Treesearch

Mass timber products (MTPs) are being adopted in new building constructions and remodels in the last three decades, credited to their renewable and low carbon footprint characteristics. However, there are no mass timber manufacturers currently existing in Atlantic Canada. Extended distances of transporting MTPs to this region from other Canadian provinces may sacrifice the environmental benefits of using MTPs. This study was aimed to understand, via conducting a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA), the environmental impacts of a midrise institutional building, which is located in...

Wildfire activity is increasing throughout forests of the western United States, in large part due to the effects of a warming climate. The 2020 fire year in northern Colorado and southern Wyoming is a particularly striking example - several of the largest fires on record in this region (i.e., since the early 1900s) occurred in 2020. Many of these fires burned in high-elevation forests, an uncommon occurrence over the past century, and several burned well into the fall and winter due to atypically warm, dry conditions. Like the 2002 Hayman Fire and other recent events in the region, the...

Amplified by warming temperatures and drought, recent outbreaks of native bark beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) have caused extensive tree mortality throughout Europe and North America. Despite their ubiquitous nature and important effects on ecosystems, forest recovery following such disturbances is poorly understood, particularly across regions with varying abiotic conditions and outbreak effects.

Wildland fires are a major source of gases and aerosols, and the production, dispersion, and transformation of fire emissions have significant ambient air quality impacts and climate interactions. The increase in wildfire area burned and severity across the United States and Canada in recent decades has led to increased interest in expanding the use of prescribed fires as a forest management tool. While the primary goal of prescribed fire use is to limit the loss of life and property and ecosystem damage by constraining the growth and severity of future wildfires, a potential additional...

A recent Restoration Ecology article by Merchant et al. (2022) suggested that practitioners do not regularly use functional traits in restoration planning. We disagree and provide our collective experience that practitioners do leverage trait-based approaches and information, but in ways that are different from researchers. Here, we provide an expanded perspective that incorporates practitioner voices to provide a more complete assessment of how traits are used in restoration practice. We highlight that a major challenge in the field of restoration ecology that leads to a disconnect...

Characterizing genetic structure across a species’ range is relevant for management and conservation as it can be used to define population boundaries and quantify connectivity. Wide-ranging species residing in continuously distributed habitat pose substantial challenges for the characterization of genetic structure as many analytical methods used are less effective when isolation by distance is an underlying biological pattern. Here, we illustrate strategies for overcoming these challenges using a species of significant conservation concern, the Greater Sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasian...

In this study we illustrate the value of social data compiled at the community scale to guide a local wildfire mitigation and education effort. The four contiguous fire-prone study communities in North Central Washington, US, fall within the same jurisdictional fire service boundary and within one US census block group. Across the four communities, similar attitudes toward wildfire were observed. However, significant differences were found on the measures critical to tailoring wildfire preparation and mitigation programs to the local context such as risk mitigation behaviors, reported...

Many western forests are severely overstocked, creating a critical need to understand how forests can be thinned while maintaining biodiversity and other ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration. Wood-inhabiting fungi play a critical role in carbon cycling and carbon sequestration. However, the effects of different management techniques on wood-inhabiting fungal communities have rarely been investigated. Here, we implemented a manipulative experimental design to determine the effects of thinning on fungal communities, with four levels of slash retention as well as four combinations...

This first interim research report concerning subterranean termite activity summarizes the 36-month evaluation of a 5-year study-in-progress on the Stanislaus National Forest, Calaveras County, California, within the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The Lakemont timber salvage site was clear-cut during 2017 and received biochar treatments during November 2017. Wood stakes, ground-boards and PVC termite monitoring stations were installed during 2018. Evaluation and sampling began during 2019. Study plots were established across the open field salvage site. Non-disturbed forest tree plots were also...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, National Technology and Development Program (NTDP) reviewed existing literature and collected and analyzed data to summarize information about soil trafficability for ground-based harvesting operations and recreational vehicle use of forest roads and trails on National Forest System (NFS) lands. The U.S. Army defines soil trafficability as “the capability of the soil to support moving vehicles” (U.S. Department of the Army 1994), such as timber harvesting equipment or recreational vehicles. Soil scientists should design and implement...