Treesearch

This report presents the results of the fourth forest inventory of the islands of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Forest area on mainland Puerto Rico held steady, or increased slightly, from 2004 to 2009. This change would seem to indicate that the rate of forest cover increase on mainland Puerto Rico has slowed since the forest inventory began in 1980. But the sampling errors are sufficiently large to encompass these small changes in forest cover, making it best to state that forest cover remained relatively stable from 2004 to 2009. There are 1.28 billion cubic feet of merchantable wood...

The South’s production of pulpwood declined from 65.5 million cords in 2010 to 62.7 million cords in 2011. Roundwood production decreased by 878,000 cords to 50.1 million cords and accounted for 80 percent of the South’s total pulpwood production. The use of wood residue dropped 14 percent to 12.6 million cords in 2011. Georgia and Alabama led the South in total production, with 10.6 and 9.9 million cords, respectively. In 2011, 81 mills were operating and drawing wood from the 13 Southern States. Pulping capacity of Southern mills declined from 123,076 tons per day in 2010 to 122,218 tons...

Future climate change is anticipated to result in ecosystem changes, and consequently, many species are expected to become increasingly vulnerable to extinction. This scenario is of particular concern for threatened, endangered, and at-risk species (TER-S) or other rare species. The response of species to climate change is uncertain and will be the outcome of complex interactions and processes. Nevertheless, a simple flexible strategy is needed to help integrate climate change into management planning and actions. This assessment uses SAVS, a vulnerability scoring tool based on ecological...

Mechanical (e.g., shearblading) and manual (e.g., thinning) fuel treatments have become the preferred strategy of many fire managers and agencies for reducing fire hazard in boreal forests. This study attempts to characterize the effectiveness of four fuel treatments through direct measurement of fire intensity and forest floor consumption during a single prescribed burn. The treatments included (1) thinning trees and removing debris (THIN-REMOVE-1 and -2), (2) thinning trees and burning the debris onsite, (3) shearblading and leaving the debris in place (SHEAR), and (4) shearblading and...

In the Willamette Valley-Puget Trough-Georgia Basin ecoregion of the North American Pacific Northwest, there has been widespread encroachment of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) upon Oregon white oak (Quercus garryana) savanna and woodland stands that were historically maintained by frequent anthropogenic fire. Restoration of these stands requires removal of the Douglas-fir overstory, although there is little information on how oak trees that have been suppressed for decades respond to release. Our objective was to evaluate the 10-year response of oak trees to three release treatments...

A variety of hybrid poplars have been planted on upland sites throughout the Midwest and Midsouth regions of the United States. Very few of these clones have proven to be worthwhile due to susceptibility to a variety of diseases. Five different Populus taxa were planted on an upland site in western Kentucky as a means of assessing resistance to local diseases, especially Septoria musiva. These taxa included combinations of P. trichocarpa crossed with P. deltoides, P. maximowiczii, and P. nigra, as well as backcrosses to P. deltoides and P. maximowiczii. Age 9 results indicated that...

In this study we reassessed the biogeography and origin of the Tuberaceae and their relatives using multiple loci and a global sampling of taxa. Multiple independent transitions from an aboveground to a belowground truffie fruiting body form have occurred in the Tuberaceae and in its newly recognized sister lineage gymnohydnotrya. Our data indicate that the Tuberaceae most likely radiated from a common angiosperm-associated ectomycorrhizal ancestor in the late Jurassic. Subsequent radiations of major clades within the family have occurred on different continents during the Cretaceous and...

We compared seven tools for planting container-grown longleaf pine seedlings in fine sandy loam in Louisiana and in fine sand in Alabama. The tools were (1) JIM-GEM® KBC dibble bar, (2) JIM-GEM® OST Dibble Bar, (3) Terra Tech Styro 8 Dibble Stick, (4) container seedling tube dibble, (5) hoedad, (6) auger, and (7) shovel. Significant differences in variances between the two sites 15 months after planting negated comparing tools between sites. When tools were compared at individual sites, significant root collar diameter and shoot dry weight differences were reported in Louisiana and root...

Understanding food-web ecology is valuable to conservation by linking interactions of multiple species together and illustrating the functionality of trophic exchange. Alosa alabamae (Alabama Shad), an anadromous species, reproduces in northern Gulf of Mexico drainages from February through May, and for this study, the Pascagoula and Apalachicola rivers were chosen to sample juvenile Alabama Shad. The age-0 fish mature within these rivers and have the potential to impact the food web of the systems in which maturation occurs. The focus was to determine if diet changes as Alabama Shad...

Thousands of acres of oak (Quercus spp.) plantations are established across the South annually. Survival and growth of these plantings have been less than desirable. Several techniques have been utilized in attempts to achieve improved success in these areas. One such technique that has been recommended is the application of directed-spray herbicide treatments. In this study, 3,240 bare-root Nuttall oak (Q. nuttallii Palmer) and white oak (Q. alba L.) seedlings were planted in February 2005 on Malmaison Wildlife Management Area near Carrollton, MS. One-third of the seedlings were subjected...