Treesearch

Residents and visitors in the Southern Great Plains - Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas - benefit from the region’s working coasts, sandy beaches, southern forests, grasslands, urban areas, rural towns, scrublands, rangelands, and croplands. The region spans 20 ecoregions, each with distinct and diverse species of plants and animals. Those ecosystems provide clean air and water, healthy soils, landscapes for recreation and tourism, habitats for wild plants and animals, and other benefits. The region’s 47 Federally Recognized Tribes were forcibly relocated to the region from elsewhere or constrict...

Background. Boreal regions are warming at more than double the global average, creating opportunities for the northward expansion of agriculture. Expanding agricultural production in these regions will involve the conversion of boreal forests to agricultural fields, with cumulative impacts on soil microbial communities and associated biogeochemical cycling processes. Understanding the magnitude or rate of change that will occur with these biological processes will provide information that will enable these regions to be developed in a more sustainable manner, including managing carbon and...

Wood (or timber) mats are portable and temporary modular platform assemblies that spread short duration heavy loads from construction equipment out across large areas, protecting the environment from rutting and erosion. They are used throughout the United States and around the world. These assemblies facilitate access to construction sites and provide stable working surfaces during infrastructure and construction projects. Some examples of these types of projects include dragline operations, pipe- and transmission-line building and rebuilding, wind and cellular tower construction, crane...

Structural insulated panels (SIPs) are an important construction material that has been developed through many years of research at the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory. There are concerns, however, related to the in-service performance of this important construction material. More data are needed to determine creep performance of these panels to help the industry address these concerns. This report describes a test method that was developed to measure the creep performance of SIPs. Topics covered in this report include a summary of the development of sandwich-type structural...

Whitebark pine (WBP, Pinus albicaulis) is a white pine of subalpine regions in the Western contiguous United States and Canada. WBP has become critically threatened throughout a significant part of its natural range due to mortality from the introduced fungal pathogen white pine blister rust (WPBR, Cronartium ribicola) and additional threats from mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), wildfire, and maladaptation due to changing climate. Vast acreages of WBP have suffered nearly complete mortality. Genomic technologies can contribute to a faster, more cost-effective approach to the...