Treesearch

This classification of riparian and wetland plant communities in the Shoshone National Forest was a cooperative project between the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database (WYNDD) of The Nature Conservancy and the Shoshone National Forest. This project identifies groups of plant species that commonly occur together in particular environmental settings. Each such group of species, or plant community type, is identified by the structure of the vegetation and by the species contributing the most canopy cover. The classification identifies physiognomic types based on the amounts of trees, tall...

Forest regeneration in the Allegheny Plateau Region of Pennsylvania is a continual challenge due to an overabundance of white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman) and the resulting density of interfering plants on the forest floor. Guidelines developed to establish regeneration on the Allegheny National Forest rely on the silvical characteristics of black cherry (Prunus serotina Ehrh.). Following these guidelines increased the regeneration success at the stand level, but led to less desirable outcomes at the Forest-level scale. Allegheny National Forest managers undertook a...

Understanding and inventorying our ecological systems is key to addressing how issues, questions, and management actions will affect the composition, structure, and function of these systems. Taking an ecological systems approach to the inventory and monitoring framework, is one which we feel will allow answers to currently identified management questions and new ones as they develop. More efficient ways to delineate polygons and a more credible method to attribute the polygons from a sample design are needed. Small area estimation such as the k-nearest neighbor or most similar neighbor,...

The value of environmental variables as measures of site quality for individual tree growth models was determined for 12 common species of eastern hardwoods in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Periodic diameter increment was modeled as a function of size, competition and environmental variables for 1,381 trees in even-aged stands of mixed-species. Resulting species models explained from 46 to 78 percent of total variation in diameter increment, of which environment accounted for 3 to 17 percent of the total explained. In similar model formulations where site index replaced environmental...

Changing public values have led to federal land management direction like the Northwest Forest Plan with major land allocations for late successional forest habitat. Restoration silviculture is a tool for maintaining optimum habitat despite risk of catastrophic disturbance due to the combined impact of fire, insects and disease. The Gotchen Late Successional Reserve (LSR) in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest provides an example of the issues of southern Washington Cascades LSR management. The Landscape Management System is a computer model applied to the planning for the Gotchen LSR area...

Relationships between the development of desired conditions based on today’s social values, and an understanding of the historic range of variability (HRV) are key to the implementation of ecosystem management. Relevant to the discussion are wildlife habitat values, forage production, economics related to wood resources, aesthetics and visual quality, changes in predicted and actual fire intensity especially within the urban interface. Potential risks to air quality, and risks associated with changes in insect and pathogen activities, and significant degradation of soil and aquatic...

In 1998, personnel with the Northeastern Research Station and the Monongahela National Forest initiated a comprehensive survey of even-age stands that regenerated between 1964 and 1990. Preliminary results indicate that clearcutting was successful in regenerating these young stands with a variety of woody and herbaceous plant species. Early cleanings using crop-tree management techniques and control of wild grapevines (Vitis sp.) are recommended to enhance the development of desirable tree species that meet specific management objectives. Ecological classification appears to be useful in...

Forest Service land managers, with the collaborative assistance from research, applied a disturbance based restoration strategy to rehabilitate a greatly-altered, high risk Northern Rocky Mountain old-forest ponderosa pine-Douglas-fir stand. Age-class structure and fire history for the site have been documented in two research papers (Arno and others 1995, 1997). Silvicultural treatments using stocking reduction through a normal timber sale offering and prescribed fire to simulate disturbance processes, were used to restore a semblance of historical vegetative conditions. These actions...

Plant diversity, density, and development data from an extensive research program in conifer plantations in northern California suggest changes in plant community composition after site preparation and many kinds of release. Based on 17 studies, the average number of species per study area after 10 years was 25 with composition of 1 conifer, 1 hardwood, 8 shrubs, 12 forbs, and 3 graminoids. Species ranged from 13 to 46. Density, foliar cover, and height varied by treatment and type of vegetation present. Density in a mixed shrub community, for example, ranged from 902 to 18,168 plants/acre...

Northern Rocky Mountain landscape patterns are shaped primarily by fire and succession, and conversely, these vegetation patterns influence burning patterns and plant colonization processes. Historical range and variability (HRV) of landscape pattern can be quantified from three sources: (1) historical chronosequences, (2) spatial series, and (3) simulated chronosequences. The last two sources were used to compute HRV for this study. Spatial series were characterized from aerial photographs of 10 similar landscapes on the Bitterroot National Forest, Montana. The LANDSUM model was used to...