Treesearch

Wood Turtles (Glyptemys insculpta) have experienced population declines across their North American range and are state-listed as threatened in Minnesota, USA. To improve our understanding of the current conservation status of one population in northeastern Minnesota, we: (1) performed a snapshot comparison of population structure and relative abundance in 1990 and 2015 using survey data at 12 sites; (2) estimated the population growth rate (λ) from 1997–2014 based on population monitoring data at six sites; (3) estimated change in abundance between 2016 and 2017 based on population...

Land cover classification provides valuable information for prioritizing management and conservation operations across large landscapes. Current regional scale land cover geospatial products within the United States have a spatial resolution that is too coarse to provide the necessary information for operations at the local and project scales. This paper describes a methodology that uses recent advances in spatial analysis software to create a land cover classification over a large region in the southeastern United States at a fine (1 m) spatial resolution. This methodology used image...

The 3 spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) subspecies in North America (i.e., northern spotted owl [S. o. caurina], California spotted owl [S. o. occidentalis], Mexican spotted owl [S. o. lucida]) have all experienced population declines over the past century due to habitat loss and fragmentation from logging. Now, the emerging influences of climate change, high-severity fire, and barred owl (Strix varia) invasion also appear to be synergistically and differentially affecting population trends of each subspecies. Our objective was to review the existing literature on the spotted owl to...

We replaced a control peat medium with up to 75% biochar on a volumetric basis in three different forms (powder, BC; pyrolyzed softwood pellets, PP; composite wood-biochar pellets, WP), and under two supplies of nitrogen fertilizer (20 or 80 mg N) subsequently grew seedlings with a comparable morphology to the control. Using gravimetric methods to determine irrigation frequency and exponential fertilization to ensure all treatments received the same amount of N at a given point in the growing cycle, we successfully replaced peat with 25% BC and up to 50% PP. Increasing the proportion of...

Biochar has emerged as a promising potential amendment of soilless nursery media for plant propagation. With this greenhouse study we used biochar to displace standard soilless nursery media at 4 rates (0, 15, 30, and 45% [v:v]) and then examined media chemistry, irrigation frequency, and the growth of 4 northern Rocky Mountain native plant species: Clarkia pulchella Pursh (Onagraceae), Festuca idahoensis Elmer (Poaceae), Gaillardia aristata Pursh (Asteraceae), and Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson (Pinaceae). For all 4 species, media electrical conductivity (EC) showed little variation...

Accurate information is important for effective management of natural resources. In the field of forestry, field measurements of forest characteristics such as species composition, basal area, and stand density are used to inform and evaluate management activities. Quantifying these metrics accurately across large landscapes in a meaningful way is extremely important to facilitate informed decision-making. In this study, we present a remote sensing based methodology to estimate species composition, basal area and stand tree density for pine and hardwood tree species at the spatial resolutio...

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...