Treesearch

An interagency project demonstrated the feasibility of integrating Federal surveys of terrestrial natural resources and offers a vision for that integration. At locations selected from forest inventory and analysis, National forest system Region 6, and national resources inventory surveys in a six-county area in Northern Oregon, experienced teams interpreted and made measurements on aerial photographs and measured on-site a range of soil, vegetation and animal attributes. The project demonstrated the feasibility of conducting a combined FIA/NFS/NRI survey at the substate level and suggests...

The continuous geomorphologic changes in the Middle Rio Grande in New Mexico have been of interest for many governmental agencies involved with the management and operation of this river system. Due to sedimentation problems along this river, highly developed plans for sediment detention and flood control have been carried out. Cochiti Dam was built as a part of these plans to control floodflows and induce degradation along the main stem.

The papers contained in Volume I of these Proceedings were originally scheduled for presentation at the Sixth World Wilderness Congress in Bangalore, India, in 1997. Due to a delay of the Congress until 1998, these 27 papers were compiled for publication prior to presentation. Volumes I and II contain papers covering seven topics: protected area systems: challenges, solutions, and changes; opportunities and challenges of wilderness as a basis for sustainable development; understanding and protecting biodiversity; human values and meanings of wilderness; wilderness for personal growth;...

This overview of peatland ecology and conservation on National Forests in the Northern Rocky Mountains describes physical components, vegetation, vascular and nonvascular flora, and invertebrate fauna on peatlands. Detailed site descriptions for 58 peatlands in Idaho, Montana, and northeastern Washington are included.

Three contrasting thinning treatments to reduce fire hazard were implemented in a 100-year-old ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir (Pinus ponderosa/Pseudotsuga menzesii) stand on the Lolo National Forest, MT. All treatments included a commercial thinning designed to reduce crown fuels and provide revenue to offset costs. The treatments are outlined as follows: 1. Minimum impact: light commercial thinning from below, with slash hand-piled and burned. 2. Revenue production: moderate commercial thinning from above, whole-tree harvest. 3. Forest restoration: moderate commercial thinning from below,...

Fuel and vegetation spatial data layers required by the spatially explicit fire growth model FARSITE were developed for all lands in and around the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area in Idaho and Montana. Satellite imagery and terrain modeling were used to create the three base vegetation spatial data layers of potential vegetation, cover type, and structural stage. Fire behavior fuel models and crown characteristics were assigned to combinations of base layer categories on these maps by local fire managers, ecologists, and existing data. FARSITE fuels maps are used to simulate growth of...

This paper documents the use of double sampling for Forest Inventory and Analysis (Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture) inventories in the Interior West. Results show 18 equations describe the entire inventory summarization process for estimating population totals and means, and respective variances. Most equations are for standard use of double sampling, but equations are also given for a ratio method and a special method for data defined by county and land ownership. Inventory data from 800,000 ha of forest land in southern Idaho are used to illustrate application of several...

Land-cover maps are used in numerous natural resource applications to describe the spatial distribution and pattern of land-cover, to estimate areal extent of various cover classes, or as input into habitat suitability models, land-cover change analyses, hydrological models, and risk analyses. Accuracy assessment quantifies data quality so that map users may evaluate the utility of a thematic map for their intended applications. Despite the widespread acceptance of accuracy assessment and the numerous articles published on this topic, the basic structures of a statistically rigorous...

Transitions from grassland to shrubland through woody plant encroachment result in potentially significant shifts in savanna ecosystem function. Given high resolution imagery, a textural index could prove useful for mapping woody plant densities and monitoring woody plant encroachment across savanna landscapes. Spatial heterogeneity introduced through mixtures of herbaceous and woody plants challenges quantitative assessments of changing woody plant density using remotely sensed imagery. Moreover, woody plant encroachment occurs across decadal time scales, restricting remote sensing...

Bulgaria's forest ecosystems (31 percent of the country's area) are considered vulnerable to dry and wet pollution deposition. Coniferous forests that cover one-third of the total forest land are particularly sensitive to pollution loads. The USDA Forest Service, Sofia University, and the Bulgarian Forest Research Institute (FRI) established a cooperative program to study a Rila Mountain forest ecosystem site, its climatology, air quality, surrounding watershed, hydrology, and soil characteristics. The cooperative program was initiated in September 1991 by upgrading an existing climatology...