion of biomass in belowground structures. All species were perennial and most were rhizomatous; four species were nonclonal. Of the seven clonal species, only two (Maianthemum dilatatum and Oxalis oregana) spread...