Treesearch

Timber salvage on the Indian Burn was carried out without compromising watershed values. In some cases watershed condition was actually improved by providing ground cover, by removing trees that were a source of erosive water droplets, and by breaking up hydrophobic soil layers. Negative impacts of timber salvage on watersheds were minimized by using an interdisciplinary team that identified issues, concerns, and opportunities early, defined specific objectives for each resource, had access to accurate site information, and developed management prescriptions in the context of whole...

Wildfires traditionally have been regarded as a threat to many of the multiple resources produced by forest lands. Timber, fish, recreation, and water are all important forest products that can be adversely affected by wildfires. The greatest threat, however, is to the long-term productivity of the land. Foresters are particularly aware of this threat because the production of their primary crop--trees--is such a long-term endeavor.

Aerial seeding of Italian annual ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) is a common, but controversial, emergency rehabilitation practice following wildfire in California. Replicated study plots, with and without ryegrass, established after a summertime chaparral wildfire on California's central coast revealed the following: 1. Ryegrass-seeded plots developed significantly greater total plant cover than unseeded plots in the first year. 2. Regeneration and growth of native species were significantly depressed in the presence of ryegrass. 3. Soil erosion was significantly greater on ryegrass-seeded...

An emergency survey of the 147,000-acre (59,491 hectare), Stanislaus Complex Burn found that large, continuous, land areas were intensely burned, resulting in strongly hydrophobic soils, with potential to yield catastrophic volumes of flood runoff. The potential cumulative effect of greatly increased runoff efficiency on contiguous watersheds threatened serious downstream flooding, instream damages, and loss of upland site productivity. The interdisciplinary team developed a systematic method to evaluate seeding grass as an emergency watershed treatment. The evaluation used site specific...

Watershed response and recovery from a wildfire which burned 95 percent of the Williams Creek watershed in 1979 were monitored. Ground cover reduced to 11 percent by the fire increased to 80 percent by 1983. Grasses seeded for erosion control provided less than 10 percent cover until 3 years following the fire, and no significant difference in ground cover was found between seeded and unseeded transects. The average area of three channel cross sections on Williams Creek increased by 20 percent 4 years after the fire, but had returned to immediate postfire conditions by 1985. Benthic...

Following extensive, natural wildfires on the Siskiyou National Forest in southwest Oregon during fall 1987, numerous rehabilitation measures were applied to severely burned public and private forest watersheds. Treatments were designed to prevent offsite degradation of water quality and fisheries, to minimize soil erosion and productivity losses, and to prevent offsite damage to life and property. Treatments were concentrated along stream channels and on steeply sloping lands prone to erosion and mass wasting. Treatments included aerial and hand sowing of grass and legume seed, 4,130 ha;...

Wildfire has been for millennia a natural component of our western forested wildlands. Its frequency, severity, and effects have varied depending on the specific environment, the type of fire, and the adaptations of the forest biota to fire. The socio-political environment in which these forests exist has had a much more significant impact on public and private policy towards fire than the physical-biological environment. Although ecological criteria are important in technical planning, they will be overshadowed by socio-political criteria in problem definition and solution for the future.

H. annosum was first discovered as a root pathogen of pine in western United States by E. P. Meinecke in 1909. Other early researchers reported it as a root and butt decay of nonresinous conifers in the west. Olson demonstrated its pathogenicity to western conifers and Wagener and Cave described its occurrence and role in the eastside pine forests. In the last 20 years pathologists have become more aware of H. annosum's role as a root pathogen of true fir. The adverse effects of annosus root disease in the Institute of Forest Genetics and Yosemite National Park have helped to call attention...