Treesearch

This study represents a major new collaboration between two State of Washington institutions, the WA Department of Natural Resources (WADNR) and the University of Washington (UW)’s Olympic Natural Resource Center (ONRC), and other key academic and federal research agencies. This multi-agency experiment, called the Type-3 Watershed Experiment, was developed to assess the impacts of current and alternative forest management strategies on a holistic vision of ecosystem wellbeing (with co-equal weighting of both environment and community wellbeing). The core question of the experiment is “Will...

In the past two decades, laurel wilt disease has significantly affected members of the Lauraceae in the southeast United States, causing widespread mortality of native redbay (Persea borbonia (L.) Spreng), and incidence of infections in avocado (Persea americana Mill.), sassafras (Sassafras albidum L.) and swamp bay (Persea palustris [Raf.] Sarg.) (Fraedrich et al., 2008, 2015, Olatinwo, et al. 2019). Laurel wilt is a vascular disease caused by Raffaelea lauricola (T.C. Harr., Fraedrich & Aghayeva), a fungus vectored by a non-native ambrosia beetle Xyleborus glabratus Eichhoff (Fraedrich...

The objectives of this study are to (1) document the extent, severity, and progression of EAB infestation in Arkansas; and (2) reconstruct EAB-induced ash tree mortality patterns as a surrogate for realized spread and infestation progression.

Custom camera traps were positioned at American pika (Ochotona princeps) haypiles in 12 warm, low-elevation locations of eastern California over 5 years and during warm and cold seasons. These camera traps detected 26 mammal and 10 bird species, including 4331 pika events as well as visits by 16 sympatric herbivores and 7 pika predators. Camera traps documented pika occupancy at some sites that had been evaluated from field surveys as extirpated, and they also confirmed field assessments of extirpation at other sites. Individual pikas could be distinguished by scars, size, and pelage...

Evidence suggests the range of Spilogale putorius (Eastern Spotted Skunk) has contracted and its abundance has declined in the past 70 years, leading to conservation concerns. We summarized county records of Eastern Spotted Skunks collected during 2000–2020 to determine the current range and relative abundance of the species. We accumulated 1174 records from 257 counties across its historic range in the United States, with 901 records from 197 counties considered verified. Verified records included museum specimens, photo-documented occurrences, and captures by researchers. We created 2...

This study evaluated the mechanical properties of hybrid (mixed-species) cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels made of low-value sugar maple (Acer saccharum) and white spruce (Picea glauca). The modulus of elasticity (MOE) of the laminations was measured with a nondestructive method. Three-layer hybrid CLT panels with layup combinations of sugar maple–white spruce–sugar maple and white spruce–sugar maple–white spruce were prepared to evaluate the effects of layups on the performance of the CLT samples. The mechanical properties of hybrid CLT panels were evaluated with different layups and...

Tree mortality is a natural process in all forest ecosystems. High mortality can be an indicator of forest health problems. On a regional scale, high mortality levels may indicate widespread insect or disease impacts or stress from large-scale regional weather events, such as severe droughts. High mortality may also occur if a large proportion of the forest in a particular region is made up of older, senescent stands. The approach presented here seeks to detect mortality patterns that might reflect changes to ecosystem processes at large scales. In many cases, the proximate cause of...

Coarse woody materials (CWM) are often defined as dead wood of a certain minimum size in forest ecosystems.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program collects data describing the condition and change of forest ecosystems across all lands in the United States (Smith 2002, USDA Forest Service 2019b). The extraordinary size of the spatial domain and breadth of forest variables sampled by the FIA program make it a unique and powerful resource for determining the extent and severity of undesirable changes in forest health across large spatial domains in the United States. Due to a lack of flexible, userfriendly tools for estimation of forest variables (Tinkham and...

Heterobasidion root disease (Heterobasidion irregulare; HRD) causes substantial pine (Pinus spp.) mortality in North America and other regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It first appeared in Wisconsin in 1993 and has since been documented in 28 counties. It was first documented in Michigan in 1963, and recent survey work found it was present in 19 counties. New infestations mainly occur when spores carried by wind land on freshly cut pine and spruce (Picea spp.) stumps. Expanding mortality gaps develop as the fungus spreads along interconnected roots. Treating cut conifer stumps with a...