Treesearch

As the frequency and severity of large wildfires in the western United States have grown, impacts to private property and air quality have typically attracted the greatest attention; however, wildfires can also substantially affect water resources, altering watershed function and contaminating drinking water supplies. Although there is significant scientific literature describing impacts of wildfires on water resources, the literature on economic dimensions of these impacts is limited. In this article, we identify ways in which economic analyses can contribute to understanding and managing...

The tree selection method for harvesting during all-aged management in the northern hardwood forest type has been well studied on research forests throughout the Lake States region. Many of these methods, developed in the 1950s, have been widely accepted and implemented by foresters who are working to develop quality sawn hardwood products. More recent research has indicated that forest managers are not always applying these all-aged approaches explicitly. Moreover, in many cases, the resulting stand conditions found in the years following individual tree selection practices do not result...

Hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA) threatens the existence of eastern hemlock trees and associated ecosystems. We propose that increasing canopy light exposure via silvicultural thinning can reduce hemlock’s vulnerability to HWA. Four, overstocked stands on the Allegheny National Forest were selected for thinning. There was no HWA infestation and half of each stand was thinned. Thirty circular plots per stand were established surrounding a hemlock targeted for crown release on 3 to 4 sides. Similar criteria were used to select hemlocks in 30 untreated plots. We visited subject trees prethinning,...

Quality is an important determinant of the end use of wood, and therefore its value. Silviculture and growing environment can influence wood characteristics of softwood species (Barnett and Jeronimidis 2003, Shmulsky and Jones 2011, Zobel and Van Buijtenen 1989); however, less is known about these influences in hardwoods (Dickinson et al. 2019). A number of tree species typical of northern hardwood forests such as sugar maple have been conventionally utilized primarily for aesthetic applications and are therefore graded visually. However, the recent expansion of engineered wood products...

When National Forest System (NFS) tracts of timber are offered for sale and do not receive any bids from prospective buyers, mandated sales targets may be missed, additional costs can be incurred to the agency, and there is potentially lost opportunity for sustainable forest management. We validated NFS employee perceptions of unsold or “no-bid” offerings against observed no-bid sales. Using ordinary least squares, we regress three different definitions of timber sales against proximate and underlying factors influencing no-bids. We found statistical significance for some proximate...

The hardwood resource of the eastern United States often is associated with high quality sawtimber used in the production of lumber and veneer consumed in domestic appearance applications or exported. However, the high quality segment of the eastern hardwood resource accounts for approximately 20 percent of the cubic volume of merchantable trees (Luppold and Pugh 2016). In the northern regions of the eastern United States, the proportional volume of higher quality timber is discernably larger. Still, combined mid- and low-quality sawtimber size (11 inches d.b.h. and larger) tree volume...

United States hardwood production and markets have seen a number of ups and downs over the last 20 years since peak production in the late 1990s, followed by historic lows during the "Great Recession" in 2009 and a slowly recovering industry since. During this time, we have seen the loss of domestic furniture and cabinet markets, increases in forest product export markets, trade disputes, reduced grade-lumber, and increased industrial wood demand, and most recently the COVID-19 crisis. With this backdrop, presenters from forest industry, wood market pricing services, and wood products...

The valued-added wood manufacturing industry includes firms that use primary wood products, such as lumber or veneer, to produce higher value products, including flooring, cabinets, or furniture. Wisconsin’s value-added wood industry is an important sector for the State's economy and serves as a vital downstream market for forest raw materials. A survey was conducted with the Wisconsin value-added wood industry in 2018 to better understand the current economic impacts, markets, and needs of this industry. Results suggest that employment opportunities exist. Enrollment in a forest certificat...

The collection of sap from dormant maple trees in eastern North America predates European arrival on the continent. While written accounts of maple production by Native Americans from early French explorers exist from the late 17th century, a far richer oral history of how early cultures came to produce a sweet product from maple trees is best told by members of those cultures themselves.

A 27,000-acre forest in northern New Hampshire provides a case study for evaluating the long-term outcomes of silvicultural prescriptions and cutting practices on forest growth and quality. This 214-year ownership has harvested timber since 1828 and maintained inventory data since 1947. The hardwood inventory data collected in 1947, 1967, 1986, 1998, and 2018 indicates that the practice of sound silviculture has not only upgraded products for increased value but has increased overall productivity allowing an increased sustainable yield. The study considers how exploitive cutting and...