Treesearch

Oriented strand board (OSB) is commonly used in the residential construction market in North America and its moisture-related durability is a critical consideration for building envelope design. Measurement of OSB moisture content (MC), a key determinant of durability, is often done using moisture pins and relies on a correlation between MC and the electrical resistance (R) of the OSB between the pins. Early work on these correlations focused on solid lumber and recent correlations for engineered wood products lack data regarding the temperature effects on R. We provide data on 1001...

Context Conservation planning for at-risk species requires understanding of where species are likely to occur, how many individuals are likely to be supported on a given landscape, and the ability to monitor those changes through time. Objectives We developed a distribution model for northern spotted owls that incorporates both habitat suitability and probability of territory occupancy while accounting for interspecies competition. Methods We developed range-wide habitat suitability maps for two time periods (1993 and 2012) for northern spotted owls that accounted for regional differences...

Climate change is expected to impact forests worldwide, and yellow-cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis (D. Don) Oerst. ex D.P. Little) decline has been used as an example of how changing climate can impact a tree species. However, most previous research has not placed yellow-cedar decline within the context of yellow-cedar overall. We used a 2004–2013 regional inventory of the temperate rainforest of Alaska (671 plots with yellow-cedar) to estimate current attributes and a subset of 564 remeasured plots (established 1995–1998) to estimate recent change. Results show that in unmanaged forests,...

Residential lands constitute a major component of existing and possible tree canopy in many cities in the United States. To expand the urban forest on these lands, some municipalities and nonprofit organizations have launched residential yard tree distribution programs, also known as tree giveaway programs. This paper describes the operations of five tree distribution programs affiliated with the Urban Ecology Collaborative, a regional network for urban forestry professionals. We analyzed the programs' missions, strategies, and challenges as reported through surveys and interviews conducted...

The Illinois River was substantially altered during the 20th century with the installation of navigational locks and dams, construction of extensive levee networks, and degradation of water quality. Freshwater mussels were affected by these changes.Weused sclerochronology and stable isotopes to evaluate changes over time in age-andgrowth and food sources for two mussel species: Amblema plicata and Quadrula quadrula. Specimenswere collected in years 1894, 1897, 1909, 1912, 1966, and 2013, and archeological specimens were collected circa 850. The von Bertalanffy growth parameter (K) was...

Past and current forest management affects wildland fire smoke impacts on downwind human populations. However, mismatches between the scale of benefits and risks make it difficult to proactively manage wildland fires to promote both ecological and public health. Building on recent literature and advances in modeling smoke and health effects, we outline a framework to more directly quantify and compare smoke impacts based on emissions, dispersion, and the size and vulnerability of downwind populations across time and space. We apply the framework in a case study to demonstrate how different...

Animals often increase their fitness by moving across space in response to temporal variation in habitat quality and resource availability, and as a result of intra and inter-specific interactions. The long-term persistence of populations and even whole species depends on the collective patterns of individual movements, yet animal movements have been poorly studied at the landscape level. We quantified movement behavior within four native species of Hawaiian forest birds in a complex lava-fragmented landscape: Hawai‘i ‘amakihi (Chlorodrepanis virens), ‘oma‘o (Myadestes obscurus), ‘apapane...

The importance of fire in shaping Appalachian vegetation has become increasingly apparent over the last 25 years. This period has seen declines in oak (Quercus) and pine (Pinus) forests and other fire-dependent ecosystems, which in the near-exclusion of fire are being replaced by fire-sensitive mesophytic vegetation. These vegetation changes imply that Appalachian vegetation had developed under a history of burning before the fire-exclusion era, a possibility that has motivated investigations of Appalachian fire history using proxy evidence. Here we synthesize those investigations to...

Cronartium ribicola Fisch. has not been found infecting any of the five-needle white pines (Pinus subgenus Strobus) in Utah, despite being established on both white pine and Ribes hosts in the other 10 western states, defined as those west of the 102° meridian. Krebill (1964) reported C. ribicola infecting limber pine 53 km north of the Utah border in the Wasatch Mountains of southern Idaho. Apparently, this is the closest to the northern border of Utah the pathogen had spread to that date. Thirty-six years after Krebill’s report, Smith and Hoffman (2000) reported finding no evidence of C....

Many tribes in California and Oregon value California black oak (Quercus kelloggii) as a traditional source of food and other values. Over centuries or millennia, Native Americans learned that they could enhance production of desired resources by regularly igniting low-intensity surface fires in stands of black oak. Although black oak is likely to remain widespread in the future, a warming climate, increasingly dense forests, and altered fire regimes threaten the large, full-crowned mature trees that produce crops of high-quality acorns and provide cavities for many wildlife species. To...