Treesearch

In the western United States and elsewhere, the need to change society’s relationship with wildfire is well-recognized. Suppressing fewer fires in fire-prone systems is promoted to escape existing feedback loops that lead to ever worsening conditions and increasing risks to responders and communities. Our primary focus is how to catalyze changes in fire manager behavior such that responses are safer, more effective, and capitalize on opportunities for expanded use of fire. We daylight deep-seated, systemic drivers of behavior, and in so doing, challenge ingrained ways of thinking and...

A study of commercial timber-harvesting activities in Montana was conducted during 2011 to 2016 to estimate growing-stock removals, characterize current tree utilization and logging operations, and assist with estimating the amount of woody biomass left onsite after harvesting. Sample logging sites were selected within major geographic regions proportional to 5-year timber harvest volumes. A two-stage sampling method was used to compute State-level logging utilization factors. Results of the study indicated that in Montana, for every 1,000 cubic feet (CF) delivered to the mill, harvesting...

On a warm July day in 2014, our group headed out to a field tour on the Mark Twain National Forest. The purpose of the trip was to learn firsthand what stakeholders thought of the Missouri Pine-Oak Woodlands Restoration Project. As wildlife ecologists and foresters, we were well aware of the conservation issues for this ecosystem and the ecological benefits of restoring open forests. On this visit we heard conservation agencies, an NGO, and even a local landowner voice their support for the project. It soon became clear, however, that not everyone agreed with the goals or the management...

Conserving multiple facets of biodiversity is important for sustaining ecosystems. However, understanding relationships between faunal diversity and measurable ecosystem quantities, such as heterogeneity and productivity, across continental scales can be complicated by disparate methods. We developed standardized approaches using lidar data and spectral greenness data (via NDVI; Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) from 637 sampling plots across four sites in North America, Europe, and Asia to test the local effects of habitat heterogeneity and productivity on taxonomic, functional, and...

Climate variability and change affect society across numerous sectors at multiple spatiotemporal scales. New demands for information and decision support tools to enhance climate resilience at regional scales have prompted diverse agency investments over the past decade (2010s). Here, we discuss lessons learned from a regional climate response collaborative composed of three different climate-service entities and using a multi-institutional approach. These entities have defined roles and responsibilities in terms of the agency missions and expectations, the landscapes they work in, and...

Linaria vulgaris, common or yellow toadflax, and Linaria dalmatica, Dalmatian toadflax (Plantaginaceae), are Eurasian perennial forbs invasive throughout temperate North America. These Linaria species have been the targets of classical biological control programmes in Canada and the USA since the 1960s. The first effective toadflax biological control agent, the stem-mining weevil Mecinus janthinus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) was introduced from Europe in the 1990s. This weevil has become established on L. dalmatica and L. vulgaris in both countries, although it has shown greater success in...

Puccinia psidii (Basidiomycota, Uredinales) is a biotrophic rust fungus that was first reported in Brazil from guava (Psidium guajava) in 1884 (Winter 1884) and later from nonnative eucalypt (Eucalyptus capitelata and Corymbia citriodora, syn. Eucalyptus citriodora; Joffily 1944). Considered to be of Neotropical origin, the rust has also been reported to infect diverse myrtaceous hosts elsewhere in South America, Central America, the Caribbean, Mexico, the United States (California, Florida, and Hawaii), Japan, Australia, China, and most recently South Africa and New Caledonia (Carnegie et...

Armillaria mexicana (Agaricales, Physalacriaceae) is described as a new species based on morphology, DNA sequence data, and phylogenetic analyses. It clearly differs from previously reported Armillaria species in North, Central, and South America. It is characterized by the absence of fibulae in the basidioma, abundant cheilocystidia, and ellipsoidal, hyaline basidiospores that are apparently smooth under light microscope, but slightly to moderately rugulose under scanning electron microscope. It is differentiated from other Armillaria species by macromorphological characters, including...

Purpose of Review: The continued, rapid development of novel molecular genetic tools is contributing to a better understanding of forest-associated fungi and their interactive roles within diverse forest ecosystems. This paper focuses on recent developments of DNA-based diagnostics/detection, phylogenetics, population genetics, genomics, and metagenomics tools that have been applied to forest-associated fungi to better understand their roles in forest ecosystems and provide key insights for managing forest health. Recent Findings: With the advent of new molecular technologies, we can...

Selecting the geographic origin - the provenance - of seed is a key decision in restoration. The last decade has seen a vigorous debate on whether to use local or nonlocal seed. The use of local seed has been the preferred approach because it is expected to maintain local adaptation and avoid deleterious population effects (e.g., maladaptation and outbreeding depression). However, the impacts of habitat fragmentation and climate change on plant populations have driven the debate on whether the local-is-best standard needs changing. This debate has largely been theoretical in nature, which...