Treesearch

Large high-severity fires are increasing in frequency in many parts of the world, including the coniferous forests of the Sierra Nevada mountains. These “megafires” alter vegetation and environmental conditions in forests, yet their impacts on native wildlife remain poorly understood. Bats play an important role in forest ecosystems, but their responses to megafires likewise are understudied. We investigated bat responses to the King Fire, a megafire that burned nearly 40,000 ha within the Eldorado National Forest in 2014, half of it at high severity. From June to September 2017, we used...

Widespread Phytophthorainfections have been discovered in nursery stock used in California restoration plantings. In response, Nursery PhytophthoraBest Management Practices (NPBMPs) designed to exclude Phytophthorafrom nursery plants were developed to address the need for clean planting stock in restoration projects. A pilot program to implement the systematic use of the NPBMPs, Accreditation to Improve Restoration (AIR), was developed and started in 2018. As of 2020, 13 northern California restoration nurseries have been evaluated, and five have met all the program requirements. In 564...

Great Basin bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva D.K. Bailey) is a long-lived subalpine conifer native to the western United States. Bristlecone pine is considered a keystone species of high-elevation Great Basin sky island forests, yet detailed distribution data and information about constraining environmental factors for the species are lacking. We compiled a distribution dataset consisting of 490 individual bristlecone pine forest stands covering nearly 100,000 ha in Utah, Nevada, and California to enable improved monitoring of the species and enhanced understanding of forest succession...

Variations in hillslope soil moisture control forest hydrologic fluxes and storage pools, yet sparse observations combined with the complexity and heterogeneity of water movement and storage in the vadose zone can make temporal and spatial patterns and processes difficult to predict. We used two years of field observations of volumetric soil moisture at three depths (15, 30, and 100 cm) across five topographic positions (riparian, toeslope, sideslope, shoulder, and ridge) along three hillslope transects to better understand how soil moisture changes with hillslope position and through...

This chapter is a review and synthesis of research conducted at Hawai’i Experimental Tropical Forest (HETF) on stream nutrients and biological responses. It is intended to inform national and regional water quality regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawai’i Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR), about existing results of relevant scientific studies that are available at HETF, and to identify future field and synthetic research of potential use to regulatory agencies that might be conducted at HETF.

This chapter is a review and synthesis of research conducted in and adjacent to the San Dimas Experimental Forest (SDEF) on stream nutrients and biological responses to stream nutrients. It is intended to inform national and regional water quality regulatory agencies, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the California Regional Water Quality Control Boards, and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, about existing results of relevant scientific studies that are available at SDEF, and to identify future field and synthetic research of potential use to...

This chapter synthesizes watershed research that is relevant to water quality regulatory agencies from the Bull site of the Kings River Experimental Watersheds (KREW) and the adjacent Teakettle Experimental Forest (TEF). The chapter summarizes results of studies and environmental monitoring at these sites on ecological processes and forest management practices affecting water quality, and identifies priority research needs of regulatory agencies that might be met by future work.

This chapter is a review and synthesis of research conducted at the Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds (CCEW) on stream nutrients and their responses to forest management. Results from relevant scientific studies conducted at CCEW are provided, as well as a description of future potential research. This information is relevant to water quality regulatory agencies.

North America’s Mediterranean climate zone (NAMCZ) includes most of California, southwestern Oregon, a slice of western Nevada, and northwestern Baja California, Mexico. Climatically, the world’s Mediterranean climate regions are unique because the wet season is concurrent with the cold season, and the warm, dry season is akin to an annual drought of 3–7 months. Most of the NAMCZ receives sufficient precipitation in the winter and early spring to produce a crop of fuel just in time for the hot, dry summer. Vegetation in the NAMCZ is among the most fire-prone and fire-shaped on the continent...

In this Pule Ho‘oulu(prayer for inspiration), we are calling ourselves and you, the reader, to embrace growth and perpetuation of life’s many sacred manifestations, to honour the guardians of our places and the sources of our knowledge, and affirm the profound responsibility that is conservation management. This chant initiates the process of kuahu, an altar of Native Hawaiian spiritual practice within Hālau ‘Ōhi‘a, a ritual-based stewardship program in Hawai‘i led by Kumu(master teacher, a primary holder and source of knowledge for the community) Kekuhi Kealiikanakaoleohaililani. This...