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Publicity and debate about global climate change has fueled interest in the role forests and forest management activities play in carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions. Our previous ECO-Report contained an article on greenhouse gas emissions released when woody biomass from forest residues are used for energy (see page 9 of 2007 ECO-Report at www.fs.fed.us/rm/ ecopartner/ecoreport.shtml). That article compared the overall emissions of: 1) transporting woody residues from forest treatments to burn in a boiler for heat energy (including emissions from collecting, chipping, and...

Sometimes a name says it all, and sometimes a name is just a name. Joe's Income Tax and Bookkeeping Service probably does just what it says. On the other hand, there's AT&T. Until 2005, the initials stood for American Telephone & Telegraph, but in the last couple of decades when you saw "AT&T," you didn't think of the telegraph. You thought about other services and products - cell phones, fiber optics, and wireless internet.The Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Research Project is kind of like AT&T in that research we conduct reflects more than our name implies. The executive committee has...

Many land managers are attempting to lessen the probability of severe wildfire behavior and impacts, especially near communities, by manipulating canopy and surface fuel characteristics. Various interest groups have questioned the value of fuels treatments. In reality, apart from fire exposure when a real fire went through a treated stand, effectiveness of fuel treatments has not been quantifiable until the recent development of protocols for canopy fuels assessment and crown fire behavior modeling.

Riparian areas commonly represent only a small percentage of a landscape, but typically are more structurally diverse and more productive in plant and animal biomass than adjacent upland areas. Yet, this small percentage of land area provides many benefits to society. These benefits, however, are not generally accounted for in market transactions. One exception to this appears to be private property values. Studies in both Arizona and Oregon found that proximity to a stream corridor increased the value of vacant land in residential areas by as much as 10 to 27 percent.

EcoReport is an annual Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) publication which contains a set of articles showcasing the Bitterroot Ecosystem Management Research Project (BEMRP) research projects and activities. The articles are concise, user-friendly, and designed to inform a broad range of audiences interested in ecosystem management. Articles featured in this issue: Finding Common Ground: Montana Forest Restoration Committee; BEMRP: Beyond the Bitterroot; Mapping Social and Cultural Values in the Mission Mountains; Wildfire, Research, and a Climate Station; What Kind of Cutting and...

Ward McCaughey has spent 99% of his career in forestry research. It appears the aptitude test he took in high school was right; he should be in forestry. Ward is a research forester in the Forests and Woodlands Ecosystems Program for RMRS. He has been on BEMRP's executive committee since 2002. However, his association with BEMRP goes back to its inception in 1994 when he worked for Clint Carlson, Project Leader and the original lead scientist for the team that initiated BEMRP. Ward's association with the Rocky Mountain Research Station goes back to 1974 when he supervised summer crews.

Economics is the science of allocating scarce resources among unlimited wants." That was Krista Gebert's response when I asked her to define economics for me. Having taught several economics classes at the University of Montana after graduate school, Krista had the definition down to its essence. As an economist with RMRS in Missoula, Krista applies economics to a variety of scarce forest and human resources. Krista is the newest executive committee member of BEMRP, representing the Human Dimensions Science Program of RMRS.

What in the world made Brian Kahn think he could get consensus among 34 people representing timber, environmental, government, and off-highway vehicle groups - especially when the topic was forest restoration? "Actually," he said, "I didn't believe we could get 100% consensus. But we did

The potential for nonnative, invasive plants to alter an ecosystem depends on species traits, ecosystem characteristics, and the effects of disturbances, including fire. This study identifies gaps in science-based knowledge about the relationships between fire and nonnative invasive plants in the United States. The literature was searched for information on 60 nonnative invasives. Information was synthesized and placed online in the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS, www.fs.fed.us/database/feis), and sources were tallied for topics considered crucial for understanding each species'...

The Hawaiian Islands are national and global treasures of biological diversity. As the most isolated archipelago on earth, 90 percent of Hawaii's 10,000 native species are endemic (Gagne and Cuddihy 1999). The broad range of elevation and climate found in the Hawaiian Islands supports a range of ecosystems encompassing deserts, rain forests and alpine communities often within the span of less than 30 miles. Recent analyses suggest that species diversity may not differ between island and continental ecosystems once habitat area is taken into account (Lonsdale 1999); however there are a...