Treesearch

The growing demand for nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change has heightened interest in forest carbon programs, particularly in the southeastern United States, a region with abundant forest resources. Challenges such as additionality, leakage and permanence requirements, and competition between timber and carbon markets are among the complexities of implementing effective forest carbon programs. This study examinesthe impacts of one-year harvest deferral programs on carbon sequestration and timber market dynamics using an agent-based simulation model. The model incorporates...

Concerns have grown over the environmental impacts of open pile burning, which has the potential to degrade air quality and harm soil. Additionally, pile burning is constrained by narrow burn windows in areas with high wildfire risk. As a result, technologies such as the CharBoss - which converts slash into biochar - are gaining attention. However, optimal deployment remains uncertain because of variability in performance due to pile locations, slash-pile size, and site conditions. We address this challenge with a two-stage simulation - optimization framework. First, a mixed-integer...

Forest slash piles require effective management for site preparation and fire risk reduction. While pile burning remains a common disposal method, there is growing interest in utilizing these materials for energy and other bioproducts. Slash piles can serve as temporary carbon storage, and provide wildlife habitat, but they also contribute to surface fuel loads and increase site preparation costs if not properly utilized or disposed. Managing such low-value materials distributed across large forest landscapes poses logistical and economic challenges, especially when the volume and precise...

The effectiveness of biochar for ecological restoration, toxicity remediation and carbon sequestration are fundamentally dependent on the biochar production technology. This review provides a systematic comparison of thermochemical conversion techniques such as pyrolysis (slow, rotary kiln, auger-based), gasification (downdraft and fluidized bed) and hydrothermal carbonization (HTC). Key performance metrics such as temperature profile, residence time, emissions regulation, and scalability are evaluated alongside critical biochar qualities such as surface area, porosity, fixed carbon...

Global change is enriching terrestrial ecosystems with multiple nutrients and amplifying interannual variation in precipitation. Grassland productivity may be co-limited by combinations of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). How these nutrients may interact with each other or with varying precipitation to influence the contributions of dominant species and functional groups to aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) and species diversity is rarely considered. We fertilized a mesic grassland for 5 years with all combinations of N, P, and K+ micronutrients in the first year...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program provides this resource update yearly as an overview of forest resources in Oklahoma. These estimates are derived from field data collected across a systematic network of fixed-radius forest monitoring plots located on both public and private land. New updates are provided annually as a subset of plots within the State are remeasured. Each year, field crews visit and measure a subset of all FIA plots across the entire State (the size of the subset varies by State and year). Combining all...

The Forest Health Monitoring program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service produces an annual national report, which presents recent forest health status and trends from a national or multistate regional perspective and introduces new techniques to analyze forest health condition. This 24th edition of the annual report presents mapping techniques applied to investigate 2023–2024 pine mortality events in Mississippi and Louisiana based on satellite data and the national Insect and Disease Survey. A review of declines in whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) and limber pine (P....

Declining participation in hunting and fishing has been slowed by women who are learning numerous outdoor skills through recruitment, retention, and reactivation [R3] programs. R3 programs are hosted by state agencies, non-governmental organizations, and businesses that take a variety of approaches to develop participant skills and confidence. To understand how R3 program design influences hunting and fishing participation, we conducted 11 focus group interviews with 72 participants at women’s R3 programs to identify program design components that women appreciate when learning to hunt and...

Natural resource agencies and researchers have often focused efforts to reduce the constraints women face in hunting. However, many women continue to hunt despite these barriers, suggesting a need to understand the complex decisions they make. This study explores the decision space that women navigate despite logistical, cultural, and personal constraints. This mixed method study used free lists (n = 50) and semi-structured interviews (n = 22) to identify the most salient decisions women make to go hunting. These included decisions about gear, household responsibilities, hunting partners,...

Conservation planning protects habitats, supports biodiversity, and sustains ecosystem functions that support human and ecological well-being. Natural resource managers are expected to make sound management decisions and balance competing interests in a social-ecological context. However, they face challenges related to effective collaboration, public participation in decision-making, and the application of climate information. This study describes conservation planning challenges in South Dakota, a predominantly rural state where over 80% of land is privately owned, and natural resources...