Treesearch

Setting endpoints and targets in forest restoration is a complicated task that is best accomplished in cooperative partnerships that account for the ecology of the system, production of desired ecosystem goods and services, economics and well-being of society, and future environments. Clearly written and quantitative endpoints and intermediary targets need to be defined to manage restoration of ecosystem structure, composition, function, and production. Selecting indicators of key ecosystem attributes that are linked to endpoint and target condition, function, sustainability, health,...

Landowners and clients often confront arborists and landscapers about mushrooms or other visible signs of fungi. Questions can run the gamut from "Are they killing the trees," "Should I knock them off," to "Are they good to eat?" Although no one can have the perfect answer to all possible questions, the practitioner can guide the client to understanding the big picture. In the process, this guidance demonstrates the expertise and the enthusiasm of the practitioner for nature and the landscape.

The hydrology, soils, and watershed processes of a wetland all interact with vegetation and animals over time to create the dynamic physical template upon which a wetland's ecosystem is based (Fig. 2.1). With respect to many ecosystem processes, the physical factors defining a wetland environment at any particular time are often treated as independent variables, but in fact none of these variables are independent of the others. For example, the hydropattern of a wetland (the time series of water levels) is often considered a master variable that affects the soils, biogeochemistry, and...

The role of community-based natural resources management in the form of "greening" after large scale system shocks and surprises is argued to provide multiple benefits via engagement with living elements of social-ecological systems and subsequent enhanced resilience at multiple scales. The importance of so-called social-ecological symbols, especially the potent hybrid symbols of trees and their handling after a disaster is interrogated. The paper explores the notion of hybridity, and applies it to the hybrid symbol of the tree in postdisaster contexts. The paper briefly highlights three...

The backcross breeding of American chestnut (Castanea dentata [Marsh.] Borkh.) with Chinese chestnut (Castanea mollissima Blume) may provide an effective method to increase resistance against chestnut blight and help restore American chestnut throughout its historic range. However, the comparative adaptation (e.g., cold hardiness and growth) of American and Chinese chestnut source material in the north has been largely overlooked. We assessed first-year growth and shoot winter injury of 13 genetic sources of American chestnut and 2 sources each of Chinese chestnut and red oak (Quercus...

Most research exploring the relationship between soil chemistry and vegetation in Alaskan Arctic tundra landscapes has focused on describing differences in soil elemental concentrations (e.g. C, N and P) of areas with contrasting vegetation types or landscape age. In this work we assess the effect of landscape age on physico-chemical parameters in organic and mineral soils from two longterm research sites in northern Alaska, the Toolik Lake and Imnavait grids. These two sites have contrasting landscape age but similar vegetation composition. We also used correlation analysis to evaluate if...

Forest resource statistics from the 2010 Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment were updated to provide current information on the Nation's forests as a baseline for the 2015 national assessment. Resource tables present estimates of forest area, volume, mortality, growth, removals, and timber products output in various ways, such as by ownership, region, or State. Current resource data and trends are analyzed and placed within the context of changes since 1953. Additional analyses look at the resource from an ecological, health, and productivity perspective. An interactive RPA Data Wiz...

There is growing recognition that the sustainable governance of water resources requires building social-ecological resilience against future surprises. Adaptive comanagement, a distinct institutional mechanism that combines the learning focus of adaptive management with the multilevel linkages of comanagement, has recently emerged as a promising mechanism for building social-ecological resilience. This paper employs the concept of adaptive comanagement to analyze ongoing institutional reforms in the Cache River watershed of southern Illinois. Since the 1970s, efforts have been made to...

Riparian buffers have been widely advocated as a best management practice for improving stream and lake water quality. Giant cane (Arundinaria gigantean) is a good candidate to include in multispecies riparian buffers designs, as it promotes infiltration of surface runoff and deposition of sediment and associated nutrients. To examine the potential of giant cane as a riparian zone species in the Cache River watershed in southern Illinois, we identified common physical site characteristics for 140 existing southern Illinois canebrakes. Percent slope, soil taxonomy, and pH, along with...

The long-term impacts of even-age forest management and excessive browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) on regeneration are unknown for hardwood forests in the eastern United States. In 1965, Gene Wood, a graduate student at Pennsylvania State University, initiated a study in a mixed-oak forest in central Pennsylvania to examine changes in forest composition in response to clearcutting and deer browsing (Wood 1971). After the study ended in 1972, no other management was implemented, thus presenting a unique opportunity to collect long-term data on stand development. The...