Treesearch

Paenibacillus sp. strain JDR-2, an aggressively xylanolytic bacterium isolated from sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) wood, is able to efficiently depolymerize, assimilate and metabolize 4-O-methylglucuronoxylan, the predominant structural component of hardwood hemicelluloses. A basis for this capability was first supported by the identification of genes and characterization of encoded enzymes and has been further defined by the sequencing and annotation of the complete genome, which we describe. In addition to genes implicated in the utilization of β-1,4-xylan, genes have also been...

The role technology plays in outdoor recreation is evolving and of ongoing interest. One technology-related activity in particular emerged at the start of the 21st century: geocaching. Geocaching involves using a handheld GPS device to find hidden caches in areas based on clues posted on the Internet. Geocaching.com, the primary source for geocachers, provides information and guidelines for participating in the activity. In 2010, geocaching celebrated its 10th birthday heralded by nearly 100,000 geocaching. com members and nearly 1,000,000 active caches around the world. The current...

The research reported here includes a number of studies conducted in southern California. It was aimed at better understanding the recreation needs and desires of Latino populations. Generally, the findings indicate that Latinos have many of the same recreation needs as other groups, such as places to recreate and reasonable accommodations. But it also indicates they have some unique preferences.

Increasing inter-continental trade of wood chips for biofuel represents a significant risk of introducing invasive pest species that can cause biome-scale impacts on forest ecosystems. Some potentially invasive species have the capacity to cause high tree mortality on the Eurasian continent and could cause significant impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Because eradication of established species is difficult, there is a need for scientific studies that can evaluate the reliability of current import control practices to ensure lowest possible risk of establishment of potentially...

Riparian buffers in agricultural landscapes should be designed to trap pollutants in overland flow by slowing, filtering, and infiltrating surface runoff entering the buffer via sheet flow. However, observational evidence suggests that concentrated flow is prevalent from agricultural fields. Over time sediment can accumulate in riparian buffers forming berms that restrict sheet flow; these berms ultimately back up surface runoff, resulting in an eventual breakthrough that concentrates overland flow. This study examines the occurrence of concentrated flow paths (CFPs) in riparian buffers at...

The red turpentine beetle (RTB), Dendroctonus valens LeConte (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), is a secondary pest of pines in its native range in North and Central America. Outbreaks and tree mortality attributed to RTB alone are rare in its native range. RTB was introduced into China in the early 1980s and spread rapidly from Shanxi Province to four adjacent provinces; it has infested over 500,000 ha of pine forest and has caused extensive tree mortality since 1999. We provide a historical background on RTB outbreaks, explanations for its invasive success, management options, and...

DISRUPT Micro-Flake Verbenone Bark Beetle Anti-Aggregant flakes (Hercon Environmental, Inc., Emigsville, Pennsylvania) were applied in two large-scale tests to assess their efficacy for protecting whitebark pine Pinus albicaulis Engelm. from attack by mountain pine beetle Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins (Coleoptera: Scolytinae) (MPB). At two locations, five plots of equivalent size and stand structure served as untreated controls. All plots had early- to mid-outbreak beetle populations (i.e. 7.1-29.2 attacked trees/ha). Verbenone was applied at 370 g/ha in both studies. Intercept traps...

Public forest management requires consideration of numerous objectives including protecting ecosystem health, sustaining habitats for native communities, providing sustainable forest products, and providing noncommodity ecosystem services. It is difficult to evaluate the long-term, cumulative effects and tradeoffs these and other associated management objectives. To demonstrate the capabilities of techniques suitable to support such evaluations we combined a spatially explicit landscape-scale, succession and disturbance model (LANDIS) with wildlife habitat suitability models and a multi-cri...

Twelve years ago, many wood products manufacturing companies were just beginning to gain awareness of the potential of e-commerce and e-business. Most scoffed at the idea that e-strategies would become commonplace in the wood industry during the next decade. The "digital divide" between developed and developing countries, urban and rural areas, types of industries, sizes of enterprises, and generations has eroded faster than any futurist could have predicted. Globalization of markets has accelerated the development of a Web presence by U.S. wood products manufacturers as they understand...

Our ability to understand the dynamics of forest insect outbreaks is limited by the lack of long-term data describing the temporal and spatial trends of outbreaks, the size and long life span of host plants, and the impracticability of manipulative experiments at relevant temporal and spatial scales. Population responses can be studied across varying site and stand conditions, or for a few years under somewhat controlled circumstances, but it is difficult to study temporal variability for species that outbreak only two or three times a century. Fortunately, dendrochronology enables us to...