Treesearch

In 1994, an executive order on environmental justice directed federal agencies to identify and address any disproportionately high adverse effects their actions and policies may have on the health and environment of minority and low-income populations.Until recently, a suitable procedure did not exist for assessing natural resource management activities through the lens of environmental justice at the implementation scale. Researchers Mark Adams and Susan Charnley with the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station developed an analytical method to do this. The method facilitat...

Forest disturbances are events that disrupt the structure and composition of forest ecosystems as well as their protective, productive, and social functions (Führer 2000, Holmes et al. 2008). The increasing severity and frequency of environmental and anthropogenic forest disturbances challenge the sustainable management and protection of forests in the United States and the benefits that they provide to individuals and communities. About 1.42 percent (3.6 million ha) of U.S. forest land was disturbed annually between 1985 and 2015 (Masek et al. 2013). Tree mortality stemming from disturbanc...

In what ways do plant diseases affect forest sustainability? How will disease disturbance regimes change given global warming and increasing population pressures? In this chapter, we review how plant diseases, caused by both biological pathogens and abiotic disturbance agents, influence forest sustainability—but note that our findings derive less from data and more from observations and professional judgment. Many forest pathogens (fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes) are microscopic, which predisposes them to nondetection because they cannot be seen with the naked eye and their symptoms...

Insects are essential components of forest ecosystems, representing most of the biological diversity and affecting virtually all ecological processes (Schowalter 1994). Most species are beneficial (Coulson and Witter 1984, Haack and Byler 1993), yet others periodically become so abundant that they threaten ecological, economic, social or aesthetic values at local to regional scales (tables 6.1 through 6.3). Insects influence forest ecosystem structure and function in complex and dynamic ways, for example, by regulating certain aspects of primary production; nutrient cycling; ecological...

This report assesses recent forest disturbance in the Western United States and discusses implications for sustainability. Individual chapters focus on fire, drought, insects, disease, invasive plants, and socioeconomic impacts. Disturbance data came from a variety of sources, including the Forest Inventory and Analysis program, Forest Health Protection, and the National Interagency Fire Center. Disturbance trends with the potential to affect forest sustainability include alterations in fire regimes, periods of drought in some parts of the region, and increases in invasive plants, insects,...

The 2010 “National Report on Sustainable Forests” (USDA FS 2011) identified forest disturbance as the most immediate threat to forest sustainability in the United States, based on increased levels of insect activity and fire activity relative to levels reported in the 2003 edition of that report. This concern, combined with the prominent role that western forests play in national statistics, was the motivating factor behind this report. Key questions for this project were, are forest disturbances increasing, and will they affect forest sustainability in the Western United States? A simple...

Nonnative invasive plants are a potential threat to the sustainability of Western U.S. forests. In the implementation of the Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators, invasive plants are recognized as affecting native species diversity (indicator 1.6), the status of endangered species (indicator 1.7), and the area of forest outside the range of natural variation (indicator 3.15) (Robertson et al. 2011).2 Invasive plants can affect forest ecosystems by reducing the abundance and functions of native species, and they can affect nutrient cycling and the fitness of native plants and animals...

Experimental forests and ranges (EFRs) are a network of long-term, dedicated research sites that have been established nationwide by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS), and include several collaborating research sites managed by other federal and state land management agencies (Adams et al. 2008, Lugo et al. 2006). Most were originally established to investigate the environmental effects of forest management practices, but, over time, many have become venues for long-term environmental monitoring and for investigations of fundamental ecological processes in these...

The LOg ReCovery Analysis Tool (LORCAT) was developed to enable researchers and mill personnel to examine the impact and relationships among various factors that influence hardwood mill recovery. LORCAT is a spreadsheet-based tool that was developed for use with the Microsoft Excel® or LibreOffice® spreadsheet applications. LORCAT allows users to interactively view the results from a single log or view trends by using hundreds of logs with a batch interface. The analysis tool requires users to specify the log length, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service log grade, species, small-...

As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the United States has reported an economy-wide inventory of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals since the mid-1990s (U.S. EPA 2021). Forest land, harvested wood products (HWP), woodlands, and urban trees within the land sector collectively represent the largest net carbon (C) sink in the United States, offsetting more than 11 percent of total GHG emissions in 2019 (U.S. EPA 2021). Estimates of GHG emissions and removals are compiled by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service researcher...