Treesearch

An approach to community-based forestry (CBF) on federal forestlands in the western United States consists of a number of informal civil society institutions for communities to better organize internally and interact with government. We review the body of research on this topic, which has an explicit focus on the three interlinked aspects of democratic governance practiced to provide community benefits and ecological sustainability. We situate its prominent concepts and themes relative to the global literature on CBF, and initiate new conversation about what CBF may mean within the context...

In conservation paradigms, management actions for umbrella species also benefit co‐occurring species because of overlapping ranges and similar habitat associations. The greater sage‐grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) is an umbrella species because it occurs across vast sagebrush ecosystems of western North America and is the recipient of extensive habitat conservation and restoration efforts that might benefit sympatric species. Biologists' understanding of how non‐target species might benefit from sage‐grouse conservation is, however, limited. Reptiles, in particular, are of interest in...

After a more than a century of fighting to keep fire out of forests, reintroducing it is now an important management goal. Yet changes over the past century have left prescribed burning with a big job to do. Development, wildfire suppression, rising global temperatures, extended droughts, exotic species invasions, and longer fire seasons add complexity to using this practice.Managers must consider how often, how intensely, and what time of year to burn; for insights they often look to how and when fires burned historically. However, attempting to mimic historical wildfires that burned in...

Exotic grasses are a widespread set of invasive species that are notable for their ability to significantly alter key aspects of ecosystem function. Understanding the role and importance of these invaders in forested landscapes has been limited but is now rising, as grasses from Eurasia and Africa continue to spread through ecosystems of the Americas, Australia, and many Pacific islands, where they threaten biodiversity and alter various aspects of the fire regime. The ecological, social and economic impacts of the grass-fire cycle associated with species such as cheatgrass (Bromus...

From 2007 through 2017, Oregon implemented an incentive program for biomass collection and production. This research evaluates renewable biomass production and deliveries during a 3-year period (2012 to 2014) in which this tax credit was in place. We evaluated total delivered tons, average payments per load, delivered location, and average transportation distance of woody biomass. We found that total delivered tons of biomass decreased each year between 2012 and 2014, as did the number of users participating in the tax credit program. The average delivered tons, by participant, was more...

Forests are considered a natural solution for mitigating climate change because they absorb and store atmospheric carbon. With Alaska boasting 129 million acres of forest, this state can play a crucial role as a carbon sink for the United States. Until recently, the volume of carbon stored in Alaska’s forests was unknown, as was their future carbon sequestration capacity.In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act that directed the Department of the Interior to assess the stock and flow of carbon in all the lands and waters of the United States. In 2012, a team...

Monitoring vegetation phenology is important for managers at several scales. Across decades, changes in the timing, pattern, and duration of significant life cycle events for plant groups can foreshadow shifts in species assemblages that can affect ecosystem services. In the shorter term, managers need phenological information to time activities such as grazing, ecological restoration plantings, biocontrol of pests, seed collection, and wildlife monitoring. However, tools to deliver timely seasonal development have been limited either spatially (data from a single tower or weather station,...

A recent expansion in wood energy use at schools in Alaska has resulted in more than a dozen wood energy systems in operation. However, few have been evaluated for fuel efficiency and pollution impacts, both of which can be examined via combustion gas analysis. In this research, we monitored the wood energy system at a public school during winter heating conditions. Wood energy parameters were sampled on three occasions during early, mid, and late winter in northern Alaska. Combustion gas was sampled for a range of parameters that indicated boiler performance, including gas emmissions of...

This report highlights key findings from 2013 data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program across all forested land on Guam, updating findings from data collected in 2002 that were published in Resource Bulletin PNW-RB-243. We summarize and interpret basic resource information such as estimates of forest area, stem volume, biomass, number of trees, damages to trees, and tree size distribution, as well as overstory and understory vegetation cover and information on invasive plant species presence and cover. Detailed tables and...

For decades, federal, state, and nonprofit organizations have been working to restore freshwater habitat for Oregon coastal coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), a species listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. Much of the restoration, however, has been done without directly considering the availability and connectivity of seasonally important freshwater habitats. Research by Rebecca Flitcroft, a research fish biologist with the U.S. Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, and colleagues reveals that connectivity among different types of freshwater habitat...