Treesearch

Temperate mixedwoods (hardwood–softwood mixtures) in central and eastern United States and Canada can be classified into two overarching categories: those with shade-tolerant softwoods maintained by light to moderate disturbances and those with shade-intolerant to mid-tolerant softwoods maintained by moderate to severe disturbances. The former includes red spruce (Picea rubens Sarg.), balsam fir (Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.), or eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr.) in mixture with northern hardwood species; the latter includes pine (Pinus) – oak (Quercus) mixtures. Such forests have...

Post-fire catchment and water utility managers throughout the world use predictive models to estimate potential erosion risks to aid in evaluating downstream impacts of increased runoff and erosion, and to target critical areas within a fire for applying mitigation practices. Erosion prediction can be complicated by forest road networks. Using novel GIS technology and soil erosion modelling, this study evaluated the effect of roads on surface runoff, erosion and sediment yields following a wildfire and determined that the predictive models were providing reasonable results. The GeoWEPP...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service's National Woodland Owner Survey (NWOS) collects information on the attitudes, behaviors, and general characteristics of private forest ownerships across the United States. An area-based sample design that results in inclusion probabilities proportional to size of forest holdings is used to select ownerships to participate in the survey. In order to make accurate population-level estimates, this sample design must be incorporated into the estimators. In this report, a weighting approach for generating estimates of totals, means, proportions...

Coarse woody debris (CWD) is a structural feature in forests throughout the United States that provides unique cover, runways, and microclimate for various wildlife species. While use and selection of CWD for rodent foraging, travel, and nesting, which can impact an individual’s fitness, has been demonstrated across numerous studies, the role of CWD presence and abundance in rodent population and community dynamics varies across studies. To better understand rodent and CWD relationships, we studied rodent populations across two periods of CWD manipulation in randomly assigned experimental...

Forests are integral to sustaining clean water resources and healthy watersheds. It is critical, therefore, that managers fully understand the potential impacts of their actions on myriad ecosystem services provided by forested watersheds. While forest hydrologists have long used paired-watershed experiments to elucidate the complex interactions between forest management and watershed biogeochemical and ecohydrological processes, there is still much to learn from these studies. Here, we present an overview of the process for designing a paired-watershed study using a large harvesting...

This resource update is a brief look at some of the basic metrics that describe the status of and changes to forest resources in Arkansas. This information is based on field data collected using the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) annualized sample design, and it is updated yearly.Tables for Arkansas, 2020 can be found here: https://doi.org/10.2737/FS-RU-309-TablesThe FIA one-click application can be found here:https://doi.org/10.2737/FIA-One-Click-State-Report-v1.2

When multiple species of host-specific natural enemies from the same feeding guild are introduced to areas against a target pest, strong interspecific competition is likely and may compromise biocontrol unless the agents effectively partition available resources. Here, we evaluate if two parasitoids (Spathius galinae and Tetrastichus planipennisi), introduced for biocontrol of the invasive emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, into North America have established niche-partitioning, co-existing populations following their sequential or simultaneous field releases to 12 hard-wood...

Background: Forests provide the largest terrestrial sink of carbon (C). However, these C stocks are threatened by forest land conversion. Land use change has global impacts and is a critical component when studying C fluxes, but it is not always fully considered in C accounting despite being a major contributor to emissions. An urgent need exists among decision-makers to identify the likelihood of forest conversion to other land uses and factors affecting C loss. To help address this issue, we conducted our research in California, Colorado, Georgia, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin. The...

The frequency and severity of outbreaks by pestiferous insects is increasing globally, likely as a result of human-mediated introductions of non-native organisms. However, it is not always apparent whether an outbreak is the result of a recent introduction of an evolutionarily naïve population, or of recent disturbance acting on an existing population that arrived previously during natural range expansion. Here we use approximate Bayesian computation to infer the colonization history of a pestiferous insect, the winter moth, Operophtera brumata L. (Lepidoptera: Geometridae), which has...

In recent decades, scholars have developed ideas about therapeutic landscapes that explore how social processes, symbolism, and physical features generate diverse meanings. We examine here how therapeutic landscapes are produced and utilized for outdoor programs for military veterans, particularly veterans experiencing posttraumatic stress. Outdoor programs for veterans (OPVs) provide restorative opportunities through nature immersion and outdoor recreation. OPVs involve diverse social settings, activity types, durations, geographic and land management contexts, and degrees of therapeutic...