Treesearch

Mass timber buildings are increasing in popularity as the building industry aims to use more sustainable construction materials. A lateral force resisting system with a mass timber frame and a timber buckling restrained brace (TBRB) is presented as a possible solution to allow the expanded use of mass timber in buildings located in cities with high risk of natural hazards such as earthquakes and hurricanes. A series of nine quasi-static cyclic tests was completed to study the performance of the TBRB frame as well as the elastic performance of the bare mass timber frame. The variables...

Wildfire risks to homes are increasing, especially in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), where wildland vegetation and houses are in close proximity. Notably, we found that more houses are exposed to and destroyed by grassland and shrubland fires than by forest fires in the United States. Destruction was more likely in forest fires, but they burned less WUI. The number of houses within wildfire perimeters has doubled since the 1990s because of both housing growth (47% of additionally exposed houses) and more burned area (53%). Most exposed houses were in the WUI, which grew substantially...

The phaseout of methyl bromide (MB) fumigation creates an urgent need for an alternative phytosanitary treatment tolimit the risk of international spread of the oak wilt fungus, Bretziella fagacearum. Fumigation with ethanedinitrile (EDN) isconsidered a potential alternative to MB fumigation to eradicate wood-inhabiting pests and pathogens. We evaluated theefficacy of EDN fumigation by comparing the rate of B. fagacearum isolation before and after fumigation of red oak(Quercus rubra or Quercus ellipsoidalis) log sections from oak wilt–affected trees. Logs (range 15.2 to 98.0 cm long;diameter...

The summer of 2023 is a notable time for water-resource management in the western United States: Glen Canyon Dam, on the Colorado River, turns 60 years old while the largest dam-removal project in history is beginning on the Klamath River. This commentary discusses these events in the context of a changing paradigm for dam and reservoir management in this region. Since the era of large dam building began to wane six decades ago, new challenges have arisen for dam and reservoir management owing to climate change, population increase, reservoir sedimentation, declining safety of aging dams,...

The role of forests in the global carbon cycle and opportunities to use natural climate solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions have gained attention for a number of reasons including the Trillion Trees Initiative, California's cap and trade legislation, corporate net-zero pledges, and recent federal and state policy initiatives. Forest carbon sequestration is an essential part of natural climate solutions, and understanding the dynamics of carbon sequestration is crucial for developing guidelines to manage forest carbon sinks.

Red turpentine beetle, Dendroctonus valens LeConte (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), previously responded more strongly to (—)-β-pinene + ethanol than (+)-3-carene + ethanol lures at sites burned the prior year by wildfire in Oregon and northeastern California, whereas at a thinned-unburned Arizona site (+)-3-carene + ethanol was the stronger attractant. This discrepancy was further examined to tease apart whether D. valens attraction varies by region or previous forest disturbance types. Here, (—)-β-pinene + ethanol and (+)-3-carene + ethanol lures were tested in pine stands at two...

Updating predictions of the response of high-profile, at-risk species to climate change and anthropogenic stressors is vital for informing effective conservation action. Here, we review two prior generations of Bayesian network probability models predicting changes in global polar bear (Ursus maritimus) population status, and provide a contemporary update based on recent research findings and sea-ice projections by newer climate models. We compare predictions of polar bear population response from all 3 models among four circumpolar Arctic ecoregions, using sea ice projections based on...

Protecting the future of forests relies on our ability to observe changes in forest health. Thus, developing tools for sensing diseases in a timely fashion is critical for managing threats at broad scales. Oak wilt —a disease caused by a pathogenic fungus (Bretziella fagacearum)— is threatening oaks, killing thousands yearly while negatively impacting the ecosystem services they provide. Here we propose a novel workflow for mapping oak wilt by targeting temporal disease progression through symptoms using land surface phenology (LSP) from spaceborne observations. By doing so, we hypothesize...

Context: Land-use change, including agricultural expansion, is one of the major drivers of biodiversity loss globally. Given the rapid pace of land-use change, data-driven, strategic, and dynamic conservation planning is imperative.Objectives: We present an exemplar application of using existing data to inform conservation planning. Specifically, we developed a systematic approach for identifying areas of conservation concern due to cannabis cultivation in California, USA.Methods: We used three existing datasets: (1) camera trap data from ten projects (n = 1186); (2) the locations of...

Iran is located in a dry climate zone, and climate change has substantially reduced its precipitation and water resources. Reusing wastewaters from urban communities can meet some requirements for irrigation and fertilization of tree plantations in arid environments, leading to sustainable wastewater recycling, enhanced biomass production, and reduced land degradation. The objective of this study was to test the growth, biomass, nutrition, and heavy-metal accumulation of poplars [Populus nigra L. “62/154,” P. alba L. “20/45,” P. euramericana (Dode) Guinier “92/40”], and willow (Salix...