Treesearch

To better evaluate the potential impacts of wildland fire in the San Bernardino National Forest, we developed a geographic information system (GIS) data layer containing nonmarket economic values for the San Jacinto Ranger District. Each pixel in the data layer contains an estimate of the most prominent nonmarket values at that location. This information can be used by forest managers as a decision making aid when deciding how to allocate resources to protect high value areas. To estimate the recreation value component and potential losses due to wildfire, backcountry hikers entering the...

Key Findings Climate forecasts indicate that the South’s spring and fall wildfire seasons will be extended. Prescribed fires, currently conducted on roughly a 3 to 5 year rotation across much of the South, would need to become more frequent if conditions become drier. Major wildfire events, such as the 2007 Okefenokee wildfires, 2008 Evans Road Fire in eastern North Carolina, and recent west Texas fire seasons, are also likely to occur more often. Such events currently occur once every 50 years; however they could be more frequent in a warmer/drier climate. Land use change will have the...

Recent studies suggest that coastal ecosystems can bury significantly more C than tropical forests, indicating that continued coastal development and exposure to sea level rise and storms will have global biogeochemical consequences. The Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) site provides an excellent subtropical system for examining carbon (C) balance because of its exposure to historical changes in freshwater distribution and sea level rise and its history of significant long-term carbon-cycling studies. FCE LTER scientists used net ecosystem C balance and...

Key Findings Although timber production in the South more than doubled from the 1960s to the late 1990s, output levels have declined over the last 10 years, signaling structural changes in timber markets. For softwood products, production declines are most clearly related to demand issues. Demand for softwood solid wood products is strongly linked to housing markets, and a sharp decline in construction beginning in 2007 reduced timber demand, a short run adjustment. Demand for pulpwood in paper manufacturing has declined as the production capacity has dropped in the South, a long run...

Key Findings Harvesting woody biomass for use as bioenergy is projected to range from 170 million to 336 million green tons by 2050, an increase of 54 to 113 percent over current levels. Consumption projections for forest biomass-based energy, which are based on Energy Information Administration projections, have a high level of uncertainty given the interplay between public policies and the supply and investment decisions of forest landowners. It is unlikely that the biomass requirement for energy would be met through harvest residues and urban wood waste alone. As consumption increases,...

Key Findings Federal and State taxes reduce the pre-tax value of family-owned forest land in the South by amounts ranging from little more than one-quarter to nearly half, with the greatest share of the reduction attributable to the Federal income tax and State property taxes. Most family forest owners are aware of some general business provisions of the Federal income tax, but half or fewer are aware of provisions specifically for forests and other working lands, such as the reforestation incentives and special treatment of qualifying cost-share payments. For family forest owners who do...

Key Findings The southern logging sector is expected to experience small increases in both industry output (3 percent) and jobs (2 percent) from 2008 to 2018. Increased demand from bioenergy is expected to counteract increasing trends toward mechanization and reduced demand from some traditional wood-using industries. Southern wood products manufacturing is expected to increase in industry output (2.2 percent) in conjunction with the housing recovery after the 2007–09 recession. Technical change is expected to continue—with capital substituting for labor—leading to continued declines in...

Key Findings Forest conversion to agriculture or urban use consistently causes increased discharge, peak flow, and velocity of streams. Subregional differences in hydrologic responses to urbanization are substantial. Sediment, water chemistry indices, pathogens, and other substances often become more concentrated after forest conversion. If the conversion is to an urban use, the resulting additional increases in discharge and concentrations will produce even higher loads. Although physiographic characteristics such as slope and soil texture play key roles in hydrologic and sediment...

The diversity of plant and animal communities in the South ranges from high elevation forests to coastal wetlands, barrier islands, and arid regions of west Texas. Factors contributing to the diversity of these communities include regional gradients in climate, geologic and edaphic site conditions, topographic variation, and natural disturbance processes (Boyce and Martin 1993, Delcourt and others 1993, Healy 1985). These factors have contributed to the diversity of several species groups: salamanders, snakes, and turtles (White and others 1998). Throughout the South, the evolution of...

Key Findings Invasive plants continue to escape into and spread through southern forests to eventually form exclusive infestations, and replace native communities to the detriment of forest productivity, biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human use potential. Over a 300-year period, invasive plants have been increasingly imported into the South, despite public policies and warnings by professional ecologists and plant experts of long-term irreversible ecosystem damage. The invasion process is accelerated by greater forest disturbance, fragmentation, parcelization, and urbanization...