Treesearch

Homeowner wildfire risk mitigation and preparedness are critical components of community wildfire readiness. This report describes the data collected through two efforts conducted in the Estes Valley Fire Protection District of Larimer County, Colorado, study area: (1) parcel-level rapid wildfire risk assessments performed by trained assessors and (2) homeowner surveys in which respondents provided self-assessments of their parcel-level wildfire risk. This project was undertaken to support Estes Valley Fire Protection District’s desire to enhance resident wildfire risk mitigation and...

Forest aboveground biomass (AGB) is a crucial indicator for carbon monitoring. This study presents a data-driven, cloud-based workflow for AGB density (AGBD) mapping using Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) data combined with Earth observation (EO) datasets. Focusing on the state of Alabama, the specific objectives were to: (1) evaluate and compare the effectiveness of ecoregionspecific models versus a statewide model for estimating AGBD, and (2) generate a 30-m AGBD map based on the optimal model and assess agreement with forest inventory and global-scale information. GEDI...

Using morphological assessments and phylogenetic inference, we described a new subterranean termite species in the genus Reticulitermesin southern California: Reticulitermes rustisp. nov. Genetic analyses utilizing 3 mitochondrial loci (16S rRNA, COI, and COII) and 7 microsatellites successfully distinguished the new species from 2 other Reticulitermesfound in southern California: R. hesperusBanks and R. tibialisBanks. Empirical measurements of key morphological characters further support the delineation of R. rustias a new species. While R. rustiis genetically closer to R. tibialis, its...

Understanding the response of tree species to disturbance is critical as climatic variability is projected to shift disturbance regimes, species distribution, and carbon allocation in the eastern US. Altered resource availability and microclimatic drivers bordering canopy gap edges may enhance tree growth. Our objective was to evaluate how this gap edge effect varies across dominant species groups in a southern Appalachian mixed hardwood forest. We assessed the effect of silvicultural canopy gaps, 0.15–1.09 ha in area, on overstory tree diameter growth four years after gap harvest....

Canopy openings create gradients in microclimate and can increase transpiration of individual trees bordering the gaps. This study evaluates overstory tree water use in a mature, temperate, upland hardwood forest three and four years after the establishment of 0.1 and 1 ha experimental gaps. Sap flux density (Js) was measured using thermal dissipation probes in 63 trees of dominant species groups, red maple (Acer rubrum), hickory (Carya spp.), tulip-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera), and white oak and red oak groups (Quercus spp.), with increasing distance from experimental canopy gap edge...

Social equity, and the related topic of social vulnerability, is an important issue that is impacting many facets of society, including forests. A substantial portion, 39 %, of forests in the United States are owned by families, individuals, trusts, estates, and family partnerships, collectively referred to as family forest owners. There are many programs and services intended to help family forest owners conserve and better manage their land, but participation rates are relatively low, the efficacy of many programs has been called into question, and the social equitability of access is...

Managers grappling with questions about dead wood in productive, often high-volume, westside Pacific Northwest forests seek to balance wildlife habitat quality and fire hazard reduction, especially following wildfires which can both consume and generate exceptional quantities of dead wood. Longitudinal analysis of a large (n = 327) sample of permanent forest inventory monitoring plots measured before and repeatedly after wildfires and an equal-sized sample of comparable but unburned reference plots revealed post-fire trajectories of dead wood and factors that drive abundance of snags,...

Ecological theory predicts that consumers should be co-limited by resource quantity and quality, given widespread consumer-resource nutritional imbalances. We used 25 estimates of annual community secondary production (ACSP) of stream macroinvertebrates to assess the relative roles of basal resource quantity (leaf litter standing stock [LLSS]) and quality (% nitrogen and % phosphorus of leaf litter) in modulating patterns of production in forest streams. We also tested the effects of hypothesized indirect drivers (stream discharge and inorganic nutrient concentrations) on basal resource...

Community-based collaboration has been touted as an effective model for forest governance because it promotes democratized decision-making and stakeholder engagement to address landscape-scale problems. Forest collaboratives are assumed to be heterogeneous, consisting of stakeholders with a diverse range of interests. Few studies have systematically explored variables associated with collaborative composition. We identify six elements of collaborative composition for investigation: size, stakeholder diversity, balance, locality–diversity, core attendance, and cross-participation. This...

(1) Background: Analyses using participatory GIS (PGIS) data have primarily focused on reporting landscape values (e.g., subsistence, spiritual) or activities (e.g., hunting, meditation) and less frequently on identifying patterns of value and activity co-occurrence. This paper explores whether consistent combinations of landscape values and activities associated with meaningful places identified by visitors—referred to as “bundles”—emerge across protected areas. These bundles represent the cognitive-behavioral components of sense of place. (2) Methods: We used exploratory factor analysis...