Treesearch

A project in western Washington tries to mimic natural disturbance to create forest structure similar to late-seral stages. A model was developed to identify pathways to achieve this structure with four indices: capacity to support vertebrate diversity, forest floor function, ecological productivity based on tree-using rodents, and production of deer and elk.The study found that maximizing biodiversity through intentional forest management reached the goal of old-forest habitat more quickly than other timber-fiber strategies, and it produced significant economic benefit."If we can conserve...

In a unique effort to compare and contrast differing views on future supply and demand for wood, a study found that demand for wood will increase, but there is no evidence of a crisis at the world scale. Opportunities to increase wood production, however, are limited and trade-offs among competing uses of forests are inevitable. A complex of factors determine supply and demand including population growth, increasing income, prices of wood raw material, technological change, institutions and policies, and the nature of ownership and rights to use land.The study displayed the future under...

The information we bring to the table is usually complex. The April issue of Science Findings illustrates this complexity. Scientific inquiry about an individual species and its habitat requires modeling, assumptions, and time. Uncertainty remains after studies are done. Once policy is made, implementation continues to build new understanding, which may present implications not considered in the original policy.Hindsight vision is 20/20 because all the facts are in. Scientific data can not offer 20/20 vision of the future. But despite its imperfections, it offers a powerful look at what...

A financial analysis of a smallscale Gmelina arborea improvement program in Hojancha, Guanacaste Province, Costa Rica is described. The program consisted of a clonal seed orchard, made up of ramets of plustrees, and three progeny tests/seedling seed orchards. A 5% discount rate was used. The total discounted/compounded cost of the program was US$25423. The analysis demonstrated that this outlay would be justified at annual planting rates of between 31 ha per year (at 20% genetic gain in volume) to 125 ha per year (at 5% genetic gain) over the 20year life of the orchard. These results...

Guidelines in the form of a six-step approach are provided for estimating volumes, oven-dry mass, consumption, and particulate matter emissions for piled logging debris. Seven stylized pile shapes and their associated geometric volume formulae are used to estimate gross pile volumes. The gross volumes are then reduced to net wood volume by applying an appropriate wood-to-pile volume packing ratio. Next, the oven-dry mass of the pile is determined by using the wood density, or a weighted-average of two wood densities, for any of 14 tree species commonly piled and burned in the Western...

Site fidelity and maintenance of home ranges are common in fishes (e.g., Stephens et al., 1970; Robertson and Sheldon, 1979; Hixon, 1981), especially for intertidal species for which the ability to navigate to a safe region of an environment that periodically drains of water may be adaptive (e.g., Gibson 1967, 1969, 1982). For intertidal fishes in the northeast Pacific region, homing capabilities have been described in the cottids Clinocottus analis (Richkus, 1978), C. globiceps (Green, 1973), Oligocottus maculosus (Green, 1971; Khoo, 1974; Craik, 1981), and Oligocottus snyderi (Williams,...

Karst topography is a unique and distinct landscape and its geology may have important implications for salmon productivity in streams. The relationship between salmonid communities and water chemistry and the influence of habitat was examined in a set of streams on north Prince of Wales Island, southeast Alaska. Streams in karst landscapes showed higher alkalinities (1,500-2,300 µeq/L) than streams not influenced by karst landscapes (750-770 µeq/L). A significant, positive relationship was observed between alkalinity and density of coho salmon parr Oncorhynchus kitsutch. Backwater pools...

Recent flooding in the Pacific Northwest vividly illustrates the complexity of watershed and ecosystem responses to floods, especially in steep forest landscapes. Flooding involves a sequence of interactions that begins with climatic drivers. These drivers, generally rain and snowmelt, interact with landscape conditions, such as vegetation pattern and topography, to determine the capability of a watershed to deliver water, sediment, and organic material to downstream areas (Figure 1). Land-use practices can affect watershed responses to flooding through the influences of managed vegetation...

The purpose of this project was to assess market opportunities for second growth clearwood lumber by identifying industry segments that currently utilize clearwood lumber and determining whether alternative markets will continue to exist for clearwood lumber produced from intensively managed forests in the Pacific Northwest. A survey of industrial lumber remanufacturers was conducted in 1995 to identify: 1) those industry segments that currently utilize clearwood lumber as a raw material input for their manufacturing process; and 2) those clearwood lumber attributes that are perceived to...

Mortality between 1991 and 1995 destroyed a levels-of-growing-stock study installed in four widely separated blocks in the Deschutes and Fremont National Forests in Oregon. Mortality at one block was attributed to root rot (Armillaria ostoyea (Romagnesi) Herink) and western spruce budworm (Choristoneura occidentalis Freeman). Mortality at the other blocks was due to fir engraver beetles (Scolytus ventralis LeConte). Stand densities under investigation were low.