Treesearch

In the past 40 years, the perception of periodic fire in upland oak (Quercus spp.) forests in the eastern United States has changed dramatically. Once thought of as a wholly destructive force, periodic fire is now considered an important disturbance whose absence is a major contributing factor to oak regeneration problems. This change in attitude and the concurrent development of prescribed fire as an accepted oak regeneration tool are due to several research—management partnerships. Starting in the 1970s, cooperative research between the USDA Forest Service and various land management...

The advent of even-age management in eastern forests in the 1960s improved regeneration of shade-intolerant and shade-intermediate species through much of the region. However, in the Allegheny hardwood stands of northern Pennsylvania, half of the even-aged regeneration harvests failed to create new forests. USDA Forest Service Research and Development (FSR&D) initiated a partnership with federal, state, industrial, and private forest landowners to solve this problem using silviculture. The partners developed inventory procedures and decision charts to identify regeneration assets and...

SILVAH is a systematic approach to silvicultural prescription development based on inventory and analysis of stand data for Allegheny hardwood, northern hardwood, and mixed oak forests. SILVAH includes annual training sessions and decision support software, and it ensures a consistent, complete, and objective approach to prescriptions. SILVAH has created a community of practice with common vocabulary and framework for assessing forest stands. Lessons learned from thirty years of research-manager cooperation may be relevant to the work of the Consortium of Appalachian Fire Managers and...

Woody biomass could be used to generate energy in the western US if the utilization process is both economically feasible and ecologically sustainable. The purpose of the RMRS-led Biomass Research and Development Initiative (BRDI) is to develop technologies, approaches, and new science that will help to make this possible. This issue of the Bulletin is focused on research addressing challenges of the biomass supply chain, from the time that a forest treatment is initiated to the time that the biomass residue reaches an end user (a later issue will address the technology of biomass conversio...

Forest erosion can lead to topsoil loss, and also to damaging deposits of sediment in aquatic ecosystems. For this reason, forest managers must be able to estimate the erosion potential of both planned management activities and catastrophic events, in order to decide where to use limited funds to focus erosion control efforts. To meet this need, scientists from RMRS (and collaborators) have spent over a decade developing a suite of online tools that can be used to predict erosion potential of forest alterations such as road building, forest management, and wildfire, as part of the Forest...

Urban environmental stewardship groups have become an essential component of the governance structure that regulates ecosystem services in cities. New York City is one example where these groups have grown rapidly in number, size, and visibility since the 1970s. In this article, we combine quantitative survey data with qualitative interview data to examine the structure and development of the governance network that has grown around the management of urban ecosystem services in New York City. We find that the network is organized according to ecological function and geography. We find as...

The summer of 2013 was drier than normal along the Front Range, so when rain started falling on the northern end on September 9, 2013, some greeted it with enthusiasm. Others tempered their enthusiasm when the five-day forecast revealed an anomalous lineup of raincloud icons. In fact, a stationary low pressure system had developed over the Great Basin, to the west of the Rocky Mountains, and began to pull monsoonal tropical moisture from the Pacific Ocean as well as more moist air off the Gulf of Mexico. This circulation pattern directed and focused these moisture plumes toward the Front...

Climate change is causing rapid changes to stream habitats across the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest as warmer air temperatures and changes in precipitation increase stream temperatures, alter stream hydrology, and increase the extent and magnitude of natural disturbances related to droughts and wildfires. These changes are affecting trout, salmon, and other fish populations, many of which are already subject to substantial non-climate stressors. Fish habitats at lower elevations - near the downstream edges of species distributions - are particularly vulnerable. However, three Rocky...

Dalmatian and yellow toadflax are aesthetically pleasing weeds wreaking havoc in rangelands across the western United States. These non-native forbs spread rapidly into fields following fire, tilling, construction, or other disturbances. They are successful and stubborn invaders, producing massive quantities of seeds each year and rapidly re-sprouting from root fragments. Eight non-native toadflax feeding insect species have been intentionally released or accidentally introduced in North America. Stem mining weevils, Mecinus spp., serve as particularly powerful "weed whackers" against...

Planning for hazardous fuels reduction can be challenging, given that land managers must balance multiple resource objectives. To help managers with planning and implementing fuel treatments, the Rocky Mountain Research Station, with support from the Joint Fire Science Program, has published A Comprehensive Guide to Fuel Management Practices for Dry Mixed Conifer Forests in the Northwestern United States (RMRS-GTR- 292). Developed in close consultation with managers, the guide contains a synthesis of the best information on the management community’s most frequently asked questions about...