Treesearch

Free-burning fire has been a constant ecological presence on the American landscape, the expression of which has changed as new climates, peoples and land uses have become predominant (Pyne 2010). It is an important ecological mechanism that shapes the distributions of species, maintains the structure and function of fire-prone communities, and is a significant evolutionary force (Bond and Keeley 2005).

Provides current information on lumber and plywood production and prices; employment in the forest industries; international trade in logs, lumber, and plywood; volume and average prices of stumpage sold by public agencies; and other related items. Current data and downloadable Excel files are available online.

The annual national report of the Forest Health Monitoring Program of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, presents forest health status and trends from a national or multi-State regional perspective using a variety of sources, introduces new techniques for analyzing forest health data, and summarizes results of recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects funded through the national Forest Health Monitoring program. Survey data are used to identify geographic patterns of insect and disease activity. Satellite data are employed to detect geographic clusters of forest...

Forests cover a vast area of the United States, 304 million ha, or approximately one-third of the Nation’s land area (Smith and others 2009). These forests possess substantial ecological and socioeconomic importance. Both their ecological integrity and their continued capacity to provide goods and services are of concern in the face of a long list of threats, including insect and disease infestation, fragmentation, catastrophic fire, invasive species, and the effects of climate change.

Due to increased temperatures and shifts in precipitation patterns associated with climate change, bioclimatic zones that provide habitat for many species are expected to expand, contract, disappear, shift poleward, or move towards higher elevations (WGA 2008). Species will respond to changing climate and disturbance regimes individually, with some species moving quickly, others taking longer to move, and finally those incapable of keeping pace, which can lead to extinction (IPCC 2002; Chen et al. 2011).

This meeting was the 24th in a series of annual USDA Interagency Research Forums that are sponsored by the Forest Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and Agriculture Research Service. The Group's original goal of fostering communication and providing a forum for the overview of ongoing research among the Agencies and their cooperators is being realized and facilitated through this meeting. This proceeding documents the efforts of many individuals: those who organized and sponsored the meeting, those who provided oral and poster...

Changing climate may pose a threat to forest tree species, forcing three potential population-level responses: toleration/adaptation, movement to suitable environmental conditions, or local extirpation. Assessments that prioritize and classify tree species for management and conservation activities in the face of climate change will need to incorporate estimates of the risk posed by climate change to each species. To assist in such assessments, we developed a set of four quantitative metrics of potential climate change pressure on forest tree species: (1) percent change in suitable area,...

Our objective was to describe the trends of Vermont stumpage prices for major sawtimber species and products over the approximately last quarter century and propose a likely explanation of changes that we observed. Annual percentage rates of change (APR) were estimated for 10 forest products in Vermont from the third quarter of 1981 (1981Q3) to the first quarter of 2007 (2007Q1) when the price series was discontinued. In addition, we tested for changes in the percentage rate within the period. We found differences in the trend of APR between hardwood sawtimber and softwood sawtimber. With...

The recent economic crisis has greatly affected how companies conduct business. To be competitive, companies had to make changes to their product lines, distribution channels, marketing, and overall business strategies. This study was conducted to describe and analyze the log supply component of the hardwood forest products distribution chain and to investigate changes over the past 5 years. State forestry utilization and marketing specialists were interviewed to gain a regional overview of log distributions systems, followed by a survey that resulted in 57 responses from log distributors/b...

Eighty percent of wildfires are human caused. Unintentional human-caused fires can be caused by carelessness, failure of equipment, or a number of other factors. A significant proportion of the literature on accidents, in general, focuses on occupational accidents. Approximately 80 % to 90 % of these accidents are thought to be due to human error (Heinrich et al 1980, Hale and Glendon 1987, Salminen and Tallberg 1996); thus, the vast majority involves human behavior and not unforeseen acts of nature. Research on occupational accidents has concluded that the best safety and health programs...