Treesearch

The photoload technique provides a quick and accurate means of estimating the loadings of six wildland fuel components including 1 hr, 10 hr, 100 hr, and 1,000 hr downed dead woody, shrub, and herbaceous fuels. It involves visually comparing fuel loading conditions observed in the field with a set of photographed sequences to estimate fuel loadings; the photo sequences are a series of downward-looking oblique photographs depicting a series of graduated fuel loadings of synthetic fuelbeds for each of the six fuel components. The photoload technique has been implemented into multiple...

The density of mesquite (Prosopis spp.) and other woody species has increased on desert and semidesert grasslands in the southwestern United States. This increase in woody species has been associated with the decline of native herbaceous plants and a loss of biological diversity and productivity. There have been numerous attempts to reverse this situation. The effort reported here employed crushing the woody species with heavy equipment, with and without seeding native perennial grasses, and the use of prescribed fire. The treatments were not expected to kill the woody species but to...

This assessment provides information on the current conditions of riparian and groundwater-dependent ecosystems on the Dixie and Fishlake National Forests. We summarized dominant riparian community types and described riparian fish and wildlife habitat. We used peer-reviewed literature, data from the Forests and other partners, and site visits to inventory and map the distribution of riparian and groundwater-dependent ecosystems, as well as to evaluate the status of four key ecosystem characteristics: (1) surface water and groundwater fluctuations, (2) water quality, (3) channel and...

Wildfires in dry forest ecosystems in western North America are producing fire effects that are more severe than historical estimates, raising concerns about the resilience of these landscapes to contemporary disturbances. Despite increasing fire activity, relatively little is known about the structure and composition of fire refugia - unburned or low‐severity burned patches where trees survived fire - or the degree to which their understory composition differs from fire‐generated early‐seral forests. Locations: Four recent large fires in dry mixed‐conifer forest in eastern Oregon, USA.

Wilderness areas offer value to society as a source of scientific information. We used fire perimeter records from the upper South Fork Flathead River watershed (Montana) to characterize the area burned one or more times during three periods: the pre-fire exclusion period (1889-1934), the fire exclusion period (1935-1980), and the fire management period (1981-2017). We also quantified the effects of a recent reburn on forest structure and fuels using a before-after-control-impact study design. Total area burned and area burned multiple times depended strongly on time period. The active...

With many degraded environments undergoing restoration efforts, there is a growing need for the optimization of direct seeding practices. Seeds planted on wildlands are often consumed by rodents, leading to reduced plant establishment. Coating seeds in rodent aversive products may prevent seed-predation. We tested 10 seed-coating formulations containing products expected to deter rodents, namely: ghost and cayenne pepper powders; essential oils from bergamot, neem, and pine; methyl-nonylketone, anthraquinone, activated carbon, beta-cyclodextrin, and a blank coating containing no rodent...

Monitoring elusive, relatively low-density, large predators, such as the grey wolf (Canis lupus), has often been accomplished by live-capture and radiocollaring. Increasingly, non-invasive methods are considered best practice whenever it is possible to use them. Recently, environmental DNA (eDNA) deposited in snow tracks was demonstrated as useful for identifying lynx (Lynx canadensis), fisher (Pekania pennanti), wolverine (Gulo gulo), sika deer (Cervus nippon), red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and the Japanese marten (Martes melampus) to species level using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers. We...

Restoration guidelines increasingly recognize the importance of genetic attributes in translocating native plant materials (NPMs). However, when species-specific genetic information is unavailable, seed transfer guidelines use climate-informed seed transfer zones (CSTZs) as an approximation. While CSTZs may improve how NPMs are developed and/or matched to restoration sites, they overlook genetic factors that can diminish restoration success and/or deteriorate natural patterns of genetic diversity and environmental factors thatmay introduce unexpected variation. Here, we analyze molecular...

1. Despite broad recognition that water is a major limiting factor in arid ecosystems, we lack an empirical understanding of how this resource is shared and distributed among neighbouring plants. Intraspecific variability can further contribute to this variation via divergent life-history traits, including root architecture. We investigated these questions in the shrub Artemisia tridentata and hypothesized that the ability to access and utilize surface water varies among subspecies and cytotypes. 2. We used an isotope tracer to quantify below-ground zone of influence in A. tridentata, and...

Bayesian population models can be exceedingly slow due, in part, to the choice to simulate discrete latent states. Here, we discuss an alternative approach to discrete latent states, marginalization, that forms the basis of maximum likelihood population models and is much faster. Our manuscript has two goals: (1) to introduce readers unfamiliar with marginalization to the concept and provide worked examples and (2) to address topics associated with marginalization that have not been previously synthesized and are relevant to both Bayesian and maximum likelihood models. We begin by explainin...