Treesearch

Aircraft play vital roles in managing wildfire, but their use is both costly and inherently risky. On average, USDA Forest Service aviation costs represent 30 percent of annual firefighting expenditures. And despite improvements in airworthiness and safety in the last decade, aviation-related accidents represented the highest category of federal firefighter fatalities. To improve strategic risk management of firefighting aircraft, Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) ecologist Crystal Stonesifer and colleagues have recently developed and published a decision support system called the...

Wildfire size is increasing and so is the erosion potential, especially within intensified fire environments. Fires such as the record-breaking Colorado Cameron Peak Fire in 2020 are so large, and burn so hot, there is very little, if any vegetation left behind. The soil is left vulnerable and exposed to weather events. Extreme flooding events followed Cameron with a vengeance, causing destruction to natural and manmade features in the Poudre River Corridor, just west of Fort Collins, CO. Erosion increases sediment and wildfire ash in waterways and can cause hazards to people, property,...

This Primer provides a framework for urban forest managers and planner to develop an effective and sustainable urban forest management program by addressing three major components of a municipality: social systems, governance systems, and the ecological systems. The social component provides the justification for the plan by demonstrating value to the people that live and utilize the forest. The governance component provides guidance to responsible entities on how, when and where management activities will occur. The ecological component addresses the dynamic nature of the system, which is...

Scientists are seeing an increase in cases where forest resilience is pushed beyond a breaking point. Within the last few decades, wildfires in the western United States have increasingly burned so severely that some forests are unlikely to return to their prefire state and may convert to different forest types or even to nonforested systems like grassland or shrubland.

Xylobiose is a prebiotic sugar that has applications in functional foods. This report describes the first X-ray crystallographic structure models of apo and xylobiose-bound forms of a xylobiohydrolase (XBH) from Acetivibrio clariflavus. This xylan-active enzyme, a member of the recently described glycoside hydrolase family 30 (GH30), subfamily 10, phylogenetic clade has been shown to strictly release xylobiose as its primary hydrolysis product. Inspection of the apo structure reveals a glycone region X2-binding slot. When X2 binds, the non-reducing xylose in the −
2 subsite is highly...

For most of the 20th century, a primary objective of forest operations on federal public lands was supplying green timber to the forest products industry for manufacturing lumber and other forest products. Harvest operations and supply chain logistics were designed to handle this green timber with methods that maximized both efficiency and productivity with an eye on revenues.

1. The future of dry forests around the world is uncertain given predictions that rising temperatures and enhanced aridity will increase drought-induced tree mortality. Using forest management and ecological restoration to reduce density and competition for water offers one of the few pathways that forests managers can potentially minimize drought-induced tree mortality. Competition for water during drought leads to elevated tree mortality in dense stands, although the influence of density on heat-induced stress and the durations of hot or dry conditions that most impact mortality remain...

Plant control methods have been developed to reduce weed species that are often problematic in agricultural systems. However, these methods can create new challenges, such as herbicide resistance. Determining which plant traits are associated with herbicide resistance can assist managers in identifying species with the potential to develop herbicide resistance and to better understand factors contributing to the evolution of herbicide resistance. We used random forest models to model herbicide resistance of noxious weeds as a function of 10 biological and ecological plant characteristics....

Invasive species cause billions of dollars of economic losses and other damage every year in the United States. Environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling can help managers determine whether a problem species is present in an area, even when its numbers are low or it is hard to observe. This capability makes it a powerful tool for early detection and monitoring. The National Invasive Species Council (NISC), recognizing eDNA sampling as a promising tool for invasive species surveillance and management, began in 2020 to look for ways to make this tool more tangible for managers. Rocky Mountain...

Prescribed fire is used extensively as a management tool in fire-adapted landscapes of the American West to maintain ecosystem structure and function while reducing wildfire risk. Seasonally specific prescribed fire is used by many Indigenous groups to increase the quality and quantity of cultural resources and promote desired patterns of habitat diversity. Traditionally, the Karuk and Yurok Tribes of California applied fire in tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus,Fagaceae) acorn gathering areas during the fall to reduce infestation in acorns by larvae of the filbertworm (Cydia latiferreana...