Treesearch

This exclusive study looks at the housing market's impact on woodworking businesses and the actions taken to increase wood product sales. A majority of the woodworking industry remains intrinsically tied to the housing industry, particularly businesses involved in producing cabinetry, furniture, millwork and components. For that reason, construction market conditions and trends - both past and future projections - are critical.

Characterization of scale dependence of fire intervals could inform interpretations of fire history and improve fire prescriptions that aim to mimic historical fire regime conditions. We quantified the temporal variability in fire regimes and described the spatial dependence of fire intervals through the analysis of multi-century fire scar records (8 study sites, 332 trees, 843 fire scars) derived from two historically post oak (Quercus stellata Wangenh.) woodland landscapes. Despite large differences in fire environment conditions, study sites (~1 km2) burned frequently (mean fire...

Adhesive bonding of wood using phenol-formaldehyde remains the industrial standard in wood product bond durability. Not only does this adhesive infiltrate the cell wall, it also is believed to form primary bonds with wood cell wall polymers, particularly guaiacyl lignin. However, the mechanism by which phenol-formaldehyde adhesive intergrally interacts and bonds to lignin within the cell wall remains unclear. We used recently developed sulubilization methodologies in conjunction with two-demensional 1H–13C solution-state NMR spectroscopy of ball milled pine earlywood and latewood bonded...

Moisture storage and transport properties of southern pine (Pinus spp.) wood were measured for implementation into hygrothermal models. Specimens were untreated or pressure-treated with alkaline copper quaternary (ACQ) preservative. Moisture storage was characterized with sorption isotherms in the hygroscopic region (high capillary pressures) and documented with mercury intrusion porosimetry in the overhygroscopic region (low capillary pressures). The data were then combined into a single moisture retention curve as a function of capillary pressure. Moisture transport was evaluated from...

Prior to the 1980s, the allowable stresses for lumber in North America were derived from testing of small clear specimens. However, the procedures were changed because these models were found to be inaccurate. Nevertheless, small clear testing continues to be used around the world for allowable stress determinations and in studies that examine forest management impacts on wood quality. Using small clear and nondestructive technologies is advantageous because of the ease of obtaining and testing small clear specimens compared with lumber. The objective of this study was to compare mechanical...

Expanding bioenergy production from woody biomass has the potential to decrease net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improve the energy security of the United States. Science-based and internationally accepted life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an effective tool for policy makers to make scientifically informed decisions on expanding renewable energy production from newly developed bioenergy technologies. A distributed-scale high-temperature thermochemical conversion system, referred to as the Tucker renewable natural gas (RNG) unit, was evaluated for producing medium-energy synthesis gas...

Exporting is a critical component of the product mix for many domestic hardwood firms. Previous research has identified factors associated with hardwood lumber exporting behavior, but less is known about the advantages and disadvantages to exporting associated with the region within which a firm is located, or about exporting of secondary hardwood products. A procedure comparing a measure of production (employment) to the level of exporting in three US hardwood regions (based on aggregations of state-level data) was used to contrast regional relative exporting of primary and secondary...

Electronic-nose (e-nose) devices are instruments designed to detect and discriminate between precise complex gaseous mixtures of volatile organic compounds derived from specific organic sources, such as clinical test samples from patients, based on electronic aroma signature patterns (distinct digital sensor responses) resulting from the combined outputs of a multisensor array. E-nose tools allow the identification of complex gaseous samples at relatively low costs, making them useful in a diverse range of clinical situations, particularly for assessments of a patients’ metabolic (physiolog...

The current outbreak of eastern larch beetle (Dendroctonus simplex LeConte) in Minnesota, USA, ongoing since 2000, has been characterized with a severity and duration unprecedented in previous outbreaks within the state. This study investigates the relationship between tamarack mortality due to eastern larch beetle and extant stand and site characteristics. Observations of tree attribute information and site condition collected over the course of the outbreak from nearly 15,000 tamarack trees in three different ecological regions of Minnesota were modeled using linear regression. Increasing...

Much uncertainty exists regarding the possible role that gaps in forest canopies play in modulating fire–atmosphere interactions in otherwise horizontally homogeneous forests. This study examines the influence of gaps in forest canopies on atmospheric perturbations induced by a low-intensity fire using the ARPS-CANOPY model, a version of the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS) model with a canopy parameterization. A series of numerical experiments are conducted with a stationary low-intensity fire, represented in the model as a line of enhanced surface sensible heat flux. Experiments...