Treesearch

Georgia Adopt-A-Stream partners annually with many organizations, universities and watershed groups to conduct sampling events with volunteers at a watershed level. These monitoring events range from one-day snapshots to week-long paddle trips. One-day sampling events, also called “Blitzs,” River Adventures and River Rendezvous, generally target 20-50 sites within a watershed.

Land use and land cover play a significant role as drivers of environmental change. Information on what is changing and where those changes are occurring is essential if we are to improve our understanding of past management practices or policies and effectively respond now and in the future.

Riparian buffers are dynamic, transitional ecosystems between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems with well-defined vegetation and soil characteristics. Previous approaches to riparian buffer delineation have primarily utilized fixed-width buffers. However, these methodologies only take the watercourse into consideration and ignore critical geomorphology, associated vegetation and soil characteristics.

The lag time between groundwater recharge and discharge in a watershed and the potential groundwater load to streams is an important factor in forecasting responses to future land use practices. We call this concept managing the “space-time-load continuum.” It’s understood that in any given watershed, the response function (the load at any given time) will differ for surface runoff and groundwater discharge. The mean age of surface runoff may be days whereas for groundwater it could be many decades. Surface runoff reflects contemporaneous land use practices and relatively quick reactions...

The objective of large landscape conser vation is to mitigate complex ecological problems through interventions at multiple and overlapping scales. Implementation requires coordination among a diverse network of individuals and organizations to integrate local-scale conservation activities with broad-scale goals. This requires an understanding of the governance options and how governance regimes achieve objectives or provide performance evaluation across both space and time. However, empirical assessments measuring network-governance performance in large landscape conservation are limited....

Over the last several decades, bottomland restoration efforts have established hundreds of thousands of acres of planted hardwood stands throughout the Southeastern U.S. Much of the initial research focused on planting approaches and early growth and survival, contributing to more effective establishment methods. However, less research attention has been focused on stand development and treatment options for these planted stands as they age. Given that many afforestation stands are approaching 20 years of age or greater and undergoing crown closure, an improved knowledge of stand conditions...

The use of herbicides in hardwood management presents special problems in that many of the most effective herbicides are either designed to control hardwoods or the product is not labeled for such applications. Numerous studies involving herbicide application in hardwoods have been completed at Mississippi State University. This paper is a compilation of results from research projects which provides the latest information for such applications which we have to make available.

Successful oak (Quercus spp.) regeneration requires the presence of competitive sources of oak reproduction before parent oaks are harvested. Mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia) in the understory of many Appalachian forests prevents new oak seedlings from receiving adequate sunlight to survive and grow into competitive size classes. This study examined the efficacy of three herbicides (triclopyr, glyphosate, or imazapyr) applied as a foliar spray on mountain laurel in a mature mixed-oak forest. Each herbicide was applied at three rates, expressed as quarts per acre. The herbicides were...

Landowners have experienced a dizzying array of timber prices over the past several years. At one time, hardwood pulpwood brought very little per ton and today it brings as much or more than pine pulpwood. In some markets in the Southeast today, oak sawtimber is bringing more than pine poles. Many landowners, who previously said they wanted their hardwood stands left alone because of the perceived wildlife value, are expressing an interest in upland hardwood management and regenerating their stands. Very few demonstrations are available to show landowners how they might work towards this...

Epicormic development has been traditionally thought to be a response to increased light and to varying vigor and genetics among individuals within a species, but epicormic ontogeny has increasingly been shown to be a more fundamental factor. Previous studies have quantified the impact of tree vigor on epicormic sprouting and epicormic branch size following silvicultural treatments, but few assessed the genetic component of development. In this study, data from a crop tree release treatment in a 25 year old white oak (Quercus alba L.) progeny test in Indiana was used to isolate the...