Treesearch

Fire activity during 2020-2021 in California, USA was unprecedented in the modern record. More than 19,000 km2 of forest vegetation burned (10x more than the historical average), potentially affecting the habitat of 508 vertebrate species. Of the >9,000 km2 that burned at high-severity, 87% occurred in large patches that exceeded historical estimates of maximum high-severity patch size. In this two-year period, 100 vertebrate species experienced fire across >10% of their geographic range, 16 of which were species of conservation concern. These 100 species experienced high-severity fire...

Background: Private-sector urban and community forestry (U&CF) is a major segment of the green industry with substantial socio-ecological and economic contributions to urban and sub-urban communities. The COVID-19 pandemic reportedly caused heterogeneous impacts on businesses, the workforce, and various sectors of the overall economy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceived impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on private businesses carrying out U&CF activities in the Southern United States. Methods: Using data collected through an online survey distributed across the Southern...

FloodWise is a pilot program that proposes nature-based solutions (NBS) for flood hazard mitigation (risk reduction) in eastern North Carolina to control stormwater runoff for brief periods of time. The program would provide financial incentives and technical assistance to rural landowners to adopt NBS on their properties. In this study, we assessed landowners’ willingness to accept (WTA) payments for adopting NBS on their properties using a payment card contingent valuation method (CVM) via a mail survey. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) incentivize landowners to participate in...

The reciprocal relationships between ecological process and landscape pattern are fundamental to landscape ecology. Landscape ecologists traditionally use raster maps portraying classified features such as land use or land cover categories, and metrics suggested by the patch-corridor-matrix conceptual model of pattern. Less attention has been given to the landscape gradient conceptual model and raster maps portraying numeric features such as greenness or percent vegetation cover. We introduce the open-source tool GraySpatCon to calculate and map a variety of landscape pattern metrics from...

The USDA Forest Service (Forest Service)’s historical documents collection at the National Archives includes many high-quality digital public domain photographs of foresters, stand conditions, and forest management practices, as well as a number of other subjects. These images offer researchers and managers numerous opportunities to study the American past and thus better address contemporary forest and forestry issues. To demonstrate this, the following pictures of historical longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) woodlands provide a reconsideration of the concept of old-growth forests and...

Predictions as to the quantity of lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) available vary considerably. Estimates range from at least 4 billion to as much as 170 billion metric tons per year worldwide (Klass, 1998; Rowell, 2007). Estimates of total quantity of woody biomass available range from at least 1.75 to 75 billion metric tons per year worldwide ( ~43% of total LCB) (Klass, 1998; Rowell, 2007). In the US, the forest-based biomass supply physically available in 2011 was estimated to be ~45 million dry tonnes per year depending on market economics with a feasible increase to as much as 225...

Woody biomass as a renewable resource for chemicals, materials, and energy has garnered significant attention to replace fossil-carbon sources. However, in carbohydrate-based biorefineries, the recalcitrance of wood warrants a pretreatment prior to further processing by enzymatic hydrolysis (EH) and fermentation. Various processes or a combination thereof, including but not limited to, low pH (mild and strong acid pretreatments), neutral pH (autohydrolysis includes hydrothermal and steam explosion pretreatments), high pH (mild and strong alkali pretreatments), organic solvents, ionic...

While there have been a host of studies investigating the COVID-19 pandemic’s influence on outdoor recreation, few have investigated the socio-demographic composition and motivations of visitors who increased their outdoor recreation during this period and if these users will continue recreating at the same level as the pandemic wanes. This study surveyed visitors to the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests (NPNF) within the US state of North Carolina to identify if rising outdoor recreation participation is solely a result of the pandemic or more indicative of a renaissance. Demographic...