Treesearch

Landscape values mapping (LVM) is a participatory process used to gather public input for park and forest management. Respondents assign landscape values or ecosystem benefits to places on a map using a typology that usually includes the value “recreation.” Whereas other landscape values in the typology reflect personal guiding principles and enduring beliefs, recreation represents a diverse set of human behaviors influenced by their values and beliefs. For a more accurate comparison to other mapped values, and to better inform land managers of the underlying factors determining people's...

Long-term occupancy by homeless individuals in U.S. national forests and grasslands results in persistent management challenges and resource concerns. Management challenges associated with non-recreational campers (homeless long-term occupants) include: maintaining sanitary conditions, public safety, vandalism, and conflict with other forest visitors. These management challenges may already be a substantial concern for district rangers and law enforcement officers (LEOs) in many parts of the U.S. This exploratory study compares the social impacts of various types of non-recreational...

The urban forest is a valuable ecosystem service provider, yet cities are frequently degraded environments with a myriad of stressors and disturbances affecting trees. Vulnerability science is increasingly used to explore issues of sustainability in complex social-ecological systems, and can be a useful approach for assessing urban forests. The purpose of this study was to identify and explore drivers of urban forest vulnerability in a residential neighborhood. Based on a recently published framework of urban forest vulnerability, a series of indicators of exposure, sensitivity, and...

The extent of the Earth's surface burned annually by fires is affected by a number of drivers, including but not limited to climate. Other important drivers include the amount and type of vegetation (fuel) available and human impacts, including fire suppression, ignition, and conversion of burnable land to crops. Prior to the evolution of hominids, area burned was dictated by climate via direct influences on vegetation, aridity, and lightning. In the future, warming will be accompanied by changes in distribution, frequency, intensity, and timing of precipitation that may promote or...

How did the forest and community get to the point where they were willing to take on managing a fire of this size and duration for resource benefit and hazard reduction? Science has recognized for decades that many forested ecosystems of the American West are shifting away from historically fire-adapted conditions. Beginning in the 1970’s a small handful of managers recognized this issue and developed wildland fire use concepts. However, in the current era of increasing encroachment of human development, climate change, and accumulated fuels, uncertain outcomes have emphasized the default...

Mesocarnivores, fisher, marten, lynx, wolverine and others, are an important part of forest ecosystems, but they are often difficult to detect, occur in low densities, and have large home ranges. This makes it difficult for biologists to estimate the number of individuals in a specific species in a particular ecosystem.Publication: RMRS-GTR-388

<>Previous research indicates that low-intensity single or multiple prescribed burns in oak-dominated upland hardwood forest do not substantially change stand structure or species composition of the arborescent regeneration layer, leading managers and ecologists to suggest that burns during the growing-season may better achieve restoration goals. We examined season of burn effects on dry-mesic oak-hickory forests in the southern Appalachian Mountains, North Carolina. Treatments included: (1) control (CON); (2) dormant-season burn (DSB), and (3) growing-season burn (GSB). Prior to burning...

Inadequate cold tolerance of Eucalyptus spp. has limited a broader deployment beyond subtropical regions of the United States. We examined growth, photosynthetic rate, and cold tolerance of a cold-hardy Eucalypt (Eucalyptus benthamii) planted in North Carolina and compared the results with native Pinus taeda. After two growing seasons, E. benthamii surpassed P. taeda in both height (5.06 m, 1.34 m) and diameter (5.0 cm, 0.7 cm) growth, respectively. From April through November, E. benthamii’s mean photosynthetic rate (Ps) (13.82 µmol CO2 m−2s−1) was more than twice that of P. taeda (6.21...

Arctic and boreal ecosystems are experiencing pronounced warming that is accelerating decomposition of soil organic matter and releasing greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Future carbon storage in these ecosystems depends on the balance between microbial decomposition and primary production, both of which can be regulated by nutrients such as phosphorus. Phosphorus cycling in tundra and boreal regions is often assumed to occur through biological pathways with little interaction with soil minerals; that is, phosphate released from organic molecules is rapidly assimilated by plants or...

Ungulates, invasive plants, climate variability, and other stressors are acting together to compound the challenges facing forest managers tasked with regenerating forests following stand-initiation disturbances, e.g., harvest or catastrophic mortality. The range expansion of large ungulates, primarily white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and their browse impacts across the Midwest and Northeast have affected many aspects of the forest ecosystem (McWilliams and others 2018). This makes it nearly impossible to regenerate species that require advance regeneration and interferes with...