Treesearch

This study is the first in a series of studies to evaluate perceptions of USDA Forest Service law enforcement personnel of the roles, responsibilities, and issues entailed in their jobs. An email survey was administered to 404 law enforcement officers (LEOs) in national forests across the United States. In all, 294 were completed and returned. In response to the safety of forest visitors many respondents believed that forest visitors are safe from other visitors and are physically safe from site features. The LEOs reported feeling hampered in their jobs, however, by the large size and...

The point at which fish use ends represents a key ecological and regulatory demarcation on state and private forest land in the Redwood region. Currently, the end of fish use and other key demarcations with stream classification are measured or estimated based on judgments of Registered Professional Foresters and aquatic biologists with little guidance from empirical study of the issue in this region. This study establishes a standard protocol for the detection of the end of fish use in streams, which reduces the effort required to produce quality data. During electrofishing the maximum...

Current threats to North American forests increasingly include exotic tree pathogens that cause extensive mortality. In California, tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus) mortality has increased rapidly since 1995, due to Phytophthora ramorum, believed to be an introduced pathogen. Tanoak frequently grows as a major component of redwood forests along the northern California coast. This research examined the response of residual trees (primarily neighboring tanoak and redwood) to the decline of tanoak clumps. Redwood/tanoak forests currently infected with the pathogen and utilized in this study...

Phytophthora ramorum attacks tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflorus) in California and Oregon. We present a stand-level study examining the presence of disease symptoms in individual stems. Working with data from four plots in redwood (Sequoia sempervirens)/tanoak forests in Marin County, and three plots in Mendocino County, California, we evaluated a number of stem variables such as dbh, height, crown class, foliar condition and the presence of insect, fungal infection or disease symptoms for significance in multiple logistic regression analysis. We built a maximal model of variables and...

The response of well-stocked second-growth coastal redwood stands to three levels of commercial thinning is reported after 29 years of growth. Commercial thinning treatments left 25 percent, 50 percent, 75 percent and 100 percent (uncut control) of the original basal area (400 ft2 per acre) in a 40-year old stand on the Jackson Demonstration State Forest. Stand values are given for basal area, number of trees, average diameter, and cubic foot volume and board foot volume per acre for the pre-treatment stand and five post-treatment inventory dates from 1970 to 1999. There were significant...

Tree removal associated with clearcutting in a coastal redwood forest does not alone initiate numerous shallow landslides that deliver large quantities of sediment to watercourses. landslide inventory focused on the relationship between vegetation removal in predominantly second-growth redwood forest and shallow landslides. Deep-seated dormant landslide features were mapped to record if reactivation had occurred within clearcuts. field-based inventory included mapping all fifty clearcut units and characterizing landslides by type, cause, age, sediment delivery and stream classification....

We tested four topographic models for predicting locations of debris-slide sources: 1) slope; 2) proximity to stream; 3) SHALSTAB with "standard" parameters; and 4) debris-slide-prone landforms, which delineates areas similar to "inner gorge" and "headwall swale" using experience-based rules. These approaches were compared in three diverse study areas of northwestern California having multiple inventories of historical non-road-related debris slides in a variety of topographic settings. We implemented the models in a GIS using USGS 10-m digital elevation models (DEMs). The topographic...

Sediment contributions from unpaved forest roads have contributed to the degradation of anadromous fisheries streams in the Pacific Northwest. Efforts to reduce this degradation have included road decommissioning and road upgrading. These expensive activities have usually been implemented on a site specific basis without considering the sediment contributions from all roads within a watershed. This paper describes results from optimization models developed for determining road removal management plans within a watershed. These models consider the tradeoffs between the cost and effectiveness...

The South Fork Noyo River (SFNR) watershed in coastal northern California contains large volumes of historic sediment that were delivered to channels in response to past logging operations. This sediment presently is stored beneath historic terraces and in present-day channels. We conducted geomorphic mapping on the SFNR valley floor to assess the volume and location of sediment associated with pre-historic terraces, historic terraces, and the active channel along four 1-mi-long stream reaches. Additionally, we established ten streamflow and suspended sediment sampling locations to monitor...

The redwood region of California has experienced a number of major land use changes over the past one hundred and fifty years. A review of recent economic trends in the redwood region suggests the emergence of three new themes. First, it appears that the transition from an old growth to a young growth redwood industry is essentially complete. Lower revenues and relatively high operating costs may reduce landowner’s interest to maintain large areas of expensive real estate in sustainable forest products based operations. A continued decline in the timber-based economy will probably not be...