Treesearch

Fog inundation along California's Coast Range creates microclimates that support coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens(D. Don) Endl.) forests during the summer drought period. With changes in land use and climate, the coast redwood ecosystem is more susceptible to increased drought stress. Thus, understanding the role of fog in relieving drought stress is important to manage the remaining coast redwood forests. Fog presence, other climatic conditions, soil moisture, and sap flow were monitored at the Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds in northwestern California over the 2020, 2021, and...

Context Private land conservation maintains global biodiversity while securing areas for biome shifts. Conservation easements (CEs) are the dominant form in both the US and increasingly, globally. Objectives We illustrate the differences in the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) and a fine-scale curated collection of CEs, the Granular Conservation Easement Datasets (GCED), which fills an imperative gap in the CE literature. We assessed each dataset’s utility for different research objectives. Methods The GCED represents a comprehensive baseline of the CEs placed between 1997...

Improving flame retardancy and mechanical strength of lignin-containing polyurethane is a great challenge. In this study, lignin with favorable reactivity and dispersity was extracted from poplar using acid hydrotrope p-TsOH in EtOH. The extracted acid hydrotrope lignin (AHL) was subsequently functionalized with nitrogen and phosphorus (FHL) and reacted with isocyanate to fabricate a fire-retardant polyurethane (FHL-PU). The resulting FHL-PU exhibited a five-fold increase in fracture toughness and remarkable reprocessability, attributable to the dual cross-linked network formed by dynamic...

The production of cellulosic sugars is a pivotal strategy for advancing biomass bioconversion. This study evaluated the pretreatment of corn stover using ammonium sulfite and potassium hydroxide to develop comprehensive data on sugar, lignin, chemicals, and overall mass recovery profiles in a batch reactor at 80 °C. The results indicated significant improvements in delignification, deacetylation, enzymatic digestibility, and overall sugar yield. Specifically, pretreating corn stover with a solution of 40 wt% potassium hydroxide and 15 wt% ammonium sulfite at 80 °C for 2 h achieved 78.9 %...

This report summarizes information on condition assessment of in-service wood, including visual inspection of wood and timbers, use of ultrasound and probing/boring techniques for inspection, and assessment of wood and timbers that have been exposed to fire. The report also includes information on assigning allowable design values for in-service wood.

1. Planting or sowing native perennial bunchgrasses is a common restoration practice in grasslands disturbed by agricultural or forestry operations. Bunchgrasses provide fine fuel loads for reinstating fire regimes that promote native plant community development. Wiregrass (Aristida beyrichiana) is a dominant bunchgrass used in the restoration of south-eastern US pine savannas. Amending disturbed soils with native soils or inoculating them with mycorrhizal fungi are restoration practices used to enhance plant growth or establishment. It is unknown, however, whether these practices increase...

Cities, states, and countries across the globe are recognizing the interconnections of human and planetary health, and are investing in greening. Nevertheless, environmental improvements may not bring adequate changes in exposure needed to reduce chronic disease and improve mental health. Nature prescription, in which a health provider refers a patient to spend time outdoors, is a potential behavioral intervention that could connect people to accessible green spaces. However, formidable patient barriers could reduce the potential to scale-up implementation in equitable and sustained ways....

Urban forest patches, including woodland interiors and bounding edge habitat, result from secondary succession and fragmentation of more extensive forested landscapes in the eastern United States. Management regimes, surrounding land use, and successional processes lead to distinct environments and contribute to local and regional heterogeneity. However, many woodlands are degraded due to frequent disturbance, aggressive exotic species, and heavy browsing, which stress canopies, reduce regeneration, and may reduce ecosystem services. Effective management requires rapid, repeatable assessmen...

The escalating wildfire problem in Portugal motivated policymakers to develop a wildfire management plan that calls for rural fuel reduction throughout the country. The plan specifies fuel treatments on 250,000-300,000 ha per year over 10 years. Spatial priorities for treatments were delegated to regional and municipal entities. We use a scenario optimization model to allocate and map fuel treatment projects using three hazard metrics (ignition probability, building exposure to wildfire, and potential large fires). The results reveal sharp decision trade-offs among the three priorities...

In 2001, Lynch and Mackes published Wood Use in Colorado at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century (Lynch and Mackes 2001). Now more than twenty years later, this report updates wood use data and information to provide a current description and quantification of woody biomass utilization, consumption, and production in the state of Colorado. This assessment contributes to the ongoing discourse concerning sustainable solutions to the environmental challenges in Colorado forests, including uncharacteristic wildfires, increased mortality from insects, disease, and drought, and reduced productivi...