Treesearch

Habitat suitability models can inform forest management for species of conservation concern. Models quantify relationships between known species locations and environmental attributes, which are used to identify areas most likely to support species of concern. Managers can then limit negative human impacts in areas of high suitability or conduct habitat improvements in areas of marginal suitability. Model applications are computationally intensive, requiring time and resources not available to most managers. We developed FIRE-BIRD, an ArcGIS toolbox, to streamline preliminary data processin...

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) manufacturing and construction has been steadily growing since its inception in Europe in the 1990s. In the US, the growth of the CLT adoption is inhibited by the lack of codified design provisions for CLT in high seismic regions. This led to a multi-year study conducted by Colorado State University to investigate suitable seismic design parameters of CLT shear wall systems. This paper presents the results from a series of shake-table tests featuring a full-scale two-story mass-timber building utilizing CLT Seismic Force Resisting Systems (SFRS). The building...

Insufficient winter chill accumulation can detrimentally impact agriculture. Understanding the changing risk of insufficient chill accumulation can guide orchard management and cultivar selection for long-lived perennial crops including peaches. This study quantifies the influence of modeled anthropogenic climate change on observed chill accumulation since 1981 and projected chill accumulation through the mid-21st century, with a focus on principal peach-growing regions in the southeastern United States, and commonly grown peach cultivars with low, moderate, and high chill accumulation...

Puerto Rico’s infrastructure collapsed when exposed to the forces of hurricane María. The event also changed the course of rivers, altered the topography of sectors of the island, flooded lowlands and parts of uplands, and the ocean surge changed beach profiles and collapsed structures built close to the ocean. Islanders were left without power, water, and communications, and without access to cash and government services such as health and protection. People resurrected a life style and survival techniques thought to have been left behind in a past already forgotten by many. Complex...

The invasive emerald ash borer beetle (Agrilus planipennis, EAB) has caused significant ash tree (Fraxinus spp.) mortality and cascading forest changes in the United States. We quantitatively estimated the viability of a local green ash tree (F. pennsylvanica) population to evaluate the magnitude of change caused by EAB. We developed historic and worst case stochastic stage based population scenarios to model changes in viability for a natural stand of green ash trees. Historic parameters were based on the literature, and worst case parameters were based on field data and the literature...

We investigate contract elements and growing conditions associated with anoma- lous claims behaviour in the U.S. Federal Crop Insurance Program. In this study the measure of “anomalous claims behaviour” is based on the number of producers (in a county) placed on the “Spot Check List” (SCL) a list generated from government compliance efforts that aim to detect and deter fraud, waste, and abuse in the U.S. Federal Crop Insurance Program. Using county level data and various econometric approaches that control for features of this data set (e.g., the count nature of the dependent variable,...

Long term projections for the global forest sector are particularly sensitive to the parameters of the demand equations for the end products. To get more precise estimators and test statistics with more power than with pure time-series, the elasticities of demand are typically estimated from panel data, pooling time series across countries, and thus assuming that the elasticities are the same in all countries. The objective of this study was to recognize potential differences between countries, while using the prior information obtained by pooling. The proposed method estimated with...

We assess exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) for U.S. and Canadian prices for oriented strand board (OSB), a structural wood panel product used extensively in U.S. residential construction. Because of its prominence in construction and international trade, OSB markets are likely sen- sitive to general economic conditions. In keeping with recent research, we examine regime- specific ERPT effects; we use a smooth transition vector error correction model. We also consider ERPT asymmetries associated with a measure of general macroeconomic activity. Our results indicate that during expansionary...

All fifty states in the United States offer preferential forest property tax programs (PFPTPs) that defer, reduce, or eliminate property taxes on enrolled private forest lands, to foster ecosystem services. Among individual programs, there is wide variability in enrollment levels, as well as program structure and administration. Past research has explored patterns of enrollment in individual states, but to our knowledge has never been conducted at the national level. We used binary logistic regression with multiple imputation for missing data to explore the landowner, land, and program...

Ten US states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis as of November 2018, and have adopted other policies regarding production, consumption, and the penalties associated with it. These policy changes may have affected illegal growing operations on national forests of the United States. Using data on the number of cannabis grow sites reported on 111 national forests between 2004 and 2016 together with information about state cannabis laws and when they were implemented, we find that recreational cannabis legalization is associated with decreased reports of illegal grow...