Treesearch

Wildland fire and associated management efforts are dominant topics in natural resource fields. Smoke from fires can be a nuisance and pose serious health risks and aggravate pre-existing health conditions. When it results in reduced visibility near roadways, smoke can also pose hazardous driving conditions and reduce the scenic value of vistas. Communicating about smoke, whether in the preparation phases before a planned burn or during a wildfire event, can enable those at risk to make informed decisions to minimize their exposure to smoke or choose alternate activities that mitigate...

Multiple remote sensing-based approaches to estimating gross afforestation, gross deforestation, and net deforestation are possible. However, many of these approaches have severe data requirements in the form of long time series of remotely sensed data and/or large numbers of observations of land cover change to train classifiers and assess the accuracy of classifications. In particular, when rates of change are small and equal probability sampling is used, observations of change may be scarce. For these situations, post-classification approaches may be the only viable alternative. The...

This paper examines micro-processes of institutionalization, using the case of stewardship contracting within the US Forest Service. Our basic premise is that, until a new policy becomes an everyday practice among local actors, it will not become institutionalized at the macro-scale. We find that micro-processes of institutionalization are driven by a mixture of large-scale institutional dynamics and how frontline decisionmakers understand and interpret these dynamics, given the local social and ecological context in which they operate. For example, this paper suggests that a new policy...

Quantifying the amount of forest and change in the amount of forest are key to ensure that appropriate management practices and policies are in place to maintain the array of ecosystem services provided by forests. There are a range of analytical techniques and data available to estimate these forest parameters, however, not all ‘forest’ is the same and various components of change have been presented. Forest as defined by use and forest as defined by cover are different, although it is common for scientists and policy makers to infer one from the other. We compare and contrast estimates...

A large pool of organic carbon (C) has been accumulating in the Arctic for thousands of years because cold and waterlogged conditions have protected soil organic material from microbial decomposition. As the climate warms this vast and frozen C pool is at risk of being thawed, decomposed, and released to the atmosphere as greenhouse gasses. At the same time, some C losses may be offset by warming-mediated increases in plant productivity. Plant and microbial responses to warming ultimately determine net C exchange from ecosystems, but the timing and magnitude of these responses remain...

The Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics (MRLC) Consortium demonstrates the national benefits of USA Federal collaboration. Starting in the mid-1990s as a small group with the straightforward goal of compiling a comprehensive national Landsat dataset that could be used to meet agencies’ needs, MRLC has grown into a group of 10 USA Federal Agencies that coordinate the production of five different products, including the National Land Cover Database (NLCD), the Coastal Change Analysis Program (C-CAP), the Cropland Data Layer (CDL), the Gap Analysis Program (GAP), and the Landscape Fire and...

This article examines increases in eastern hardwood sawtimber volume by species group and species, the utilization of sawtimber by species groups and important eastern species, the utilization of sawtimber by species group by subregion, and discusses issues that could impede future growth of the hardwood timber resource. Eastern hardwood sawtimber volume has nearly tripled between 1953 and 2011 with yellow-poplar, soft maple, ash, and cottonwood/aspen having the greatest increase. Ironically, the cottonwood/aspen group appears to be currently overutilized with relatively low net growth-to-h...

In the early 2000s, increasing US furniture imports preceded declining US hardwood lumber demand and price. In the summer of 2002, however, hardwood lumber prices started to increase as demand by construction industries increased. By the mid-2000s, hardwood lumber prices hit all-time highs. Lumber prices hit all-time highs for red oak (Quercus spp.), white oak, and cherry (Prunus serotina Ehrh.) in 2004, soft maple (Acer spp.) in 2005, and yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera L.) and hard maple in 2006. The declines in construction that began in 2006 and reduced lumber exports after 2006...

Plant-microbe community dynamics influence the natural succession of plant species where pioneer vegetation facilitates the establishment of a distantly related, later successional plant species. This has been observed in the case of restoration of the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) on abandoned mine land where Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana) facilitated the establishment of chestnut seedlings. This was apparently due to the natural mycorrhizal networks of pine, which aided the survival and growth of chestnut seedlings. In this study, we assessed the survival and propensity of...

The number of smoking-caused wildfires has been falling nationwide. In national forests in 2011, smoking-caused wildfires represented only 10% of their 1980 level. No other cause of wildfire has experienced this level of decline. For 12 states, we evaluate the rate of smoking-caused wildfires and find it is a function of weather, other ignitions, the number of adult smokers, the presence of improved wildfire cause-determination methods, and whether a state required the sale of less fire-prone cigarettes. We find the decline in adult smoking rates has led to a reduction of smoking-caused...