Treesearch

Forest conservationists need a method to conserve the maximum amount of biological diversity while allowing species and communities to rearrange in response to a continually changing climate. Here, we develop such an approach for northeastern North America. First we characterize and categorize forest blocks based on their geology, landforms, and elevation zones. Next, for each distinct geophysical combination we locate the forest blocks with the highest amount of internally connected natural cover, and that have complex topography and large elevation ranges increasing their micro-climatic...

Climate change stands to cause animal species to shift their geographic ranges. This will cause ecosystems to become reorganized across landscapes as species migrate into and out of specific locations with attendant impacts on values and services that ecosystems provide to humans. Conservation in an era of climate change needs to ensure that landscapes are resilient by devising adaptation strategies to deal with such dynamism. This requires anticipating the future fate of species and ecosystems as well as implementing spatially explicit adaptation that enables species, ecosystems and their...

Protection of conifers from bark beetle colonization typically involves applications of liquid formulations of contact insecticides to the tree bole. An evaluation was made of the efficacy of bole injections of emamectin benzoate alone and combined with the fungicide propiconazole for protecting individual lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta Dougl. ex Loud., from mortality attributed to colonization by mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, and progression of associated blue stain fungi. Injections of emamectin benzoate applied in mid-June did not provide adequate levels of tree...

Invasive species, non-native plants, insects, and diseases can devastate forests. They outcompete native species, replace them in the ecosystem, and even drive keystone forest species to functional extinction. Invasives have negative effects on forest hydrology, carbon storage, and nutrient cycling. The damage caused by invasive species exacerbates the other forest stresses of the Anthropocene: increased human intrusion throughout natural landscapes, the fragmentation of forests, and a changing climate. Warming will open new areas for ecological invasion while the rising concentration of...

There are two general approaches for reducing the negative impacts of mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, on forests. Direct control involves short-term tactics designed to address current infestations by manipulating mountain pine beetle populations, and includes the use of fire, insecticides, semiochemicals, sanitation harvests, or a combination of these treatments. Indirect control is preventive, and designed to reduce the probability and severity of future infestations within treated areas by manipulating stand, forest and/or landscape conditions by reducing the...

We provide an overview of the principal threats to land based protected areas and then discuss measures by which protected areas can continue to be effective at conserving biodiversity this century.

Wildfire in western U.S. federally managed forests has increased substantially in recent decades, with large (>1000 acre) fires in the decade through 2012 over five times as frequent (450 percent increase) and burned area over ten times as great (930 percent increase) as the 1970s and early 1980s. These changes are closely linked to increased temperatures and a greater frequency and intensity of drought. Projected additional future warming implies that wildfire activity may continue to increase in western forests. However, the interaction of changes in climate, fire and other disturbances,...

This paper will primarily focus on the management and restoration of forests adapted to frequent, low-moderate intensity fire regimes. These are the forest types that are most at risk from large, high-severity wildfires and in many regions their fire regimes are changing. Fire as a landscape process can exhibit self-limiting characteristics in some forests which can assist managers in mitigating large, severe wildfires. In mixed conifer forests in Yosemite National Park, when the amount of time between successive adjacent fires is under nine years, the probability of the latter fire...

Studies show that changes in climate may exceed plant adaptation and migration. The mismatch in rates between climate change and plant adaptation and migration will pose significant challenges for practitioners that select, grow, and outplant native tree species. Native tree species and populations that are planted today must meet the climatic challenges that they will face during this century. Anticipated shifts in climate call for the revision of ethical, legal, political, and economical paradigms, as well as changes in the guidelines for growing and outplanting trees to maximize...

Despite the many impediments to commercialization of insect repellents in agriculture and forestry, there are some situations where the use of repellents is desirable and warranted. ISCA Technologies (Riverside, California), together with collaborators from academic, government, and private sectors, is actively developing repellent formulations against several important pest species. We describe two case studies utilizing controlled-release matrix SPLAT (Registered- Specialized Pheromone & Lure Application Technology): SPLAT Verb, a repellent for the mountain pine beetle, Dendroctonus...