Treesearch

Bioenergy development in the Southern United States was said to promise a future with renewable energy, energy independence, expanded wood markets, and rural development. We view this vision of wood-based bioenergy as a sociotechnical imaginary involving a future where energy and rural development needs are met using sustainably-harvested local resources. While this vision has led to bioenergy development, it has not been universally shared and counter-narratives have circulated. Local people receive multiple messages and have diverse experiences with bioenergy, which affect how they...

Cogongrass (Imperata cylindrica (L.) Beauv.) is a warmseason perennial grass species found throughout tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world (Hubbard 1944). Native to Southeast Asia, cogongrass is an aggressive invasive plant that that has spread to all continents except Antarctica (MacDonald 2004) and is considered among the worst problematic weeds on a global scale (Holm et al. 1977). In the United States, it is naturalized in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Oregon (USDA Plants 2017). It was first accidentally...

Spilogale putorius (Eastern Spotted Skunk) is an increasingly rare species undergoing population declines throughout many portions of its range. We incidentally captured Eastern Spotted Skunks in snake traps during a study examining effects of woodland restoration on herpetofauna in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas. We used extensive habitat data collected at each trap site to determine potential characteristics of sites where Eastern Spotted Skunks were more likely to occur during summer. We recorded 18 Eastern Spotted Skunk captures in 10 of our 36 drift-fence traps. Capture rates of...

The effects of mating status, sex, beetle age, host quality, temperature, and wind speed on the propensity of Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky) (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) to take flight were evaluated using a free flight test in the laboratory. Time to initiate flight, the angle of flight, and flight capability (when beetles were enticed to take flight) were also evaluated. Host quality, mating status, beetle age, sex, temperature, and the interactions between one or more of these were all found to be significant predictors of flight in A. glabripennis in one or more of the experiments...

Because forest tree species face serious threats including insect and disease epidemics, climate change, and forest fragmentation and conversion, prioritizing species and forests for conservation is an essential management goal. This paper describes a species prioritization approach that incorporates both the rarity of species, because of the increased vulnerability associated with rare species, and their evolutionary distinctiveness (ED), a measure of evolutionary originality. Rarity and ED scores, and scores for the two combined, were calculated for 352 North American forest tree...

Matsucoccus macrocicatrices Richards (Hemiptera: Matsucoccidae) is the only species within this genus that feeds and reproduces on eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.), and at the time of its description, was not observed or known to cause serious damage. With eastern white pine dieback occurring extensively throughout the Appalachian Mountains, researchers are now in search of the contributors to this dieback phenomenon. Since its recent discovery (2007) far outside its historical range, M. macrocicatrices, and cankers associated with Caliciopsis pinea Peck, are regularly present on...

Cogongrass [Imperata cylindrica (L.) Beauv.] is an invasive grass in the southeastern United States, and its impacts strongly affect the region, especially Florida. Herbicide strategies have been limited to glyphosate in natural areas and imazapyr in managed pine forests and non-crop areas where its soil residual activity is of less concern. This lack of options has raised concern for herbicide resistance, which has never been documented for I. cylindrica. Land managers have also reported variable I. cylindrica control, especially with glyphosate. To determine whether herbicide resistance...

Bottom-up branch dieback and sapling mortality of eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.) has been observed range- wide during the last two decades. Observational studies thus far implicate these symptoms to an insect, the eastern white pine bast scale (Matsucoccus macrocicatrices Richards), and a canker-forming, fungal pathogen, Caliciopsis pinea Peck. The scale insect was historically considered an innocuous herbivore of eastern white pine restricted only to New England and Canada, but is now found in high densities on symptomatic trees, in close association with Caliciopsis canker, and in...

In the fall of 2011, we examined the effects of inter–trap distances of 2, 6, and 12 m on catches of bark and wood-boring beetles (and associates) in traps baited with either ethanol a-pinene (EA) or ipsenol ipsdienol (SD) in a stand of loblolly pine, Pinus taeda L., in northern Georgia. Traps baited with EA interrupted catches of Ips avulsus (Eichhoff ) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: olytinae) in traps baited with SD at a distance of 2 m but not at distances of 6 or 12 m. In contrast, catches of I. avulsus and Dendroctonus terebrans (Olivier) in traps with EA were greatest in those traps...

On the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests, managers have used prescribed fire to create and maintain early-successional and open forest conditions across large areas. We used a landscape-scale and image-based approach to assess the extent that prescribed fires, including repeated fires, have created these forest conditions and put the results in context of the new George Washington National Forest management plan. At the landscape level, early-successional forest made up an average of 5 percent of burn unit area after one burn, 9 percent after two fires, 17 percent after...