Treesearch

This short commentary piece explores the concept of shared stewardship in the Forest Service as it relates to recreation planning and management. It offers examples of different types of networks of partners.

As a long-term investment, timberland investments offer financial benefits including portfolio diversification, attractive risk/return profile, an inflation hedge, and the potential of cash flow. Based on interviews with experts regarding ranges of input parameters used in single-hectare financial models and Monte Carlo simulation method, we examine what are the main factors that influence internal rates of returns (IRRs) in several global timber plantation investment opportunities: loblolly pine on the U.S. Atlantic coastal plain; Douglas-fir plantations in the western U.S.; loblolly pine...

We investigated the impact of wood pellet mills on pulpwood price structure in the US South. Rather than focusing exclusively on price elasticities, we progress by examining how wood pellet production has affected the spatial transmission of pulpwood prices. Pairwise price ratios were modeled using smooth transition regression to identify changes in the cointegration (linkage) between markets over time. A logistic model was fitted to estimate market linkages as a function of market distances, industry concentration, and capacity of pellet wood production. Results show that the US South is...

As the sole habitat for terrestrial life, the Earth's critical zone (CZ) refers to the upper, porous layer of the continental crust that is interacting with the circulating meteoric waters. Conceptually, water is central to the intriguing co‐evolution of both the hydrologic behaviour and the structure of the CZ. On one hand, the path and rate of water circulating through the CZ are shaped by the CZ physical structure itself, such as the distribution of material porosity and permeability. On the other hand, and at longer time scales, the circulating water shapes the CZ structure through...

Fish passage out of reservoirs is a critical issue for downstream movement of juvenile salmonids and other migratory species. Reservoirs can delay downstream migrations by juvenile salmon for months or years. Here, we examine whether a novel management activity implementing annual short‐term draining of a reservoir to streambed improves timely downstream migration of juvenile salmonids. We analyse 12 years of fish capture data from a screw trap located downstream of Fall Creek Reservoir (Oregon, USA) to examine changes in timing of passage out of the reservoir and to compare fish species...

We measured whole-tree transpiration of mature Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies trees exposed to ambient and twice-ambient O3 regimes (1xO3 and 2xO3 free-air fumigation). After eight years, mean daily total transpiration did not vary with the O3 regime over the 31 days of our study, even though individual daily values increased with increasing daily O3 peaks in both species. Although the environmental parameters were similar at 1xO3 and 2xO3, the main factors affecting daily transpiration were vapour pressure deficit in 2xO3 spruce and O3 peaks in beech. For a mechanistic explanation, we...

Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius (L.) Link) is an invasive, N-fixing shrub in recently harvested Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii) forests in the Pacific Northwest. The ability of Scotch broom to dominate a site and displace Douglas-fir in this region may be mediated by site quality and site resource supply. Individual seedlings of Scotch broom (n = 46) and Douglas-fir (n = 46) were planted in a controlled nursery 'Cities and the Environment (CATE). 14: Article 4. ​​​38 p.​​​'setting and monitored over two years to test the effects of irrigation and fertilizat...

Fires play a critical role in modulating regional and global climate through disturbances on meteorological, biogeochemical, and hydrological processes, while fires are strongly affected by climate, terrestrial ecosystems, and human activities. The complex climate‐fire‐ecosystem interactions with anthropogenic disturbance are not well understood. We developed a REgion‐Specific ecosystem feedback Fire (RESFire) model in the Community Earth System Model (CESM) that provides modeling capability to reproduce the observed burning patterns and trends and to understand fire related climatic...

Easternwhitepine(PinusstrobusL.)isawidespreadconiferineasternNorthAmerica.Anoveldiebackphenomenon,aswellas increasingglobaltemperaturescontributingtothecontractionofsuitablehabitat,isthreateningthisspecies’long-termpersistence in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. This southern extent of its current range is where P. strobus is hypothesized to have survived in refugial populations during the last glacial maximum. As a result, extant populations located here may have higher levelsofancestral genetic diversity, and byextension, adaptivepotential.We genotyped 432 P.strobusindividuals...

Effective conservation of group-living forest wildlife requires information on how forest age moderates population parameters. Relationships between forest age and demographics can guide long-term management for wildlife populations that are expanding in relatively young second-growth forests in response to ongoing habitat management. We examined how forest age moderates effects of group density on long-term trends in group size and fledgling production in the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker Dryobates borealis (RCW) on the Savannah River Site, SC (SRS). We used 32 years of RCW monitoring...