Treesearch

Fuel reduction treatments around pinyon pine trees began as a simple project but ended in something more complex, enjoyable, and rewarding. The project eventually led to pinyon species (Pinus monophylla and P. quadrifolia) reforestation efforts, something that has been tried in the past with disappointing results. The Perry Pinyon Pines Protection Project and current efforts at propagation are described for areas on the San Jacinto Ranger District, San Bernardino National Forest, and on the Ramona and Santa Rosa Indian reservations. A greater measure of success in propagation of these...

The condition of tree crowns is an important indicator of tree and forest health. Crown conditions have been evaluated during surveys of Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Phase 3 (P3) plots since 1999. In this study, remeasured data from 39,357 trees in the northern United States were used to assess the probability of survival among various tree species using the suite of crown condition variables. Logistic regression procedures were employed to assess the importance of individual crown condition variables alone and in combination for predicting tree survival. Results of the regression...

Nature's benefits derived from forest interior environments cannot be sustained if the natural capital of forest interior area is not sustained. We analyzed the spatial patterns of forest loss and gain for the conterminous United States from 2001 to 2006 to determine whether forest interior environments were maintained at five spatial scales. A 1.1 percent net loss of total forest area translated to net losses of 3.2 percent to 10.5 percent of forest interior area over spatial scales of 4.41 ha to 5,310 ha. At the 65.6-ha scale, the reduction of forest interior area was 50,000 km2--almost...

The Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (MTBS) project is mapping the extent, size, and severity of all large fires greater than 1,000 acres in the west and 500 acres in the east over the conterminous United States (CONUS), Alaska, and Hawaii. In 2012 the project reached a milestone, completing the mapping for all fires between 1984 and 2010. The MTBS project produces geospatial and tabular data using a consistent protocol for fire trend analysis at a range of spatial, temporal, and thematic scales. This paper reviews the objectives of the MTBS project, describes the data sets and informatio...

The driving forces of land use changes have been analyzed and discussed for a long time with different solutions proposed and implemented. Unfortunately the reduction of natural forest cover continues in the same direction, generating an increasing alarm all around the world among scientist and politicians, related to the climate change awareness and strategies for its reduction and mitigation. This paper discusses the causes of deforestation, causes and effects in tropical Latin America.

Recent changes to the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program's definition of forest land precipitated the development of a geographic information system (GIS)-based tool for efficiently estimating tree canopy cover for all FIA plots. The FIA definition of forest land has shifted from a density-related criterion based on stocking to a 10 percent tree canopy cover threshold. This definitional change required a consistent method of estimating tree canopy cover, which is now a core FIA variable, using a combination of field-based and image-based assessments. In order to accomplish the...

Tree canopy cover and canopy height information are essential for estimating volume, biomass, and carbon; defining forest cover; and characterizing wildlife habitat. The amount of tree canopy cover also influences water quality and quantity in both rural and urban settings. Tree canopy cover and canopy height are currently collected at FIA plots either in the field or by dot-grid interpretation of digital aerial imagery. These techniques can be time consuming and costly. The University of Vermont's Spatial Analysis Laboratory has developed an automated approach using Object-Based Image...

The Tamarisk Coalition (TC), a nonprofit organization dedicated to riparian restoration in the western United States, has created a Native Plant Materials Program to address the identified need for native riparian plant species for use in revegetation efforts on the Colorado Plateau. The specific components of the Native Plant Materials Program include: 1) provide seed collection and riparian restoration training; 2) work with various partnerships and collaborators to help define needs/goals for active restoration; 3) help facilitate the development of appropriate replacement plant species...

This paper presents a summary of a research project designed to study the use of tree shelters as a means to provide initial shade for planted Engelmann spruce (Picea englemannii Parry ex Engelm.) seedlings on a reforestation site in southwestern Colorado where several past planting attempts had failed. Study results following 2, 6, and 11 growing seasons were formally published elsewhere. Four different shelter colors providing various shading levels and a control, consisting of shading using debris within the site, were included when the study was initiated in 1996. The darkest shelter...

To explore latitudinal genetic variation in cold hardiness and leaf phenology, we planted a common garden of paired collections of native and introduced riparian trees sampled along a latitudinal gradient. The garden in Fort Collins, Colorado (latitude 40.6°N), included 681 native plains cottonwood (Populus deltoides subsp. monilifera) and introduced saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima, T. chinensis, and hybrids) collected from 15 sites from 29.2 to 47.6°N in the central United States. In the common garden, both species showed latitudinal variation in fall, but not spring, leaf phenology. This...