Treesearch

California has experienced increasing frequency and intensity of wildfire, with the five largest fires on record since 2018. Over the same period, licensed cannabis production has grown to a high-grossing industry, while remaining an important source of rural livelihood. Importantly, the geography of cannabis production overlaps with high fire hazard areas more than any other crop in the state. We developed and deployed a state-wide survey of licensed outdoor producers to determine direct and indirect impacts of wildfire, as well as how producers have responded to these threats. Quantitativ...

The non-material benefits obtained through interaction with nature are known as cultural services. We employed an online survey to value cultural services provided by the Fanjing Mountain National Nature Reserve, China. The valuation combined a stated-preference approach with online deliberation, where participants considered and discussed the services through typing in chat groups. The services perceived by most participants, in descending order, were spiritual experiences, recreation, aesthetic appreciation, education, and scientific value. In two hypothetical scenarios, where participant...

Forest thinning and prescribed fire are expected to improve the climate resilience and water security of forests in the western U.S., but few studies have directly modeled the hydrological effects of multi-decadal landscape-scale forest disturbance. By updating a distributed process-based hydrological model (DHSVM) with vegetation maps from a distributed forest ecosystem model (LANDIS-II), we simulate the water resource impacts of forest management scenarios targeting partial or full restoration of the pre-colonial disturbance return interval in the central Sierra Nevada mountains. In a...

Fog inundation along California's Coast Range creates microclimates that support coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens(D. Don) Endl.) forests during the summer drought period. With changes in land use and climate, the coast redwood ecosystem is more susceptible to increased drought stress. Thus, understanding the role of fog in relieving drought stress is important to manage the remaining coast redwood forests. Fog presence, other climatic conditions, soil moisture, and sap flow were monitored at the Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds in northwestern California over the 2020, 2021, and...

This research note describes the development of a pre-assessment survey of urban Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) youth participating in the Outward Bound Adventures (OBA) Environmental Studies Expeditions (ESE) program. The objective of the pre-assessment was to understand their baseline perceptions of nature and their experiences with the outdoors within their cultural context, as well as to inform the pre-and post-surveys that would be used to measure the benefits of OBA’s ESE program by focusing on participants’ understanding of nature, self-improvement, and the effect of...

Advance preparation for wildfire is essential for safe evacuation, and fire weather warnings can alert people to times of high fire danger when additional actions are recommended. However, little is known about the level of preparation of most wildland-urban interface (WUI) community residents, and potential influences on them carrying out preparatory actions. This study assessed the personal preparation undertaken by residents of California, United States, communities, including understanding of and response to fire weather warnings issued by the National Weather Service. We used a...

Mortality risk is a critical and complex component of individual fitness and individual-based ecology, especially when risk-avoidance behaviors are considered. Organisms are subject to multiple kinds of risk that can vary with habitat, time, individual state, individual activity and behavior, and population status. Yet risk is often represented very simply in models and there is little literature on practical ways to model its variation. In our experience, desirable characteristics of risk models include: (a) survival probability can vary with multiple variables of individuals, habitat,...

Stream-dwelling salmonids in the low-latitude and -altitude margins of their range are particularly threatened by climate change. However, they possess a variety of evolutionary, plastic, and behavioural mechanisms that provide resistance against rapid changes in their environment. Behavioural plasticity can be important under rapid environmental change because it is relatively fast and flexible. In particular, salmonids can exhibit flexible diel activity patterns in response to new environmental conditions, but the consequences of this capability for long-term population persistence in...

Wildfire activity in the western U.S. has highlighted the importance of effective management to address this growing threat. The Lookout Mountain Thinning and Fuels Reduction Study (LMS) is an operational-scale, long-term study of the effects of forest restoration and fuel reduction treatments in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.) and mixed-conifer forests in central Oregon, U.S. The broad objectives of the LMS are to examine the effectiveness and longevity of treatments on wildfire risk and to assess the collateral effects. Treatments include four levels of overstory...

Disturbance plays a critical role in the ecology of forests including influencing the abundance and diversity of fauna. Although numerous studies have focused on forest responses to various disturbance events, less attention has been given to arthropod community responses. California experienced an extreme, multi-year drought from 2012 to 2015 which severely stressed trees and incited epidemics of several bark beetle species (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae). Water stress and bark beetles contributed to a significant mortality event of hundreds of millions of trees in the central and...