Treesearch

Mature forest cover for nesting and roosting currently plays a starring role in California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) habitat management, but spotted owls also depend on access to nearby mixed-age forest stands that support one of their main food sources, the dusky-footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes).

The larval stage of the army cutworm, Euxoa auxiliaris (Grote), is an agricultural pest in the Great Plains region of North America. Adult migration to alpine aggregation sites to escape extreme summer temperatures and depleted food resources provides a critical food resource for the grizzly bear, Ursus arctos horribilis (Linnaeus, Carnivora: Ursidae), in the Rocky Mountains. However, little is understood about the ecological consequences of the thermal tolerance of adult E. auxiliaris. Therefore, we investigated thermal tolerance of lab-reared and wild-caught individuals by assessing...

Canopy height models (CHMs) with sufficient resolution to distinguish individual trees are useful for a variety of applications. However, standard techniques to acquire such data, such as airborne lidar surveying, are often prohibitively expensive. Deep learning techniques for generating CHMs from high-resolution imagery are an attractive option to reduce costs. To date, success with these methods has been demonstrated using multichannel aerial photography and specialized satellite data products derived from multiple sensors, neither of which is commonly available at temporal resolutions...

Over the last 20 years, all states within the US have required all cigarettes sold to be “fire safe” or “fire standards compliant” meaning that they must pass ASTM standard E2187. Though these cigarettes are designed to self-extinguish, there have been recent studies suggesting that these “fire safe” cigarettes (FSCs) can still ignite mattresses and other furnishings, but there has been no guidance for fire investigators whether FSCs can ignite natural fuels, such as duff and needles, that can be the source of a wildland fire. This work sets out to investigate whether FSCs can indeed be...

As governments around the world seek to develop and implement co-management practices with Indigenous peoples and local communities, there are many questions about how to foster collaborative and just agreements that support self-determination. Despite policy advancements enabling more co-management and shared stewardship within the United States (U.S.), possibilities for co-management are complicated by historical injustices that have hindered Tribal access to ancestral land and cultural practices. We use a multiple case study approach, examining three case studies from the Western U.S....

Increasing aridity has driven widespread synchronous fire occurrence in recent decades across North America. The lack of historical (pre-1880) fire records limits our ability to understand long-term continental fire-climate dynamics. The goal of this study is to use tree-ring reconstructions to determine the relationships between spatiotemporal patterns in historical climate and widespread fire occurrence in North American forests, and whether they are stable through time. This information will address a major knowledge gap required to inform projections of future fire.

Public land management decisions rely on science but there is a disconnect between research and practical application; this is referred to as the research–management gap. Within the context of the United States (US) National Wilderness Preservation System, this gap has implications across 111 million acres of land managed by four federal agencies. To better understand how to bridge research with management within the US wilderness context, we conducted facilitated conversations with 68 wilderness managers using interactive virtual whiteboards to guide conversations around decision contexts,...

Developing the capacity to monitor species diversity worldwide is of great importance in halting biodiversity loss. To this end, remote sensing plays a unique role. In this study, we evaluate the potential of Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) data, combined with conventional satellite optical imagery and climate reanalysis data, to predict in situ alpha diversity (Species richness, Simpson index, and Shannon index) among tree species. Data from Sentinel-2 optical imagery, ERA-5 climate data, SRTM-DEM imagery, and simulated GEDI data were selected for the characterization of...

Management treatments in ponderosa pine forests of the southwestern United States (SWUS) are largely done for wildfire mitigation and restoration to lower tree densities. However, lack of natural ponderosa pine regeneration in undisturbed forests (i.e., no occurrence of stand-replacing events) may require management treatments to promote regeneration. We conducted a field and modeling study in 77 ponderosa pine forests across 7 SWUS locations, with the goal of evaluating management impacts on recent natural regeneration (∼20 y). We categorized management into 3 broad categories: unmanaged,...

Bedrock rivers adjust to the properties of the rock into which they incise, imprinting the geologic past on Earth’s surface. We compared rock properties and channel form along the Dry Fork in the Allegheny Mountains, West Virginia, as it crosses between Mississippian sandstone and carbonate rock units, to investigate how the depositional history of channel-margin bedrock influences modern channel form. We used thin-section petrography to interpret site-specific depositional environments. We quantified rock strength with point-load testing, discontinuity spacing by measuring bed and...