Treesearch

Understanding the degree of spatial fidelity exhibited by individuals within a species increases our ability to manage for desired future outcomes. Elk (Cervus elaphus) is a closely managed species in the Western US, but there is little research evaluating their summer home-range fidelity. Elk summer-fall homeranges overlap considerably with aspen (Populus tremuloides)-dominated forest types, and elk can impact aspen regeneration because it is a preferred browse species. We evaluated the fidelity of 72 adult female elk to individual summer-fall home ranges in northwestern Colorado, USA,...

The recent mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) outbreaks had unprecedented effects on lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia) in western North America. We used data from 165 forest inventory plots to analyze stand conditions that regulate lodgepole pine mortality across a wide range of stand structure and species composition at the Fraser Experimental Forest in Colorado, USA. Forest inventory data were then combined with Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM +) imagery and boosted regression trees modeling to map outbreak severity (proportion of basal area...

The Pacific lamprey (Entosphenus tridentatus) is an anadromous fish once abundant throughout coastal basins of western North America that has suffered dramatic declines in the last century due primarily to human activities. Here, we describe the development of an environmental DNA (eDNA) assay to detect Pacific lamprey in the Columbia River basin. The eDNA assay successfully amplified tissue derived DNA of Pacific lamprey collected from 12 locations throughout the Columbia River basin. The assay amplifies DNA from other Entosphenus species found outside of the Columbia River basin, but is...

Modeling can play a critical role in assessing and mitigating risks posed by natural hazards. These modeling efforts generally aim to characterize the occurrence, intensity, and potential consequences of natural hazards. Uncertainties surrounding the modeling process can have important implications for the development, application, evaluation, and interpretation of models. In this chapter, we focus on the analysis of model‐based uncertainties faced in natural hazard modeling and decision support. Uncertainty analysis can help modelers and analysts select appropriate modeling techniques....

Repeated prescribed burning over long timescales has some predictable effects on forest structure and composition, but multi-decadal patterns of stand dynamics and successional change with different fire frequencies have rarely been described. We used longitudinal data from a prescribed burning study conducted over a 63-year period to quantify stand structure (stem density, basal area, and stocking) by species group, ingrowth during the first 15 years of the study, and mortality during the first 35 years within an oak-hickory forest of the Missouri Ozarks. The study included an unburned...

The use of ecological forestry to achieve management objectives, such as the maintenance of native biodiversity, has become increasingly common on public and private ownerships in North America. These approaches generally use natural disturbance processes and their structural and compositional outcomes as models for designing silvicultural prescriptions that restore or sustain complex structural and compositional conditions in actively managed forests. Although the origin of ecological forestry is generally credited to approaches developing out of the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s...

Landscape forest management is an approach to meeting diverse objectives that collectively span multiple spatial scales. It is critical that we understand the long-term effects of landscape management on the structure and composition of forest tree communities to ensure that these practices are sustainable. Furthermore, it is increasingly important to also consider effects of our management within the context of anticipated environmental changes, especially future climate. This study investigated two decades of tree community dynamics within a long-term, landscape-scale management experimen...

Emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire, EAB) is an invasive forest pest and the target of an extensive biological control program designed to mitigate EAB-caused ash (Fraxinus spp.) mortality. Since 2007, hymenopteran parasitoids of EAB from northeastern Asia have been released as biological control agents in North America, including Oobius agrili (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), an egg parasitoid; Tetrastichus planipennisi (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae), a larval endoparasitoid; and Spathius agrili (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a larval ectoparasitoid. Following parasitoid releases in new...

The Ten-year Urban Forestry Action Plan: 2016-2026 was published in September, 2015 (see http://www.urbanforestry.subr.edu/FinalActionPlan_Complete_11_17_15.pdf). This 260 page heavily illustrated document was prepared by the National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council (NUCFAC) under leadership and funding from the USDA Forest Service. The Plan's purpose is to expand awareness of the benefits urban forests provide to communities throughout the nation and increase investments in urban forest resources for the benefit of current and future generations.

We read with interest the recent Journal of Forestry article on "Conceptual Ambiguities and Practical Challenges of Ecological Forestry: A Critical Review" (Batavia and Nelson 2016). In it, Batavia and Nelson do a good job of bringing attention to the concept of ecological forestry, and we agree that a clear understanding of what it is and what it can be is a useful undertaking; one that would likely open the door to even greater adoption by stakeholders. Moreover, a discussion of the need for an "appropriate ethic" for ecological forestry may be beneficial, and Batavia and Nelson’s...