Treesearch

Understanding differences and similarities among family forest owners is important in the context of forest land conservation. This study assesses similarities and differences in landowners by analyzing life cycle effects, cohort differences, and period-specific events that shape people's attitudes and behaviors towards their forestland over time. Using data collected by the U.S. Forest Service's 2013 National Woodland Owner Survey, bivariate, random forest and classification tree analyses were used to examine landowners in terms of demographic cohorts. Some attitudes and behaviors of...

The Interior West Forest Inventory and Analysis (IW-FIA) program measures forestland conditions at great extent with relatively high spatial resolution, including the collection of tree-ring data. We describe the development of an unprecedented spatial tree-ring data set for the IW-FIA that enhances the baseline plot data by incorporating ring-width increment measured from increment cores collected on IW-FIA plots. Whereas the IW-FIA program has used increment cores consistent with traditional forestry (stand age, site index, and vigor), there are key differences in sampling approaches...

People in industrialized countries may be losing their connection with nature. The Get to Know Program (Get to Know) is a multi-faceted program aimed at encouraging direct connection with nature through a variety of activities (observations of wildlife, hiking, creative arts, and special events), specifically among youth. Three studies assessed the effects of three Get to Know program activities on youth's implicit connectedness with nature (measured using a computer based game). Participants were youth recruited from southern California schools or youth organizations. Participation in the...

Valley segments, stream reaches, and channel units are three hierarchically nested subdivisions of the drainage network (Frissell et al. 1986), falling in size between landscapes and watersheds (see Chapter 1) and individual point measurements made along the stream network (Table 2.1; also see Chapters 3 and 4). These three subdivisions compose the habitat for large, mobile aquatic organisms such as fishes. Within the hierarchy of spatial scales (Figure 2.1), valley segments, stream reaches, and channel units represent the largest physical subdivisions that can be directly altered by human...

Water is essential for life on Earth, supporting ecosystems, human health, and economic activities. Hydrology relies on observational data, and this paper discusses regional and national datasets for the conterminous United States (CONUS) publicly available as of 2023, focusing on headwaters, defined as first‐ and second‐order streams at 1:24000 scale. It identifies 72 primary and secondary datasets and 11 repositories and argues how better integration and accessibility of hydrological data can improve research. The paper distinguishes between datasets where streamflow was the primary data...

European colonization of the new world led to rapid conversion of wildlands to agricultural and urban landscapes. The desire to protect remaining natural lands, in the late 1800s, emerged as the modern concept of protected areas. The argument for formal landscape protection was that by removing the influence of humans, natural ecosystems would continue to maintain native species and natural ecological processes (Gaston et al., 2008). There is growing evidence, however, that protected areas are not presently functioning as originally envisioned. Ecological change within protected areas has...

Process-based forest ecosystem models vary from simple physiological, complex physiological, to hybrid empirical-physiological models. Previous studies indicate that complex models provide the best prediction at plot scale with a temporal extent of less than 10 years, however, it is largely untested as to whether complex models outperform the other two types of models at plot and regional scale in longer timeframe (i.e. decades). We compared model predictions of aboveground carbon by one representative model of each model type (PnET-II, ED2 and LINKAGES v2.2, respectively) with field data...

Understanding response of ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forest development following a mountain pine beetle (MPB; Dendroctonus ponderosae) epidemic has important management implications for winter habitat conditions for Merriam’s wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo merriami; hereafter, turkeys). Therefore, we quantified habitat changes over time for turkeys following a widespread MPB epidemic in the Black Hills of South Dakota and evaluated how many years it will take for optimal winter habitat conditions within ponderosa pine forests to recover following such a disturbance. To do so, we...

The 52-year record of streamflow from the Caspar Creek Experimental Watersheds shows a trend toward decreasing rainfall and streamflow during the fall season when coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) migrate upstream to spawn. Rainfall records show a slight declining trend in fall totals and a slight increasing trend in spring totals since 1962, but only November shows a significant decrease in rainfall with year. Mean daily flows between late-October and mid-December declined by about one third. “Fish-passage” flows became less frequent in November. These flows were correlated with adult...

In 1951, five weirs were constructed in the mixed hardwood forests of the Fernow Experimental Forest and watershed research began. Specializing in long-term watershed scale manipulations, researchers at the Fernow have evaluated effects of various silvicultural practices on water yield, seasonal flow patterns, water quality and on ecosystem processes and ecosystem services.