Treesearch

Panel discussions began with Gwaze providing a general explanation and history of National Advanced Silviculture Program (NASP). NASP is a graduate-level training in silviculture and forest ecology for USDA Forest Service employees seeking to be certified as silviculturists. The training is open to employees of other Federal and State agencies. NASP is conducted in collaboration with four leading academic institutions. To become a certified silviculturist, a participant should possess 3 years of related experience, participate in the four NASP modules as well as appropriate local modules...

Naturally occurring mixtures of hardwoods and softwoods are found throughout the eastern United States and Canada. They are compositionally diverse and appear to have originated from a complex array of natural disturbances or past harvesting. Contemporary mixedwood stands can be difficult to regenerate and manage because individual species of these mixtures have differing shade tolerances, growth rates, longevities, phenology, and crown and root structure. Consequently, they often cannot be sustained without deliberate silvicultural efforts to regenerate and recruit desirable species....

USDA Forest Service, Southern and Northern Research Station scientists partnered with the Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky on a long-term silviculture project focused on enhancing the status of oak in upland hardwood stands under the auspice of the Heathy Forests Restoration Act of 2003. In an attempt to grow small oak natural reproduction into more competitive height classes, we applied herbicide to deaden undesirable midstory trees and to increase sunlight penetrating the forest floor in the first phase of a two-phase shelterwood treatment. We successfully increased the number of...

The National Advanced Silviculture Program (NASP) is composed of four national modules and one regional or local module. The University of Minnesota hosted the Lake States Regional Module in 2018. We implemented changes to how the program was offered, including broadening the participant pool and shifting the delivery method. Broadening the participation pool allowed for greater collaboration among agencies. The blended delivery method, half online and half in-person, reduced costs, reduced length of travel for participants, and made resources such as reports, documents, maps, more easily...

The hundreds of Indigenous tribes in the United States harbor diverse perspectives about the natural world, yet they share many views that are important for ecosystem restoration efforts. This paper features examples of how such views have guided ecosystem restoration through partnerships between tribal communities and the U.S. Forest Service in the western United States. Traditional perspectives have influenced restoration by deepening the understanding of reference conditions, expanding consideration of system dynamics, and guiding treatment based upon ethical principles and beliefs....

Native American forests and tribal forest management practices have sustained Indigenous communities, economies, and resources for millennia. Tribal forest management is multifaceted and every tribe has unique values, history, and management goals. Tribal forests are managed for timber production, species diversity, and spiritual and cultural values. Tribal management often seeks to maintain species diversity, to respect culturally important landscapes, to reintroduce fire into fire-dependent ecosystems, and to protect water resources. Tribal forest management can provide important...

This panel discussion focused broadly on the forest industry sector and how forest management and research on public lands is important to the forest industry sector. Panel members provided different perspectives from the forest industry sector and highlighted some key market topics for the forest industry. The panel addressed opportunities and challenges that the USDA Forest Service will face to increase the pace and scale of forest restoration while providing forest products for the forest industry sector. The panel discussed four themes including: (1) forest market updates and wood...

For the final question from my PhD defense in 2011, someone asked what additional activities we could do to help native birds in residential landscapes. "Get rid of your lawns!" I quipped. Everyone nodded in agreement. Americans intensively manage these green spaces with fertilizers, irrigation and weekly mowing, rendering lawns insufficient as habitat for virtually any wildlife.

Managing vegetation with silviculture on national forests in the 21st century will be far more complex than at any time in the hundred plus years of the agency’s history. Silviculture will take place in an environment of great uncertainty. A changing climate, unprecedented rates of change to biological communities from invasive species and pests, the likelihood of continued capacity limitations to treat acreage, changes in land use and forest management on surrounding lands, and business models of timber companies will challenge managers and silvicultural practitioners to make tradeoff...

Ecosystem services are recognized as a way of framing and describing the broad suite of benefits that people receive from forests. The USDA Forest Service has been exploring use of an ecosystem services framework to describe forest values provided by public lands and to attract and build partnerships with stakeholders to implement projects. In addition to describing ecosystem services provided by forest landscapes, this framework examines the potential tradeoffs among services associated with proposed management activities, while attracting and building partnerships with stakeholders who...