Treesearch

Bostrichidae (Coleoptera) are a family of beetles with specialized xylophagous feeding habits that allow consumption of dry woody plant tissues. Bostrichids are often polyphagous and therefore pose a significant threat to many agricultural and forestry products, particularly in tropical regions. Bostrichids are commonly detected in solid wood packaging material at international ports of entry. Notably, Sinoxylon anale Lesne has been intercepted in wood crates and pallets worldwide and has now become established in Brazil. This paper reports the first documented establishment of S. anale in...

The Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) system is a spatially enabled system for environmental analysis and strategic and tactical planning. EMDS combines various sophisticated analytical tools within a GIS environment. Originally released by the Pacific Northwest Research Station, USDA in 1997, EMDS has been maintained and actively extended since then. Building on its core functionality of logic processing and decision modeling and availability as an ArcMap component, recent advances include more advanced geodatabase processing, integration with open-source GIS platforms,...

Stand density management is central to achieving diverse silvicultural objectives. Decision-support tools in this domain range from expert opinion to sophisticated computer models that vary by forest type, region, and organization. The graphical frameworks represented by density management diagrams (DMDs) and stocking guides (SGs), collectively called size-density management charts (SDMCs), are well established and balance quantitative rigor with user accessibility. Regional differences in species composition and site quality are known to influence maximum size-density relationships,...

Lobsters, blueberries, moose, and rugged coastlines dotted with lighthouses are emblematic of the state of Maine. But underlying these simple icons is the rich natural heritage of Maine that drives the economy and shapes the state's culture. The history of Maine’s natural heritage has been co-produced by the both the natural and human worlds. The essays and photographs gathered here paint a vivid portrait of Maine's wild places and wild creatures, as well as of human impacts and the way the state's heritage has changed.

There are growing concerns about increases in the size, frequency, and destructiveness of wildfire events. One commonly used mitigation strategy is the creation and maintenance of defensible space, a zone around buildings where vegetation is managed to increase potential for structures to survive during wildfires. Despite widespread acceptance and advocacy of defensible space, few studies provide empirical evidence documenting the efficacy of different fuel modification practices under real wildfire conditions. The 2018 Woolsey Fire in Los Angeles County, California, occurred a short time...

Shrub willow (Salix spp.) is an emerging lignocellulosic biomass utilized in fuel pellets as an energy source. However, improvements are needed to increase the efficacy of pellets in areas such as the energy content, durability, and hazardous carbon monoxide emissions. This study examined the effect of utilizing lignin as an additive on willow pellet properties. Two types of lignin were used in individual treatments: lignin recovered from the hot water extraction of willow (RecL) and commercial softwood kraft lignin (ComL). A statistical analysis of the ash content, energy content, bulk...

Gap dynamics facilitate recruitment of late-successional species such as northern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis L.). For this reason, harvests that result in partial rather than complete canopy removal have been suggested for cedar. However, success of regenerating cedar following partial harvests is uncertain, especially where there is heavy browsing by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus Zimmerman) or snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus). Efforts to understand how partial harvests and browsing interact to affect natural regeneration of cedar have been limited. We inventoried partially...

Understanding microhabitat use is needed to make sound conservation decisions for at-risk, patchy-habitat specialists, such as rock-habitat specialists. Rock habitats offer unique microclimatic refugia for reptiles and mammals. Eastern small-footed bats (Myotis leibii (Audubon and Bachman, 1842)) use rock roosts during the summer, but data on these summer roosts are lacking for this species classified as (critically) imperiled in several US states and Canadian provinces and globally endangered. Our goal was to characterize the structure and microclimate of Myotis leibii roosts at the...

This publication is part of the White Oak Initiative’s (www.whiteoakinitiative.org) Upland Oak and White Oak Silviculture Practices Series designed to provide foundational information necessary for sustainable management of white oak and upland oak forests.