Treesearch

Variable density thinning (VDT) post-treatment monitoring is challenging and potentially costly because resulting stand structure is not well characterized by small area plots used in forestry. Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) offer a potential solution for efficient VDT monitoring via rapid survey and subsequent generation of a stem map. In this study we used a UAS to survey and estimate spatial dispersion and stand structure (e.g., basal area, trees per acre, and quadratic mean diameter) in untreated and VDTtreated stands. Results showed evidence of increased clustering in the treated...

The USDA Forest Service has been developing an ecosystem services framework to highlight forest values provided by public lands and to build partnerships with stakeholders to implement projects. In addition to describing ecosystem services provided by forest landscapes, this framework examines the potential tradeoffs among services associated with proposed management activities. This paper briefly describes results ranging from national programs to forest plan assessments to project scale applications that enhance the provision of ecosystem services and sustainable forest management at...

This panel discussion focused broadly on the forest industry sector and how forest management and research on public lands is important to the forest industry sector. Panel members provided different perspectives from the forest industry sector and highlighted some key market topics for the forest industry. The panel addressed opportunities and challenges that the USDA Forest Service will face to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration while providing forest products for the forest industry sector. The panel discussed four themes including: (1) forest market updates and wood...

Ecosystem services are recognized as a way of framing and describing the broad suite of benefits that people receive from forests. The USDA Forest Service has been exploring use of an ecosystem services framework to describe forest values provided by public lands and to attract and build partnerships with stakeholders to implement projects. In addition to describing ecosystem services provided by forest landscapes, this framework examines the potential tradeoffs among services associated with proposed management activities, while attracting and building partnerships with stakeholders who...

We conducted snorkel surveys for juvenile salmonids in reaches of the Entiat River, Washington, treated with engineered logjams and in reaches without treatments to determine if observations at a habitat unit scale can identify whether restoration has increased the habitat capacity of a reach. The conceptual basis and field methodology emphasize fish density data (fish/habitat area in m2) from unrestored habitat within a reach treated with engineered logjams compared with surveys in (1) unrestored habitat in untreated reaches and (2) restored habitat in treated reaches. A Bayesian generaliz...

Climate change is shifting both the habitat suitability and the timing of critical biological events, such as flowering and fruiting, for plant species across the globe. Here, we ask how both the distribution and phenology of three food-producing shrubs native to northwestern North America might shift as the climate changes. To address this question, we compared gridded climate data with species location data to identify climate variables that best predicted the current bioclimatic niches of beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta), Oregon grape (Mahonia aquifolium), and salal (Gaultheria...

Removal of stumps and suppression of sprouts after harvesting by conventional methods, such as using heavy machinery or herbicides, alters the physico-chemical characteristics of soil, may cause environmental damage and can be very costly. In this study, the performance of inoculation with edible fungi as a biological alternative for stump degradation, has been examined in walnut plantations of five Spanish provinces. Stumps were inoculated with two species of edible fungi: Pleurotus ostreatus (Jacq. Ex Fr.) P. Kumm and Lentinula edodes (Berk) Pené. Compared with untreated controls, the...

Warming in arctic and boreal regions is increasing shrub cover and biomass. In southcentral Alaska, willow (Salix spp.) and alder (Alnus spp.) shrubs grow taller than many tree species and account for a substantial proportion of aboveground biomass, yet they are not individually measured as part of the operational Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program. The goal of this research was to test methods for landscape-scale mapping of tall shrub biomass in upper montane and subalpine environments using FIA-type plot measurements (n = 51) and predictor variables from imagery-based structure-f...

Aim: Communities with many species at their climatic niche limits may be vulnerable to species losses, suggesting that niche‐based measures can inform vulnerability assessments. We aimed to quantify spatial variation in community‐level vulnerability indices based on niche limits, not just central tendencies, to predict where climate changes will produce rapid, pronounced shifts in ecological communities. Location: North America. Taxon: Epiphytic lichenized fungi. Methods: We integrated broad‐extent herbarium data (46,343 North American sites, for estimation of realized niches) with...

There is growing interest in using Digital Aerial Photogrammetry (DAP) for forestry applications. However, the performance of pushbroom DAP relative to frame-based DAP and airborne lidar is not well documented. Interest in DAP stems largely from its low cost relative to lidar. Studies have demonstrated that frame-based DAP generally performs slightly poorer than lidar, but still provides good value due to its reduced cost. In the USA pushbroom imagery can be dramatically less expensive than frame-camera imagery in part because of a nationwide collection program. There is an immediate need...