Treesearch

Recovery of ecosystem properties following removal of invasive plants likely varies with characteristics of the plant and the relative soil quality at a given site. These factors may influence the occurrence of soil legacies and secondary invasions, hindering the effectiveness of restoration strategies. We assessed the potential for ecosystem recovery following removal of N-fixing Scotch broom for 4 years at two sites that contrasted strongly in soil quality in western Washington and Oregon, USA. Comparisons were made among plots, where Scotch broom was never present (uninvaded), retained,...

National forest roads allow access to public lands providing connections to natural and cultural heritage. Planning processes that address potential road closures or conversions can be highly contentious. Public participatory GIS (PPGIS) has been used as a tool to gather information for environmental planning and decision-making. Our PPGIS approach in a national forest in Washington (USA) incorporated workshops and online engagement with 1,810 participants to gather public input for sustainable roads planning. We identified the most important forest destinations and developed an analytical...

Recreation opportunities exist as a system at multiple scales. They are offered by a variety of public and private recreation providers sometimes with different objectives. Incremental and disparate planning across providers can lead to mismatched supply and demand, inefficient use of resources, and difficulty responding to emerging trends. Furthermore, traditional recreation supply and demand studies haven’t systematically integrated many recreation land management benefits including biodiversity and wildlife conservation, ecosystem services, human health, and environmental justice.Histori...

The oak (Quercus) species of eastern North America are declining in abundance, threatening the many socioecological benefits they provide. We discuss the mechanisms responsible for their loss, many of which are rooted in the prevailing view that oaks are drought tolerant. We then synthesize previously published data to comprehensively review the drought response strategies of eastern US oaks, concluding that whether or not eastern oaks are drought tolerant depends firmly on the metric of success. Although the anisohydric strategy of oaks sometimes confers a gas exchange and growth advantage...

This chapter focuses on emergency response following an initial detection of an invasive plant pest or foreign animal disease (FAD) as well as the regulatory authority utilized to initiate a response. Many emergency responses will be associated with crops and livestock on farms and ranches while others may involve nurseries, forests, wildlife, and exotic animals in various urban and rural locations. The incident command system framework is typically utilized to organize response eforts. Standard response preparedness and mobilization will be discussed with a consideration of the multitude...

Invasive species are a primary threat to biodiversity and are challenging to manage once populations become established in previously unoccupied areas. But removing them is further complicated when invasions occur in continental, mixed-ownership systems. We demonstrate a rare conservation success: the regional-scale removal of an invasive predator – the barred owl (Strix varia) – to benefit the spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) in California. Barred owl site occupancy declined sixfold, from 0.19 to 0.03, following 1 year of removals, and site extinction (0.92) far exceeded colonization...

Long-term forest experiments provide valuable knowledge in managing forests for productivity and other ecosystem services. California’s “Garden of Eden” experiment was established to determine growth potential of Pinus ponderosaplantations in response to intensive cultural treatments. We examined the 20-year growth-response of tree volume to intensive cultural treatments consisting of combinations of herbicide on competing vegetation (H), fertilization (F), and insecticide (I). We found that both H and F treatments synergistically increased tree growth at intermediate and lower-quality...

Sugar beet crown and root rot caused by Rhizoctonia solani is a major yield constraint. Root rot is highly increased when R. solani and Leuconostoc mesenteroides co-infect roots. We hypothesized that the absence of plant cell-wall-degrading enzymes in L. mesenteroides and their supply by R. solani during close contact, causes increased damage. In planta root inoculation with or without cell-walldegrading enzymes showed greater rot when L. mesenteroides was combined with cellulase (22 mm rot), polygalacturonase (47 mm), and pectin lyase (57 mm) versus these enzymes (0–26 mm), R. solani (20...