Treesearch

The spruce beetle, Dendroctonus rufipennis, can cause extensive mortality of Engelmann spruce, Picea engelmannii, during outbreaks. Endemic populations breed in the underside of downed spruces. Outbreaks often develop after blowdowns that create abundant downed trees where beetle populations can increase. Occasionally, managers practice suppression to protect high-value resources. Although not common, lethal trap trees have been used to suppress populations by attracting beetles to insecticide-treated felled trees with the aim of killing the beetles yet little data is available on their...

Clifford A. Myers conceived the ponderosa pine growing stock levels (GSL) study in 1961 and completed installation of the study in 1963 in western South Dakota on the Black Hills Experimental Forest (BHEF). The GSL concept was intended to help plan, implement, and illustrate tree thinning strategies (from below) in even-aged stands. A GSL is the suggested tree density (i.e., trees and basal area per acre) based on d.b.h. that can be tended to produce a desired basal area per acre (e.g., 80, 100, 120 square feet) when the mean d.b.h. is 10 inches. Plots representing GSLs 20, 40, 60, 80,...

This assessment was conducted to provide information on the current conditions of riparian, wetland, and groundwater-dependent ecosystems in reference to their natural range of variation on the Salmon-Challis National Forest during forest plan revision. We used peer-reviewed literature, data from the Forest and other partners, and site visits to evaluate the status of eight key ecosystem characteristics: (1) distribution and connectivity of riparian ecosystems, (2) distribution of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, (3) surface water and groundwater fluctuations, (4) water quality, (5)...

Before the advent of intensive forest management and fire suppression, western North American forests exhibited a naturally occurring resistance and resilience to wildfires and other disturbances. Resilience, which encompasses resistance, reflects the amount of disruption an ecosystem can withstand before its structure or organization qualitatively shift to a different basin of attraction. In fire-maintained forests, resilience to disturbance events arose primarily from vegetation pattern-disturbance process interactions at several levels of organization. Using evidence from 15 ecoregions,...

Background: Below-ground bud banks have experienced much recent interest due to discoveries that they (1) account for the majority of seasonal population renewal in many communities, (2) are crucial to regeneration following disturbance, and (3) have important consequences for plant population dynamics and plant and ecosystem function across a number of habitats. Scope: This review presents an overview of the role of bud banks in plant population renewal, examines bud bank life history, summarizes bud bank traits and their potential ecological implications, synthesizes the response of bud...

The US Endangered Species Act has enabled species conservation but has differentially impacted fire management and rare bird conservation in the southern and western US. In the South, prescribed fire and restoration-based forest thinning are commonly used to conserve the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis; RCW), whereas in the West, land managers continue to suppress fire across the diverse habitats of the northern, Californian, and Mexican spotted owls (Strix occidentalis subspecies; SO). Although the habitat needs of the RCW and SO are not identical, substantial...

Sublimation is an important hydrological flux in cold, snow‐dominated ecosystems. In high‐elevation spruce‐fir forests of western North America, spruce beetle outbreaks have killed trees, reduced the canopy, and altered processes that control sublimation. We evaluated two hypotheses related to effects of disturbance on sublimation in this ecosystem: (1) the dominant source for sublimation is canopy intercepted snow and (2) the loss of canopy following a beetle disturbance leads to less total sublimation. To incorporate uncertainty hierarchically across multiple data sources and address...

Aquatic invasive species are recognized as a global threat to conservation of native species and a cost to society. To develop effective suppression and monitoring programs for invasive species, fisheries managers require accurate, affordable, and efficient tools for invasive species detection. In the U.S. Pacific Northwest, the rapid expansion of invasive Esox lucius (northern pike) poses threats to native species as well as the viability of tribal, sport, and commercial fisheries. To help monitor changes in the distribution of this species, we developed and rigorously field‐tested an...

The Chilean summer of 2017 was the worst wildfire season by far. Hundreds of wildfires burned a total of more than half a million hectares of forested land (native forests and forest plantations). A significant portion of the burned area was occupied by Hualo (Nothofagus glauca (Phil.) Krasser), a native forest species widely distributed in central Chile. Using the water-drop-penetration-time method, post-fire water repellency was evaluated at different depths (on the mineral soil surface and 5 mm below it) for a Hualo stand. Comparative data were obtained from a neighboring 11-year-old...

Humans live in or adjacent to wildland ecosystems that burn periodically and are part of nearly all ecosystems that are in the pyrosphere. There are many hazards posed by wildfire and certain consequences of living in these ecosystems. Most are associated with wildfire, but the increased use of prescribed fire is an issue because of associated risks with human attempts to manage ecological goals. The hazards posed by wildfire involve cultural and economic loss, social disruption, infrastructure damage, human injury and mortality, damage to natural resources, and deterioration in air...