Treesearch

Adequate biomass feedstock supply is an important factor in evaluating the financial feasibility of alternative site locations for bioenergy facilities and for maintaining profitability once a facility is built. We used newly developed spatial analysis and logistics software to model the variables influencing feedstock supply and to estimate and map two components of the supply chain for a bioenergy facility: (1) the total biomass stocks available within an economically efficient transportation distance; (2) the cost of logistics to move the required stocks from the forest to the facility....

Prescribed burning (controlled burning) is used to decrease accumulation of combustible materials and reduce impact of uncontrolled wildland fires. Prescribed fires are often used to burn undergrowth in Southern forests of the United States. In order to improve prescribed fire application, accomplish desired fire effects, and limit potential runaway fires, an improved understanding of the fundamental processes related to combustion of heterogeneous fuel beds of live and dead fuels is needed. The initial processes of combustion involve pyrolysis and ignition. During this research, fast...

Climatic conditions, particularly extreme rainfall, snowmelt, and flooding, pose substantial risks to infrastructure in and near public lands in the Intermountain Adaptation Partnership (IAP) region (box 11.1). Minor floods happen frequently in the region, and large floods happen occasionally. These events can damage or destroy roads and other infrastructure and affect resource values and ecosystem services (Murray and Ebi 2012) (fig. 11.1). Drought (extended periods of heat and low precipitation) can also affect resource values, especially as it influences fuel moisture and wildfire, soil...

As with all resources on public lands, cultural resources are subject to environmental forces such as climate change. Climate change can affect cultural resources directly (e.g., heat, precipitation) or indirectly (e.g., vegetation, wildfire, flooding). Cultural resources include archaeological sites, cultural landscapes, ethnohistoric and historic structures and artifacts, and ethnographic resources. As weather patterns become more extreme and more unpredictable, they will introduce new risks to the management of cultural resources. In such circumstances, risk management and adaptation...

Ecosystem services are benefits to humans from the natural environment. These benefits that humans derive from ecosystems are the tangible connection between society and the natural environment. Some of these benefits are timber harvesting, rangeland grazing, municipal water use, carbon sequestration, and pollinators—all discussed in this chapter. The typology developed by the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (box 13.1) defines four broad categories of ecosystem services that help to organize our understanding of the relationship between natural resources and human benefits. Although...

Adapting to climate change, or adjusting to current or future climate and its effects (Noble et al. 2014), is critical to minimizing the risks associated with climate change impacts. Adaptation actions can vary from passive (e.g., a "wait and see" approach), to relatively simple (e.g., increasing harvest rotation age), to complex (e.g., managing forest structure and processes across large landscapes for a future range of conditions) (Spittlehouse and Stewart 2003). Many adaptation actions are complementary to other land management goals and actions, and most land managers already have the...

The Intermountain Adaptation Partnership (IAP) provided significant contributions to assist climate change response in national forests and national parks of the region. The effort synthesized the best available scientific information to assess climate change vulnerability, develop adaptation options, and catalyze a collaboration of land management agencies and stakeholders seeking to address climate change. The vulnerability assessment and corresponding adaptation options provided information to support national forests and national parks in implementing respective agency climate change...

Biological invasions are a major threat to biological diversity, agriculture, and human health. To predict and prevent new invasions, it is crucial to develop a better understanding of the drivers of the invasion process. The analysis of 4,533 border interception events revealed that at least 51 different alien ant species were intercepted at US ports over a period of 70 years (1914–1984), and 45 alien species were intercepted entering New Zealand over a period of 68 years (1955–2013). Most of the interceptions did not originate from species’ native ranges but instead came from invaded...

The Intermountain Adaptation Partnership (IAP) region is characterized by extreme temperatures and precipitation; it is home to some of the driest, hottest, and coldest locations in the conterminous United States. The region has numerous mountain ranges, high-elevation basins and valleys, and low-elevation mesas and canyons. Climate is influenced by this diverse and complex terrain. The IAP region is bounded on the eastern side by the Rocky Mountains and on the western side by the Sierra Nevada. For this region, moisture comes predominantly from the Pacific Ocean, and consequently much of...

Water is critical to life, and many of the effects of climate change on ecosystems are mediated through altered hydrology. Snow accumulation and melt are consistently cited as the most important changes to water in the western United States (Barnett et al. 2005; Service 2004), affecting when water will be available for forests, fish, and people. Changes in summer atmospheric circulation patterns may alter the ability of summer precipitation to provide a midsummer respite from seasonal drought and dampening of wildfire spread (IPCC 2013) (Chapter 8). Declining summer water contributions...