Treesearch

Historically, wildfire and tribal burning practices played important roles in shaping ecosystems throughout the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion of northern California and southern Oregon. Over the past several decades, there has been increased interest in the application of fire for forest management through the implementation of prescribed fires within habitats that are used by a diversity of migrant and resident land birds. While many bird species may benefit from habitat enhancements associated with wildfires, cultural burning, and prescribed fire, individuals may face direct or indirect...

Harvesting during winter is encouraged as a best management practice to protect soils during logging operations. We assessed the effects of machine traffic and slash volume on soil bulk density following a winter harvest of a northern hardwood forest on unfrozen cobbly silt loam soils. Soil samples were extracted from areas representing four levels of machine traffic (i.e., high, medium, low, and none) and two levels of overstory treatment (i.e., clearcut and partial cut). Results indicate that even low levels of traffic increased bulk density at the 0–5 cm depth. However, at the 5–10 cm...

Lignin is one of the most common naturally occurring macromolecules. It is associated with cellulose and hemicelluloses in terrestrial plants, providing mechanical stiffness and contributing to moisture control and defense toward insects and fungi. Lignin is typically a polymer of three different cinnamyl alcohols, para-coumaryl alcohol, coniferyl alcohol, and sinapyl alcohol, which varies with the plant species. Solubilized lignin from the kraft pulping process is mainly concentrated and burned as part of the liquor recovery cycle in the kraft pulping. Given its aromatic nature, other...

Northern hardwoods produce a variety of logs suitable for different final products. It is generally understood that sorting logs based on grade generates maximum value for all stakeholders. However, the benefits of log sorting may depend also on the geographical distribution of forest stands and manufacturing mills. The objective of this study was to evaluate the profitability of log sorting based on geographical location of forest stands, destination mills, and market parameters . A decision-support tool was used to allocate logs from timber sales to highest-profit-yielding mills. Factors...

The US wood pellet exports—mostly to Europe, Japan, and South Korea—comprised 85 percent of its wood pellet production in the past 20þ years. In this article, we estimate the regional excess supply of wood pellets in the United States using annual data from 1996 to 2021.We use Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) analysis in a profit maximization framework for the South, North, and West regions of the United States. We also include some clean energy policies of the European Union (EU) to examine their potential impact on US wood pellet export volume. Our results show that after application...

Improving financial revenues from partial cuts in sugar maple (Acer saccharum) stands at the northern edge of the species' range involves harvesting trees that have reached their financial maturity size (i.e., the diameter at which their monetary value is greatest and beyond which there is no further gain). To establish the lumber value of each tree at the sawmill, a sample of 171 trees were measured, felled, bucked into logs, and sawn into boards. We estimated their value changes over 10 years using data from a network of permanent sample plots. The most vigorous and best quality maples...

Julian Steward believed that single-leaf pinyon pine (“pinyon pine” hereafter; Pinus monophylla) was the most important long-term plant resource for Great Basin Shoshoneans, wherever it occurred. Assuming that pinyon pine reproductive ecology was constant across the Great Basin, Steward set the stage for generations of anthropologists to universally assume that the unpredictable cycling rendered pinyon a notoriously erratic resource throughout the Intermountain West. And because pine nut harvests were unpredictable, this uncertain food source prevented Great Basin family clusters from...

Many shelterwood variants use even- and uneven-aged concepts to manage stands with complex or patchy structure. It can take a skilled practitioner to prescribe, apply, or discern the system or hybrid being used, (e.g., single tree selection (STS); thinning, continuous cover (CC), group selection, irregular shelterwood (IS), expanding gap; and/or extended irregular shelterwood (EIS). This presentation will discuss the southwestern Ontario situation, IS systems and their application, and four case studies in exceptional stands with histories of good forest management (GFM).

Studies have shown that the size of LNP depends on the molecular weight (Mw) of lignin. There is however need for deeper understanding on the role of molecular structure on LNP formation and its properties, in order to build a solid foundation on structure–property relationships. In this study, we show, for similar Mw lignins, that the size and morphology of LNPs depends on the molecular structure of the lignin macromolecule. More specifically, the molecular structure determined the molecular conformations, which in turn affects the inter-molecular assembly to yield size- and morphological-...

Management of sugar maple (Acer saccharum) has the primary objective of growing trees that will produce high quality wood (Germain et al. 2015). As such, forest management often prioritizes the release of crop trees. However, in order to produce high value logs, there is an investment cost in the amount of time it takes for a tree to reach a desired size. Additionally, the collection of landowner goals, only some of which are economic, strongly impact management decisions. In species such as sugar maple, the length of time required to meet the basic specifications for sawlogs is sufficientl...