Treesearch

We describe the use of linked land-use and forest sector models to simulate the effects of carbon offset sales on private forest owners' land-use and forest management decisions inwestern Oregon (USA). Our work focuses on forest management decisions rather than afforestation, allows full forest sector price adjustment to land-use changes, and incorporates time-dependent costs and restrictions of offset programs. The land-use model utilizes structure count data on some 21,000 plots spanning 30 years. The intertemporal optimizing forest sector model employs mill-level demand and FIA plot-leve...

Land management practices, invasive species expansion, and changes in the fire regime greatly impact the distribution of native plants in natural areas. Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis), a keystone species in the Great Basin, has seen a 50% reduction in its distribution. For many dryland species, reestablishment efforts have focused on direct seeding but achieved only minor success due to irregular seed germination and poor survival. We investigated the effects of container volume and fertilization on the performance of nursery-grown Wyoming big sagebrush...

We present a case study of the Las Conchas Fire (2011) to explore the role of previously burned areas (wildfires and prescribed fires) on suppression effectiveness and avoided exposure. Methodological innovations include characterisation of the joint dynamics of fire growth and suppression activities, development of a fire line effectiveness framework, and quantification of relative fire line efficiencies inside and outside of previously burned areas. We provide descriptive statistics of several fire line effectiveness metrics. Additionally, we leverage burn probability modelling to...

Gridded temperature data sets are typically produced at spatial resolutions that cannot fully resolve fine-scale variation in surface air temperature in regions of complex topography. These data limitations have become increasingly important as scientists and managers attempt to understand and plan for potential climate change impacts. Here, we describe the development of a high-resolution (250 m) daily historical (1979-2012) temperature data set for the US Northern Rocky Mountains using observations from both long-term weather stations and a dense network of low-cost temperature sensors....

The imminent demise of montane species is a recurrent theme in the climate change literature, particularly for aquatic species that are constrained to networks and elevational rather than latitudinal retreat as temperatures increase. Predictions of widespread species losses, however, have yet to be fulfilled despite decades of climate change, suggesting that trends are much weaker than anticipated and may be too subtle for detection given the widespread use of sparse water temperature datasets or imprecise surrogates like elevation and air temperature. Through application of large water-tem...

Forest managers need methods to evaluate the impacts of management at the watershed scale. The Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) has the ability to model disturbed forested hillslopes, but has difficulty addressing some of the critical processes that are important at a watershed scale, including baseflow and water yield. In order to apply WEPP to forested watersheds, we developed and assessed new approaches for simulating streamflow and sediment transport from large watersheds using WEPP. We created specific algorithms to spatially distribute soil, climate, and management input files...

Post-fire forest management commonly requires accepting some negative ecological impacts from management activities in order to achieve management objectives. Managers need to know, however, whether ecological impacts from post-fire management activities are transient or cause long-term ecosystem degradation. We studied the long-term response of understory vegetation to two post-fire logging treatments - commercial salvage logging with and without additional fuel reduction logging - on a long-term post-fire logging experiment in northeastern Oregon, USA. We sampled understory plant cover...

Efforts to amend the Tongass National Forest Land Management Plan have necessitated the development of several management scenarios to assist with planning efforts. One scenario focuses on increasing the utilization of sawmill residues and low-grade material as feedstock for expanding biomass energy markets. The development of a biomass industry is viewed as a solution for a variety of problems in Alaska, from high heating fuel costs to a persistent lack of markets for mill and logging residue and low-grade logs since the last Alaska pulp mill closed in 1997. To support scenario development...

This report presents updated information on a 1981 Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco var. menziesii ) plantation spacing trial at 33 years from planting. Stand statistics at the most recent measurement were compared for initial spacing of 1 through 6 meters and associated relative densities. There was no clear relationship of spacing to top height. Diameter, live crown ratio, and percent survival increased with spacing; basal area and relative density decreased with increase in spacing. Volume in trees ≥ 4 cm diameter was greatest at 2 m spacing, while utilizable volume...

We selected 66 sample trees from two thinning treatments, each of which was applied at three sites on the Siuslaw National Forest in Oregon. The first commercial thinnings, conducted in 1992 and 1993, had been designed to accelerate the development of large trees with large branches and other old-growth characteristics so as to improve habitat for bird species that depend on such characteristics. Our sample trees, removed in commercial thinnings from 2008 to 2010, were felled and bucked into long (woods-length) logs whose stems were measured in detail, with surface defects also measured...