Treesearch

As the effects of climate change accumulate and intensify, resource managers juggle existing goals and new mandates to operationalize adaptation. Fire managers contend with the direct effects of climate change on resources in addition to climate-induced disruptions to fire regimes and subsequent ecosystem effects. In systems stressed by warming and drying, increased fire activity amplifies the pace of change and scale of severe disturbance events, heightening the urgency for management action. Fire managers are asked to integrate information on climate impacts with their professional...

The oak wilt disease caused by the invasive fungal pathogen Bretziella fagacearum is one of the greatest threats to oak-dominated forests across the Eastern United States. Accurate detection and monitoring over large areas are necessary for management activities to effectively mitigate and prevent the spread of oak wilt. Canopy spectral reflectance contains both phylogenetic and physiological information across the visible near-infrared (VNIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) ranges that can be used to identify diseased red oaks. We develop partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA)...

Poplar trees (Populus spp.) are some of the fastest growing hardwoods used for biomassproduction. There are, however, conflicting observations about water use of poplars associated withthe impact on local water resources. A STELLA (Structural Thinking and Experiential LearningLaboratory with Animation) model was modified to investigate the aboveground biomass productionand water use in a mature (6 to 8 yrs. old) poplar plantation for a 3-year simulation period. Themodel predicted the typical annual pattern of soil evaporation, root water uptake, and leaf watertranspiration in the poplar...

In this report, we provide guidelines and administrative procedures to conduct artifical regeneration activities for upland oak (Quercus) species. The information provided is intended to assist silviculturists in the Southern Region (Region 8) of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, but many of the management guidelines, specifically the sections "Collecting Your Own Acorns" and "Planting Upland Oak Seedlings" could be applied by forest managers outside of the Southern Region. The overall goal of artificial regeneration is to increase the density of advanced oak reproduction...

This resource bulletin consolidates data from the seventh complete survey of Kentucky’s forest resources, which was conducted during the period 2010–2014 (with additional data up to 2016) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program in cooperation with the Kentucky Division of Forestry (KDF) of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. Data on the extent, condition, and classification of forest land and associated timber volumes, as well as growth, removals, and mortality rates, are described and interpreted. Data on forest...

Alaska has diverse boreal ecosystems across heterogeneous landscapes driven by a wide range of biological and geomorphic processes associated with disturbance and successional patterns under a changing climate. To assess historical patterns and rates of change, we quantified the areal extent of ecotypes and the biophysical factors driving change through photo-interpretation of 2200 points on a time-series (∼1949, ∼1978, ∼2007, ∼2017) of geo-rectified imagery for 22 grids across central Alaska. Overall, 68.6% of the area had changes in ecotypes over ∼68 years. Most of the change resulted...

Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 storm that made landfall on October 10, 2018, caused considerable damage in the States of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. We assessed forest resource damages using the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program’s permanent forest inventory plot network and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s defined storm damage severity zones. This assessment showed there had been 6.17 million acres of forest land with 10.01 billion cubic feet of timber within the damage zones. Of that total, 6.81 billion cubic feet...

Context. Forest type (FT) classification provides useful information to ecologists and forest managers by representing similar sites based on species dominance. Various methods have been developed using stand-level or plot-level information, however, these classifications are not always effective at representing broader landscape patterns of species diversity. Objectives. We classified landscape-level FTs from species habitat models and compared against classifications intended for stand-level information. We used a departure score to assess potential changes to current FT from projected...

In the 1930's the Federal Home Loan Bank Board established a program to appraise real estate risk levels in several cities. Four classes indicating level of security for real estate investments were developed: A (green) – best, B (blue) – still desirable, C (yellow) – declining, and D (red) – hazardous. Recent studies have shown that heat island effects are greater, imperviousness is higher, and tree cover lower in areas that were formerly redlined (class D). This paper analyzed all redlined areas in U.S. cities and confirms that redlined areas (class D) have lower tree cover, greater...

When sawing a log into lumber or other products, the saw blade removes material to separate the wood fibers between the resulting two parts, a loss of material that is commonly referred to as saw kerf. Thicker kerfs result in greater waste and less material available to produce lumber. Over the past decades, with the advancement of materials and technology, saw blade thickness has decreased. However, the reduction in material loss owing to a reduction in saw kerf may not always translate into a statistically significant increase in lumber product recovery. In this study, we explored the...