Treesearch

Increased fire load and costs are anticipated under future scenarios of climate and other global changes. This requires increased efficiency in investments in wildfire management operations, and resolving the disconnect problem between science, policy and management.

Information on the status of and changes in mangroves is required for national and international policy development, implementation and evaluation. To support these requirements, a component of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Kyoto and Carbon (K&C) initiative has been to design and develop capability for a Global Mangrove Watch (GMW) that routinely monitors and reports on local to global changes in the extent of mangroves, primarily on the basis of observations by Japanese L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The GMW aims are as follows: (1) to map progression of change...

Relationships between foraging habitat and reproductive success provide compelling evidence of the contribution of specific vegetative features to foraging habitat quality, a potentially limiting factor for many animal populations. For example, foraging habitat quality likely will gain importance in the recovery of the threatened red-cockaded woodpecker Picoides borealis (RCW) in the USA as immediate nesting constraints are mitigated. Several researchers have characterized resource selection by foraging RCWs, but emerging research linking reproductive success (e.g. clutch size, nestling...

Thresholds in response by cavity-nesting bird populations to variations in the snag resource are poorly understood. In addition, limited information exists on the value of artificially created snags for cavity-nesting birds. Therefore, uncertainty exists in whether artificially created snags can yield a positive population response among snag-dependent birds. We used an experimental approach to assess the abundance and territory dynamics of a primary cavity nester, the red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocephalus), in response to three snag density treatments over an 8-year period...

Million Trees LA (MTLA) is one of several large-scale mayoral tree planting initiatives striving to create more livable cities through urban forestry. This study combined field sampling of tree survival and growth with numerical modeling of future benefits to assess performance of MTLA plantings. From 2006 to 2010 MTLA planted a diverse mix of 91,786 trees. Survivorship rates of 79.8%, 90.7% and 77.1% for Street, Park and Yard trees were relatively high compared to other studies. Growth rates averaged 0.99 and 1.1 cm dbh per year for Street and Yard trees. They were similar to rates for...

Urban forests can provide ecosystem services that motivate tree planting campaigns, and tree survival is a key element of program success and projected benefits. We studied survival in a shade tree give-away program in Sacramento, CA, monitoring a cohort of young trees for five years on single-family residential properties. We used conditional inference trees to identify the most important risk factors at different life history stages, and survival analysis to evaluate post-planting survivorship. Our analysis included socioeconomic, biophysical, and maintenance characteristics. In addition...

The Douglas-fir tussock moth (DFTM), Orgyia pseudotsugata McDunnough (Lepidoptera:Erebidae: Lymantriinae), is a native western North American defoliator of true fir, Abies spp. Mill., and Douglas-fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco. We investigated the population genetics and impact associated with the first recorded outbreak of DFTM in southern California (USA), and report the first collection of DFTM in Baja California Norte, Mexico. This latter population is similar genetically to populations from Washington, USA and British Columbia, Canada. We assessed forest stand characteristic...

The principal findings of the eighth forest survey of North Carolina are presented. In 2007, forests covered 18.6 million acres of the State, of which 18.1 million were classified as timberland. Oak-hickory was the most common forest-type group and covered 7.3 million acres of the timberland. The second most common forest-type group was loblolly-shortleaf pine, which covered 5.3 million acres of timberland. Nonindustrial private forest ownerships controlled 78 percent of the State’s timberland. Hardwood tree species accounted for 65 percent of the all-live wood volume that occurred on the...

For most national forest inventories, the variables of primary interest to users are forest area and growing stock volume. The precision of estimates of parameters related to these variables can be increased using remotely sensed auxiliary variables, often in combination with stratified estimators. However, acquisition and processing of large amounts of remotely sensed data can be costly and laborious, and stratified estimation requires construction of strata and satisfaction of within-stratum sample size constraints. An alternative to both challenges is to use an existing remote sensing-ba...

The Piedmont, a complex physiographic subregion of the U.S. South, encompasses parts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. Anticipating the future and analyzing what the interaction of future changes might mean for the forests of the Piedmont and the services they provide can improve decisions by resource managers and policymakers that have long-term consequences. The authors extracted and analyzed detailed results from the Southern Forest Futures Project to provide a set of key findings and implications for the Piedmont. The general conclusion of this analysis...