Treesearch

Today is the era of “big data” where businesses have access to enormous amounts of often complex and sometimes unwieldy data. Businesses are using business intelligence (BI) systems to transform this data into useful information for management decisions. BI systems integrate applications, processes, data, and people to deliver prompt and robust analyses. A number of successful organizations such the New England Patriots and Google are capitalizing on BI systems. Prototype dashboards have been developed by the Forest Inventory and Analysis program of the Northern Research Station (NRS-FIA)...

The Forest Inventory and Analysis Program is the unrivaled source for long-term, spatially balanced, publicly available data. FIA will continue to be providers of data, but the program is growing and adapting, including a shift in how we communicate information and knowledge derived from those data. Online applications, interactive mapping, and infographics provide broader appeal to a wider audience compared to state reports or peer-reviewed journal articles. This presentation uses ArcGIS Online applications to tell the story of how tree species distributions are shifting in response to...

Non-timber forest products [NTFPs] originate from plants and fungi that are harvested from natural, manipulated or disturbed forests. NTFPs may include fungi, moss, lichen, herbs, vines, shrubs, or trees. People harvest the products for many reasons, including personal, recreational and spiritual uses, as well as commercial gain. The assessment of volumes and values is based on reports of permitted harvests of NTFPs by the US Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. These “sales” are assumed to be for commercial use but stating definitively that they are is speculative at best....

Hawaiian forests provide a wide array of non-timber forest products for both traditional and modern uses. Flowers, vines, and ferns are collected for creating garlands or lei for hula dances and parades. Lei made from materials gathered in the forest are made for personal use and sold, especially during graduation times. Bamboo is harvested for structures and for making traditional Japanese New Year’s ornaments or kadomatsu. Firewood is collected for traditional earth ovens. While some local gathering might impact local resources, little is known about amounts of non-timber forest products...

The US Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program collects data on a wealth of variables related to trees and understory species in forests. Some of these trees and plants produce non-timber forest products (NTFPs; e.g., seeds, fruit, bark, sap, roots) that are harvested for their culinary and medicinal values. As example, the cones of Pinus edulis and P. monophylla are collected for the edible pine nuts. The bark of more than a dozen tree species that are inventoried by FIA is collected for medicinal, decorative, and construction purposes. Slippery elm (Ulmus rubra) bark...

Assessing the size and structure of non-timber forest product (NTFP) markets is difficult due to a lack of knowledge about NTFP supply chains. Harvesting ginseng and other wild medicinal plants has long provided a source of income and cultural identity in Appalachian communities in the eastern United States. With the exception of ginseng, the extent of the harvest of medicinal forest products is unknown. Surveys with ginseng dealers about other NTFPs generate data on the trade volume for a variety of other products, and the geographic distribution of their harvest. A multi-method approach...

Human activities have become important influences on the fluvial systems of eastern North America since post-colonial settlement. This research identifies post-settlement anthropic signatures in alluvial sediments in the Upper Little Tennessee River, USA. Agricultural and mining activities were scattered and discontinuous in this relatively remote region of the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains. We compared physical and chemical characteristics of sediments in post-settlement and pre-settlement stratigraphic units at three separate sites. Chronologies were calculated using non-linear power...

Parcelization and forest fragmentation are of concern for ecological, economic, and social reasons. Efforts to keep large, private forests intact may be supported by a decision-making process that incorporates landowners’ objectives and uncertainty. We used structured decision making (SDM) with owners of large, private forests in Macon County, North Carolina. Macon County has little land use regulation and a history of discordant, ineffective attempts to address land use and development. We worked with landowners to define their objectives, identify decision options for forest management,...

This paper presents a place-based examination of the timing and long-term pedogenic effects of human-induced forest to pasture conversion in the French western Pyrenees Mountains, Basque commune of Larrau. We analyzed colluvial stratigraphic sections to derive the chronology of landscape change using radiocarbon dating, charcoal concentrations, magnetic susceptibility, and n-alkanes to reveal when forests were replaced by pastures (largely by intentional use of fire). In addition, we compared properties of native forest soils to those of adjacent long-term pastures using a paired t-test...

Historically, results of surveys conducted by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service were conveyed in printed reports, featuring text, tables and static figures. Since the advent of the Internet and with the ubiquity of mobile smart devices, technology has changed how people consume information, as well as how they experience and interact with the world. Web applications, such as the ESRI Story Map Journal© which serves as a confluence for embedded text, maps, images and other dynamic content, provide a platform from which a user can point and click to...