Treesearch

Southeastern forests are no strangers to fire. Historically, frequent fire was prevalent across the landscape (Guyette and others 2012; Lafon and others 2017). Today, however, wildfire affects southeastern upland hardwood forests only to a limited extent due to effective fire suppression. (An exception of note was in 2016, when the Great Smoky Mountains National Park experienced a 17,000-acre wildfire near Gatlinburg, TN, killing 14 people and causing $500 million in damage.) Most fires are quickly suppressed; human-ignited wildfires are normally small in area, driven by climate, terrain,...

The Pinyon Jay is a highly social, year-round inhabitant of pinyon-juniper and other coniferous woodlands in the western United States. Range-wide, Pinyon Jays have declined ~ 3-4% per year for at least the last half-century. Occurrence patterns and habitat use of Pinyon Jays have not been well characterized across much of the species’ range, and obtaining this information is necessary for better understanding the causes of ongoing declines and determining useful conservation strategies. Additionally, it is important to better understand if and how targeted removal of pinyon-juniper...

In response to the strategic plan required by the Agricultural Act of 2014, the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program is initiating a strategic inventory of the nation’s urban forests. The inventory is designed to provide timely and credible data on urban forests, thereby meeting an expanding need for information on trees located in communities where more than 80% of people live. The program monitors the status and trends of trees in urban settings (i.e., urban forests), enabling assessment of their composition and structure, ecosystem services and values, health,...

The vertical turbulent transfer of heat and momentum in the lower atmospheric boundary layer is accomplished through intermittent sweep, ejection, outward interaction, and inward interaction events associated with turbulent updrafts and downdrafts. These events, collectively referred to as sweep–ejection dynamics, have been studied extensively in forested and nonforested environments and reported in the literature. However, little is known about the sweep–ejection dynamics that occur in response to turbulence regimes induced by wildland fires in forested and nonforested environments. This...

Castor canadensis (American Beaver) typically construct lodges out of tree trunks, branches, and mud, or dig dens into banks at the edges of water bodies. We observed Beavers in a Mississippi swamp using a hollow Taxodium distichum (Baldcypress) snag as a lodge. In 2016, they had constructed a mound inside of the snag and were observed sitting out of the water inside of the snag. In subsequent years, they continued to use the snag and, in autumn of 2020, constructed a more traditional lodge against it. After being disturbed, Beavers took refuge in another nearby hollow snag on 2 occasions....

Over millennia, many indigenous and Tribal peoples in North America's fire-prone ecosystems developed sophisticated relationships with wildland fire that continue today. This article introduces philosophical, conceptual, and operational approaches to working with American Indians through research and management partnerships in the fields of wildland fire, forestry, and fuels, with applications to climate change and forest landscape restoration strategies. Of central importance are respectful collaborative relationships among the various parties (Tribes, agencies, organizations, academics,...

Background Karuk and Yurok tribes in northwestern California, USA, are revitalizing the practice of cultural burning, which is the use of prescribed burns to enhance culturally important species. These cultural burns are critical to the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, and were widespread prior to the establishment of fire exclusion policies. One of the major objectives of cultural burning is to enhance California hazelnut (Corylus cornutaMarsh var. californica) basketry stem production for Karuk and Yurok basketweavers. To evaluate cultural burning as a form of human ecosystem engineerin...

Forest ecosystems are increasingly affected by a range of tree mortality events, which may permanently alter forest functional traits and disrupt their ecosystem services. While individual forest disturbances are well studied, interactions between multiple disturbances and changes of spatial patterns of forested landscapes are rarely quantified. In this study, we aim to analyze the role of wildfire in the Big Sur ecoregion of California on the spread of Phytophthora ramorum, an invasive pathogen which causes sudden oak death, the most important driver of mortality across 1000 km of...

The twentieth century confluence of clear-cutting, deer overabundance, and rising nitrogen deposition favored dominance by the shadeintolerant, unpalatable, and nitrogen-demanding black cherry (Prunus serotina) throughout the Allegheny Plateau of the eastern United States. The abundance of this species conferred unique and valuable ecological and economic benefits that shaped regional biodiversity and societies. Sustaining these values is increasingly difficult because black cherry, seemingly inexplicably, has experienced diminished establishment, growth, and survival in the twenty-first...