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Poster abstracts from proceedings, 19.th Central Hardwood Forest Conference

During January 26-28, 2009, a winter storm dropped a mix of rain, ice, and snow from Texas across the Ohio River Valley and into New England. The storm caused multiple fatalities and millions of dollars of property damage and was called "the biggest natural disaster in modern Kentucky history" (Brammer and Funk 2009: 13). The storm disturbed an estimated 2.4 million acres of forest land across the central United States, including 2.1 million acres in Arkansas and Kentucky (Miles 2013). Ice accumulations up to 2.0 inches thick caused extensive damage to trees throughout the region.

Outdoor recreation can cause both positive and negative impacts on associated forest ecosystems. Forest recreation trails localize negative impacts to a controlled spatial extent while providing recreation access beyond developed areas and transportation networks. Current methods for assessing extent and severity of trail and proximal resource degradation require onsite expert assessment. The methods are analog—e.g., tape measure—although data may be recorded digitally by handheld global positioning system (GPS) using: (1) spatially sparse discontinuous point sampling, or (2)...

One of the fastest growing forms of outdoor recreation is equestrian trail riding. In a study examining long-term trends of use on Forest Service lands, equestrian-based recreation was identified as one of the top five activities experiencing growth. As the numbers of horse riders rise, the economic impact of equestrian recreation can be expected to increase across the country. However, equestrian use has been identified with several negative impacts on trail systems including soil compaction, increased trail width and depth, and reduced surface litter. Evidence shows that the problems...

Engaging children in natural settings enhances learning, promotes early childhood development, and makes use of protected natural areas. Unfortunately, many schoolchildren, especially from economically disadvantaged areas, lack support for environmental education (EE) to develop skills and attitudes that increase rates of appropriate outdoor behaviors. Improved access to environmental education should reduce the amount of resource degradation that occurs when children visit protected natural areas. Many of these children’s depreciative behaviors can be classified as uninformed or unintentio...

Sediment loads were measured for about one year from natural gas pipelines in two studies in north central West Virginia. One study involved a 1-year-old pipeline buried within the bed of a 25-year-old skid road, and the other involved a newly constructed cross-country pipeline. Both pipelines were the same diameter and were installed using similar trenching and backfilling techniques. Erosion was measured from both pipelines at the outfall of waterbars, and sediment losses were expressed on a per area basis to compare the pipeline segments. Average sediment yields per sampling period...

An equation for converting Mesavage and Girard's International ¼ inch tree volumes to the Doyle log rule is presented as a function of tree diameter. Volume error for trees having less than four logs exhibited volume prediction errors within a range of ±10 board feet. In addition, volume prediction error as a percent of actual Doyle tree volume was generally less than 10 percent for all trees and less than 5 percent for trees larger than 20-inch diameter at breast height (d.b.h.) This equation was developed for those wanting a more accurate method of converting standard inventory estimates...

Despite the severe downturn in the housing market that began in 2007, construction-related uses collectively remain the largest source of demand for appearance-grade hardwood lumber in the United States. Therefore, industry practitioners and researchers alike maintain an interest in housing and construction trends. This study investigated market conditions from the perspective of secondary woodworkers via 4 years of data from subscribers to "Wood & Wood Products" (now named "Wood Products") magazine. The series began in February 2010 (for the year 2009) and surveys were conducted in...

Knowing the thickness of bark along the stem of a tree is critical to accurately estimate residue and, more importantly, estimate the volume of solid wood available. Determining the volume or weight of bark for a log is important because bark and wood mass are typically separated while processing logs, and accurate determination of volume is problematic. Bark thickness is known to vary with species, tree diameter, and location along the stem. This paper examines the bark thicknesses of four Appalachian hardwoods: red oak (Quercus rubra), white oak (Quercus alba), yellow-poplar (Liriodendron...

Accurately determining the volume of logs and bark is crucial to estimating the total expected value recovery from a log. Knowing the correct size and volume of a log helps to determine which processing method, if any, should be used on a given log. However, applying volume estimation methods consistently can be difficult. Errors in log measurement and oddly shaped logs can make log and residue volume estimates inaccurate. Laser log scanning systems consistently measure the surface points on a log to accuracies of 0.01 inch and finer. Using the measurement data from a laser scanning system...