Treesearch

Despite growing interest in restoring and managing oak woodlands and savannas, few silvicultural guidelines and tools are available, particularly for evaluating or adjusting woodland or savanna stand density and overall structure. Gingrich’s Stocking Guide has been used for managing oak-hickory forests for several decades, but important density thresholds are intended for use in forests where maintaining full growing space occupancy is the goal during thinning.

Montane and subalpine forests in the Northern Rocky Mountains produce wood fiber for products, store water in the snowpack, sequester carbon, and provide wildlife habitat, including for threatened Canada lynx and their primary prey, the snowshoe hare. Use of precommercial thinning (PCT) in potential lynx habitat is restricted on federal lands due to short-term reduction of forage and hiding cover for hares. However, dense young forests are slow to develop multiple canopy layers (fig. 1) - habitat preferred by hares and lynx - yet silvicultural thinning can accelerate development of...

Timber management in Sitka spruce / western hemlock temperate rainforests is increasingly focused on secondary even-aged stands that re-established after primary forest removal during the 20th century. After clear-cut harvest, abundant natural regeneration fosters rapid stand initiation forming dense, close canopy forests. Understory vegetation declines rapidly after canopy closure and is nearly absent during the prolonged stem exclusion phase of stand development. Productive understory vegetation is important for wildlife habitat and subsistence food resources across the ecoregion....

Increasing wildfire area burned and accelerated timber harvest have amplified the need for post-disturbance reforestation; this need has outpaced current capacity. Resource managers would use tools for identifying and prioritizing potential planting sites. A web-based decision support system was developed (DSS) to provide spatial information on potential for natural regeneration in post-disturbance environments. Users can select burn severity information using 1-year postfire data (Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity), or for recent disturbance events using either Rapid Assessment of...

Santalum species, including the endemic Hawaiian ‘iliahi (Santalum paniculatum), are ecologically distinct as evergreen, hemiparasitic trees. Being hemiparasitic means ‘iliahi can photosynthesize yet require suitable hosts for resource acquisition and longterm survival. Degradation of native tropical dry forests and the unsustainable removal of native tree species has resulted in ʻiliahi and other trees, including potential hosts to ʻiliahi, having greatly reduced populations and distributions.

In recent years, Idaho Panhandle National Forests’ employees have noted sites with limited reforestation success, as well as ecotones with evidence of plant shifts or longer-term disclimax following disturbance. I propose that we evaluate some of these sites and similar intact communities to identify plant species that may help us predict where such sites occur.

For centuries, western white pine (Pinus monticola) dominated moist forests of the northern Rocky Mountains. The fast-growing species, which can reach heights of 150 feet, was once an economic driver in the region. However, not much of the former forest remains. A combination of blister rust, beetles, and logging severely reduced the range of white pine during the 20th century.

Acres needing stand improvement, except for 2009, have consistently remained above 2.0 million acres per year from 2010 through 2019 (fig. 1a). Most of the acres consist of precommercial thinning (70%) followed by release (26%) with only a small portion of acres needing pruning and/or fertilization (4%). However, the proportion (an average of 11.7%) of acres treated are much smaller when compared to the acres that need treatment (fig. 1a, dark line). This is causing a critical imbalance concerning stand tending that is inconsistent with statutory direction contained in the National Forest...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service’s National Reforestation, Nursery, and Genetics Resources (RNGR) Program is conducted by a team of specialists (referred to as the “RiNGeR Team”) that provides regional and national technical assistance to nursery, reforestation, restoration, and seed professionals. The Forest Service National Seed Laboratory (NSL), a Tribal nursery emphasis, and research projects are also key components of the RNGR Program. RNGR Team members are geographically dispersed and attuned to both regional and national needs.

Hot, dry climates are a menace to seedling establishment in naturally and artificially regenerated forests alike. These tough outplanting conditions are problematic because a seedling’s limited mass dictates reserves of energy (sugars or starch), water, and nutrients. Furthermore, in order to establish itself, risky investments in growth must precede any leap in a seedling’s ability to acquire new resources (i.e., increases in light interception for photosynthesis or soil exploration for water and nutrient uptake). With new climate normals indicating hotter and dryer growing seasons...