Treesearch

A report and critical commentary is presented on the use of small diameter roundwood in building construction in the United States and England. Examples are discussed of roundwood joinery being evaluated at the USDA Forest Service's Forest Products Laboratory, and joinery developed by the British engineering consulting firm Buro Happold, working over 15 years in the development of roundwood use in Europe. Three buildings constructed at Hooke Park in Dorset, England, using small diameter roundwood thinnings as the structural members are profiled, demonstrating the range of applications from...

The Holnam Company currently operates a cement plant north of Laporte, CO. The plant is attempting to use wood as an alternate fuel to coal and natural gas. The principal objective of this project is to investigate the extended use of wood as an alternate fuel at the plant. Tests conducted at Holnam indicate that wood is suitable for use at the plant and Holnam could use up to 350 tons of clean wood wastes and residues per day. A substantial network of wood suppliers, drawing wood from landfills, wood processors, and forests, will be necessary to meet overall plant requirements. Successfull...

The inoculum potential for arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi were investigated in thinned and uncut control stands in a northern Arizona ponderosa pine forest. A corn bioassay was used to determine the relative amount of infective propagules of AM fungi, and a ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) bioassay was used to determine the relative amount of infective propagules of EM fungi. Three stands of each treatment were sampled by collecting soil cores along 10 randomly chosen transects within each stand. The relative amount of infective propagules of AM fungi was...

One of the most prevalent land-use practices in the American Southwest, and one of the most contentious issues among land-use policymakers, is the grazing of domestic livestock. In an effort to contribute scientific understanding to this debate, we have designed experiments comparing the effects of alternative grazing regimes on plant communities. In a semiarid grassland of northern Arizona, we have implemented a replicated study of four treatments: (1) low-intensity, long-duration grazing rotations; (2) high-intensity, short-duration rotations (Holistic Resource Management-style grazing);...

The Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) can be useful indicators of ecosystem change as a result of a disturbance event. We monitored changes in butterfly abundance in two restoration treatment units paired with adjacent untreated forest at the Mt. Trumbull Resource Conservation Area in northern Arizona. Restoration treatments included thinning trees to density levels comparable to densities at the time of Euro-American settlement, and reintroducing a low to medium intensity fire to the system. One unit was treated in 1996, the second in 1998. Butterfly communities, nectar availability,...

Little is known about the response of ectotherms to ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) restoration treatments. The ambient body temperature of an ectotherm affects its physiology, development, and behavior. Microhabitat availability and heterogeneity are critical factors in determining which thermoregulation choices are available to a terrestrial ectotherm (Stevenson 1985). Forest restoration treatments (for example, thinning and burning) will alter herpetofauna microhabitats by decreasing tree canopy cover and allowing more sunlight penetration to the forest floor. This change could,...

Conflicts over changing demands on our increasingly scarce stands of late successional ponderosa pine could be abated by increasing the proportion of stands with late successional attributes in the forest land base. However, we don't know whether these attributes can be developed through the management of younger stands. Nor do we know whether late successional stands can be managed to perpetuate these values through time. To answer these questions, two long-term large-scale studies were begun to study ecosystem responses to a series of silvicultural treatments that include timber harvest...

Compared to presettlement times, many ponderosa pine forests of the United States are now more dense and have greater quantities of fuels. Widespread treatments are needed in these forests to restore ecological integrity and to reduce the risk of uncharacteristically severe fires. Among possible restorative treatments, however, the appropriate balance among cuttings, mechanical fuel treatments, and prescribed fire is often unclear. Resource managers need better information on the effects of alternative practices such as fire and mechanical/manual "fire surrogates." A group of scientists...

The Upper South Platte Basin is a critical watershed in Colorado. Nearly 80 percent of the water used by the 1.5 million Denver metropolitan residents comes from or is transmitted through this river drainage. The Colorado Unified Watershed Assessment identified the Upper South Platte River as a Category 1 watershed in need of restoration. Most of the river basin is located within the Pike National Forest southwest of the city of Denver. The South Platte River is also a major recreation area in Colorado and is highly regarded for its trout fishery. The Upper South Platte Watershed Protection...

Natural resource conflicts have resulted in attempts at better collaboration between public and private sectors. The resulting partnerships approach collaboration either by problem solving through better information and management, or by requiring substantial social change. The Applegate Partnership in Oregon and the Grand Canyon Forest Partnership in Arizona illustrate each approach. These approaches show the formative influences that shape the evolution and activities of a partnership, and show the need for multi-stakeholder participation.