Treesearch

Existing models and predictions project serious changes to worldwide hydrologic processes as a result of global climate change. Projections indicate that significant change may threaten National Forest System watersheds that are an important source of water used to support people, economies, and ecosystems. Wildland managers are expected to anticipate and respond to these threats, adjusting management priorities and actions. Because watersheds differ greatly in: (1) the values they support, (2) their exposure to climatic changes, and (3) their sensitivity to climatic changes, understanding...

Assessment of watershed vulnerability to climate change. Pilot National Forest reports: Gallatin National Forest, Helena National Forest, Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests, White River National Forest, Coconino National Forest, Sawtooth National Forest, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Umatilla National Forest, Umatilla National Forest, Ouachita National Forest, Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Chugach National Forest

Acacia koa (A. Gray), native to the Hawaiian Islands, has both cultural and economic significance. Koa wood is world-renowned for its extensive use in furniture, tone wood for musical instruments, and other items of cultural importance. Old-growth koa is decreasing in supply, yet dead and dying koa is still being harvested for manufacture of products. Knowledge of wood quality in the trees available for harvest is limited and colloquial in nature. We selected logs from four geographically dispersed sites on the Island of Hawaii. Defects on the face and end surfaces of each log were...

Acorns are important as wildlife food and for oak regeneration, but production is highly variable, posing a challenge to forest managers targeting acorn production levels. Forest managers need tools to predict acorn production capability tailored to individual landscapes and forest management scenarios, adjusting for oak mortality and stand development over time. We implemented published predictive models of average annual acorn production by five oak species common to the eastern United States in the Forest Vegetation Simulator and used forest inventory data to estimate long-term acorn...

This publication provides an overview of forest resource attributes for Vermont based on an annual inventory conducted by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program at the Northern Research Station of the U.S. Forest Service. These estimates, along with web-posted core tables, will be updated annually. For more information, please refer to page 4 of this report.

The second completed annual inventory of South Dakota's forests reports 1.9 million acres of forest land. Softwood forests make up 68 percent of the total forest land area, with the ponderosa pine forest type by itself accounting for 60 percent of the total.

In light of current studies (for example, Gray and Hamann 2012; Zhu and others 2012) that show climate will change faster than plants can adapt or migrate naturally, it begs the question, "What does this mean for forestry, specifically forest and conservation nurseries?" Growing trees that just survive may become more important than promoting fast growth rates for superior genetics (Hebda 2008). In a recent survey of state and commercial nurseries in the US, most state nurseries have not explored how changes in climate will impact their abilities to select, produce, and provide trees that...

It was quotes like this that made us want to learn more about light emitting diodes (LED). Other than knowing that LEDs were the latest innovation in artificial lighting, we knew that we had a lot to learn. So we started by reviewing some of the basics. The following review is a brief synopsis of how light affects plants and some discussion about LED lighting. If you want more detailed information about the effects of light on plant growth, read Chapter 3 in Volume Three: Atmospheric Environment of the Container Tree Nursery Manual (Landis and others 1992).

Because of their close relationships with fires, western forest ecosystems are considered fire dependent. If we hope to sustain the communities of trees, plants, and animals that characterize these wildland forests, we need to understand the natural role of fire, changes brought about by suppressing fire, and alternatives for restoring some reasonable semblance of the natural fire process (Arno and Allison-Bunnell, 2002).

LANDFIRE is the working name given to the Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools Project (http://www.landfire.gov). The project was initiated in response to mega-fires and the need for managers to have consistent, wall-to-wall (i.e., all wildlands regardless of agency/ownership), geospatial data, on vegetation, fuels, and terrain to support use of fire behavior and effects prediction systems in guiding policy and management decisions. Base layers were created in a 5-year program of research and development ending in 2009, with processes in place to periodically update fuel...