Treesearch

This report provides an overview of expected housing density changes and related impacts to private forests on America's islands in the Pacific and Caribbean, specifically Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We discuss the vulnerability of island forests to conversion for housing development, introduction and spread of invasive species, and risk of uncharacteristic wildfire, among other concerns. Our maps and projections suggest that in localized areas from 3 to 25 percent of private forest land is likely...

Forests are a defining landscape feature for much of the Midwest, from boreal forests surrounding the northern Great Lakes to oak-hickory forests blanketing the Ozarks. Savannas and open woodlands within this region mark a major transition zone between forest and grassland biomes within the U.S. Forests help sustain human communities in the region, ecologically, economically, and culturally. Climate change is anticipated to have a pervasive influence on forests in this region over the coming decades.

This publication provides an overview of the forest resources in New York based on inventories conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the Northern Research Station. Information about the national and regional FIA program is available online at http://fia.fs.fed.us. Since 2003, FIA has implemented an annual inventory in New York. For the 2013 inventory, estimates for current variables, such as area, volume, and biomass, are based on 4,800 plots (both forested and nonforest) inventoried from 2009-2013. Change variables, such as net growth,...

The emerald ash borer Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire is a serious invasive forest pest of ash (Fraxinus) trees in North America. Life tables were constructed for both experimentally established cohorts and wild populations of A. planipennis on healthy host trees from 2008 to 2011 in six forests in central Michigan. Life table analysis showed that the net population growth rates (R0) for the experimental cohorts (16.0±2.9) and associated wild A. planipennis (19.4±1.9) were the highest for the first study period (2008-2009) at three Ingham Co. sites but decreased to 4.7±0.9 and 4.6±0.4,...

In a patch of sky above Pennsylvania, a golden eagle moves languidly, never flapping but passing quickly as it cruises southward on a cushion of air. It is migrating to its wintering grounds after a season of breeding in Quebec. As part of a team studying eagles on a daily basis—a project supported by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), West Virginia University, and other partners—we never tire of watching these iconic birds soar. The fall migration is especially notable here in the central Appalachians, where golden eagles often migrate at low altitudes, close to those of us who...

This publication provides an overview of forest resources in Delaware based on inventories conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the Northern Research Station. Information about the national and regional FIA program is available online at http://fia.fs.fed.us. Since 2004, FIA has employed an annual inventory measuring data on a nominal 20 percent of sample plots each year in Delaware. For the 2013 inventory, estimates for current variables such as area, volume, and biomass are based on 389 plots collected from 2009-2013. Change variables such...

This publication provides an overview of forest resources in Maryland based on inventories conducted by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the Northern Research Station. Information about the national and regional FIA program is available online at http://fia.fs.fed.us. Since 2004, FIA has employed an annual inventory measuring data on a nominal 20 percent of sample plots each year in Maryland. For the 2013 inventory, estimates for current variables such as area, volume, and biomass, are based on 1009 plots sampled from 2009-2013. Change variables such...

Wildland fire occurrence has been increasing in peatland ecosystems during recent decades. As such, there is a need for broadly applicable tools to detect and monitor controls on combustion such as surface peat moisture and water-table position. A field portable spectroradiometer was used to measure surface reflectance of two Sphagnum moss-dominated peatland experiments, one being an experimental study utilizing a factorial experiment of vegetation andwater-table manipulations and the other being a field site located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that is broadly representative of...

Consideration of forest health is central to the sustainable management of forests. While many definitions of forest health have been proposed, the most widely adopted concept refers to the sustained functioning of desired forest ecosystem processes (Kolb et al., 1994). Legitimate complaints have been raised about the human-centric usage of the term "Forest Health," particularly the inappropriate analogy to human health (Raffa et al., 2009) , but the concept is widely applied and provides a useful guide for management of forests around desired ecosystem functioning. The term also provides...

Nitrogen is an element essential to plant growth and ecosystem productivity. Excess nitrogen, however, is a common water pollutant. It can lead to algal blooms that deplete the water's dissolved oxygen, creating "dead zones" devoid of fish and aquatic insects. Previous research showed that the subsurface area of a stream, known as the hyporheic zone, regulated amounts of waterborne nitrogen, but the nature of that role was unclear. Forest Service and university scientists undertook a suite of experiments to learn what factors determine if the hyporheic zone will be source or a sink for...