Treesearch

Tree growth equations are an important and common tool used to effectively assess the yield and determine management practices in forest plantations. Increasingly, they are being developed for urban forests, providing tools to assist urban forest managers with species selection, placement, and estimation of management costs and ecosystem services. This study describes the development of allometric equations for Fraxinus americana and F. pennsylvanica growing in Oakville, Canada. With data collected from 103 ash trees, five allometric models were tested to develop equations estimating...

The Rocky Mountain Research Station is one of seven regional units that make up the USDA Forest Service Research and Development organization - the most extensive natural resources research organization in the world. We maintain 12 field laboratories throughout a 12-state territory encompassing the Great Basin, Southwest, Rocky Mountains and parts of the Great Plains (see map). Our research program serves the Forest Service as well as other federal and state agencies, international organizations, Tribes, academia, non-profit groups and individuals.

As a result of the forest pathology trip that occurred during September of 2013, advances were made on several important fronts, and future activities were also identified as critical for addressing threats to forest health in Micronesia. The purpose of this chapter is to list and briefly describe each of these activities.

The area of a massive mangrove dieback in Yinuf Mn Island, Yap, was selected as the first location to study mangrove dieback problems. Seawater and soil samples were collected from plots where the mangrove trees were dead/dying and these samples were analyzed for eight different seawater and soil floor properties. Seawater and soil properties from dead/dying/missing mangrove samples were then compared with these same eight properties for seawater and soil samples collected in nearby plots where mangrove trees appeared healthy. For these eight properties, no apparent differences were found...

Ganoderma and Phellinus are two common fungal genera causing butt-rot on trees growing on USA-affiliated islands of the western Pacific. Although these fungi can be quite prevalent, especially in some older mangrove stands, it appears that the majority of infections caused by these fungi leads to severe rotting of the heartwood but do not kill the living tissues of the sapwood, cambium and phloem. Thus, the usual consequence of infection by butt-rot fungi in this part of the world is a loss of structural strength in the bole, but not mortality to the tree. Three notable exceptions were...

Phellinus noxius has a reputation of being an aggressive root rot pathogen on many forest tree species in parts of Southeast Asia and its symptoms and signs have been well documented. Previous reports from Micronesia indicated that this fungal pathogen is responsible for considerable damage in Saipan and likely present in Kosrae and Pohnpei. In this present report, an initial survey was conducted on selected islands of Micronesia (Yap, Palau, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Guam and Saipan) to determine if P. noxius was present and to determine its relative abundance. Preliminary observations indicate...

In September of 2013, an opportunity was seized by the Regional Forest Pathologist to do some work on the following islands in Micronesia and the Marianas: Yap, Palau, Guam, Saipan, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. The principle justification for doing the work at this time was that satellite images showed large areas of dead mangroves on Yap (Liu, pers. com). Many parties wanted to know the cause of this extensive dieback. However, it is a long and expensive trip to Yap, so it was decided to couple the investigation of this mangrove problem with several other ongoing forest pathology activities in...

A thorough analysis of the kraft pulping process makes it obvious why it has dominated for over a century as an industrial process with no replacement in sight. It uses low cost raw materials, collects and regenerates over 90% of the chemicals needed in the process, is indifferent to wood raw material and good at preserving the cellulose portion of the wood which is the part that provides strong fibers. Although an odiferous process, extremely capital intensive, and very poor at preserving hemicellulose yield, no alternatives have been able to replace it for process cost and product...

On August 18, 1972, an aerial patrol reported a snag burning deep in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in Idaho. Bob Mutch, then a young research forester, traveled to the site the following day for an on-the-ground assessment. It was, Mutch later recalled, a little "nothing fire" that posed no threat. And he was right. Growing to only 24 feet by 24 feet, the lightning-started blaze burned itself out after four days, covering less than a quarter-acre. The Bad Luck Creek fire proved to be good luck for Mutch and his colleagues, who the day before it started had received written permission...

Mountain pine beetle tree colonization typically occurs in July and August, with completion of a generation one (univoltinism) or two (semivoltinism) years later. In a 2012 publication, Mitton and Ferrenberg suggested that climate change resulted in an unprecedented generation between June and September (a summer generation), with a concomitant shift to two generations in one year (bivoltinism). Although summer generations are not uncommon in this species, completion of a second generation across winter, between September and June, would be required for bivoltinism, a phenomenon not...