Treesearch

Guidelines for the production and aerial application of wood shred mulch as a post-fire hillslope treatment were developed from laboratory and field studies, several field operations, and the evaluations of professionals involved in those operations. At two early trial sites, the wood shred mulch was produced off-site and transported to the area of use. At the 2010 Schultz Fire in Arizona, the wood mulches were produced on-site from burned hazard trees that were felled and skidded to a processing area where the logs were shredded by a horizontal grinder and piled. The subsequent aerial...

We used a vulnerability scoring system to assess the vulnerability of 117 vertebrate species that occur in the Middle Rio Grande Bosque (MRGB) to expected climate change. The purpose of this project was to guide wildlife managers on options and considerations for climate change adaptation. The 117 species occur regularly in the MRGB during the breeding season, winter, or year-round. In general, future climate scenarios predict warmer temperatures with an altered precipitation regime that will likely lead to reduced water levels in the MRGB. This assessment points to several key issues...

Research and development of the renewable nanomaterial cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) has received considerable attention. The effect of drying on the surface energy of CNFs was investigated. Samples of nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) and cellulose nanocrystals (CNC) were each subjected to four separate drying methods: air-drying, freeze-drying, spray-drying, and supercritical-drying. The surface morphology of the dried CNFs was examined using a scanning electron microscope. The surface energy of the dried CNFs was determined using inverse gas chromatography at infinite dilution and column...

Alley cropping may prove useful in the Southeast United States, providing multiple products and income streams, as well as affording sustainable land use alternatives to conventional farming. An alley-cropping system may be a good alternative in agriculture because of the benefits provided by trees to crops and soils, as well as the income generated from wood products and timber. In the current study triple row single-species strips of cherrybark oak (Quercus pagoda Raf.), loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.), or longleaf pine (P. palustris Mill.) were planted separated by 12- or 24-m wide areas...

Forest landowners have increasingly more options when it comes to loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) planting stock. The majority of plantations in recent decades have been established with seedlings produced from second-generation open-pollinated (second-Gen OP) seed. However, foresters have begun recognizing the increased gains obtainable from full-sib families produced using mass-controlled pollination (MCP) techniques. The next step in genetic improvement is varietal forestry. Forest biotechnology firms are producing loblolly pine varietal planting stock for deployment in the Southeastern...

A shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) regeneration study was established by the Missouri Department of Conservation in 1986 at the Current River Conservation Area. The objective of the study was to compare natural to artificial regeneration methods, and site preparation prescribed burning to bulldozing for shortleaf pine establishment and growth. Eighteen years after establishment, the control treatment (natural regeneration) had only 94 stems/ha, the burn treatment had 727 stems/ha, and the doze treatment had 1,680 stems/ha. Mean volume growth per tree was greatest in the doze treatment...

Northern red oak (Quercus rubra L.) seedlings were inventoried in 2000 and again in 2005 to better understand survival of advance regeneration during oak decline. In 2000, basal stem diameter was measured and recorded for 861 individually tagged seedlings that were

To promote desired forest conditions that enhance wildlife habitat in bottomland forests, managers prescribed and implemented variable-retention harvest, a.k.a. wildlife forestry, in four stands on Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge, LA. These treatments created canopy openings (gaps) within which managers sought to regenerate shade-intolerant trees. Six years after prescribed harvests, we assessed regeneration in 41 canopy gaps and 4 large (>0.5-ha) patch cut openings that resulted from treatments and in 21 natural canopy gaps on 2 unharvested control stands. Mean gap area of anthropoge...

Prescribed burning is used as a management tool on national forests in the Southeastern United States to maintain oak (Quercus spp.) -dominated forest or woodland habitat. Few studies have examined response to burning at the stand, plot, and tree level. We documented red maple (Acer rubrum) response to dormant-season prescribed burns and the relationship with fire characteristics. At the stand level, large seedling density increased in burned stands by 930 trees per acre, significantly higher than the increase of 10 trees per acre in control stands. Prescribed burning had no effect on red...

Forest insects have long-standing ecological relationships with their host trees. Many insects have a benign or beneficial relationship with trees, but a few species are characterized by unpredictable population eruptions that have great ecological and economic implications (Logan, Régnière, and Powell 2003). These insect outbreaks are a major agent of natural disturbance in North American forests. In the United States alone the area impacted by forest pests is approximately 45 times larger than the area affected by forest fire, yielding an economic effect that is five times greater than...