Treesearch

This recovery plan is one of several plant disease-specific documents produced as part of the National Plant Disease Recovery System (NPDRS) requested by the Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number 9 (HSPD-9). The purpose of the NPDRS is to ensure that the tools, infrastructure, communication networks, and capacity required for mitigating impacts of high-consequence plant disease outbreaks are implemented so that a reasonable level of crop production is maintained.Each plant disease-specific plan is intended to provide a brief summary of the disease, assess the status of critical...

Outdoor recreation is a type of recreation that occurs in, and depends on, the natural environment. Ecosystem services are the benefits people receive from ecosystems. The outdoor recreation research (ORR) field has developed a detailed understanding of the recreation experience but has not developed a full understanding of the contribution of the natural environment to those experiences. Recreation Ecosystem Services (RES) is a newer area of research that highlights the contribution of the natural environment for recreation. The integration of these lines of research can improve our...

The red turpentine beetle (Dendroctonus valens) is native to North America and attacks stressed, dying, or recently dead pine trees, especially fire-injured ponderosa pine. State and federal agencies use baited traps to detect, monitor, and manage populations of native and nonnative insect species. Trapping efforts are labor intensive, and the lures themselves can be relatively expensive, so it’s important to use effective lures.Researchers Rick Kelsey and Doug Westlind, with the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, have finetuned a more effective lure recipe to trap red...

The Southwest Oregon Adaptation Partnership (SWOAP) is a science-management partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (U.S. Forest Service)—Rogue River-Siskiyou and Umpqua National Forests, Pacific Northwest and Rocky Mountain Research Stations, and Pacific Northwest Region; U.S. Department of the Interior—Bureau of Land Management Medford and Roseburg Districts, and National Park Service Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve; and University of Washington. This science-management partnership assessed the vulnerability of natural resources to climate change...

Ponds play a larger role in the global freshwater methane (CH4) budget than predicted from surface area alone. To improve our understanding of pond CH4 dynamics, we measured summer CH4 production, concentrations, and emissions to the atmosphere in nine Alaskan wetland ponds along with potential physical, chemical, and biological regulators. Pond CH4 production (0.64, 0.086–1.3 mmol m-2 d-1; median, interquartile range), as assessed with slurry incubations, was positively related to water-column temperature and chlorophyll a (Chl a), negatively influenced by oxygen levels, and varied with...

Research suggests that social cohesion partially mediates the health benefits of being exposed to the natural environment. However, past studies have relied on self-reported measures of social cohesion that have well documented limitations. Therefore, we evaluate the impact of tree planting on social cohesion using voter turnout data as an objective metric of social cohesion. Our study area is the 141 Census tracts in Multnomah County, Oregon that fall within (>50% area) the City of Portland. We used biennial primary and general-election turnout data from 2002 to 2020, and tree-planting...

The University of Colorado Airborne Solar Occultation Flux (CU AirSOF) instrument conducted the first suborbital carbon monoxide (CO) mass flux measurements on the scale of large wildfires, showing that the destructive fires in northern California in October 2017 emitted 2,040 ± 316 tonnes CO hr−1. Pyrogenic estimates from seven satellite-based emission inventories bracket the observed flux, but their range spans a factor of 83. The simulated air quality impacts in the form of ozone and fine particulate matter scale primarily with these uncertain emission amounts, and range from insignifica...

The Great American Outdoors Act (AGOA) fully and permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the first time since it was created in 1964. This is a boon for purchasing conservation lands, but equally important, the act provides funding to address massive federal agency recreation infrastructure backlogs. The last major overhaul of the U.S. parks and outdoor recreation system was over 50 years ago, during the era of Mission 66 and related programs. Since that time, a host of environmental and societal changes necessitates new approaches for updating conservation and recreation...

Riparian-management zones protect aquatic species and their habitats in managed forests, yet the effects of riparian-management alternatives warrant further study. We examined effects of alternative riparian-buffer widths on fish and amphibians in small headwater streams with upland forest thinning in western Oregon, USA. Previously, we reported apparent lag-time effects developing 10 years after thinning of upland second-growth forest, and additional effects 1–2 years after a second-thinning harvest. Here, we analyze effects on fish and amphibian abundances, body-size metrics, and...

Recovery of ecosystem properties following removal of invasive plants likely varies with characteristics of the plant and the relative soil quality at a given site. These factors may influence the occurrence of soil legacies and secondary invasions, hindering the effectiveness of restoration strategies. We assessed the potential for ecosystem recovery following removal of N-fixing Scotch broom for 4 years at two sites that contrasted strongly in soil quality in western Washington and Oregon, USA. Comparisons were made among plots, where Scotch broom was never present (uninvaded), retained,...