Treesearch

One of the key tasks in a safety program is to perform a job hazard analysis which involves the identification and description of serious hazards for specific jobs and tasks. A number of sources including operator’s manuals, safety manuals, and FRA safety alerts are useful in that task. Injury or accident surveillance data can also provide key information in prioritizing hazards according to frequency and seriousness. Bureau of Labor Statistics data are available for both the logging industry (NAICS 1133) and the logging occupation (SOC 45-2000), but so few cases are recorded that only...

This report presents a life-cycle impact assessment analysis of near-woods processing of post-harvest forest residues into wood briquettes as an alternative to other fuels such as propane in residential heating systems. The study was part of the Waste to Wisdom project with a broader goal of evaluating the feasibility of using semimobile biomass conversion technologies to overcome the barriers of valorizing woody biomass residues for renewable energy and material production. The cradle-to-grave system boundary included feedstock procurement, hauling, feedstock preparation, production of...

This report presents life-cycle impact assessment analysis of near-woods processing of post-harvest forest residues (a biomass raw material) into torrefied wood for bioenergy production. The study was part of the Waste to Wisdom project with a broader goal of evaluating the use semimobile biomass conversion technologies to optimize biomass logistics, thereby overcoming the barriers of valorizing woody biomass residues for renewable energy and material production. Cradle-to-grave analysis of the torrefied briquettes (TOB) supply chain included feedstock procurement, hauling, feedstock...

This study investigated the recycle utilization of SPORL pretreatment spent liquor. Three ligno sulfonates (LSs)were purified from the spent liquor of SPORL pretreated Beetle-killed lodgepole pine (BKLP), Poplar NE222 (NE222),and Douglas-fir(FS10). The structural characterization showed that the apparent molecular mass and sulfur content of NE222-LS were lowest, but the phenolic group content was highest. FS10 LS, from a pH profiling SPORL pretreatment, had the highest apparent molecular mass but medium sulfur and phenolic group content. The spectral analyses exhibited that the guaiacyl...

Because of the increasing demand for sustainable products and services at a global level, manufacturers are encouraged to document the environmental performance of their products and services. This helps to enhance efficiency of supply chain and create value for stakeholders. Declaration of environmental performance supports manufacturers’ claims for products such as wood products, which many stakeholders consider more environmentally benign than other products. Through the internationally accepted life-cycle assessment (LCA) tool, many wood products have been shown to be less energy...

Urban forests provide different ecosystem services including air pollution removal, carbon storage and sequestration, microclimate and water regulation, and habitat for wildlife. This results in the improvement of environmental quality and population's welfare. In this study, we evaluated the urban forest structure in the Aburra Valley, and quantified and valuated the pollutant removal by urban trees using the "i-Tree" Eco software. We established 398 plots for forest sampling, and used secondary information about climatic conditions and air pollution. Results reveal that there is 23% of...

Bat species are facing increasing threats due to climate change, large-scale changes in vegetation, windpower development, and white-nose syndrome, which make research on changes in bat communities essential for conservation planning in North America. The Seminole bat (Lasiurus seminolus) occurs throughout the southeastern United States, and recent evidence suggests they may be expanding their range in North America. I used museum records, publications, and data derived from mist-net surveys conducted by various individuals and organizations to determine changes in the seasonal and...

Pituophis ruthveni (Louisiana Pinesnake) is one of the rarest snakes in the United States (Conant 1956; Young and Vandeventer 1988; Rudolph et al. 2006). The historical range included portions of eastern Texas and western Louisiana (Sweet and Parker 1990; Reichling 1995). This species is generally associated with sandy, well-drained soils; open pine forests, especially longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) savannahs; moderate to sparse midstory; and a well-developed herbaceous understory dominated by grasses. Baird’s Pocket Gophers (Geomys breviceps) are also associated with loose, sandy soils,...

The genetic and physiological quality of seedlings is a critical component for longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) restoration, because planting genetic material that is adapted to environmental stress is required for long-term restoration success. Planting trees that exhibit high water-use efficiency (WUE) is a practice that could maximize this species’ survival and growth in a changing climate. Our study evaluates genetic variation in WUE and growth, as well as WUE-growth relationships, a key step to determine potential for breeding and planting trees with high WUE. We measured carbon...

Current operational fire spread models are mostly based on experimental results from dead, low moisture fuel beds and thus do not perform well when modeling fire behavior in live shrubs. Although computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models predict more reliable combustion behavior, they have a high computational cost, large grid sizes for landscape-scale simulations, and oversimplified combustion within a shrub. There is a need for intermediate-scale shrub combustion models that describe better solid fuel combustion properties and shrub architecture, which may serve as sub-grid models for...