Treesearch

Urban tree cover is inequitable in many American cities, with low-income and non-white neighborhoods typically having the least coverage. Some municipal and non-profit tree planting programs aim to address this inequity by targeting low-income neighborhoods; however, many programs face lack of participation or resistance from local residents. In this study, we aimed to uncover the economic, social, cultural, and physical barriers that community leaders face in planting trees and fostering engagement in a neighborhood with low tree canopy. In collaboration with an urban greening nonprofit...

The annual national report of the Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) program of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, presents forest health status and trends from a national or multistate regional perspective using a variety of sources, introduces new techniques for analyzing forest health data, and summarizes results of recently completed Evaluation Monitoring projects funded through the FHM national program. In this 21st edition in a series of annual reports, national survey data are used to identify recent geographic patterns of insect and disease activity. Satellite data are...

Streams and rivers are a rich repository of minute traces of genetic material from all organisms that live in or near the water, from the tiniest microbes to fish, mammals, and trees. This environmental DNA (eDNA) can tell a detailed story about the life within and around the waterbody.Brooke Penaluna and Richard Cronn, scientists with USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station, have spent the past several years studying the potential uses of eDNA as a tool for understanding what’s living in Pacific Northwest streams. Through eDNA analysis, they have identified more than 900...

Northern hardwoods are an economically, ecologically, and culturally important forest type spanning the upper latitudes of the United States and the lower latitudes of Canada. The prevalence and value of these forests have driven silviculture research for over a century. During this time, silvicultural approaches have varied widely, searching for scenarios to meet traditional commodity-based and diversifying ecological forestry objectives. To better understand this forest type and the spectrum of appropriate silvicultural options, we analyzed regional inventory data from the United States...

Invasions of aquatic invasive species have caused significant economic and ecological damage to global aquatic ecosystems. Once an invasive population has established in a new habitat, eradication can be financially and logistically impossible, motivating management strategies to rely heavily upon prevention measures to reduce the introduction and spread. To be productive, on-the-ground management of aquatic invasive species requires effective decision-making surrounding the allocation of limited resources. Watercraft inspections play an important role in managing aquatic invasive species...

Maintaining healthy forests requires multiple individuals, including foresters who develop timber sale silvicultural prescriptions and loggers who implement those prescriptions, resulting in the transplantation of forest health science into workable management plans. However, data on the experiences, attitudes, and opinions of these two groups are often missing when developing or refining forest health treatment strategies. To explore the role that these groups play in sustaining forest health, we examined timber sale administrators' and loggers' perspectives on treatment approaches for...

In the face of a growing human footprint, understanding interactions among threatened large carnivores is fundamental to effectively mitigating anthropogenic threats and managing species. Using data from a large-scale camera trap survey, we investigated the effects of environmental and anthropogenic variables on the interspecific interaction of a carnivore guild comprising of tiger, leopard and dhole in Bhutan. We demonstrate the complex effects of human settlement density on large carnivore interactions. Specifically, we demonstrate that leopard-dhole co-occupancy probability was higher...

Wildlife pedigrees provide insights into ecological and evolutionary processes. DNA obtained from noninvasively collected hair is often used to determine individual identities for pedigrees and other genetic analyses. However, detection rates associated with some noninvasive DNA studies can be relatively low, and genetic data do not provide information on individual birth year. Supplementing hair DNA stations with video cameras should increase the individual detection rate, assuming accurate identification of individuals via video data. Video data can also provide birth year information...

Across a city, tree communities are spatially heterogenous and vary by land use type. However, it remains unclear how urban tree communities change over time and whether rates of change depend on land use type. To address this knowledge gap, we analyzed urban tree composition using long-term plot data to examine tree diversity changes across six different urban land use types in 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014. We found that spatial differences in tree species diversity and community composition among land uses were much greater than changes over time. Number of trees increased over time, being...

Urban forestry and urban greening efforts are blossoming as cities and towns work to enhance their open spaces as green infrastructure that provides multiple benefits. This work has reached new urgency given the need for both high-performance landscapes that can mitigate the effects of climate change and accessible, safe greenspaces that can support community well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, activists, practitioners, scholars, and decision-makers–particularly those within Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and frontline communities who bear the brunt of negative...