Faster Trees: Strategies for Accelerated Training and Prediction of Random Forests for Classification of Polsar Images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hänsch, Ronny; Hellwich, Olaf

2018-04-01

Random Forests have continuously proven to be one of the most accurate, robust, as well as efficient methods for the supervised classification of images in general and polarimetric synthetic aperture radar data in particular. While the majority of previous work focus on improving classification accuracy, we aim for accelerating the training of the classifier as well as its usage during prediction while maintaining its accuracy. Unlike other approaches we mainly consider algorithmic changes to stay as much as possible independent of platform and programming language. The final model achieves an approximately 60 times faster training and a 500 times faster prediction, while the accuracy is only marginally decreased by roughly 1 %.

36 CFR 908.33 - Final determination.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Final determination. 908.33 Section 908.33 Parks, Forests, and Public Property PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION POLICY AND PROCEDURES TO FACILITATE THE RETENTION OF DISPLACED BUSINESSES AND RESIDENTS IN THE PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE...

FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT FOR FORESTRY BIOFUEL STATEWIDE COLLABORATION CENTER (MICHIGAN)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

LaCourt, Donna M.; Miller, Raymond O.; Shonnard, David R.

A team composed of scientists from Michigan State University (MSU) and Michigan Technological University (MTU) assembled to better understand, document, and improve systems for using forest-based biomass feedstocks in the production of energy products within Michigan. Work was funded by a grant (DE-EE-0000280) from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and was administered by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC). The goal of the project was to improve the forest feedstock supply infrastructure to sustainably provide woody biomass for biofuel production in Michigan over the long-term. Work was divided into four broad areas with associated objectives: • TASK A: Developmore » a Forest-Based Biomass Assessment for Michigan – Define forest-based feedstock inventory, availability, and the potential of forest-based feedstock to support state and federal renewable energy goals while maintaining current uses. • TASK B: Improve Harvesting, Processing and Transportation Systems – Identify and develop cost, energy, and carbon efficient harvesting, processing and transportation systems. • TASK C: Improve Forest Feedstock Productivity and Sustainability – Identify and develop sustainable feedstock production systems through the establishment and monitoring of a statewide network of field trials in forests and energy plantations. • TASK D: Engage Stakeholders – Increase understanding of forest biomass production systems for biofuels by a broad range of stakeholders. The goal and objectives of this research and development project were fulfilled with key model deliverables including: 1) The Forest Biomass Inventory System (Sub-task A1) of feedstock inventory and availability and, 2) The Supply Chain Model (Sub-task B2). Both models are vital to Michigan’s forest biomass industry and support forecasting delivered cost, as well as carbon and energy balance. All of these elements are important to facilitate investor, operational and policy decisions. All other sub-tasks supported the development of these two tools either directly or by building out supporting information in the forest biomass supply chain. Outreach efforts have, and are continuing to get these user friendly models and information to decision makers to support biomass feedstock supply chain decisions across the areas of biomass inventory and availability, procurement, harvest, forwarding, transportation and processing. Outreach will continue on the project website at http://www.michiganforestbiofuels.org/ and http://www.michiganwoodbiofuels.org/« less

Mapping stand-age distribution of Russian forests from satellite data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, D.; Loboda, T. V.; Hall, A.; Channan, S.; Weber, C. Y.

2013-12-01

Russian boreal forest is a critical component of the global boreal biome as approximately two thirds of the boreal forest is located in Russia. Numerous studies have shown that wildfire and logging have led to extensive modifications of forest cover in the region since 2000. Forest disturbance and subsequent regrowth influences carbon and energy budgets and, in turn, affect climate. Several global and regional satellite-based data products have been developed from coarse (>100m) and moderate (10-100m) resolution imagery to monitor forest cover change over the past decade, record of forest cover change pre-dating year 2000 is very fragmented. Although by using stacks of Landsat images, some information regarding the past disturbances can be obtained, the quantity and locations of such stacks with sufficient number of images are extremely limited, especially in Eastern Siberia. This paper describes a modified method which is built upon previous work to hindcast the disturbance history and map stand-age distribution in the Russian boreal forest. Utilizing data from both Landsat and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), a wall-to-wall map indicating the estimated age of forest in the Russian boreal forest is created. Our previous work has shown that disturbances can be mapped successfully up to 30 years in the past as the spectral signature of regrowing forests is statistically significantly different from that of mature forests. The presented algorithm ingests 55 multi-temporal stacks of Landsat imagery available over Russian forest before 2001 and processes through a standardized and semi-automated approach to extract training and validation data samples. Landsat data, dating back to 1984, are used to generate maps of forest disturbance using temporal shifts in Disturbance Index through the multi-temporal stack of imagery in selected locations. These maps are then used as reference data to train a decision tree classifier on 50 MODIS-based indices. The resultant map provides an estimate of forest age based on the regrowth curves observed from Landsat imagery. The accuracy of the resultant map is assessed against three datasets: 1) subset of the disturbance maps developed within the algorithm, 2) independent disturbance maps created by the Northern Eurasia Land Dynamics Analysis (NELDA) project, and 3) field-based stand-age distribution from forestry inventory units. The current version of the product presents a considerable improvement on the previous version which used Landsat data samples at a set of randomly selected locations, resulting a strong bias of the training samples towards the Landsat-rich regions (e.g. European Russia) whereas regions such as Siberia were under-sampled. Aiming at improving accuracy, the current method significantly increases the number of training Landsat samples compared to the previous work. Aside from the previously used data, the current method uses all available Landsat data for the under-sampled regions in order to increase the representativeness of the total samples. The finial accuracy assessment is still ongoing, however, the initial results suggested an overall accuracy expressed in Kappa > 0.8. We plan to release both the training data and the final disturbance map of the Russian boreal forest to the public after the validation is completed.

Land-use history as a major driver for long-term forest dynamics in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park (central Spain) during the last millennia: implications for forest conservation and management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morales-Molino, César; Colombaroli, Daniele; Valbuena-Carabaña, María; Tinner, Willy; Salomón, Roberto L.; Carrión, José S.; Gil, Luis

2017-05-01

In the Mediterranean Basin, long-lasting human activities have largely resulted in forest degradation or destruction. Consequently, conservation efforts aimed at preserving and restoring Mediterranean forests often lack well-defined targets when using current forest composition and structure as a reference. In the Iberian mountains, the still widespread Pinus sylvestris and Quercus pyrenaica woodlands have been heavily impacted by land-use. To assess future developments and as a baseline for planning, forest managers are interested in understanding the origins of present ecosystems to disclose effects on forest composition that may influence future vegetation trajectories. Quantification of land-use change is particularly interesting to understand vegetation responses. Here we use three well-dated multi-proxy palaeoecological sequences from the Guadarrama Mountains (central Spain) to quantitatively reconstruct changes occurred in P. sylvestris forests and the P. sylvestris-Q. pyrenaica ecotone at multi-decadal to millennial timescales, and assess the driving factors. Our results show millennial stability of P. sylvestris forests under varying fire and climate conditions, with few transient declines caused by the combined effects of fire and grazing. The high value of pine timber in the past would account for long-lasting pine forest preservation and partly for the degradation of native riparian vegetation (mostly composed of Betula and Corylus). Pine forests further spread after planned forest management started at 1890 CE. In contrast, intensive coppicing and grazing caused Q. pyrenaica decline some centuries ago (ca. 1500-1650 CE), with unprecedented grazing during the last decades seriously compromising today's oak regeneration. Thus, land-use history played a major role in determining vegetation changes. Finally, we must highlight that the involvement of forest managers in this work has guaranteed a practical use of palaeoecological data in conservation and management practice.

Increasing the efficiency of airphoto forest surveys by better definition of classes

Treesearch

C. Allen Bickford

1953-01-01

Aerial photographs are now commonly used in forest-inventory work. In the forest-survey work of the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station we are interested most in using them to estimate total volume of a forested area.

36 CFR 294.25 - Mineral activities in Idaho Roadless Areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... Minerals and Energy in the Roadless Area Conservation; National Forest System Lands in Idaho Final... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 2 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Mineral activities in Idaho Roadless Areas. 294.25 Section 294.25 Parks, Forests, and Public Property FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF...

36 CFR 294.25 - Mineral activities in Idaho Roadless Areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... Minerals and Energy in the Roadless Area Conservation; National Forest System Lands in Idaho Final... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Mineral activities in Idaho Roadless Areas. 294.25 Section 294.25 Parks, Forests, and Public Property FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF...

36 CFR 294.25 - Mineral activities in Idaho Roadless Areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... Minerals and Energy in the Roadless Area Conservation; National Forest System Lands in Idaho Final... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 2 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Mineral activities in Idaho Roadless Areas. 294.25 Section 294.25 Parks, Forests, and Public Property FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF...

36 CFR 294.25 - Mineral activities in Idaho Roadless Areas.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... Minerals and Energy in the Roadless Area Conservation; National Forest System Lands in Idaho Final... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 2 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Mineral activities in Idaho Roadless Areas. 294.25 Section 294.25 Parks, Forests, and Public Property FOREST SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF...

Research in Support of Forest Management. Final report, 1986--1991

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Marx, D.H.

1991-12-01

This final research report on Research in Support of Forest Management for the Savannah River Forest Station covers the period 1986 thru 1991. This report provides a list of publications resulting from research accomplished by SEFES scientists and their cooperators, and a list of continuing research study titles. Output is 22 research publications, 23 publications involving technology transfer of results to various user groups, and 11 manuscripts in pre-publication format. DOE funding contributed approximately 15 percent of the total cost of the research.

Systematics of spiny predatory katydids (Tettigoniidae: Listroscelidinae) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest based on morphology and molecular data.

PubMed

Fialho, Verônica Saraiva; Chamorro-Rengifo, Juliana; Lopes-Andrade, Cristiano; Yotoko, Karla Suemy Clemente

2014-01-01

Listroscelidinae (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) are insectivorous Pantropical katydids whose taxonomy presents a long history of controversy, with several genera incertae sedis. This work focused on species occurring in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the world's most threatened biomes. We examined material deposited in scientific collections and visited 15 conservation units from Rio de Janeiro to southern Bahia between November 2011 and January 2012, catching 104 specimens from 10 conservation units. Based on morphological and molecular data we redefined Listroscelidini, adding a new tribe, new genus and eight new species to the subfamily. Using morphological analysis, we redescribed and added new geographic records for six species, synonymized two species and built a provisional identification key for the Atlantic Forest Listroscelidinae. Molecular results suggest two new species and a new genus to be described, possibly by the fission of the genus Hamayulus. We also proposed a 500 bp region in the final portion of the COI to be used as a molecular barcode. Our data suggest that the Atlantic Forest Listroscelidinae are seriously endangered, because they occur in highly preserved forest remnants, show high rates of endemism and have a narrow geographic distribution. Based on our results, we suggest future collection efforts must take into account the molecular barcode data to accelerate species recognition.

Mapping standing dead trees (snags) in the aftermath of the 2013 Rim Fire using airborne LiDAR data.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casas Planes, Á.; Garcia-Alonso, M.; Koltunov, A.; Ustin, S.; Falk, M.; Ramirez, C.; Siegel, R.

2014-12-01

Abundance and spatial distribution of standing dead trees (snags) are key indicators of forest biodiversity and ecosystem health and represent a critical component of habitat for various wildlife species, including the great grey owl and the black-backed woodpecker. In this work we assess the potential of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to discriminate snags from the live trees and map their distribution. The study area encompasses the burn perimeter of the Rim Fire, the third largest wildfire in California's recorded history (~104.000 ha) and represents a heterogeneous mosaic of mixed conifer forests, hardwood, and meadows. The snags mapping procedure is based on a 3D single tree detection using a Watershed algorithm and the extraction of height and intensity metrics within each segment. Variables selected using Gaussian processes form a feature space for a classifier to distinguish between dead trees and live trees. Finally, snag density and snag diameter classes that are relevant for avian species are mapped. This work shows the use of LiDAR metrics to quantify ecological variables related to the vertical heterogeneity of the forest canopy that are important in the identification of snags, for example, fractional cover. We observed that intensity-related variables are critical to the successful identification of snags and their distribution. Our study highlights the importance of high-density LiDAR for characterizing the forest structural variables that contribute to the assessment of wildlife habitat suitability.

Carbon emissions risk map from deforestation in the tropical Amazon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ometto, J.; Soler, L. S.; Assis, T. D.; Oliveira, P. V.; Aguiar, A. P.

2011-12-01

Assis, Pedro Valle This work aims to estimate the carbon emissions from tropical deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon associated to the risk assessment of future land use change. The emissions are estimated by incorporating temporal deforestation dynamics, accounting for the biophysical and socioeconomic heterogeneity in the region, as well secondary forest growth dynamic in abandoned areas. The land cover change model that supported the risk assessment of deforestation, was run based on linear regressions. This method takes into account spatial heterogeneity of deforestation as the spatial variables adopted to fit the final regression model comprise: environmental aspects, economic attractiveness, accessibility and land tenure structure. After fitting a suitable regression models for each land cover category, the potential of each cell to be deforested (25x25km and 5x5 km of resolution) in the near future was used to calculate the risk assessment of land cover change. The carbon emissions model combines high-resolution new forest clear-cut mapping and four alternative sources of spatial information on biomass distribution for different vegetation types. The risk assessment map of CO2 emissions, was obtained by crossing the simulation results of the historical land cover changes to a map of aboveground biomass contained in the remaining forest. This final map represents the risk of CO2 emissions at 25x25km and 5x5 km until 2020, under a scenario of carbon emission reduction target.

Forest type influences transmission of Phytophthora ramorum in California oak woodlands.

PubMed

Davidson, Jennifer M; Patterson, Heather A; Wickland, Allison C; Fichtner, Elizabeth J; Rizzo, David M

2011-04-01

The transmission ecology of Phytophthora ramorum from bay laurel (Umbellularia californica) leaves was compared between mixed-evergreen and redwood forest types throughout winter and summer disease cycles in central, coastal California. In a preliminary multisite study, we found that abscission rates of infected leaves were higher at mixed-evergreen sites. In addition, final infection counts were slightly higher at mixed-evergreen sites or not significantly different than at redwood sites, in part due to competition from other foliar pathogens at redwood sites. In a subsequent, detailed study of paired sites where P. ramorum was the main foliar pathogen, summer survival of P. ramorum in bay laurel leaves was lower in mixed-evergreen forest due to lower recovery from infected attached leaves and higher abscission rates of infected leaves. Onset of inoculum production and new infections of bay laurel leaves occurred later in mixed-evergreen forest. Mean inoculum levels in rainwater and final infection counts on leaves were higher in redwood forest. Based on these two studies, lower summer survival of reservoir inoculum in bay laurel leaves in mixed-evergreen forest may result in delayed onset of both inoculum production and new infections, leading to slower disease progress in the early rainy season compared with redwood forest. Although final infection counts also will depend on other foliar pathogens and disease history, in sites where P. ramorum is the main foliar pathogen, these transmission patterns suggest higher rates of disease spread in redwood forests during rainy seasons of short or average length.

78 FR 33705 - Postdecisional Administrative Review Process for Occupancy or Use of National Forest System Lands...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-06-05

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service 36 CFR Parts 212, 214, 215, 222, 228, 241, 251, 254, and... System Lands and Resources AGENCY: USDA, Forest Service. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: The United States... individuals and entities may obtain administrative review of certain types of Forest Service (Agency...

Sequential parametric optimization of methane production from different sources of forest raw material

PubMed Central

Matsakas, Leonidas; Rova, Ulrika; Christakopoulos, Paul

2015-01-01

The increase in environmental problems and the shortage of fossil fuels have led to the need for action in the development of sustainable and renewable fuels. Methane is produced through anaerobic digestion of organic materials and is a biofuel with very promising characteristics. The success in using methane as a biofuel has resulted in the operation of several commercial-scale plants and the need to exploit novel materials to be used. Forest biomass can serve as an excellent candidate for use as raw material for anaerobic digestion. During this work, both hardwood and softwood species—which are representative of the forests of Sweden—were used for the production of methane. Initially, when untreated forest materials were used for the anaerobic digestion, the yields obtained were very low, even with the addition of enzymes, reaching a maximum of only 40 mL CH4/g VS when birch was used. When hydrothermal pretreatment was applied, the enzymatic digestibility improved up to 6.7 times relative to that without pretreatment, and the yield of methane reached up to 254 mL CH4/g VS. Then the effect of chemical/enzymatic detoxification was examined, where laccase treatment improved the methane yield from the more harshly pretreated materials while it had no effect on the more mildly pretreated material. Finally, addition of cellulolytic enzymes during the digestion improved the methane yields from spruce and pine, whereas for birch separate saccharification was more beneficial. To achieve high yields in spruce 30 filter paper units (FPU)/g was necessary, whereas 15 FPU/g was enough when pine and birch were used. During this work, the highest methane yields obtained from pine and birch were 179.9 mL CH4/g VS and 304.8 mL CH4/g VS, respectively. For mildly and severely pretreated spruce, the methane yields reached 259.4 mL CH4/g VS and 276.3 mL CH4/g VS, respectively. We have shown that forest material can serve as raw material for efficient production of methane. The initially low yields from the untreated materials were significantly improved by the introduction of a hydrothermal pretreatment. Moreover, enzymatic detoxification was beneficial, but mainly for severely pretreated materials. Finally, enzymatic saccharification increased the methane yields even further. PMID:26539186

An international nomenclature for forest work study

Treesearch

Rolf Bjorheden; Michael A. Thompson

2000-01-01

Knowledge gained in the study of forest work is used to improve operational efficiency through better planning and control of future work. Internationally recognized standard methods for recording, evaluating and reporting performance in forest work will greatly enhance the usefulness of this information to managers and planners. A subcommittee of IUFRO Working Party...

An international nomenclature for forest work study

Treesearch

Rolf Björheden; Michael A.  Thompson

2000-01-01

Knowledge gained in the study of forest work is used to improve operational efficiency through better planning and control of future work. Internationally recognized standard methods for recording, evaluating and reporting performance in forest work will greatly enhance the usefulness of this information to managers and planners. A subcommittee of IUFRO Working Party $...

36 CFR 212.3 - Cooperative work.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 2 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Cooperative work. 212.3... MANAGEMENT Administration of the Forest Transportation System § 212.3 Cooperative work. (a) Cooperative... for expenditure from the appropriation “Cooperative Work, Forest Service.” If a State, county or other...

Carbon footprint of forest and tree utilization technologies in life cycle approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Polgár, András; Pécsinger, Judit

2017-04-01

In our research project a suitable method has been developed related the technological aspect of the environmental assessment of land use changes caused by climate change. We have prepared an eco-balance (environmental inventory) to the environmental effects classification in life-cycle approach in connection with the typical agricultural / forest and tree utilization technologies. The use of balances and environmental classification makes possible to compare land-use technologies and their environmental effects per common functional unit. In order to test our environmental analysis model, we carried out surveys in sample of forest stands. We set up an eco-balance of the working systems of intermediate cutting and final harvest in the stands of beech, oak, spruce, acacia, poplar and short rotation energy plantations (willow, poplar). We set up the life-cycle plan of the surveyed working systems by using the GaBi 6.0 Professional software and carried out midpoint and endpoint impact assessment. Out of the results, we applied the values of CML 2001 - Global Warming Potential (GWP 100 years) [kg CO2-Equiv.] and Eco-Indicator 99 - Human health, Climate Change [DALY]. On the basis of the values we set up a ranking of technology. By this, we received the environmental impact classification of the technologies based on carbon footprint. The working systems had the greatest impact on global warming (GWP 100 years) throughout their whole life cycle. This is explained by the amount of carbon dioxide releasing to the atmosphere resulting from the fuel of the technologies. Abiotic depletion (ADP foss) and marine aquatic ecotoxicity (MAETP) emerged also as significant impact categories. These impact categories can be explained by the share of input of fuel and lube. On the basis of the most significant environmental impact category (carbon footprint), we perform the relative life cycle contribution and ranking of each technologies. The technological life cycle stages examined in the stands are the followings: Stage 1. cleaning cutting Stage 2. selection thinning Stage 3. increment thinning Stage 4. final harvest In these priority impact categories, the life cycle contribution of technologies varied according to the life cycle stages. • The spruce stand showed the smallest contribution in the stages 1, 2, 3 alike. • After the large contribution of beech stand at the beginning (stage 1), it continues representing a moderate level in stage 2 and 3, and it shares the smallest rate in final harvest (stage 4). • The oak stand showed the largest contribution in the stages 2, 3, 4 alike. • In the case of acacia and poplar, we have got the same results as in the case of oak stands. • In the case of short rotation energy plantations (willow, poplar), we got the results typical on stage 4 of spruce stands. We can conclude, that in case of the stage of final harvest, which represents the most significant environmental impact, the ranking of working systems showes the increasing order of „energy plantations - beech - spruce - acacia - poplar - oak". The environmental assessment of technological aspects of land use and land use change represent an important added value to the climate research. Acknowledgement: This research has been supported by the Agroclimate.2 VKSZ_12-1- 2013-0034 project. Keywords: life-cycle assessment / forest utilization technology / carbon footprint / life-cycle thinking

Forest Inventory and Analysis and Forest Health Monitoring: Piecing the Quilt

Treesearch

Joseph M. McCollum; Jamie K. Cochran

2005-01-01

Against the backdrop of a discussion about patchwork quilt assembly, the authors present background information on global grids. They show how to compose hexagons, an important task in systematically developing a subset of Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) Program plots from Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plots. Finally, they outline the FHM and FIA grids, along with...

Communication from the National Forest Inventories Working Group of the 16th Caribbean Foresters meeting: proposal for a regional workshop

Treesearch

Humfredo Marcano-Vega; Carlton Roberts; Henri Valles; Jacqueline Andre; Kevin Boswell; Dennis Lemen; Floyd Liburd; Christian López

2016-01-01

We addressed the National Forests Inventories Working Group of the 16th Caribbean Foresters Meeting to propose a series of training modules regarding how to conduct national forest inventories and analyze the data collected. Improving regional capacity is crucial to ensuring the sustainable management of Caribbean forest ecosystems. We focused on the statistical and...

Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest alternative transportation feasibility study : phase I final report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2012-05-31

Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (MBSNF) is located in close proximity to the Puget Sound metropolitan area in western Washington State. The Forest is facing a number of transportation issues, such as increasing congestion and decreasing availa...

77 FR 58492 - Prohibitions Governing Fire

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-09-21

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service 36 CFR Part 261 RIN 0596-AD08 Prohibitions Governing Fire AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Direct final rule. SUMMARY: The Forest Service is making purely... Fire. * * * * * (j) Operating or using any internal or external combustion engine without a spark...

Climatic and biotic drivers of tropical evergreen forest photosynthesis: integrating field, eddy flux, remote sensing and modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, J.; Serbin, S.; Xu, X.; Guan, K.; Albert, L.; Hayek, M.; Restrepo-Coupe, N.; Lopes, A. P.; Wiedemann, K. T.; Christoffersen, B. O.; Meng, R.; De Araujo, A. C.; Oliveira Junior, R. C.; Camargo, P. B. D.; Silva, R. D.; Nelson, B. W.; Huete, A. R.; Rogers, A.; Saleska, S. R.

2016-12-01

Tropical evergreen forest photosynthetic metabolism is an important driver of large-scale carbon, water, and energy cycles, generating various climate feedbacks. However, considerable uncertainties remain regarding how best to represent evergreen forest photosynthesis in current terrestrial biosphere models (TBMs), especially its sensitivity to climatic vs. biotic variation. Here, we develop a new approach to partition climatic and biotic controls on tropical forest photosynthesis from hourly to inter-annual timescales. Our results show that climatic factors dominate photosynthesis dynamics at shorter-time scale (i.e. hourly), while biotic factors dominate longer-timescale (i.e. monthly and longer) photosynthetic dynamics. Focusing on seasonal timescales, we combine camera and ecosystem carbon flux observations of forests across a rainfall gradient in Amazonia to show that high dry season leaf turnover shifts canopy composition towards younger more efficient leaves. This seasonal variation in leaf quality (per-area leaf photosynthetic capacity) thus can explain the high photosynthetic seasonality observed in the tropics. Finally, we evaluated the performance of models with different phenological schemes (i.e. leaf quantity versus leaf quality; with and without leaf phenological variation alone the vertical canopy profile). We found that models which represented the phenology of leaf quality and its within-canopy variation performed best in simulating photosynthetic seasonality in tropical evergreen forests. This work highlights the importance of incorporating improved understanding of climatic and biotic controls in next generation TBMs to project future carbon and water cycles in the tropics.

The diversity of ant communities (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and their connections with other arthropods from three temperate forests of Central Mexico.

PubMed

Guzmán-Mendoza, Rafael; Castaño-Meneses, Gabriela; Nuñez-Palenius, Hector Gordon

2016-06-01

Ants have been considered useful for bioindication because of their ecological characteristics. Nonetheless, among the characteristics of a bioindicator group, there must be a consistent and replicable response to disturbance. In this sense, divergent reactions have been found, even between taxons narrowly related. The objective of this work was to compare the diversity of the ant communities in three different temperate forests with different levels of disturbance, and to correlate their abundance and diversity of species, with that found in other arthropod communities of the same forests. The work was carried out in three municipalities in the North of the State of Mexico, where three types of different forests were identified by their degree of disturbance. These types include: 1) primary forest (PF), with typical species of a conserved forest; 2) mixed forest (MF), with species of a conserved forest and a reforestation effort; and 3) reforested forest (RF), with species used in reforestation efforts and indicative of disturbance. In each sample, an area of 2 500 m2 was selected. Each area had 16 pitfalls apiece and they were placed 10 m away from each other. Samples were collected twice; one from February through March 2009 (dry season) and another from August through September 2010 (rainy season), which produced a total of 192 traps. Obtained specimens were identified at the most taxonomically specific level. All data captured was transformed to √n + 0.5 and diversity index levels of Shannon and Simpson were calculated, as well as richness of species for ants, beetles, grasshoppers, true bugs, and spiders. The values of richness, diversity, and abundance were correlated with the Pearson coefficient, and to evaluate possible causal relationships between these, a path analysis was performed. Results suggested an important influence of the site over ant communities, and values of richness, abundance and diversity were correlated with the communities of spiders, beetles, grasshoppers and true bugs, but not for all the sites studied. Responses to environmental changes are not only on the numeric proportions of abundance, richness and diversity, but also in the indirect and casual ecological interactions. Finally, the data seems to indicate that the responses of the ants to the environmental changes are not necessarily reflected on other organisms’ communities, so the ants’ role as bioindicators can be limited.

Mapping forest tree species over large areas with partially cloudy Landsat imagery

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turlej, K.; Radeloff, V.

2017-12-01

Forests provide numerous services to natural systems and humankind, but which services forest provide depends greatly on their tree species composition. That makes it important to track not only changes in forest extent, something that remote sensing excels in, but also to map tree species. The main goal of our work was to map tree species with Landsat imagery, and to identify how to maximize mapping accuracy by including partially cloudy imagery. Our study area covered one Landsat footprint (26/28) in Northern Wisconsin, USA, with temperate and boreal forests. We selected this area because it contains numerous tree species and variable forest composition providing an ideal study area to test the limits of Landsat data. We quantified how species-level classification accuracy was affected by a) the number of acquisitions, b) the seasonal distribution of observations, and c) the amount of cloud contamination. We classified a single year stack of Landsat-7, and -8 images data with a decision tree algorithm to generate a map of dominant tree species at the pixel- and stand-level. We obtained three important results. First, we achieved producer's accuracies in the range 70-80% and user's accuracies in range 80-90% for the most abundant tree species in our study area. Second, classification accuracy improved with more acquisitions, when observations were available from all seasons, and is the best when images with up to 40% cloud cover are included. Finally, classifications for pure stands were 10 to 30 percentage points better than those for mixed stands. We conclude that including partially cloudy Landsat imagery allows to map forest tree species with accuracies that were previously only possible for rare years with many cloud-free observations. Our approach thus provides important information for both forest management and science.

Emergent issues in forest plan revision: a dialogue

Treesearch

Susan I. Stewart; Pamela J. Jakes; Paul Monson

1998-01-01

Working with National Forest planners can raise many questions for social scientists regarding their role in planning or plan revision. Social scientists from the North Central Forest Experiment Station and the National Forest System Eastern Region debate 3 questions that continue to surface in their work with Forest Service managers on plan revision: first, what is...

Characteristics of human - sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) encounters and the resulting human casualties in the Kanha-Pench corridor, Madhya Pradesh, India

PubMed Central

Bargali, Harendra; Gore, Kedar

2017-01-01

Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) caused the highest number of human deaths between 2001 and 2015 and ranked second compared to other wild animals in causing human casualties in the Kanha-Pench corridor area. We studied the patterns of sloth bear attacks in the region to understand the reasons for conflict. We interviewed 166 victims of sloth bear attacks which occurred between 2004 and 2016 and found that most attacks occurred in forests (81%), with the greatest number of those (42%) occurring during the collection of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), 15% during the collection of fuelwood and 13% during grazing of livestock. The remainder took place at forest edges or in agricultural fields (19%), most occurring when person(s) were working in fields (7%), defecating (5%), or engaged in construction work (3%). Most victims were between the ages of 31 to 50 (57%) and most (54%) were members of the Gond tribe. The majority of attacks occurred in summer (40%) followed by monsoon (35%) and winter (25%). Forty-four percent of victims were rescued by people, while 43% of the time bears retreated by themselves. In 60% of attacks, a single bear was involved, whereas 25% involved adult females with dependent cubs and the remainder (15%) of the cases involved a pair of bears. We discuss the compensation program for attack victims as well as other governmental programs which can help reduce conflict. Finally, we recommend short-term mitigation measures for forest-dependent communities. PMID:28448565

Characteristics of human - sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) encounters and the resulting human casualties in the Kanha-Pench corridor, Madhya Pradesh, India.

PubMed

Dhamorikar, Aniruddha H; Mehta, Prakash; Bargali, Harendra; Gore, Kedar

2017-01-01

Sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) caused the highest number of human deaths between 2001 and 2015 and ranked second compared to other wild animals in causing human casualties in the Kanha-Pench corridor area. We studied the patterns of sloth bear attacks in the region to understand the reasons for conflict. We interviewed 166 victims of sloth bear attacks which occurred between 2004 and 2016 and found that most attacks occurred in forests (81%), with the greatest number of those (42%) occurring during the collection of Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), 15% during the collection of fuelwood and 13% during grazing of livestock. The remainder took place at forest edges or in agricultural fields (19%), most occurring when person(s) were working in fields (7%), defecating (5%), or engaged in construction work (3%). Most victims were between the ages of 31 to 50 (57%) and most (54%) were members of the Gond tribe. The majority of attacks occurred in summer (40%) followed by monsoon (35%) and winter (25%). Forty-four percent of victims were rescued by people, while 43% of the time bears retreated by themselves. In 60% of attacks, a single bear was involved, whereas 25% involved adult females with dependent cubs and the remainder (15%) of the cases involved a pair of bears. We discuss the compensation program for attack victims as well as other governmental programs which can help reduce conflict. Finally, we recommend short-term mitigation measures for forest-dependent communities.

Systematics of Spiny Predatory Katydids (Tettigoniidae: Listroscelidinae) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest Based on Morphology and Molecular Data

PubMed Central

Fialho, Verônica Saraiva; Chamorro-Rengifo, Juliana; Lopes-Andrade, Cristiano; Yotoko, Karla Suemy Clemente

2014-01-01

Listroscelidinae (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) are insectivorous Pantropical katydids whose taxonomy presents a long history of controversy, with several genera incertae sedis. This work focused on species occurring in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the world's most threatened biomes. We examined material deposited in scientific collections and visited 15 conservation units from Rio de Janeiro to southern Bahia between November 2011 and January 2012, catching 104 specimens from 10 conservation units. Based on morphological and molecular data we redefined Listroscelidini, adding a new tribe, new genus and eight new species to the subfamily. Using morphological analysis, we redescribed and added new geographic records for six species, synonymized two species and built a provisional identification key for the Atlantic Forest Listroscelidinae. Molecular results suggest two new species and a new genus to be described, possibly by the fission of the genus Hamayulus. We also proposed a 500 bp region in the final portion of the COI to be used as a molecular barcode. Our data suggest that the Atlantic Forest Listroscelidinae are seriously endangered, because they occur in highly preserved forest remnants, show high rates of endemism and have a narrow geographic distribution. Based on our results, we suggest future collection efforts must take into account the molecular barcode data to accelerate species recognition. PMID:25118712

GIS-Based Suitability Model for Assessment of Forest Biomass Energy Potential in a Region of Portugal

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Quinta-Nova, Luis; Fernandez, Paulo; Pedro, Nuno

2017-12-01

This work focuses on developed a decision support system based on multicriteria spatial analysis to assess the potential for generation of biomass residues from forestry sources in a region of Portugal (Beira Baixa). A set of environmental, economic and social criteria was defined, evaluated and weighted in the context of Saaty’s analytic hierarchies. The best alternatives were obtained after applying Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The model was applied to the central region of Portugal where forest and agriculture are the most representative land uses. Finally, sensitivity analysis of the set of factors and their associated weights was performed to test the robustness of the model. The proposed evaluation model provides a valuable reference for decision makers in establishing a standardized means of selecting the optimal location for new biomass plants.

75 FR 21625 - Environmental Impacts Statements; Notice of Availability

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-04-26

...: Christopher Worthington 775-635-4000. EIS No. 20100136, Final EIS, USFS, 00, Nebraska National Forests and..., Buffalo Gap National Grassland, Oglala National Grassland, Samuel R. McKelvie National Forest, and the Pine Ridge and Bessey Units of the Nebraska National Forest, Fall River, Custer, Pennington, Jackson...

78 FR 2655 - Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest; Utah; Ogden Travel Plan Project

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-01-14

...-Wasatch-Cache National Forest; Utah; Ogden Travel Plan Project AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION... prepare a supplement to the Ogden Travel Plan Revision Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS). The Ogden Travel Plan Revision FSEIS evaluated six alternatives for possible travel management...

78 FR 9831 - Final Flood Elevation Determinations

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-02-12

... Drive. Wake County. Approximately 850 feet +345 upstream of Keighley Forest Drive. Richland Creek Approximately 850 feet +301 Town of Wake Forest. upstream of the confluence with Richland Creek Tributary 2... Approximately 750 feet +301 Town of Wake Forest. upstream of the confluence with Richland Creek. Approximately 0...

Proceedings: North American forest insect work conference.

Treesearch

D.C. Allen; L.P. Abrahamson

1992-01-01

A proceedings of a conference held to stimulate interaction among people working in areas of forest protection and silviculture and on issues of national and international concern relative to forest insect and disease management, education, and research. National issues addressed were forest productivity, stewardship, biological diversity, and new perspectives and how...

Introduction

Treesearch

Deborah J. Chavez; Patricia C. Winter; James D. Absher

2008-01-01

In 1987, the Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (USFS), chartered a research work unit to examine outdoor recreation in the wildland-urban interface. The need for the work unit was identified by the four forest supervisors in southern California, from the Angeles National Forest, the Cleveland National Forest...

National Forest System working circles: a question of size and ownership composition

Treesearch

Robert J. Hrubes

1976-01-01

Allowable-cut (potential yield) levels on National Forest land are determined for planning units called working circles. The size of working circles has been increased over the past 30 years to the present scale which is often coincident with National Forest boundaries. Larger working circles have recently been considered because of the anticipated impacts on timber...

36 CFR 211.6 - Cooperation in forest investigations or the protection, management, and improvement of the...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... activities otherwise authorized, may receive monies from cooperators only for cooperative work in forest... work as planning, analysis, and related studies, as well as resource activities. (b) Reimbursements. Agency expenditures for work undertaken in accordance with this section may be made from Forest Service...

D Semantic Labeling of ALS Data Based on Domain Adaption by Transferring and Fusing Random Forest Models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, J.; Yao, W.; Zhang, J.; Li, Y.

2018-04-01

Labeling 3D point cloud data with traditional supervised learning methods requires considerable labelled samples, the collection of which is cost and time expensive. This work focuses on adopting domain adaption concept to transfer existing trained random forest classifiers (based on source domain) to new data scenes (target domain), which aims at reducing the dependence of accurate 3D semantic labeling in point clouds on training samples from the new data scene. Firstly, two random forest classifiers were firstly trained with existing samples previously collected for other data. They were different from each other by using two different decision tree construction algorithms: C4.5 with information gain ratio and CART with Gini index. Secondly, four random forest classifiers adapted to the target domain are derived through transferring each tree in the source random forest models with two types of operations: structure expansion and reduction-SER and structure transfer-STRUT. Finally, points in target domain are labelled by fusing the four newly derived random forest classifiers using weights of evidence based fusion model. To validate our method, experimental analysis was conducted using 3 datasets: one is used as the source domain data (Vaihingen data for 3D Semantic Labelling); another two are used as the target domain data from two cities in China (Jinmen city and Dunhuang city). Overall accuracies of 85.5 % and 83.3 % for 3D labelling were achieved for Jinmen city and Dunhuang city data respectively, with only 1/3 newly labelled samples compared to the cases without domain adaption.

Monitoring the health of sugar maple, Acer saccharum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carlson, Martha

The sugar maple, Acer saccharum, is projected to decline and die in 88 to 100 percent of its current range in the United States. An iconic symbol of the northeastern temperate forest and a dominant species in this forest, the sugar maple is identified as the most sensitive tree in its ecosystem to rising temperatures and a warming climate. This study measures the health of sugar maples on 12 privately owned forests and at three schools in New Hampshire. Laboratory quantitative analyses of leaves, buds and sap as well as qualitative measures of leaf and bud indicate that record high beat in 2012 stressed the sugar maple. The study identifies several laboratory and qualitative tests of health which seem most sensitive and capable of identifying stress early when intervention in forest management or public policy change might counter decline of the species. The study presents evidence of an unusual atmospheric pollution event which defoliated sugar maples in 2010. The study examines the work of citizen scientists in Forest Watch, a K-12 school program in which students monitor the impacts of ozone on white pine, Pinus strobus, another keystone species in New Hampshire's forest. Finally, the study examines three simple measurements of bud, leaf and the tree's acclimation to light. The findings of these tests illuminate findings in the first study. And they present examples of what citizen scientists might contribute to long-term monitoring of maples. A partnership between science and citizens is proposed to begin long-term monitoring and to report on the health of sugar maples.

78 FR 65962 - Revision of the Land Management Plan for the Flathead National Forest

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-11-04

... over time. Under the 2012 Planning Rule, the assessment of ecological, social, and economic trends and... environmental impact statement and revised Forest Plan for public review and comment, and the preparation of the final environmental impact statement and revised Forest Plan. The third stage of the process is...

The southern pine beetle prevention initiative: working for healthier forests

Treesearch

John Nowak; Christopher Asaro; Kier Klepzig; Ronald Billings

2008-01-01

The southern pine beetle (SPB) is the most destructive forest pest in the South. After a recent SPB outbreak, the US Forest Service (Forest Health Protection and Southern Research Station [SRS]) received SPB Initiative (SPBI) funding to focus more resources on proactive SPB prevention work. This funding is being used for on-the-ground accomplishments, landowner...

Seeing the bigger picture: landscape silviculture may offer compatible solutions to conflicting objectives.

Treesearch

Jonathan Thompson

2006-01-01

Some federal forest managers working in late-successional reserves find themselves in a potential no-win situation. The Northwest Forest Plan requires that the reserves be protected from large-scale natural and human disturbances while simultaneously maintaining older forest habitat. This is a challenge for managers working in drier reserves, where forest types are...

Bridging scale gaps between regional maps of forest aboveground biomass and field sampling plots using TanDEM-X data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ni, W.; Zhang, Z.; Sun, G.

2017-12-01

Several large-scale maps of forest AGB have been released [1] [2] [3]. However, these existing global or regional datasets were only approximations based on combining land cover type and representative values instead of measurements of actual forest aboveground biomass or forest heights [4]. Rodríguez-Veiga et al[5] reported obvious discrepancies of existing forest biomass stock maps with in-situ observations in Mexico. One of the biggest challenges to the credibility of these maps comes from the scale gaps between the size of field sampling plots used to develop(or validate) estimation models and the pixel size of these maps and the availability of field sampling plots with sufficient size for the verification of these products [6]. It is time-consuming and labor-intensive to collect sufficient number of field sampling data over the plot size of the same as resolutions of regional maps. The smaller field sampling plots cannot fully represent the spatial heterogeneity of forest stands as shown in Figure 1. Forest AGB is directly determined by forest heights, diameter at breast height (DBH) of each tree, forest density and tree species. What measured in the field sampling are the geometrical characteristics of forest stands including the DBH, tree heights and forest densities. The LiDAR data is considered as the best dataset for the estimation of forest AGB. The main reason is that LiDAR can directly capture geometrical features of forest stands by its range detection capabilities.The remotely sensed dataset, which is capable of direct measurements of forest spatial structures, may serve as a ladder to bridge the scale gaps between the pixel size of regional maps of forest AGB and field sampling plots. Several researches report that TanDEM-X data can be used to characterize the forest spatial structures [7, 8]. In this study, the forest AGB map of northeast China were produced using ALOS/PALSAR data taking TanDEM-X data as a bridges. The TanDEM-X InSAR data used in this study and forest AGB map was shown in Figure 2. The technique details and further analysis will be given in the final report. AcknowledgmentThis work was supported in part by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2013CB733401, 2013CB733404), and in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41471311, 41371357, 41301395).

Preliminary work of mangrove ecosystem carbon stock mapping in small island using remote sensing: above and below ground carbon stock mapping on medium resolution satellite image

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wicaksono, Pramaditya; Danoedoro, Projo; Hartono, Hartono; Nehren, Udo; Ribbe, Lars

2011-11-01

Mangrove forest is an important ecosystem located in coastal area that provides various important ecological and economical services. One of the services provided by mangrove forest is the ability to act as carbon sink by sequestering CO2 from atmosphere through photosynthesis and carbon burial on the sediment. The carbon buried on mangrove sediment may persist for millennia before return to the atmosphere, and thus act as an effective long-term carbon sink. Therefore, it is important to understand the distribution of carbon stored within mangrove forest in a spatial and temporal context. In this paper, an effort to map carbon stocks in mangrove forest is presented using remote sensing technology to overcome the handicap encountered by field survey. In mangrove carbon stock mapping, the use of medium spatial resolution Landsat 7 ETM+ is emphasized. Landsat 7 ETM+ images are relatively cheap, widely available and have large area coverage, and thus provide a cost and time effective way of mapping mangrove carbon stocks. Using field data, two image processing techniques namely Vegetation Index and Linear Spectral Unmixing (LSU) were evaluated to find the best method to explain the variation in mangrove carbon stocks using remote sensing data. In addition, we also tried to estimate mangrove carbon sequestration rate via multitemporal analysis. Finally, the technique which produces significantly better result was used to produce a map of mangrove forest carbon stocks, which is spatially extensive and temporally repetitive.

32 CFR 644.408 - Interchange of national forest and military and civil works lands.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 32 National Defense 4 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Interchange of national forest and military and... Property and Easement Interests § 644.408 Interchange of national forest and military and civil works lands. 16 U.S.C. 505a, 505b authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture, with respect to national forest lands...

The repeatability of stem exclusion during even-aged development of bigtooth aspen dominated forests

Treesearch

Brain J. Palik; Kurt S. Pregitzer

1993-01-01

Forest development following major disturbance is thought to follow a fairly repeatable temporal pattern. An initial cohort of trees establishes relatively rapidly (stand initiation), new establishment is precluded for an extended period (stem exclusion), and finally, new individuals again begin to establish, creating new age-classes in the forest understory (...

76 FR 58240 - Modoc National Forest, Alturas, CA, Supplemental Information for the Final Environmental Impact...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-09-20

... supports: The addition of 331 miles of unauthorized routes to the National Forest Transportation System... Maintenance Level 3 (ML3) roads to allow for mixed use by both highway legal and non-highway legal vehicles... proposes to add 331 miles of unauthorized routes to the National Forest Transportation System (NFTS) on the...

Freshwater mussels of the Delta National Forest, Mississippi Final Report

Treesearch

Wendell R. Haag; Melvin L. Warren

1998-01-01

Twenty-three species of freshwater mussels were collected during a survey of aquatic habitats in the Delta National Forest, Mississippi. An additional 6 species not encountered in this survey were reported by an earlier study in the Big Sunflower River near the northern proclamation boundary of the Forest. These species are included here, bringing the total species...

77 FR 18997 - Boundary Establishment for the Presque Isle National Wild and Scenic River, Ottawa National...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-03-29

... AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of availability. SUMMARY: In accordance with Section 3(b) of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the USDA Forest Service, Washington Office, is transmitting the final... Wild and Scenic River boundary is available for review at the following offices: USDA Forest Service...

Proceedings: Ecology, Survey and Management of Forest Insects

Treesearch

Michael L. McManus; Andrew M. Liebhold; [eds.

2003-01-01

Contains 46 papers and abstracts presented at a meeting sponsored by the International Union of Forestry Research Organizations (IUFRO) Working Party S7.03-06, "Integrated Management of Forest Defoliating Insects," and Working Party S7.03.07, "Population Dynamics of Forest Insects."

Forest turnover rates follow global and regional patterns of productivity

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stephenson, N.L.; van Mantgem, P.J.

2005-01-01

Using a global database, we found that forest turnover rates (the average of tree mortality and recruitment rates) parallel broad-scale patterns of net primary productivity. First, forest turnover was higher in tropical than in temperate forests. Second, as recently demonstrated by others, Amazonian forest turnover was higher on fertile than infertile soils. Third, within temperate latitudes, turnover was highest in angiosperm forests, intermediate in mixed forests, and lowest in gymnosperm forests. Finally, within a single forest physiognomic type, turnover declined sharply with elevation (hence with temperature). These patterns of turnover in populations of trees are broadly similar to the patterns of turnover in populations of plant organs (leaves and roots) found in other studies. Our findings suggest a link between forest mass balance and the population dynamics of trees, and have implications for understanding and predicting the effects of environmental changes on forest structure and terrestrial carbon dynamics. ??2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd/CNRS.

77 FR 68197 - Notice of Final Federal Agency Actions on Proposed Highway in Indiana

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-11-15

... emergent, scrub-shrub and forested wetlands. Subject to the permit conditions, INDOT is permitted to... emergent, scrub-shrub, and forested wetlands in constructing these 18 crossings. The actions by the Federal...

The Red de Monitoreo de BosquesAndinos: A communication platform for science and policy in the Andean countries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baez, S.; Cuesta, F. X.; Malizia, A.; Carilla, J.; Bustamante, M.; Yepes, A.

2013-05-01

A workshop held in October 2012 in Lima, Peru, brought together more than 40 scientists and policy makers working in Andean forest ecosystems, one of the richer and most threatened ecosystems of the world. Among the various results of the workshop, there is the formation of the network "Red de Bosques Andinos". The goals of the network include to stimulate scientific research in Andean forest ecosystems by promoting collaboration among scientists, and to serve as a platform to facilitate applied research and communication between scientists and policy makers. Current members of the network include scientists of Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Germany, Peru, USA, and representatives of Ministries of Environment and the National Climate Change Adaptation Programs of Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. The network has started to work in two critical documents for the region. The first one is an extended protocol to monitor diversity and carbon in Andean forests. This protocol, partly based on unpublished efforts, has been developed by the Instituto de Ecología Regional, Universidad de Tucuman, Argentina, and has been revised and improved by experts working in the Andes. The document describe methods to document ecological changes that take place over mid- and long periods of time. It focuses on monitoring changes on the diversity and growth of trees, shrubs and lianas, cover of herbaceous species, and carbon content in forests. This extended protocol will be a useful tool for students and researchers interested in conducting long-term ecological research. Moreover, the use of this tool will produce standardized data needed to understand ecological processes that take place at large spatial scales. The document will be freely available at www.condesan.org. The second document consists of an analysis of the dynamics of trees and carbon in the Andean region. The members of the network have contributed with data of more than 70 permanent forest plots located from Colombia to Argentina, some of them monitored since 1990. The initial results indicate that warmer, wetter, and more seasonal forests had higher rates of turnover of individuals, and biomass. Most of these patterns held for both, tropical and subtropical forest plots. The study will be completed in 2013, and will be the first study of forest dynamics and carbon content for the countries in the region. Finally, it is the aim of the Andean Forest Network to bring together scientists and policy-makers interested in research, management and conservation of the Andean forest. The creation of the network and the development of its first two products have been possible thanks to the financial support of the Swiss Agency of International Cooperation (COSUDE) through the CIMA project, the Dutch Technical Agency (GIZ), and the endorsement of the Secretaría General de Naciones (SG-CAN). The coordination of the network is currently held by Selene Báez, at CONDESAN (selene.baez@condesan.org). Please contact us if you need more information or if you are interested in becoming part of the network.

The USDA Forest Service in Hawaii: the first 20 years (1957-1977)

Treesearch

Robert E. Nelson

1989-01-01

This personal account of USDA Forest Service activities in Hawaii is from the vantage point of an author who during his two decades there served as the sole Forest Service representative in the Hawaiian Islands, then research center leader, and finally the Director of the Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry. People who served in research and technical assistance...

Introduction to: GTR-SRS-226

Treesearch

Erin O. Sills; R. David Simpson; E. Evan Mercer

2017-01-01

Given the economic importance of wood products in the U.S. South, the value of southern forests as timberlands is well known and acknowledged in State policy decisions. However, timber represents only part of the value of forests, and forestry leaders are increasingly interested in quantifying the full value of the South’s forests, i.e., the value of all final...

New focus on forests

Treesearch

Katherine Unger; Divya Abhat.; Constance Millar; Greg [featured scientists] McPherson

2010-01-01

It would appear that forests are finally having their day—and not a moment too soon. Around the world, trees are dying at an alarming rate, besieged by illegal logging, agricultural conversion, wildfire, and drought. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 13 million  hectares of the world’s forests are now lost to deforestation every year....

Recent changes in costs of shipping forest products by rail.

Treesearch

Kristine C. Jackson

1988-01-01

Costs for shipping lumber, plywood, and paper by rail are used by the USDA Forest Service in periodic timber assessments to measure the average cost of transporting forest products from producing locations to the point of final consumption. The Staggers Rail Act of 1980 authorized deregulation of the Nation's railroads. The purposes of this study were to determine...

A biomass representative land cover classification for the Democratic Republic of Congo derived from the Forets D'Afrique Central Evaluee par Teledetection (FACET) data set

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Molinario, G.; Hansen, M.; Potapov, P.; Altstatt, A. L.; Justice, C. O.

2012-12-01

The FACET forest cover and forest cover loss 2000-2005-2010 data set has been produced by South Dakota State University, the University of Maryland and the Kinshasa-based Observatoire Satellital des Forets D'Afrique Central (OSFAC) with funding from the USAID Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE). The product is now available or being finalized for the DRC, the ROC and Gabon with plans to complete all Congo Basin countries. While FACET provides unprecedented synoptic detail in the extent of Congo Basin forest and the forest cover loss, additional information is required to stratify land cover into types indicative of biomass content. Analysis of the FACET patterns of deforestation, more detailed remote sensing analysis of biophysical attributes within the FACET land cover classes and GIS-derived classes of degradation obtained through variable distance buffers based on relevant literature and ground truth data are combined with the existing FACET classes to produce a ranking of land cover from low biomass to high biomass for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The resulting classification can be used in all Reduced Emissions from Degradation and Deforestation (REDD) pre-inventory phases when baseline forest cover needs to be known and the location and amount of forest biomass inventory plots needs to be designed. FACET cover loss classes were kept in the classification and can provide the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification tools needed for REDD projects. The project will be demonstrated for the Maringa Lopori Wamba Landscape of the DRC where this work was funded by the African Wildlife Foundation to support the design of a REDD pilot project.

Proceedings of the fourth meeting of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) Working Party S07.02.09: Phytophthoras in forests and natural ecosystems

Treesearch

E.M. Goheen; S.J. Frankel

2009-01-01

The fourth meeting of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) Working Party S07.02.09, Phytophthoras in Forests and Natural Ecosystems provided a forum for current research on Phytophthora species worldwide. Seventy-eight submissions describing papers and posters on recent developments in Phytophthora diseases of trees and natural ecosystems in...

Investigation of a novel image segmentation method dedicated to forest fire applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rudz, S.; Chetehouna, K.; Hafiane, A.; Laurent, H.; Séro-Guillaume, O.

2013-07-01

To face fire it is crucial to understand its behaviour in order to maximize fighting means. To achieve this task, the development of a metrological tool is necessary for estimating both geometrical and physical parameters involved in forest fire modelling. A key parameter is to estimate fire positions accurately. In this paper an image processing tool especially dedicated to an accurate extraction of fire from an image is presented. In this work, the clustering on several colour spaces is investigated and it appears that the blue chrominance Cb from the YCbCr colour space is the most appropriate. As a consequence, a new segmentation algorithm dedicated to forest fire applications has been built using first an optimized k-means clustering in the Cb-channel and then some properties of fire pixels in the RGB colour space. Next, the performance of the proposed method is evaluated using three supervised evaluation criteria and then compared to other existing segmentation algorithms in the literature. Finally a conclusion is drawn, assessing the good behaviour of the developed algorithm. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Dr Olivier Séro-Guillaume (1950-2013), CNRS Research Director.

75 FR 49547 - Notice of Final Federal Agency Actions on Proposed Highway in Indiana

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-13

...-shrub and forested wetlands. Subject to the permit conditions, INDOT is permitted to discharge fill... open water and emergent, scrub-shrub and forested wetlands adjacent to First Creek and Doan's Creek in...

Ten years of research on the MeadWestvaco Wildlife and Ecosystem Research Forest

Treesearch

P.D. Keyser; W.M. Ford; W.M. Ford

2005-01-01

Contains 90 citations and annotations of publications and final reports that describe research conducted on or in association with the MeadWestvaco Wildlife and Ecosystem Research Forest in West Virginia from 1994 through 2004.

Method for Processing Liver Spheroids Using an Automatic Tissue Processor

DTIC Science & Technology

2016-05-01

Harry; Kristovich, Robert L. (ECBC); and Valdes, Leah R. (ORISE) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER CRADA 1314C w/ Wake Forest University 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK...The work described in this report was authorized under project no. CRADA1314C with Wake Forest University Health Sciences. The work was started in... Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Winston-Salem, NC iv Blank v CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION

Final Harvest of Above-Ground Biomass and Allometric Analysis of the Aspen FACE Experiment

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Mark E. Kubiske

The Aspen FACE experiment, located at the US Forest Service Harshaw Research Facility in Oneida County, Wisconsin, exposes the intact canopies of model trembling aspen forests to increased concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and O3. The first full year of treatments was 1998 and final year of elevated CO2 and O3 treatments is scheduled for 2009. This proposal is to conduct an intensive, analytical harvest of the above-ground parts of 24 trees from each of the 12, 30 m diameter treatment plots (total of 288 trees) during June, July & August 2009. This above-ground harvest will be carefully coordinated with themore » below-ground harvest proposed by D.F. Karnosky et al. (2008 proposal to DOE). We propose to dissect harvested trees according to annual height growth increment and organ (main stem, branch orders, and leaves) for calculation of above-ground biomass production and allometric comparisons among aspen clones, species, and treatments. Additionally, we will collect fine root samples for DNA fingerprinting to quantify biomass production of individual aspen clones. This work will produce a thorough characterization of above-ground tree and stand growth and allocation above ground, and, in conjunction with the below ground harvest, total tree and stand biomass production, allocation, and allometry.« less

The Calhoun Experimental Forest

Treesearch

Louis J. Metz

1958-01-01

The Calhoun Experimental Forest, a research area of the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station, was established in 1947 for work on Piedmont forest, soil, and water problems. Located in the Sumter National Forest, near Union, South Carolina, the forest was chosen because it represented poorest Piedmont conditions.Since early settler days, the great Piedmont...

Forest resources of South Carolina's national forests, 2001

Treesearch

Sonja N. Oswalt

2005-01-01

This bulletin describes forest resources of the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests in the State of South Carolina. It is based on sampling from the eighth forest inventory conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis Research Work Unit. Findings suggest that South Carolina’s national...

An estimate of the amount of road in the staggered-setting system of clearcutting.

Treesearch

Roy R. Silen; H.J. Gratkowski

1953-01-01

One question frequently asked by foresters in the Douglas-fir region is: "How much land is taken out of forest production by logging roads and landings?" The final answer is not known, but a rough estimate recently prepared for a sizable portion of the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest may be useful as a tentative figure. The experimental area is located...

Landscape Change in the Midwest: An Integrated Research and Development Program

Treesearch

Paul H. Gobster; Robert G. Haight; Dave Shriner

2000-01-01

Change happens. In the realm of forest landscapes, one of the great realizations of the late 20th century was that forests in the United States and elsewhere often are not the stable systems we once thought them to be, attaining a final "climax" stage through the process of succession. Advances in forest ecology show that landscape change is the rule rather...

High-Resolution Regional Biomass Map of Siberia from Glas, Palsar L-Band Radar and Landsat Vcf Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, G.; Ranson, K.; Montesano, P.; Zhang, Z.; Kharuk, V.

2015-12-01

The Arctic-Boreal zone is known be warming at an accelerated rate relative to other biomes. The taiga or boreal forest covers over 16 x106 km2 of Arctic North America, Scandinavia, and Eurasia. A large part of the northern Boreal forests are in Russia's Siberia, as area with recent accelerated climate warming. During the last two decades we have been working on characterization of boreal forests in north-central Siberia using field and satellite measurements. We have published results of circumpolar biomass using field plots, airborne (PALS, ACTM) and spaceborne (GLAS) lidar data with ASTER DEM, LANDSAT and MODIS land cover classification, MODIS burned area and WWF's ecoregion map. Researchers from ESA and Russia have also been working on biomass (or growing stock) mapping in Siberia. For example, they developed a pan-boreal growing stock volume map at 1-kilometer scale using hyper-temporal ENVISAT ASAR ScanSAR backscatter data. Using the annual PALSAR mosaics from 2007 to 2010 growing stock volume maps were retrieved based on a supervised random forest regression approach. This method is being used in the ESA/Russia ZAPAS project for Central Siberia Biomass mapping. Spatially specific biomass maps of this region at higher resolution are desired for carbon cycle and climate change studies. In this study, our work focused on improving resolution ( 50 m) of a biomass map based on PALSAR L-band data and Landsat Vegetation Canopy Fraction products. GLAS data were carefully processed and screened using land cover classification, local slope, and acquisition dates. The biomass at remaining footprints was estimated using a model developed from field measurements at GLAS footprints. The GLAS biomass samples were then aggregated into 1 Mg/ha bins of biomass and mean VCF and PALSAR backscatter and textures were calculated for each of these biomass bins. The resulted biomass/signature data was used to train a random forest model for biomass mapping of entire region from 50oN to 75oN, and 80oE to 145oE. The spatial patterns of the new biomass map is much better than the previous maps due to spatially specific mapping in high resolution. The uncertainties of field/GLAS and GLAS/imagery models were investigated using bootstrap procedure, and the final biomass map was compared with previous maps.

Communicating old-growth forest management on the Allegheny National Forest

Treesearch

Brad Nelson; Chris Nowak; Dave deCalesta; Steve Wingate

1997-01-01

Successful communication of old-growth management, including the role of silviculture, is achieved by integrating as a working whole the topics addressed in this workshop. We have used research, technology transfer and adaptive management to achieve this integration on the Allegheny National Forest. Program success depends on scientists and practitioners working...

Recreation visitor research: studies of diversity

Treesearch

Deborah J. Chavez; Patricia L. Winter; James D. Absher

2008-01-01

In 1987, the Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service (USFS) chartered a research work unit to examine outdoor recreation in the wildland-urban interface. The new work unit was established to address the needs of the increasingly diverse recreation visitors to national forests. The four forest supervisors in southern...

Midcycle survey of Mississippi's forest resources

Treesearch

Charles E. Thomas; William H. McWilliams

1985-01-01

To provide current forest resource data, the Forest Inventory and Analysis Unit of the U.S. Forest Service Southern Forest Experiment Station has conducted interim surveys within the regular 10-year survey cycles. This report summarizes the findings of a midcycle survey of Mississippi forest resources. Field work for the survey was completed in 1983....

The status of North Carolina's national forests, 2002

Treesearch

Sonja N. Oswalt; Tony G. Johnson

2007-01-01

This bulletin describes forest resources of the Pisgah/Cherokee, Nantahala, Croatan, and Uwharrie National Forests in the State of North Carolina. It is based on sampling conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Southern Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis Research Work Unit. This bulletin addresses forest area estimates; timber...

Northeastern Area Forest Legacy Program Yearbook 2008

Treesearch

US Forest Service, Northeastern Area, State and Private Forestry

2009-01-01

The purpose of the Forest Legacy Program (FLP) is to protect environmentally important forest areas that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses. The Forest Legacy Program is a partnership between participating States and the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture. These two entities work together to identify important forest lands and...

Sourcebook on Criteria and Indicators of Forest Sustainability in the Northeastern Area

Treesearch

USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry; Northeastern Forest Resource Planners Association; Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters

2002-01-01

This sourcebook represents a collaborative effort between the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area, State and Private Forestry; the Northeastern Area Association of State Foresters; and the Northeastern Forest Resource Planners Association to address the issue of measuring forest sustainability. Forest Service and State resource professionals work to facilitate the...

Bringing Together Users and Developers of Forest Biomass Maps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Molly E.; Macauley, Molly

2011-01-01

Forests store carbon and thus represent important sinks for atmospheric carbon dioxide. Reducing uncertainty in current estimates of the amount of carbon in standing forests will improve precision of estimates of anthropogenic contributions to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to deforestation. Although satellite remote sensing has long been an important tool for mapping land cover, until recently aboveground forest biomass estimates have relied mostly on systematic ground sampling of forests. In alignment with fiscal year 2010 congressional direction, NASA has initiated work toward a carbon monitoring system (CMS) that includes both maps of forest biomass and total carbon flux estimates. A goal of the project is to ensure that the products are useful to a wide community of scientists, managers, and policy makers, as well as to carbon cycle scientists. Understanding the needs and requirements of these data users is helpful not just to the NASA CMS program but also to the entire community working on carbon-related activities. To that end, this meeting brought together a small group of natural resource managers and policy makers who use information on forests in their work with NASA scientists who are working to create aboveground forest biomass maps. These maps, derived from combining remote sensing and ground plots, aim to be more accurate than current inventory approaches when applied at local and regional scales.

Land Reclamation in Brazilian Amazônia: A chronosequence study of floristic development in the national forest of Jamiri-RO mined areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fengler, Felipe; Ribeiro, Admilson; Longo, Regina; Merides, Marcela; Soares, Herlon; Melo, Wanderley

2017-04-01

Although reclamation techniques for forest ecosystems recovery have been developed over the past decades, there is still a great difficulty in the establishment on environment assessment, especially when compared to the non-disturbed ecosystems. This work evaluated the results and limitations on cassiterite-mined areas in reclamation, at Brazilian Amazônia. Floristic variables from 29 plots located on 15-year-old native species reforestation sites and two plots from preserved open/closed canopy forests were analyzed in a chronosequece way (2010-2015). Regeneration density, species richness, average girth, and average height were evaluated every year, by means of cluster analysis (Euclidian distance, Ward method) and submitted to multiscale bootstrap resampling (a=5%). It was conduced the regression analysis for each identified group in 2015 in order to verify differences between the chronosequece development. The results showed the existence of two main groups in 2010, one witch all mined plots were allocated and other with open/closed canopy plots. After 2011 some mined areas became allocated in the open/closed canopy plots group. From 2013 and on open/closed canopy plots appeared shuffled in the formed groups, indicating the reclamation sites conditions became similar to natural areas. Finally, in 2015 three main groups were formed. The regression analysis showed that group three had a higher trend of development for regeneration density, with higher angular coefficient and higher values. For species richness all the groups had a similar trend, with values lower than open/closed canopy forest. In average girth higher trends were observed in group one and all values were near to open canopy forest in 2015. Average height showed better trends and higher values in group two. It was concluded that all mined sites had a forest recovery process. However, different responses to reclamation process were observed due to the differences in the degraded soils characteristics. Keywords: Recovery, Restoration, Forest, Chronosequece, Cassiterite.

A climate sensitive model of carbon transfer through atmosphere, vegetation and soil in managed forest ecosystems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loustau, D.; Moreaux, V.; Bosc, A.; Trichet, P.; Kumari, J.; Rabemanantsoa, T.; Balesdent, J.; Jolivet, C.; Medlyn, B. E.; Cavaignac, S.; Nguyen-The, N.

2012-12-01

For predicting the future of the forest carbon cycle in forest ecosystems, it is necessary to account for both the climate and management impacts. Climate effects are significant not only at a short time scale but also at the temporal horizon of a forest life cycle e.g. through shift in atmospheric CO2 concentration, temperature and precipitation regimes induced by the enhanced greenhouse effect. Intensification of forest management concerns an increasing fraction of temperate and tropical forests and untouched forests represents only one third of the present forest area. Predicting tools are therefore needed to project climate and management impacts over the forest life cycle and understand the consequence of management on the forest ecosystem carbon cycle. This communication summarizes the structure, main components and properties of a carbon transfer model that describes the processes controlling the carbon cycle of managed forest ecosystems. The model, GO+, links three main components, (i) a module describing the vegetation-atmosphere mass and energy exchanges in 3D, (ii) a plant growth module and a (iii) soil carbon dynamics module in a consistent carbon scheme of transfer from atmosphere back into the atmosphere. It was calibrated and evaluated using observed data collected on coniferous and broadleaved forest stands. The model predicts the soil, water and energy balance of entire rotations of managed stands from the plantation to the final cut and according to a range of management alternatives. It accounts for the main soil and vegetation management operations such as soil preparation, understorey removal, thinnings and clearcutting. Including the available knowledge on the climatic sensitivity of biophysical and biogeochemical processes involved in atmospheric exchanges and carbon cycle of forest ecosystems, GO+ can produce long-term backward or forward simulations of forest carbon and water cycles under a range of climate and management scenarios. This model applications to the prediction and analysis of climate scenarios impacts on southwestern European forests underlines the role of management alternatives, precipitation regime, CO2 concentration and atmospheric humidity .Frequency of soil preparation operations and understorey management play a major role in controlling the net carbon flux into the atmosphere at the juvenile stage ( 0 to 10 y-old) whereas climate and rotation duration control the functioning of adult phase. The model predicts that a drier and warmer climate will reduce the forest productivity and deplete soil and carbon stocks in managed forest from Southwestern Europe within decades, such effects being amplified for most intensive management alternatives. This work was part of the European research project GHG-Europe (EU contract No. 244122) and the French national project FAST co-funded by the Ecology, Agriculture and Forestry Ministries and the Region Aquitaine.

The forest service's recreation agenda: comments on the roles of research and state and private forestry in the Northeast

Treesearch

Thomas A. More; Mark J. Twery

2001-01-01

The Recreation Agenda is a major document being developed to guide recreation policy within the USDA Forest Service. During the first half of 2000, the Forest Service is holding public involvement sessions on the Agenda, a fluid document which is not yet in final form. One such session held at the Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium included 26 participants who...

A multi-scale analysis of streamflow response to changes in evapotranspiration and soil hydrology in the Blue Ridge Mountains (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Price, K.; Jackson, C. R.

2013-12-01

A large amount of research exploring the relationship between watershed forest cover and streamflow quantity has been conducted in the southern Blue Ridge Mountains, particularly in association with the USFS Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory and the Coweeta LTER. However, a clear answer to the question ';How does changing tree cover influence runoff?' has not yet emerged for guidance of policy and management. The southern Blue Ridge is the source of water reaching much of the drought-sensitive Southeastern US, and a firmer understanding of the complexities of this issue is critical for water resources management for millions of people and diverse aquatic habitats. When this question has been explored in mesoscale systems (10s to 100s km2), results indicate that watersheds with greater forest cover have greater baseflow. Associated work has shown that hydraulic conductivities in forest soils are nearly an order of magnitude greater than lawn and pasture soils in this region. Our interpretation has been that in these mesoscale systems, the compaction of soil associated with forest conversion to other land uses has played a bigger role than related changes in evapotranspiration (ET) in shaping watershed dynamics and the overall water budget. Particular influence has been seen in baseflows, we posit, due to reduced infiltration and recharge. However, nearly a century of research in small experimental watersheds at Coweeta has shown that forest ET substantially reduces streamflows, including baseflows, when soils are not substantially altered. At this smaller scale of observations, details of forest composition and species water use variability have been thoroughly considered, while in the mesoscale studies 'forest cover' is treated as regionally uniform. Current small-scale work at Coweeta has shown that hemlock decline and subsequent replacement with other species has changed the magnitude and seasonality of ET, which is detectible in streamflow quantity and timing. Here, we attempt to resolve the seemingly conflicting results from experimental watershed and mesoscale studies, and consider the implications for even larger systems more directly linked to policy and management. A singular focus on streamflow quantities ignores broader water quality considerations related to forest management and conversion. We explore the idea that the pronounced control of precipitation variability on streamflow variability in this region confounds the inference of the relative importance of other influences, such as ET and soil hydraulics, particularly at moderate levels of disturbance. We also consider the complexities of heterogeneous land use and geomorphology, which are inevitably encountered in larger watersheds. Finally, we suggest preliminary guidance and future research approaches to provide information to policy and management on the sensitivity of various systems to forest removal or species conversion, across a range of spatial scales.

Using Random Forest Models to Predict Organizational Violence

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Levine, Burton; Bobashev, Georgly

2012-01-01

We present a methodology to access the proclivity of an organization to commit violence against nongovernment personnel. We fitted a Random Forest model using the Minority at Risk Organizational Behavior (MAROS) dataset. The MAROS data is longitudinal; so, individual observations are not independent. We propose a modification to the standard Random Forest methodology to account for the violation of the independence assumption. We present the results of the model fit, an example of predicting violence for an organization; and finally, we present a summary of the forest in a "meta-tree,"

Forest operations and woody biomass logistics to improve efficiency, value, and sustainability

Treesearch

Nathaniel Anderson; Dana Mitchell

2016-01-01

This paper reviews the most recent work conducted by scientists and engineers of the Forest Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in the areas of forest operations and woody biomass logistics, with an emphasis on feedstock supply for emerging bioenergy, biofuels, and bioproducts applications. This work is presented in the context of previous...

Forest Services: World of Work Project: Fifth Grade: Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Utah State Board for Vocational Education, Salt Lake City.

The document is one of the teaching units developed by the Utah World of Work Project, designed to integrate career awareness into the regular curriculum at the elementary level. The fifth grade guide is tied to the science area and focuses on conservation as practiced by Forest Service workers; the growth cycle of forests and the management of…

Phosphorus Dynamics in High Latitude Soils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vincent, A. G.; Vestergren, J.; Gröbner, G.; Wardle, D.; Schleucher, J.; Giesler, R.

2016-12-01

Phosphorus (P) is an important macronutrient in boreal forests and arctic and subarctic tundra, and elucidating the factors that control its bioavailability is essential to understand the function of these ecosystems, now and under global change. We tested several hypotheses about differences in soil P composition along natural gradients of temperature, ecosystem development, soil metal concentration, and fire frequency in Northern Sweden. To characterise P composition we used traditional soil P fractionation procedures as well as 1-dimensional 31P Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and novel 2-dimensional 1H-31P NMR techniques. Here we synthesize the main patterns emerging from this work. Temperature seems to be an important driver of P bioavailability regardless of vegetation type in subarctic tundra, given a positive correlation between temperature and the concentration of bioavailable soil P along an elevational gradient. In boreal forest, stage of ecosystem development along a 7800 year old chronosequence created by glacial isostatic adjustment was associated with marked, yet not unidirectional, shifts in the composition of soil P, which suggests ongoing changes in unknown ecological processes. Naturally higher concentrations of iron and aluminium in soils due to groundwater recharge and discharge were related with higher concentrations of P compounds widely considered to be recalcitrant, such as inositol phosphates. Finally, retrogressive forest ecosystems with low productivity growing on old soils did not have a relatively higher proportion of recalcitrant organic P compounds, contrary to our expectations based on current biogeochemistry theory. Finally, one of our most enigmatic findings is the high relative abundance of labile P compounds such as RNA in soil. This would suggest that a great proportion of soil P is located within live microbial cells, and therefore that microbial dynamics are a crucial control on P bioavailability in these ecosystems.

75 FR 26226 - Executive Order 13508 Chesapeake Bay Protection and Restoration Section 203 Final Coordinated...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-05-11

... quality, stream restoration, agriculture conservation, wetland restoration, forest buffers, fish passage... Bay Protection and Restoration Section 203 Final Coordinated Implementation Strategy AGENCY... availability of a final strategy for restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay that was prepared...

Pioneer forest - a half century of sustainable uneven-aged forest management in the Missouri Ozarks

Treesearch

James M. Guldin; Greg F. Iffrig; Susan L. Flader

2008-01-01

This collection of papers analyzes the Pioneer Forest, a privately owned 150,000-acre working forest in the Missouri Ozarks, on which the science and art of forest management has been practiced for more than 50 years. The papers discuss how this half century of management has contributed to forest restoration and sustainability on the forest itself and, through its...

Comparisons of hydrology, geology, and physical characteristics between Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (east side) Montana, and Coram Experimental Forest (west side) Montana

Treesearch

Phillip E. Farnes; Raymond C. Shearer; Ward W. McCaughey; Katherine J. Hansen

1995-01-01

There are two experimental forests in Montana established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Intermountain Research Station (INT). Both experimental forests are administered by INT's Research work Unit, RWU-4151, Silviculture of Subalpine Forest Ecosystems. Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest (TCEF) is east of the continental Divide and is...

Tongass National Forest Transportation System Opportunity Study : Final Report for Hoonah and Wrangell Ranger Districts.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2008-07-01

Tongass National Forest (NF) is in Southeast Alaska, a region rich in natural and cultural resources, which is currently undergoing significant economic change. This study examines how the existing assets of the Tongass NF's transportation system can...

76 FR 81472 - National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-28

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The National Urban and Community... Agriculture (USDA) Whitten Building. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss finalizing the Council's 2011...

77 FR 11109 - Environmental Impacts Statements; Notice of Availability

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-24

...-Native Plant Control Project, Proposes a Forest-Wide Integrated Management Strategy to Control the Spread..., Final EIS, USFS, SD, Steamboat Project, Proposes to Implement Multiple Resource Management Actions... EIS, USFS, WA, South George Vegetation and Fuels Management Project, To Improve Forest Health and...

Forest resources of Louisiana, 1991

Treesearch

James F. Rosson

1995-01-01

The findings of the sixth Louisiana forest survey are summarized in this report. The survey is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station, headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Forest Inventory and Analysis (SO-FIA) work unit located in Starkville, Mississippi, is responsible for conducting the surveys...

Forest statistics for Southeast Louisiana Parishes

Treesearch

James F. Rosson; Daniel F. Bertelson

1986-01-01

The Southern Forest Survey, an activity of the Southern Forest Experiment Station Forest Inventory and Analysis work unit (FIA), covers the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and the island of Puerto Rico.This survey is part of the nationwide Forest Survey originally authorized by the McSweeney-...

Integrating forest management for wildlife and fish: 1987 Society of American Foresters national convention; 1987 October 18-21; Minneapolis, MN.

Treesearch

USDA FS

1988-01-01

Papers from a technical session working group of the 1987 Society of American Foresters national convention. Topics include ecological and economic considerations of integrated forest resource management.

Development of a Method for Selecting Optimum Sites for the Automatic Mountain Meteorology Observation Station (AMOS) to Improve Predictability of Forest Fires in Inaccessible Area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoon, S.; Won, M.; Jang, K.; Lim, J.

2016-12-01

As there has been a recent increase in the case of forest fires in North Korea descending southward through the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ), ensuring proper response to such events has been a challenge. Therefore, in order to respond and manage these forest fires appropriately, an improvement in the forest fire predictability through integration of mountain weather information observed at the most optimal site is necessary. This study is a proactive case in which a spatial analysis and an on-site assessment method were developed for selecting an optimum site for a mountain weather observation in national forest. For spatial analysis, the class 1 and 2 forest fire danger areas for the past 10 years, accessibility maximum 100m, Automatic Weather Station (AWS) redundancy within 2.5km, and mountain terrains higher than 200m were analyzed. A final overlay analysis was performed to select the candidates for the field assessment. The sites selected through spatial analysis were quantitatively evaluated based on the optimal meteorological environment, forest and hiking trail accessibility, AWS redundancy, and supply of wireless communication and solar powered electricity. The sites with total score of 70 and higher were accepted as adequate. At the final selected sites, an AMOS was established, and integration of mountain and Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) weather data improved the forest fire predictability in South Korea by 10%. Given these study results, we expect that establishing an automatic mountain meteorology observation station at the optimal sites in inaccessible area and integrating mountain weather data will improve the predictability of forest fires.

Evaluating land-use and private forest management responses to a potential forest carbon offset sales program in western Oregon (USA)

Treesearch

Gregory S. Latta; Darius M. Adams; Kathleen P. Bell; Jeff Kline

2016-01-01

We describe the use of linked land-use and forest sector models to simulate the effects of carbon offset sales on private forest owners' land-use and forest management decisions inwestern Oregon (USA). Our work focuses on forest management decisions rather than afforestation, allows full forest sector price adjustment to land-use changes, and incorporates time-...

Forest ecosystem health in the inland west

Treesearch

R. Neil Sampson; Lance R. Clark; Lynnette Z. Morelan

1995-01-01

For the past four years, American Forests has focused much of its policy attention on forest health, highlighted by a forest health partnership in southern Idaho. The partnership has been hard at work trying to better understand the forests of the Inland West. Our goal has been to identify what is affecting these forests, why they are responding differently to climate...

Determining stocking, forest type and stand-size class from forest inventory data

Treesearch

Mark H. Hansen; Jerold T. Hahn

1992-01-01

This paper describes the procedures used by North Central Forest Experiment Station's Forest Inventory and Analysis Work Unit (NCFIA) in determining stocking, forest type, and stand-size class. The stocking procedure assigns a portion of the stocking to individual trees measured on NCFIA 10-point field plots. Stand size and forest type are determined as functions...

Measuring global canopy reduction: A forest degradation proxy for FRA2015

Treesearch

Kenneth MacDicken; Erik Lidquist

2013-01-01

Global interest in forest degradation is widespread – but is fraught with widely differing views. Forest degradation by one definition may be sustainable forest management by another. The Global Forest Resources Assessment, conducted by FAO every five years, is working to find an approach to a global estimation of forest area that can address these differing...

Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry At a Glance

Treesearch

Northeastern Area, State & Private Forestry USDA Forest Service

2006-01-01

The State and Private Forestry branch of the USDA Forest Service promotes sustainable management of non-Federal forest lands, which make up two-thirds of the forests in the United States. This work supports the Forest Service?s role as steward of the Nation?s forests and ensures that private forests yield public benefits. Among these benefits are clean air, drinking...

76 FR 13344 - Beaver Creek Landscape Management Project, Ashland Ranger District, Custer National Forest...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-03-11

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Beaver Creek Landscape Management Project, Ashland Ranger... Impact Statement for the Beaver Creek Landscape Management Project was published in the Federal Register... Responsible Official for the Beaver Creek Landscape Management Project. DATES: The Final Environmental Impact...

Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest alternative transportation feasibility study : phase II final report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-04-01

The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is located near the Puget Sound metro area and is facing a number of transportation issues, such as increasing congestion and lack of access, which were identified in the Volpe Centers Phase I report. Thi...

Mount Baker - Snoqualmie National Forest Denny Creek area parking impact assessment : final report

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2015-04-01

The Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is located near the Puget Sound metro area and is facing a number of transportation issues, such as increasing congestion and lack of access, which were identified in the Volpe Centers Phase I report. The...

Landscape-level changes

Treesearch

A. Joel Frandsen

2008-01-01

Since European settlement, Utah?s vegetative landscapes have changed. Like other arid states, these wildland systems were depleted and altered. Certain steps were taken through private, community, and finally public efforts, such as establishment of Forest Reserves (National Forests), to stop the slide. Conservation and management actions were taken to restore,...

Separating the cows from the trees: toward development of national definitions of forest and rangeland

Treesearch

H. Gyde Lund

2007-01-01

This paper introduces issues surrounding the need for national definitions of forest and rangeland, and it review types of definitions in use, reviews past agreements and their status, and finally gives recommendations as to what should be done next.

Two countries, one forest: Working beyond political boundaries in the Northern Appalachian/Acadian Forest

Treesearch

James Sullivan

2007-01-01

Two Countries, One Forest (2C1Forest) is a collaboration of conservation organizations and researchers committed to the long-term ecological health of the Northern Appalachian/ Acadian ecoregion of the United States and Canada.

Integrated model-experimental framework to assess carbon cycle components in disturbed mountainous terrain

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stenzel, J.; Hudiburg, T. W.; Berardi, D.; McNellis, B.; Walsh, E.

2017-12-01

In forests vulnerable to drought and fire, there is critical need for in situ carbon and water balance measurements that can be integrated with earth system modeling to predict climate feedbacks. Model development can be improved by measurements that inform a mechanistic understanding of the component fluxes of net carbon uptake (i.e., NPP, autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration) and water use, with specific focus on responses to climate and disturbance. By integrating novel field-based instrumental technology, existing datasets, and state-of-the-art earth system modeling, we are attempting to 1) quantify the spatial and temporal impacts of forest thinning on regional biogeochemical cycling and climate 2) evaluate the impact of forest thinning on forest resilience to drought and disturbance in the Northern Rockies ecoregion. The combined model-experimental framework enables hypothesis testing that would otherwise be impossible because the use of new in situ high temporal resolution field technology allows for research in remote and mountainous terrains that have been excluded from eddy-covariance techniques. Our preliminary work has revealed some underlying difficulties with the new instrumentation that has led to new ideas and modified methods to correctly measure the component fluxes. Our observations of C balance following the thinning operations indicate that the recovery period (source to sink) is longer than hypothesized. Finally, we have incorporated a new plant functional type parameterization for Northern Rocky mixed-conifer into our simulation modeling using regional and site observations.

Forest statistics for Louisiana Parishes

Treesearch

Dennis M. May; Daniel F. Bertelson

1986-01-01

The southern Forest survey, an activity of the Southern Forest Experiment Station Forest Inventory and Analysis work unit, covers the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, East Texas and the Island of Puerto Rico. This survey is part of the nationwide Forest Survey originally authorized by the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928. More...

Comparing five modelling techniques for predicting forest characteristics

Treesearch

Gretchen G. Moisen; Tracey S. Frescino

2002-01-01

Broad-scale maps of forest characteristics are needed throughout the United States for a wide variety of forest land management applications. Inexpensive maps can be produced by modelling forest class and structure variables collected in nationwide forest inventories as functions of satellite-based information. But little work has been directed at comparing modelling...

78 FR 41782 - Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests; Idaho; Notice To Proceed With Forest Plan Revision

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-07-11

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests; Idaho; Notice To... worked with University of Idaho staff to develop a strategy on how to engage the public in the Forest... orientation meetings, cohosted by County Commissioners and facilitated by University of Idaho staff, were held...

Forest statistics for Arkansas' Ozark counties - 1995

Treesearch

James F. Rosson; Jack D. London

1997-01-01

Periodic surveys of forest resources are authorized by the Forest Service and Rangeland Renewable Resources Research Act of 1978. These surveys are a continuing, nationwide undertaking by the Regional Experiment Stations of the USDA Forest Service. In the Southern United States, these surveys are conducted by the two Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Research Work...

Forest statistics for Arkansas counties - 1995

Treesearch

Jack D. London

1997-01-01

Periodic surveys of forest resources are authorized by the Forest Service and Rangeland Renewable Resources Research Act of 1978. These surveys are a continuing, nationwide undertaking by the Regional Experiment Stations of the USDA Forest Service. In the Southern United States, these surveys are conducted by the two Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Research Work...

Forest statistics for Arkansas' Ouachita counties - 1995

Treesearch

James F. Rosson; Jack D. London

1997-01-01

Periodic surveys of forest resources are authorized by the Forest Service and Rangeland Renewable Resources Research Act of 1978. These surveys are a continuing, nationwide undertaking by the Regional Experiment Stations of the USDA Forest Service. In the Southern United States, these surveys are conducted by the two Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Research Work...

Forest operations in coppice: Environmental assessment of two different logging methods.

PubMed

Laschi, Andrea; Marchi, Enrico; González-García, Sara

2016-08-15

Wood is a renewable resource and it actively contributes to enhance energy production under a sustainable perspective. However, harvesting, transport and use of wood imply several consequences and impacts on environment. There are different ways for managing forests dedicated to wood production and a sustainable approach is fundamental to preserve the resource. In this context, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a useful tool for estimating the environmental impacts related to renewable resources. Traditional coppice is a common approach for forest management in several areas, including southern Europe and, specifically, Italy, Spain and the Balkans. Due to different terrain conditions, different types of forest operations are considered for wood extraction from coppices, where the main product is firewood used in domestic heating. The aim of this work was to compare the main common systems for firewood production in two different terrain conditions ('flat/low steep' and 'steep/very steep' terrains), in a representative environment for Mediterranean area, located in central Italy, by means of LCA. Seven different impact categories were evaluated in a cradle-to-gate perspective taking into account all the operations carried out from the trees felling to the firewood storage at factory. Results showed that the extraction phase was the most important in terms of environmental burdens in firewood production and the use of heavy and high-power machines negatively influenced the emissions compared with manual operations. Finally, considering the general low-inputs involved in wood production in coppice, the transport of workers by car to the work site resulted on consistent contributions into environmental burdens. An additional analysis about the modifications of CH4 and N2O exchanges between soil and atmosphere, due to soil compaction in the extraction phase, was made and based on bibliographic information. Results showed a sensible difference between disturbed and undisturbed soil. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Detection of Single Tree Stems in Forested Areas from High Density ALS Point Clouds Using 3d Shape Descriptors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Amiri, N.; Polewski, P.; Yao, W.; Krzystek, P.; Skidmore, A. K.

2017-09-01

Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) is a widespread method for forest mapping and management purposes. While common ALS techniques provide valuable information about the forest canopy and intermediate layers, the point density near the ground may be poor due to dense overstory conditions. The current study highlights a new method for detecting stems of single trees in 3D point clouds obtained from high density ALS with a density of 300 points/m2. Compared to standard ALS data, due to lower flight height (150-200 m) this elevated point density leads to more laser reflections from tree stems. In this work, we propose a three-tiered method which works on the point, segment and object levels. First, for each point we calculate the likelihood that it belongs to a tree stem, derived from the radiometric and geometric features of its neighboring points. In the next step, we construct short stem segments based on high-probability stem points, and classify the segments by considering the distribution of points around them as well as their spatial orientation, which encodes the prior knowledge that trees are mainly vertically aligned due to gravity. Finally, we apply hierarchical clustering on the positively classified segments to obtain point sets corresponding to single stems, and perform ℓ1-based orthogonal distance regression to robustly fit lines through each stem point set. The ℓ1-based method is less sensitive to outliers compared to the least square approaches. From the fitted lines, the planimetric tree positions can then be derived. Experiments were performed on two plots from the Hochficht forest in Oberösterreich region located in Austria.We marked a total of 196 reference stems in the point clouds of both plots by visual interpretation. The evaluation of the automatically detected stems showed a classification precision of 0.86 and 0.85, respectively for Plot 1 and 2, with recall values of 0.7 and 0.67.

Spatially quantifying and attributing 17 years of land cover change to examine post-agricultural forest transition in Hawai`i

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lucas, M.; Trauernicht, C.; Carlson, K. M.; Miura, T.; Giambelluca, T. W.; Chen, Q.

2017-12-01

The past decades in Hawaii have seen large scale land use change and land cover shifts. However, much these dynamics are only described anecdotally or studied at a single locale, with little information on the extent, rate, or direction of change. This lack of data hinders any effort to assess, plan, and prioritize land management. To improve assessments of statewide vegetation and land cover change, this project developed high resolution, sub-pixel, percent cover maps of forest, grassland and bare earth at annual time steps from 1999 to 2016. Vegetation cover was quantified using archived LANDSAT imagery and a custom remote-sensing algorithm developed in the Google Earth Engine platform. A statistical trend analysis of annual maps of the these three proportional land covers were then used to detect land cover transitions across the archipelago. The aim of this work focused on quantifying the total area of change, annual rates of change and final vegetation cover outcomes statewide. Additionally these findings were attributed to past and current land uses and management history by compiling spatial datasets of development, agriculture, forest restoration sites and burned areas statewide. Results indicated that nearly 10% of the state's land surfaces are suspected to have transitioned between the three cover classes during the study period. Total statewide net change resulted in a gain in forest cover with largest areas of change occurring in unmanaged areas, current and past pastoral land, commercial forestry and abandoned cultivated land. The fastest annual rates of change were forest increases that occurred in restoration areas and commercial forestry. These findings indicate that Hawaii is going through a forest transition, primarily driven by agricultural abandonment with likely feedbacks from invasive species, but also influenced by the establishment of forestry production on former agricultural lands that show potential for native forest restoration. These results directly link land management history to land cover outcomes using an innovative approach to quantify change. It is also the first study to quantify forest transition dynamics in Hawaii and points to the need for similar assessments in post-agricultural landscapes on other oceanic islands.

75 FR 38768 - Ashley National Forest, UT, High Uintas Wilderness-Colorado River Cutthroat Trout Habitat...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-06

... to prepare an environmental impact statement. SUMMARY: The Ashley National Forest in cooperation with... analysis must be received by August 5, 2010. The draft environmental impact statement is expected February 2011 and the final environmental impact statement is expected June 2011. ADDRESSES: Send written...

Riparian area management: themes and recommendations

Treesearch

David J. Welsch; James W. Hornbeck; Elon S. Verry; Andrew Dolloff; John G. Greis

2000-01-01

The end results of most of our management actions are reflected by the health of our rivers, streams, and lakes." Michael Dombeck, Chief, USDA Forest ServiceIn this final chapter [of Riparian Management in Forests of the Continental Eastern United States], we consider the overriding themes of riparian area management and list...

76 FR 47353 - Final Directives for Forest Service Wind Energy Special Use Authorizations, Forest Service Manual...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-08-04

... siting wind energy turbines, evaluating a variety of resource interests, and addressing issues... power guidelines produced by the Wind Energy Turbines Guidelines Advisory Committee, which consists of... recognizes that recommendations from the Wind Energy Turbines Guidelines Advisory Committee will be used to...

SOIL TYPE AND FOREST VEGETATION INFLUENCES ON FOREST FLOOR NITROGEN DYNAMICS AT THE BEAR BROOK WATERSHED IN MAINE. (R825762)

EPA Science Inventory

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Concl...

Education Highlights: Forest Biomass

ScienceCinema

Barone, Rachel; Canter, Christina

2018-06-25

Argonne intern Rachel Barone from Ithaca College worked with Argonne mentor Christina Canter in studying forest biomass. This research will help scientists develop large scale use of biofuels from forest biomass.

Education Highlights: Forest Biomass

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Barone, Rachel; Canter, Christina

2016-01-27

Argonne intern Rachel Barone from Ithaca College worked with Argonne mentor Christina Canter in studying forest biomass. This research will help scientists develop large scale use of biofuels from forest biomass.

Caribbean Foresters take steps towards a network of permanent forest plots in the Caribbean: a meeting report

Treesearch

A.E. Lugo

2016-01-01

This manuscript contains an overview of the 16th meeting of Caribbean Foresters that resulted in the establishment of a network of forest plots throughout the region with the purpose of increasing understanding of the patterns of long-term forest dynamics. Research projects in the network will improve collaboration among those working in Caribbean forests and will...

Forests on the edge: housing development on America’s private forests.

Treesearch

Ronald E. McRoberts; Ralph J. Alig; Mark D. Nelson; David M. Theobald; Mike Eley; Mike Dechter; Mary. Carr

2005-01-01

The private working land base of America’s forests is being converted to developed uses, with implications for the condition and management of affected private forests and the watersheds in which they occur. The Forests on the Edge project seeks to improve understanding of the processes and thresholds associated with increases in housing density in private forests and...

Land-use and Land-cover Change from 1974 to 2008 around Mobile Bay

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ellis, Jean; Spruce, Joseph; Smoot, James; Hilbert, Kent; Swann, Roberta

2008-01-01

This project is a Gulf of Mexico Application Pilot in which NASA Stennis Space Center (SSC) is working within a regional collaboration network of the Gulf of Mexico Alliance. NASA researchers, with support from the NASA SSC Applied Science Program Steering Committee, employed multi-temporal Landsat data to assess land-use and land-cover (LULC) changes in the coastal counties of Mobile and Baldwin, AL, between 1974 and 2008. A multi-decadal time-series, coastal LULC product unique to NASA SSC was produced. The geographic extent and nature of change was quantified for the open water, barren, upland herbaceous, non-woody wetland, upland forest, woody wetland, and urban landscapes. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Coastal Development Data Center (NCDDC) will assist with the transition of the final product to the operational end user, which primarily is the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP). We found substantial LULC change over the 34-year study period, much more than is evident when the change occurring in the last years. Between 1974 and 2008, the upland forest landscape lost almost 6% of the total acreage, while urban land cover increased by slightly more than 3%. With exception to open water, upland forest is the dominant landscape, accounting for about 25-30% of the total area.

Outbreaks of Tularemia in a Boreal Forest Region Depends on Mosquito Prevalence

PubMed Central

Rydén, Patrik; Björk, Rafael; Schäfer, Martina L.; Lundström, Jan O.; Petersén, Bodil; Lindblom, Anders; Forsman, Mats; Sjöstedt, Anders

2012-01-01

Background. We aimed to evaluate the potential association of mosquito prevalence in a boreal forest area with transmission of the bacterial disease tularemia to humans, and model the annual variation of disease using local weather data. Methods. A prediction model for mosquito abundance was built using weather and mosquito catch data. Then a negative binomial regression model based on the predicted mosquito abundance and local weather data was built to predict annual numbers of humans contracting tularemia in Dalarna County, Sweden. Results. Three hundred seventy humans were diagnosed with tularemia between 1981 and 2007, 94% of them during 7 summer outbreaks. Disease transmission was concentrated along rivers in the area. The predicted mosquito abundance was correlated (0.41, P < .05) with the annual number of human cases. The predicted mosquito peaks consistently preceded the median onset time of human tularemia (temporal correlation, 0.76; P < .05). Our final predictive model included 5 environmental variables and identified 6 of the 7 outbreaks. Conclusions. This work suggests that a high prevalence of mosquitoes in late summer is a prerequisite for outbreaks of tularemia in a tularemia-endemic boreal forest area of Sweden and that environmental variables can be used as risk indicators. PMID:22124130

36 CFR 9.7 - Assessment work.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Assessment work. 9.7 Section 9.7 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT Mining and Mining Claims § 9.7 Assessment work. (a) An access permit and approved plan of...

36 CFR 9.7 - Assessment work.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2013-07-01 2013-07-01 false Assessment work. 9.7 Section 9.7 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT Mining and Mining Claims § 9.7 Assessment work. (a) An access permit and approved plan of...

36 CFR 9.7 - Assessment work.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Assessment work. 9.7 Section 9.7 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL PARK SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR MINERALS MANAGEMENT Mining and Mining Claims § 9.7 Assessment work. (a) An access permit and approved plan of...

Black-backed woodpecker habitat suitability mapping using conifer snag basal area estimated from airborne laser scanning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Casas Planes, Á.; Garcia, M.; Siegel, R.; Koltunov, A.; Ramirez, C.; Ustin, S.

2015-12-01

Occupancy and habitat suitability models for snag-dependent wildlife species are commonly defined as a function of snag basal area. Although critical for predicting or assessing habitat suitability, spatially distributed estimates of snag basal area are not generally available across landscapes at spatial scales relevant for conservation planning. This study evaluates the use of airborne laser scanning (ALS) to 1) identify individual conifer snags and map their basal area across a recently burned forest, and 2) map habitat suitability for a wildlife species known to be dependent on snag basal area, specifically the black-backed woodpecker (Picoides arcticus). This study focuses on the Rim Fire, a megafire that took place in 2013 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, creating large patches of medium- and high-severity burned forest. We use forest inventory plots, single-tree ALS-derived metrics and Gaussian processes classification and regression to identify conifer snags and estimate their stem diameter and basal area. Then, we use the results to map habitat suitability for the black-backed woodpecker using thresholds for conifer basal area from a previously published habitat suitability model. Local maxima detection and watershed segmentation algorithms resulted in 75% detection of trees with stem diameter larger than 30 cm. Snags are identified with an overall accuracy of 91.8 % and conifer snags are identified with an overall accuracy of 84.8 %. Finally, Gaussian process regression reliably estimated stem diameter (R2 = 0.8) using height and crown area. This work provides a fast and efficient methodology to characterize the extent of a burned forest at the tree level and a critical tool for early wildlife assessment in post-fire forest management and biodiversity conservation.

Combinations of Stressors in Midlife: Examining Role and Domain Stressors Using Regression Trees and Random Forests

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Objectives. Global perceptions of stress (GPS) have major implications for mental and physical health, and stress in midlife may influence adaptation in later life. Thus, it is important to determine the unique and interactive effects of diverse influences of role stress (at work or in personal relationships), loneliness, life events, time pressure, caregiving, finances, discrimination, and neighborhood circumstances on these GPS. Method. Exploratory regression trees and random forests were used to examine complex interactions among myriad events and chronic stressors in middle-aged participants’ (N = 410; mean age = 52.12) GPS. Results. Different role and domain stressors were influential at high and low levels of loneliness. Varied combinations of these stressors resulting in similar levels of perceived stress are also outlined as examples of equifinality. Loneliness emerged as an important predictor across trees. Discussion. Exploring multiple stressors simultaneously provides insights into the diversity of stressor combinations across individuals—even those with similar levels of global perceived stress—and answers theoretical mandates to better understand the influence of stress by sampling from many domain and role stressors. Further, the unique influences of each predictor relative to the others inform theory and applied work. Finally, examples of equifinality and multifinality call for targeted interventions. PMID:23341437

Forest Aboveground Biomass Estimation in the Greater Mekong, Subregion and Russian Siberia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pang, Yong; Li, Zengyuan; Sun, Gouqing; Zhang, Zhiyu; Schmullius, Christiane; Meng, Shili; Ma, Zhenyu; Lu, Hao; Li, Shiming; Liu, Qingwang; Bai, Lina; Tian, Xin

2016-08-01

Forests play a vital role in sustainable development and provide a range of economic, social and environmental benefits, including essential ecosystem services such as climate change mitigation and adaptation. We summarized works in forest aboveground biomass estimation in Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) and Russian Siberia (RuS). Both regions are rich in forest resources. These mapping and estimation works were based on multiple-source remote sensing data and some field measurements. Biomass maps were generated at 500 m and 30 m pixel size for RuS and GMS respectively. With the available of the 2015 PALSAR-2 mosaic at 25 m spacing, Sentinel-2 data at 20 m, we will work on the biomass mapping and dynamic study at higher spatial resolution.

Forest statistics for east Texas counties - 1986

Treesearch

Linda L. Lang; Daniel F. Bertelson

1987-01-01

The southern forest survey, an activity of the southern forest experiment station forest inventory and analysis work unit, covers the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, east Texas and the island of Puerto Rico. This survey is part of the nationwide forest survey originally authorized by the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928. More...

Forest statistics for Northeast Texas counties - 1986

Treesearch

William H. McWilliams; Daniel F. Bertelson

1986-01-01

The Southern Forest Survey, an activity of the southern forest experiment station forest inventory and analysis work unit, covers the stats of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, east Texas and the island of Puerto Rico. This survey is part of the nationwide forest survey originally authorized by the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928. More recent...

Forest statistics for east Oklahoma counties - 1986

Treesearch

Franklin D. Hines; Daniel F. Bertelson

1987-01-01

The Southern Forest Survey, an activity of the southern forest experiment station forest inventory and analysis work unit, covers the stats of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, east Texas and the island of Puerto Rico. This survey is part of the nationwide forest survey originally authorized by the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928. More recent...

Forest statistics for North Delta Louisiana parishes

Treesearch

James F. Rosson; Daniel F. Bertelson

1986-01-01

The southern Forest survey, an activity of the Southern Forest Experiment Station Forest Inventory and Analysis work unit, covers the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, East Texas and the Island of Puerto Rico. This survey is part of the nationwide Forest Survey originally authorized by the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928. More...

Forest statistics for Northeast Oklahoma counties - 1986

Treesearch

Richard A. Birdsey; Daniel F. Bertelson

1987-01-01

The Southern Forest Survey, an activity of the southern forest experiment station forest inventory and analysis work unit, covers the stats of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, east Texas and the island of Puerto Rico. This survey is part of the nationwide forest survey originally authorized by the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928. More recent...

Proceedings of the fourth Lake States forest tree improvement conference

Treesearch

Lake States Forest Experiment Station

1960-01-01

The Lake States Forest Experiment Station is glad to facilitate the work of the Lake States Forest Tree Improvement Committee in encouraging and coordinating forest genetics activities in this region. We are happy, therefore, to publish this Proceedings of the Fourth Lake States Forest Tree Improvement Conference, as we did for the preceding three conferences in 1953,...

Effects of forest cover on drinking water treatment costs

Treesearch

Travis Warziniack; Chi Ho Sham; Robert Morgan; Yasha Feferholtz

2016-01-01

This paper explores the relationship between forest cover and drinking water treatment costs using results from a 2014 survey by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) that targeted utilities in forested ecoregions in the United States. On the basis of the data collected, there is a negative relationship between forest cover and turbidity, i.e. as forest...

Introduction to: The Forest Health monitoring program

Treesearch

Barbara L. Conkling

2011-01-01

The National Forest Health Monitoring (FHM) Program of the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, produces an annual technical report on forest health as one of its products. The report is organized using the Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests (Montréal Process Working Group 2007) as a...

Evaluation of open source data mining software packages

Treesearch

Bonnie Ruefenacht; Greg Liknes; Andrew J. Lister; Haans Fisk; Dan Wendt

2009-01-01

Since 2001, the USDA Forest Service (USFS) has used classification and regression-tree technology to map USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) biomass, forest type, forest type groups, and National Forest vegetation. This prior work used Cubist/See5 software for the analyses. The objective of this project, sponsored by the Remote Sensing Steering Committee (RSSC),...

Web-GIS platform for forest fire danger prediction in Ukraine: prospects of RS technologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baranovskiy, N. V.; Zharikova, M. V.

2016-10-01

There are many different statistical and empirical methods of forest fire danger use at present time. All systems have not physical basis. Last decade deterministic-probabilistic method is rapidly developed in Tomsk Polytechnic University. Forest sites classification is one way to estimate forest fire danger. We used this method in present work. Forest fire danger estimation depends on forest vegetation condition, forest fire retrospective, precipitation and air temperature. In fact, we use modified Nesterov Criterion. Lightning activity is under consideration as a high temperature source in present work. We use Web-GIS platform for program realization of this method. The program realization of the fire danger assessment system is the Web-oriented geoinformation system developed by the Django platform in the programming language Python. The GeoDjango framework was used for realization of cartographic functions. We suggest using of Terra/Aqua MODIS products for hot spot monitoring. Typical territory for forest fire danger estimation is Proletarskoe forestry of Kherson region (Ukraine).

Anthropogenic impacts on tropical forest biodiversity: a network structure and ecosystem functioning perspective

PubMed Central

Morris, Rebecca J.

2010-01-01

Huge areas of diverse tropical forest are lost or degraded every year with dramatic consequences for biodiversity. Deforestation and fragmentation, over-exploitation, invasive species and climate change are the main drivers of tropical forest biodiversity loss. Most studies investigating these threats have focused on changes in species richness or species diversity. However, if we are to understand the absolute and long-term effects of anthropogenic impacts on tropical forests, we should also consider the interactions between species, how those species are organized in networks, and the function that those species perform. I discuss our current knowledge of network structure and ecosystem functioning, highlighting empirical examples of their response to anthropogenic impacts. I consider the future prospects for tropical forest biodiversity, focusing on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in secondary forest. Finally, I propose directions for future research to help us better understand the effects of anthropogenic impacts on tropical forest biodiversity. PMID:20980318

How livestock and flooding mediate the ecological integrity of working forests in Amazon River floodplains.

PubMed

Lucas, Christine M; Sheikh, Pervaze; Gagnon, Paul R; Mcgrath, David G

2016-01-01

The contribution of working forests to tropical conservation and development depends upon the maintenance of ecological integrity under ongoing land use. Assessment of ecological integrity requires an understanding of the structure, composition, and function and major drivers that govern their variability. Working forests in tropical river floodplains provide many goods and services, yet the data on the ecological processes that sustain these services is scant. In flooded forests of riverside Amazonian communities, we established 46 0.1-ha plots varying in flood duration, use by cattle and water buffalo, and time since agricultural abandonment (30-90 yr). We monitored three aspects of ecological integrity (stand structure, species composition, and dynamics of trees and seedlings) to evaluate the impacts of different trajectories of livestock activity (alleviation, stasis, and intensification) over nine years. Negative effects of livestock intensification were solely evident in the forest understory, and plots alleviated from past heavy disturbance increased in seedling density but had higher abundance of thorny species than plots maintaining low activity. Stand structure, dynamics, and tree species composition were strongly influenced by the natural pulse of seasonal floods, such that the defining characteristics of integrity were dependent upon flood duration (3-200 d). Forests with prolonged floods ≥ 140 d had not only lower species richness but also lower rates of recruitment and species turnover relative to forests with short floods <70 d. Overall, the combined effects of livestock intensification and prolonged flooding hindered forest regeneration, but overall forest integrity was largely related to the hydrological regime and age. Given this disjunction between factors mediating canopy and understory integrity, we present a subset of metrics for regeneration and recruitment to distinguish forest condition by livestock trajectory. Although our study design includes confounded factors that preclude a definitive assessment of the major drivers of ecological change, we provide much-needed data on the regrowth of a critical but poorly studied ecosystem. In addition to its emphasis on the dynamics of tropical wetland forests undergoing anthropogenic and environmental change, our case study is an important example for how to assess of ecological integrity in working forests of tropical ecosystems.

Tracking progress: Applying the Forest Service 10 Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge as a model of performance management

Treesearch

Liese C. Dean

2007-01-01

The USDA Forest Service applied a performance management/ accountability system to the 407 wildernesses it oversees by defining and tracking critical work. Work elements were consolidated and packaged into the “10 Year Wilderness Stewardship Challenge.” The goal of the Challenge is to have 100 percent of wildernesses administered by the Forest Service managed to a...

Chapter 1.1 Process Scale-Up of Cellulose Nanocrystal Production to 25 kg per Batch at the Forest Products Laboratory

Treesearch

Richard S. Reiner; Alan W. Rudie

2013-01-01

The Fiber and Chemical Sciences Research Work Unit at the Forest Products Laboratory began working out the preparation of cellulose nanocrystals in 2006, using the method of Dong, Revol, and Gray. Initial samples were provided to several scientists within the Forest Service. Continued requests for this material forced scale-up from the initial 20 g scale to kg...

36 CFR 327.30 - Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... ADMINISTERED BY THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS § 327.30 Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. (k) * * * The Fee... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. 327.30 Section 327.30 Parks, Forests, and Public Property CORPS OF ENGINEERS, DEPARTMENT...

Villaflores: Municipal forest fire management model

Treesearch

Pedro Martínez Muñoz; Carlos Alberto Velázquez Sanabria

2013-01-01

As provided for in the General Law on Sustainable Forestry Development, the Municipality of Villaflores has worked on a continuous basis since 2002 to reduce the damage caused by forest fires as part of its working agenda, in conjunction with Federal and State agencies and NGOs. The work plan has the following phases: a) Inter-agency coordination:...

36 CFR 327.30 - Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... ADMINISTERED BY THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS § 327.30 Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. (k) * * * The Fee... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. 327.30 Section 327.30 Parks, Forests, and Public Property CORPS OF ENGINEERS, DEPARTMENT...

36 CFR 327.30 - Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... ADMINISTERED BY THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS § 327.30 Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. (k) * * * The Fee... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. 327.30 Section 327.30 Parks, Forests, and Public Property CORPS OF ENGINEERS, DEPARTMENT...

36 CFR 327.30 - Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... ADMINISTERED BY THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS § 327.30 Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. (k) * * * The Fee... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. 327.30 Section 327.30 Parks, Forests, and Public Property CORPS OF ENGINEERS, DEPARTMENT...

Freight transportation and the potential for invasions of exotic insects in urban and periurban forests of the United States.

PubMed

Colunga-Garcia, Manuel; Haack, Robert A; Adelaja, Adesoji O

2009-02-01

Freight transportation is an important pathway for the introduction and dissemination of exotic forest insects (EFI). Identifying the final destination of imports is critical in determining the likelihood of EFI establishment. We analyzed the use of regional freight transport information to characterize risk of urban and periurban areas to EFI introductions. Specific objectives were to 1) approximate the final distribution of selected imports among urban areas of the United States, 2) characterize the final distribution of imports in terms of their spatial aggregation and dominant world region of origin, and 3) assess the effect of the final distribution of imports on the level of risk to urban and periurban forests from EFI. Freight pattern analyses were conducted for three categories of imports whose products or packaging materials are associated with EFI: wood products, nonmetallic mineral products, and machinery. The final distribution of wood products was the most evenly distributed of the three selected imports, whereas machinery was most spatially concentrated. We found that the type of import and the world region of origin greatly influence the final distribution of imported products. Risk assessment models were built based on the amount of forestland and imports for each urban area The model indicated that 84-88% of the imported tonnage went to only 4-6% of the urban areas in the contiguous United States. We concluded that freight movement information is critical for proper risk assessment of EFI. Implications of our findings and future research needs are discussed.

Skills Conversion Project: Chapter 6, Forest Operations and Wood Products. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Society of Professional Engineers, Washington, DC.

A study of the forest operations and wood products industries was conducted in Atlanta and Seattle by the National Society of Professional Engineers. Included among these industries are tree development, crop and land management, logging, material handling transportation, cutting, peeling, assembly, pulp and paper, mobile homes, construction,…

Vascular flora of Douglas Point, Charles County, Maryland. Final report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Miles, K.J.

1980-01-01

The environment and vascular flora of a 561 hectare (1400 acre) site on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland are described. Six habitats are represented: mixed hardwood forest, pine forest, open field, freshwater marsh, shrub swamp, and tree swamp. An annotated list of 531 species is included.

36 CFR 1202.84 - Can I seek judicial review?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Can I seek judicial review? 1202.84 Section 1202.84 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS... Can I seek judicial review? Yes, within 2 years of receipt of a NARA final determination as provided...

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

Treesearch

W.F. Laurance; D.C. Useche; J. Rendeiro; and others NO-VALUE; Ariel Lugo

2012-01-01

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon1–3. With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment...

Estimating Uncertainty in Annual Forest Inventory Estimates

Treesearch

Ronald E. McRoberts; Veronica C. Lessard

1999-01-01

The precision of annual forest inventory estimates may be negatively affected by uncertainty from a variety of sources including: (1) sampling error; (2) procedures for updating plots not measured in the current year; and (3) measurement errors. The impact of these sources of uncertainty on final inventory estimates is investigated using Monte Carlo simulation...

CARBON EXCHANGE DYNAMICS AND MINERAL WEATHERING IN A TEMPERATE FORESTED WATERSHED (NORTHERN MICHIGAN): LINKS BETWEEN FOREST ECOSYSTEMS AND GROUNDWATERS (R824979)

EPA Science Inventory

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Concl...

36 CFR 907.11 - Actions that normally require an environmental assessment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Actions that normally require an environmental assessment. 907.11 Section 907.11 Parks, Forests, and Public Property PENNSYLVANIA...) Street closures and other rearrangements of public space which were not covered in the Plan or the Final...

36 CFR 907.11 - Actions that normally require an environmental assessment.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Actions that normally require an environmental assessment. 907.11 Section 907.11 Parks, Forests, and Public Property PENNSYLVANIA...) Street closures and other rearrangements of public space which were not covered in the Plan or the Final...

Landscape-scale carbon sampling strategy-lessons learned. Chapter 17

Treesearch

John B. Bradford; Peter Weishampel; Marie-Louise Smith; Randall Kolka; David Y. Hollinger; Richard A. Birdsey; Scott Ollinger; Michael Ryan

2008-01-01

Previous chapters examined individual processes relevant to forest carbon cycling, and characterized measurement approaches for understanding those processes at landscape scales. In this final chapter, we address our overall approach to understanding forest carbon dynamics over large areas. Our objective is to identify any lessons that we learned in the course of...

76 FR 78234 - Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and Thunder Basin National Grassland, Campbell County, WY...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-16

... the road construction, the final easement would be acquired by Campbell County, and this road will be... National Grassland, Campbell County, WY; Mackey Road Relocation AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION... authorize Peabody Powder River Mining, LLC to vacate and relocate portions of Campbell County Road 69...

History of forest survey sampling designs in the United States

Treesearch

W. E. Frayer; George M. Furnival

2000-01-01

Extensive forest inventories of forested lands in the United States were begun in the early part of the 20th century, but widespread, frequent use was not common until after WWII. Throughout the development of inventory techniques and their application to assess the status of the nation's forests, most of the work has been done by the USDA Forest Service through...

Proceedings of the California Forest Soils Council Conference on Forest Soils Biology and Forest Management

Treesearch

Robert F. Powers; Donald L. Hauxwell; Gary M. Nakamura

2000-01-01

Biotic properties of forest soil are the linkages connecting forest vegetation with an inert rooting medium to create a dynamic, functioning ecosystem. But despite the significance of these properties, managers have little awareness of the biotic world beneath their feet. Much of our working knowledge of soil biology seems anchored in myth and misunderstanding. To...

Parcelization and land use: A case study in the New York City Watershed

Treesearch

Jennifer A. Caron; Rene H. Germain; Nathaniel M. Anderson

2012-01-01

Over 75% of the New York City Watershed is forested, and the majority of the land is owned by family forest owners. Ownership fragmentation and development may impact both the working forested landscape and water quality. We surveyed the owners of intact and subdivided family forest parcels across various parcel sizes to gauge their awareness of forest management...

Forest research notes, Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station, No. 01, November 1, 1928.

Treesearch

1928-01-01

The several research projects upon which the Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station is working are continually yielding results of interest and value to those engaged in forest enterprises. To make these results immediately available to those most likely to use them is the purpose of these "Forest Research Notes". They will be issued at irregular...

Communication from the Information Sharing Working Group: Agreement for Data Sharing Among Caribbean Foresters

Treesearch

Tamara Heartsill Scalley; Saara DeWalt; François Korysko; Guy Van Laere; Kasey Jacobs; Seth Panka; Joseph Torres

2016-01-01

We presented a new information-sharing platform at the 16th Caribbean Foresters Meeting in August 2013 to facilitate and promote collaboration among Caribbean foresters. The platform can be accessed through the Caribbean Foresters website where information and data on forest research sites can be shared. There is a special focus on identifying potential collaborations...

Short-term ecological consequences of collaborative restoration treatments in ponderosa pine forests of Colorado

Treesearch

Jennifer S. Briggs; Paula J. Fornwalt; Jonas A. Feinstein

2017-01-01

Ecological restoration treatments are being implemented at an increasing rate in ponderosa pine and other dry conifer forests across the western United States, via the USDA Forest Service’s Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration (CFLR) program. In this program, collaborative stakeholder groups work with National Forests (NFs) to adaptively implement and monitor...

Forest Service Experimental Forests and long-term data sets: stories of their meaning to station directors

Treesearch

A.E. Lugo; B. Eav; G.S. Foster; M. Rains; J. Reaves; D.J. Stouder

2014-01-01

As Forest Service Research and Development worked to prepare this book reporting important results from long-term research conducted on U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges, the station directors added a chapter to highlight addditional accounts of long-term research, its benefits to land managers and policy makers, and lessons...

A Comparison of Various Estimators for Updating Forest Area Coverage Using AVHRR and Forest Inventory Data

Treesearch

Francis A. Roesch; Paul C. van Deusen; Zhiliang Zhu

1995-01-01

Various methods of adjusting low-cost and possibly biased estimates of percent forest coverage from AVHRR data with a subsample of higher-cost estimates from the USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis plots were investigated. Two ratio and two regression estimators were evaluated. Previous work (Zhu and Teuber, 1991) finding that the estimates from...

78 FR 27941 - Advertising and Sponsorship in Connection With Concessions Involving Privately Owned Improvements...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-05-13

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service RIN 0596-AC41 Advertising and Sponsorship in Connection... final directive allows holders of concession permits to advertise (1) inside buildings and other... final directive [[Page 27942

Change in phylogenetic community structure during succession of traditionally managed tropical rainforest in southwest China.

PubMed

Mo, Xiao-Xue; Shi, Ling-Ling; Zhang, Yong-Jiang; Zhu, Hua; Slik, J W Ferry

2013-01-01

Tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia are facing increasing and ever more intense human disturbance that often negatively affects biodiversity. The aim of this study was to determine how tree species phylogenetic diversity is affected by traditional forest management types and to understand the change in community phylogenetic structure during succession. Four types of forests with different management histories were selected for this purpose: old growth forests, understorey planted old growth forests, old secondary forests (∼200-years after slash and burn), and young secondary forests (15-50-years after slash and burn). We found that tree phylogenetic community structure changed from clustering to over-dispersion from early to late successional forests and finally became random in old-growth forest. We also found that the phylogenetic structure of the tree overstorey and understorey responded differentially to change in environmental conditions during succession. In addition, we show that slash and burn agriculture (swidden cultivation) can increase landscape level plant community evolutionary information content.

Change in Phylogenetic Community Structure during Succession of Traditionally Managed Tropical Rainforest in Southwest China

PubMed Central

Mo, Xiao-Xue; Shi, Ling-Ling; Zhang, Yong-Jiang; Zhu, Hua; Slik, J. W. Ferry

2013-01-01

Tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia are facing increasing and ever more intense human disturbance that often negatively affects biodiversity. The aim of this study was to determine how tree species phylogenetic diversity is affected by traditional forest management types and to understand the change in community phylogenetic structure during succession. Four types of forests with different management histories were selected for this purpose: old growth forests, understorey planted old growth forests, old secondary forests (∼200-years after slash and burn), and young secondary forests (15–50-years after slash and burn). We found that tree phylogenetic community structure changed from clustering to over-dispersion from early to late successional forests and finally became random in old-growth forest. We also found that the phylogenetic structure of the tree overstorey and understorey responded differentially to change in environmental conditions during succession. In addition, we show that slash and burn agriculture (swidden cultivation) can increase landscape level plant community evolutionary information content. PMID:23936268

Dispersal, isolation and diversification with continued gene flow in an Andean tropical dry forest.

PubMed

Toby Pennington, R; Lavin, Matt

2017-07-01

The Andes are the world's longest mountain chain, and the tropical Andes are the world's richest biodiversity hot spot. The origin of the tropical Andean cordillera is relatively recent because the elevation of the mountains was relatively low (400-2500 m palaeoelevations) only 10 MYA with final uplift being rapid. These final phases of the Andean orogeny are thought to have had a fundamental role in shaping processes of biotic diversification and biogeography, with these effects reaching far from the mountains themselves by changing the course of rivers and deposition of mineral-rich Andean sediments across the massive Amazon basin. In a recent issue of Molecular Ecology, Oswald, Overcast, Mauck, Andersen, and Smith (2017) investigate the biogeography and diversification of bird species in the Andes of Peru and Ecuador. Their study is novel in its focus on tropical dry forests (Figure 1) rather than more mesic biomes such as rain forests, cloud forests and paramos, which tend to be the focus of science and conservation in the Andean hot spot. It is also able to draw powerful conclusions via the first deployment of genomic approaches to a biogeographic question in the threatened dry forests of the New World. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Soil Phosphorus and the Ecology of Tropical Forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turner, B. L.

2016-12-01

Phosphorus availability is commonly assumed to limit forest productivity on strongly weathered soils in the lowland tropics, but experimental evidence is scarce and equivocal. In this presentation I will explore the extent to which phosphorus influences the productivity and distribution of tree species in tropical forests. I will highlight the range of soils that occur in tropical forests and the associated variation in the amounts and forms of soil phosphorus. I will draw on data from a regional-scale network of forest dynamics plots in Panama to show that tree species distributions are determined primarily by dry season intensity and soil phosphorus availability. Finally, I will demonstrate that phosphorus limitation of tropical tree growth is widespread at the level of individual species, but is not observed at the community level in diverse forests due to species turnover across phosphorus gradients.

Utilizing NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) Data to Determine Ideal Planting Locations for Wetland Tree Species in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reahard, Ross; Arguelles, Maria; Strong, Emma; Ewing, Michael; Kelly, Chelsey

2012-01-01

St. Bernard Parish, in southeast Louisiana, is rapidly losing coastal forests and wetlands due to a combination of natural and anthropogenic disturbances (e.g. subsidence, saltwater intrusion, low sedimentation, nutrient deficiency, herbivory, canal dredging, levee construction, spread of invasive species, etc.). After Hurricane Katrina severely impacted the area in 2005, multiple Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) have worked not only on rebuilding destroyed dwellings, but on rebuilding the ecosystems that once protected the citizens of St. Bernard Parish. Volunteer groups, NGOs, and government entities often work separately and independently of each other and use different sets of information to choose the best planting sites for coastal forests. Using NASA EOS, NRCS soil surveys, and ancillary road and canal data in conjunction with ground truthing, the team created maps of optimal planting sites for several species of wetland trees to aid in unifying these organizations, who share a common goal, under one plan. The methodology for this project created a comprehensive Geographic Information System (GIS) to help identify suitable planting sites in St. Bernard Parish. This included supplementing existing elevation data using LIDAR data and classifying existing land cover in the study area from ASTER multispectral satellite data. Low altitude AVIRIS hyperspectral imagery was used to assess the health of vegetation over an area near the intersection of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet Canal (MRGO) and Bayou la Loutre. Historic extent of coastal forests was mapped using aerial photos from USGS collected between 1952 and 1956. The final products demonstrated the utility of combining NASA EOS with other geospatial data in assessing, monitoring, and restoring of coastal ecosystems in Louisiana. This methodology also provides a useful template for other ecological forecasting and coastal restoration applications.

Effect of sample size on multi-parametric prediction of tissue outcome in acute ischemic stroke using a random forest classifier

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Forkert, Nils Daniel; Fiehler, Jens

2015-03-01

The tissue outcome prediction in acute ischemic stroke patients is highly relevant for clinical and research purposes. It has been shown that the combined analysis of diffusion and perfusion MRI datasets using high-level machine learning techniques leads to an improved prediction of final infarction compared to single perfusion parameter thresholding. However, most high-level classifiers require a previous training and, until now, it is ambiguous how many subjects are required for this, which is the focus of this work. 23 MRI datasets of acute stroke patients with known tissue outcome were used in this work. Relative values of diffusion and perfusion parameters as well as the binary tissue outcome were extracted on a voxel-by- voxel level for all patients and used for training of a random forest classifier. The number of patients used for training set definition was iteratively and randomly reduced from using all 22 other patients to only one other patient. Thus, 22 tissue outcome predictions were generated for each patient using the trained random forest classifiers and compared to the known tissue outcome using the Dice coefficient. Overall, a logarithmic relation between the number of patients used for training set definition and tissue outcome prediction accuracy was found. Quantitatively, a mean Dice coefficient of 0.45 was found for the prediction using the training set consisting of the voxel information from only one other patient, which increases to 0.53 if using all other patients (n=22). Based on extrapolation, 50-100 patients appear to be a reasonable tradeoff between tissue outcome prediction accuracy and effort required for data acquisition and preparation.

Are glacials "dry" - and in what sense?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Scheff, J.; Seager, R.; Coats, S.; Liu, H.

2016-12-01

Glacial maxima during the Pleistocene are generally thought to be arid on land, with a few regional exceptions. Recent work on future climate change, however, has found that different wetness-related variables have opposite-signed responses over large portions of the continents, belying simple ideas of local "drying" or "wetting" with global temperature change in models. Here, we show that this behavior extends to simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum as well: the continents are modeled to have generally wetter topsoils and higher values of standard climate-wetness metrics in the LGM than in the preindustrial, as well as generally lower precipitation and ubiquitously lower photosynthesis (likely driven by the low CO2), with the streamflow response falling in between. Is this model-derived view of the LGM an accurate one? Using a large community pollen and plant-fossil compilation, we confirm that LGM grasslands and open woodlands grew at many sites of present potential forest, seasonal or dry forests at many sites of present potential rain- or seasonal forests, and so forth, while changes in the opposite sense were extremely few and spatially confined. We show that this strongly resembles the simulated photosynthesis changes, but not the simulated streamflow or soil moisture changes. Meanwhile, published LGM lake-level estimates resemble the simulated streamflow changes, but not the photosynthesis changes. Thus, the last glacial does not appear to be systematically "dry" outside the high latitudes, but merely carbon-starved. Similarly, local findings of reduced or more open vegetation at the LGM (e.g. from pollen, carbon isotopes, or dustiness) do not indicate local "aridity" unless corroborating hydrological proxies are also found. Finally, this work suggests that glacial-era evidence of open vegetation with high lake levels (as in the eastern Mediterranean) is not odd or paradoxical, but entirely consistent with climate model output.

36 CFR § 327.30 - Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... ADMINISTERED BY THE CHIEF OF ENGINEERS § 327.30 Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. (k) * * * The Fee... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2013-07-01 2012-07-01 true Shoreline Management on Civil Works Projects. § 327.30 Section § 327.30 Parks, Forests, and Public Property CORPS OF ENGINEERS...

A Job with the Forest Service. A Guide to Nonprofessional Employment. Miscellaneous Publication No. 843. Revised.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forest Service (USDA), Washington, DC.

The following questions are answered in this guide to nonprofessional employment with the U.S. Forest Service: What does the Forest Service do? What kind of work can a nonprofessional find in the Forest Service? How important are the nonprofessional workers to the Forest Service? What kind of experience does one need to qualify for a…

Workshop on Functional Aspects of Regeneration of the Boreal Forest in the Context of Sustainable Forest Management

Treesearch

Christian Messier; John Zasada; David Greene

1999-01-01

The three review papers presented in this issue of the Canadian Journal of Forest Research follow a 1-day workshop that was held in Montreal in early January 1997 entitled Functional Aspects of Regeneration In the Boreal Forest in the Context of Sustainable Forest Management. This workshop was held as part of the regeneration working group of Canada...

Use of stock to maintain and construct trails in the eastern United States

Treesearch

Eric Sandeno

2007-01-01

Trail construction and reconstruction utilizing stock is rare in the eastern United States. The Hoosier National Forest is the only forest in the Eastern Region of the Forest Service with its own pack string. The Hoosier is also the only forest in the eastern United States to utilize pack strings from western forests to complete trail work within wilderness. For the...

Avian research on U.S. Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges: Emergent themes, opportunities, and challenges

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stoleson, Scott H.; King, D.I.; Tomosy, M.

2011-01-01

Since 1908, U.S. Forest Service Experimental Forests and Ranges have been dedicated to long-term interdisciplinary research on a variety of ecological and management questions. They encompass a wide diversity of life zones and ecoregions, and provide access to research infrastructure, opportunities for controlled manipulations, and integration with other types of long-term data. These features have facilitated important advances in a number of areas of avian research, including furthering our understanding of population dynamics, the effects of forest management on birds, avian responses to disturbances such as fire and hurricanes, and other aspects of avian ecology and conservation. However, despite these contributions, this invaluable resource has been underutilized by ornithologists. Most of the Experimental Forests and Ranges have had no ornithological work done on them. We encourage the ornithological community, especially graduate students and new faculty, to take advantage of this largely untapped potential for long-term work, linkage with long-term data sets, multiple disciplines, and active forest management. ?? 2010 Elsevier B.V.

Forest statistics for South Delta Louisiana Parishes

Treesearch

James F. Rosson; Daniel F. Bertelson

1986-01-01

The Southern Forest Survey an activity of the southern forest inventory and analysis work unit (FIA), covers the stats of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and the island of Puerto Rico.This survey is part of the nationwide Forest survey originally authorized by the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928. More...

Proceedings of the international workshop on monitoring forest degradation in Southeast Asia

Treesearch

Leif A. Mortenson; James J. Halperin; Patricia N. Manley; Rich L. Turner

2013-01-01

The international workshop on monitoring forest degradation in Southeast Asia provided a forum for discussion of the technical, social and political challenges and successes that have occurred during recent work in sub-national forest degradation monitoring. The 2012 workshop, held in Bangkok, Thailand, followed recent US Forest Service/LEAF (USAID's Lowering...

Application of geoinformatics for landscape assessment and conserving forest biodiversity in northeast India

Treesearch

Ashish Kumar; Bruce G. Marcot; Gautam Talukdar; P.S. Roy

2012-01-01

Herein, we summarize our work, within forest ecosystems of Garo Hills in northeast India, on mapping vegetation and land cover conditions, delineating wildlife habitat corridors among protected areas, evaluating forest conservation values of influence zones bordering protected areas, analyzing dispersion patterns of native forests, and determining potential effects of...

Chapter 8: Simulating mortality from forest insects and diseases

Treesearch

Alan A. Ager; Jane L. Hayes; Craig L. Schmitt

2004-01-01

We describe methods for incorporating the effects of insects and diseases on coniferous forests into forest simulation models and discuss options for including this capability in the modeling work of the Interior Northwest Landscape Analysis System (INLAS) project. Insects and diseases are major disturbance agents in forested ecosystems in the Western United States,...

Forest statistics for Northwest Florida, 1987

Treesearch

Mark J. Brown

1987-01-01

The Forest Inventory and Analysis (Forest Survey) Research Work Unit at the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station recently conducted a review of its data processing procedures. During this process, a computer error was discovered which led to inflated estimates of annual removals, net annual growth, and annual mortality for the 1970-1980 remeasurement period in...

Projection methods

Treesearch

Michael E. Goerndt; W. Keith Moser; Patrick D. Miles; Dave Wear; Ryan D. DeSantis; Robert J. Huggett; Stephen R. Shifley; Francisco X. Aguilar; Kenneth E. Skog

2016-01-01

One purpose of the Northern Forest Futures Project is to predict change in future forest attributes across the 20 States in the U.S. North for the period that extends from 2010 to 2060. The forest attributes of primary interest are the 54 indicators of forest sustainability identified in the Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators (Montreal Process Working Group, n.d...

World directory of forest geneticists and tree breeders

Treesearch

F. Thomas Ledig; David B. Neale

1998-01-01

A formal task of the Forest Genetic Resources Study Group/North American Forestry Commission/Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Working Party 2.04.09 / Division 2- Physiology and Genetics / International Union of Forest ResearchOrganizations, this international directory lists more than 1,800 forest geneticists and tree breeders from 86...

Wisconsin State Forests Continuous Forest Inventory: A look at the first year

Treesearch

Randall S. Morin; Teague Prichard; Vern Everson; Jim Westfall; Charles Scott

2009-01-01

The demand for timely, consistent, and reliable forest inventory and monitoring information for Wisconsin's state forests has increased significantly. A wide range of publics and partners, including businesses, organizations, and citizens alike are well aware of the benefits of sustainable forestry and are working together to increase knowledge through an annual...

Proceedings: integrated management and dynamics of forest defoliating insects

Treesearch

A.M. Liebhold; M.L. McManus; I.S. Otvos; S.L.C Fosbroke

2001-01-01

This publication contains 18 research papers about the population ecology and management of forest insect defoliators. These papers were presented at a joint meeting of working parties s7.03.06, "Integrated Management of Forest Defoliating Insects," and S7.03.07, "Population Dynamics of Forest Insects," of the International Union of...

Incidence and impacts of damage to Alabama's timber, 1983

Treesearch

Paul A. Mistretta; Carl V. Bylin

1986-01-01

The Southern Forest Experiment Station in Starkville, MS, periodically inventories and evaluates forest resources in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, and Texas. Survey data were collected in 1981, 1982, and 1983 by the Forest Inventory and Analysis work unit of the Southern Forest Experiment Station as part of the fifth...

Incidence and impact of damage to Louisiana's timber, 1985

Treesearch

Paul A. Mistretta; Carl V. Bylin

1987-01-01

The Southern Forest Experiment Station in Starkville, MS, periodically inventories and evaluates forest resources in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Puerto Rico. Survey data were collected in 1983, 1984, and 1985 by the Forest Inventory and Analysis work unit of the Southern Forest Experiment Station as part of the fifth...

Effect of Forest Management of Picea abies and Fagus sylvatica with Different Types of Felling on Carbon and Economic Balances in the Czech Republic

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Plch, Radek; Pulkrab, Karel; Bukáček, Jan; Sloup, Roman; Cudlín, Pavel

2016-10-01

The selection of the most sustainable forest management under given site conditions needs suitable criteria and indicators. For this purpose, carbon and economic balance assessment, completed with environmental impact computation using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) were used. The aim of this study was to compare forestry operations and wood production of selected forest stands with different i) tree species composition (Norway spruce - Picea abies and European beech - Fagus sylvatica) and ii) type of felling (chainsaw and harvester). Carbon and economic balance methods consist in the comparison of quantified inputs (fossil fuels, electricity, used machinery, fertilizers, etc., converted into emission units of carbon in Mg of C- CO2-eq. or EUR) with quantified outputs (biomass production in Mg of carbon or EUR). In this contribution, similar forest stands (“forest site complexes”) in the 4th forest vegetation zone (in the Czech Republic approximately 400-700 m above sea-level) were selected. Forestry operations were divided into 5 main stages: i) seedling production, ii) stand establishment and pruning, iii) thinning and final cutting, iv) skidding, and v) secondary timber transport and modelled for one rotation period of timber production (ca. 100 years). The differences between Norway spruce and European beech forest stands in the carbon efficiency were relatively small while higher differences were achieved in the economic efficiency (forest stands with Norway spruce had a higher economic efficiency). Concerning the comparison of different types of felling in Norway spruce forest stands, the harvester use proved to induce significantly higher environmental impacts (emission of carbon) and lower economic costs. The comparison of forestry operation stages showed that the main part of carbon emissions, originating from fuel production and combustion, is connected with a thinning and final cutting, skidding and secondary timber transport in relations to different types of felling.

Quantifying Foliar Pigment Concentrations of Temperate Forest Species Using Digital Photography and Hyperspectral Reflectance Indices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gagnon, M. T.; Rock, B. N.; Jahnke, L. S.; Lee, T. D.

2008-12-01

Determination of leaf chlorophyll content is a common and important procedure for plant scientists. There are many multispectral techniques for non destructive in-vivo, estimation of chlorophyll in foliage. Although much has been done to explore the estimation of foliar pigments using remote sensing, very little work has been done exploring the potential that basic, affordable, digital cameras may have for such analysis. This study utilizes a combination of digital photography, hyperspectral laboratory remote sensing, and chlorophyll extractions to determine if digital photographs can be used to accurately predict foliar chlorophyll concentrations as well to compare this digital approach with several common spectral indices used for estimating foliar chlorophyll content. Foliar materials for this study come from three sources. A large collection of samples were collected (60) from 9 common temperate forest species in July and late September over a 1 kilometer area at the Bartlett Experimental Forest in northern New Hampshire. Secondly, 15 trees were selected in a forested setting near the University of New Hampshire for more intensive phenological analysis. These samples consist of 5 white pine (Pinus strobus), 5 black oak (Quercus velutina) and 5 sugar maple (Acer saccharum). Finally, dozens of samples of white pine utilized in Forest Watch, a successful K-12 science outreach which assesses the impact of tropospheric ozone on forest health in New England, were also analyzed for this study. For all samples in this study, chlorophyll extractions were conducted to determine chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and total chlorophyll concentrations. Laboratory spectral analysis was performed using a GER 2600 Spectroradiometer to determine hyperspectral estimates of chlorophyll content using a Red Edge Inflection Point (REIP) approach, as well as a Transformed Chlorophyll Absorption Reflectance Index/Optimized Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (TCARI/OSAVI) approach. These measures of chlorophyll estimation were utilized to determine whether red, green and blue spectral data from digital images taken with a Kodak C713 model camera could be used to estimate foliar chlorophyll concentrations in forest foliage. Preliminary results of this study will be presented.

Computed tomography synthesis from magnetic resonance images in the pelvis using multiple random forests and auto-context features

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Andreasen, Daniel; Edmund, Jens M.; Zografos, Vasileios; Menze, Bjoern H.; Van Leemput, Koen

2016-03-01

In radiotherapy treatment planning that is only based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the electron density information usually obtained from computed tomography (CT) must be derived from the MRI by synthesizing a so-called pseudo CT (pCT). This is a non-trivial task since MRI intensities are neither uniquely nor quantitatively related to electron density. Typical approaches involve either a classification or regression model requiring specialized MRI sequences to solve intensity ambiguities, or an atlas-based model necessitating multiple registrations between atlases and subject scans. In this work, we explore a machine learning approach for creating a pCT of the pelvic region from conventional MRI sequences without using atlases. We use a random forest provided with information about local texture, edges and spatial features derived from the MRI. This helps to solve intensity ambiguities. Furthermore, we use the concept of auto-context by sequentially training a number of classification forests to create and improve context features, which are finally used to train a regression forest for pCT prediction. We evaluate the pCT quality in terms of the voxel-wise error and the radiologic accuracy as measured by water-equivalent path lengths. We compare the performance of our method against two baseline pCT strategies, which either set all MRI voxels in the subject equal to the CT value of water, or in addition transfer the bone volume from the real CT. We show an improved performance compared to both baseline pCTs suggesting that our method may be useful for MRI-only radiotherapy.

The National Visitor Use Monitoring methodology and final results for round 1

Treesearch

S.J. Zarnoch; E.M. White; D.B.K. English; Susan M. Kocis; Ross Arnold

2011-01-01

A nationwide, systematic monitoring process has been developed to provide improved estimates of recreation visitation on National Forest System lands. Methodology is presented to provide estimates of site visits and national forest visits based on an onsite sampling design of site-days and last-exiting recreationists. Stratification of the site days, based on site type...

Two commercial thinnings in century-old Douglas-fir.

Treesearch

Robert W. Steele

1954-01-01

As young-growth forests replace old-growth forests as the primary source of Douglas-fir raw material, the technique of managing young stands becomes increasingly important. Managers of young-growth timber need to know whether it is economical and silviculturally feasible to make thinnings in stands that are close to rotation age. Final harvest of some stands of this...

Aquatic biodiversity in forests: a weak link in ecosystem services resilience

Treesearch

Brooke E. Penaluna; Deanna H. Olson; Rebecca L. Flitcroft; Matthew A. Weber; J. Ryan Bellmore; Steven M. Wondzell; Jason B. Dunham; Sherri L. Johnson; Gordon H. Reeves

2017-01-01

The diversity of aquatic ecosystems is being quickly reduced on many continents, warranting a closer examination of the consequences for ecological integrity and ecosystem services. Here we describe intermediate and final ecosystem services derived from aquatic biodiversity in forests. We include a summary of the factors framing the assembly of aquatic biodiversity in...

The Development of Environmental Education Materials for Investigating Fire-Environment-Man Relationships: Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanselman, David L.; Reider, David A.

This publication details the development and use of environmental education materials based on the United States Forest Service "Process Approach." This publication focuses on materials that teach the ecology and management of natural and man-made forest and brush fires. The main body of the contents develop and document a rationale for…

Moving forward: Responding to and mitigating effects of the MPB epidemic [Chapter 8

Treesearch

Claudia Regan; Barry Bollenbacher; Rob Gump; Mike Hillis

2014-01-01

The final webinar in the Future Forest Webinar Series provided an example of how managers utilized available science to address questions about post-epidemic forest conditions. Assessments of current conditions and projected trends, and how these compare with historical patterns, provide important information for land management planning. Large-scale disturbance events...

77 FR 6778 - Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests; Idaho; Clear Creek Integrated Restoration Project

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-02-09

... Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis and decision making process on the proposal so interested and affected members of the public may participate and contribute to the final decision. DATES: Comments concerning the...Forest Supervisor. 12730 Highway 12, Orofinio, ID 83544. The Decision To Be Made is whether to adopt the...

Forests and Phenology: Designing the Early Warning System to Understand Forest Change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pierce, T.; Phillips, M. B.; Hargrove, W. W.; Dobson, G.; Hicks, J.; Hutchins, M.; Lichtenstein, K.

2010-12-01

Vegetative phenology is the study of plant development and changes with the seasons, such as the greening-up and browning-down of forests, and how these events are influenced by variations in climate. A National Phenology Data Set, based on Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite images covering 2002 through 2009, is now available from work by NASA, the US Forest Service, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This new data set provides an easily interpretable product useful for detecting changes to the landscape due to long-term factors such as climate change, as well as finding areas affected by short-term forest threats such as insects or disease. The Early Warning System (EWS) is a toolset being developed by the US Forest Service and the University of North Carolina-Asheville to support distribution and use of the National Phenology Data Set. The Early Warning System will help research scientists, US Forest Service personnel, forest and natural resources managers, decision makers, and the public in the use of phenology data to better understand unexpected change within our nation’s forests. These changes could have multiple natural sources such as insects, disease, or storm damage, or may be due to human-induced events, like thinning, harvest, forest conversion to agriculture, or residential and commercial use. The primary goal of the Early Warning System is to provide a seamless integration between monitoring, detection, early warning and prediction of these forest disturbances as observed through phenological data. The system consists of PC and web-based components that are structured to support four user stages of increasing knowledge and data sophistication. Building Literacy: This stage of the Early Warning System educates potential users about the system, why the system should be used, and the fundamentals about the data the system uses. The channels for this education include a website, interactive tutorials, pamphlets, and other technology transfer methodologies. Achieving Context and Meaning: To provide deeper meaning and knowledge about the Early Warning System to users, this stage of the Early Warning System provides more information about specific examples of disturbances seen in the phenological data, as well the spatial and temporal context to these disturbances. The main components of this stage are specific case studies of forest disturbances. Accessing Data: This component of the Early Warning System includes products for research scientists, the aerial detection survey sketch mapper community, and others who will access and analyze the Early Warning System and phenological data. Products and data will be available through online GIS mashups and WMS and KML downloads. Utilizing Services: The final stage of the Early Warning System supports the analysis of phenological data and serves the results to those end users, including forest managers, the forest industry, and the public, who need to locate past, present, and potential forest disturbances. The main components of this stage include data-driven web tools, automated analysis processes, and end user training programs.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hollinger, David; Davidson, E.; Dail, D. B.

This report provides and overview of the work carried out and lists the products produced under the terms of agreement SC0005578 with the USDA Forest Service. This relates to scientific investigation of the carbon cycle at the Howland Forest AmeriFlux site located in central Maine, USDA. The overall goal of this work was to understand the various (and interacting) impacts of a changing climate on carbon cycling at the Howland AmeriFlux site, representative of an important component of the North American boreal forest.

A small mammal community in a forest fragment, vegetation corridor and coffee matrix system in the Brazilian Atlantic forest.

PubMed

Rocha, Mariana Ferreira; Passamani, Marcelo; Louzada, Júlio

2011-01-01

The objective of our work was to verify the value of the vegetation corridor in the conservation of small mammals in fragmented tropical landscapes, using a model system in the southeastern Minas Gerais. We evaluated and compared the composition and structure of small mammals in a vegetation corridor, forest fragments and a coffee matrix. A total of 15 species were recorded, and the highest species richness was observed in the vegetation corridor (13 species), followed by the forest fragments (10) and the coffee matrix (6). The absolute abundance was similar between the vegetation corridor and fragments (F = 22.94; p = 0.064), and the greatest differences occurred between the vegetation corridor and the matrix (F = 22.94; p = 0.001) and the forest fragments and the matrix (F = 22.94; p = 0.007). Six species showed significant habitat preference possibly related to the sensitivity of the species to the forest disturbance. Marmosops incanus was the species most sensitive to disturbance; Akodon montensis, Cerradomys subflavus, Gracilinanus microtarsus and Rhipidomys sp. displayed little sensitivity to disturbance, with a high relative abundance in the vegetation corridor. Calomys sp. was the species least affected by habitat disturbance, displaying a high relative abundance in the coffee matrix. Although the vegetation corridors are narrow (4 m width), our results support the hypothesis in which they work as a forest extension, share most species with the forest fragment and support species richness and abundance closer to forest fragments than to the coffee matrix. Our work highlights the importance and cost-effectiveness of these corridors to biodiversity management in the fragmented Atlantic Forest landscapes and at the regional level.

A Small Mammal Community in a Forest Fragment, Vegetation Corridor and Coffee Matrix System in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

PubMed Central

Rocha, Mariana Ferreira; Passamani, Marcelo; Louzada, Júlio

2011-01-01

The objective of our work was to verify the value of the vegetation corridor in the conservation of small mammals in fragmented tropical landscapes, using a model system in the southeastern Minas Gerais. We evaluated and compared the composition and structure of small mammals in a vegetation corridor, forest fragments and a coffee matrix. A total of 15 species were recorded, and the highest species richness was observed in the vegetation corridor (13 species), followed by the forest fragments (10) and the coffee matrix (6). The absolute abundance was similar between the vegetation corridor and fragments (F = 22.94; p = 0.064), and the greatest differences occurred between the vegetation corridor and the matrix (F = 22.94; p = 0.001) and the forest fragments and the matrix (F = 22.94; p = 0.007). Six species showed significant habitat preference possibly related to the sensitivity of the species to the forest disturbance. Marmosops incanus was the species most sensitive to disturbance; Akodon montensis, Cerradomys subflavus, Gracilinanus microtarsus and Rhipidomys sp. displayed little sensitivity to disturbance, with a high relative abundance in the vegetation corridor. Calomys sp. was the species least affected by habitat disturbance, displaying a high relative abundance in the coffee matrix. Although the vegetation corridors are narrow (4 m width), our results support the hypothesis in which they work as a forest extension, share most species with the forest fragment and support species richness and abundance closer to forest fragments than to the coffee matrix. Our work highlights the importance and cost-effectiveness of these corridors to biodiversity management in the fragmented Atlantic Forest landscapes and at the regional level. PMID:21912591

A spatially explicit decision support model for restoration of forest bird habitat

USGS Publications Warehouse

Twedt, D.J.; Uihlein, W.B.; Elliott, A.B.

2006-01-01

The historical area of bottomland hardwood forest in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley has been reduced by >75%. Agricultural production was the primary motivator for deforestation; hence, clearing deliberately targeted higher and drier sites. Remaining forests are highly fragmented and hydrologically altered, with larger forest fragments subject to greater inundation, which has negatively affected many forest bird populations. We developed a spatially explicit decision support model, based on a Partners in Flight plan for forest bird conservation, that prioritizes forest restoration to reduce forest fragmentation and increase the area of forest core (interior forest >1 km from 'hostile' edge). Our primary objective was to increase the number of forest patches that harbor >2000 ha of forest core, but we also sought to increase the number and area of forest cores >5000 ha. Concurrently, we targeted restoration within local (320 km2) landscapes to achieve >60% forest cover. Finally, we emphasized restoration of higher-elevation bottomland hardwood forests in areas where restoration would not increase forest fragmentation. Reforestation of 10% of restorable land in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (approximately 880,000 ha) targeted at priorities established by this decision support model resulted in approximately 824,000 ha of new forest core. This is more than 32 times the amount of core forest added through reforestation of randomly located fields (approximately 25,000 ha). The total area of forest core (1.6 million ha) that resulted from targeted restoration exceeded habitat objectives identified in the Partners in Flight Bird Conservation Plan and approached the area of forest core present in the 1950s.

Necessary work: discovering old forests, new outlooks, and community on the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, 1948-2000.

Treesearch

Max G. Geier

2007-01-01

The H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest (Andrews Forest) is both an idea and a particular place. It is an experimental landscape, a natural resource, and an ecosystem that has long inspired many people. On the landscape of the Andrews Forest, some of those people built the foundation for a collaborative community that fosters closer communication among the scientists and...

A problem analysis and program for watershed-management research in the White Mountains of New Hampshire

Treesearch

George R., Jr. Trimble

1959-01-01

The U. S. Forest Service was authorized by Congress in late summer of 1954 to conduct watershed management research in New Hampshire. The purpose of this work is to determine the effect of forest cover on streamflow: the influence of forest cover type, forest condition, and forest treatment practices on water yield, rate of delivery, and on water quality. This is the...

Potential for Expanding the Near Real Time ForWarn Regional Forest Monitoring System to Include Alaska

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spruce, Joseph P.; Gasser, Gerald; Hargrove, William; Smoot, James; Kuper, Philip D.

2014-01-01

The on-line near real time (NRT) ForWarn system is currently deployed to monitor regional forest disturbances within the conterminous United States (CONUS), using daily MODIS Aqua and Terra NDVI data to derive monitoring products. The Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 mandated such a system. Work on ForWarn began in 2006 with development and validation of retrospective MODIS NDVI-based forest monitoring products. Subsequently, NRT forest disturbance monitoring products were demonstrated, leading to the actual system deployment in 2010. ForWarn provides new CONUS forest disturbance monitoring products every 8 days, using USGS eMODIS data for current NDVI. ForWarn currently does not cover Alaska, which includes extensive forest lands at risk to multiple biotic and abiotic threats. This poster discusses a case study using Alaska eMODIS Terra data to derive ForWarn like forest change products during the 2010 growing season. The eMODIS system provides current MODIS Terra NDVI products for Alaska. Resulting forest change products were assessed with ground, aerial, and Landsat reference data. When cloud and snow free, these preliminary products appeared to capture regional forest disturbances from insect defoliation and fires; however, more work is needed to mitigate cloud and snow contamination, including integration of eMODIS Aqua data.

Monitoring Regional Forest Disturbances across the US with Near Real Time MODIS NDVI Products included in the ForWarn Forest Threat Early Warning System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spruce, Joseph; Hargrove, William W.; Gasser, Gerald; Norman, Steve

2013-01-01

U.S. forests occupy approx.1/3 of total land area (approx. 304 million ha). Since 2000, a growing number of regionally evident forest disturbances have occurred due to abiotic and biotic agents. Regional forest disturbances can threaten human life and property, bio-diversity and water supplies. Timely regional forest disturbance monitoring products are needed to aid forest health management work. Near Real Time (NRT) twice daily MODIS NDVI data provide a means to monitor U.S. regional forest disturbances every 8 days. Since 2010, these NRT forest change products have been produced and posted on the US Forest Service ForWarn Early Warning System for Forest Threats.

The role of ungulates in nowadays temperate forests. A response to Fløjgaard et al. (DOI:10.1111/gcb.14029).

PubMed

Boulanger, Vincent; Dupouey, Jean-Luc; Archaux, Frédéric; Badeau, Vincent; Baltzinger, Christophe; Chevalier, Richard; Corcket, Emmanuel; Dumas, Yann; Forgeard, Françoise; Mårell, Anders; Montpied, Pierre; Paillet, Yoan; Saïd, Sonia; Ulrich, Erwin

2018-06-01

In Boulanger et al. (2018), we investigated the effects of ungulates on forest plant diversity. By suggesting a revisit of our conclusions regarding ecosystem dynamics since the late Pleistocene, Fløjgaard et al. (2018) came to the conclusion that moderate grazing in forest should be a conservation target. Since major points of our paper were mis- or over- interpreted, we put the record straight on our study system and on the scope of our conclusions. Finally, we advocate for an assessment of the conservation issues of ungulates in forests not only regarding hypothetical and still debated states of past ecosystems but also considering timely challenges for forest ecosystems. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The impact of forest structure and light utilization on carbon cycling in tropical forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morton, D. C.; Longo, M.; Leitold, V.; Keller, M. M.

2015-12-01

Light competition is a fundamental organizing principle of forest ecosystems, and interactions between forest structure and light availability provide an important constraint on forest productivity. Tropical forests maintain a dense, multi-layered canopy, based in part on abundant diffuse light reaching the forest understory. Climate-driven changes in light availability, such as more direct illumination during drought conditions, therefore alter the potential productivity of forest ecosystems during such events. Here, we used multi-temporal airborne lidar data over a range of Amazon forest conditions to explore the influence of forest structure on gross primary productivity (GPP). Our analysis combined lidar-based observations of canopy illumination and turnover in the Ecosystem Demography model (ED, version 2.2). The ED model was updated to specifically account for regional differences in canopy and understory illumination using lidar-derived measures of canopy light environments. Model simulations considered the influence of forest structure on GPP over seasonal to decadal time scales, including feedbacks from differential productivity between illuminated and shaded canopy trees on mortality rates and forest composition. Finally, we constructed simple scenarios with varying diffuse and direct illumination to evaluate the potential for novel plant-climate interactions under scenarios of climate change. Collectively, the lidar observations and model simulations underscore the need to account for spatial heterogeneity in the vertical structure of tropical forests to constrain estimates of tropical forest productivity under current and future climate conditions.

Solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence that correlates with canopy photosynthesis on diurnal and seasonal scales in a temperate deciduous forest

DOE PAGES

Yang, Xi; Tang, Jianwu; Mustard, John F.; ...

2015-03-24

Previous studies have suggested that solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) is correlated with Gross Primary Production (GPP). However, it remains unclear to what extent this relationship is due to absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (APAR) and/or light use efficiency (LUE). Here in this work, we present the first time series of near-surface measurement of canopy-scale SIF at 760 nm in temperate deciduous forests. SIF correlated with GPP estimated with eddy covariance at diurnal and seasonal scales (r 2 = 0.82 and 0.73, respectively), as well as with APAR diurnally and seasonally (r 2 = 0.90 and 0.80, respectively). SIF/APAR is significantly positivelymore » correlated with LUE and is higher during cloudy days than sunny days. Weekly tower-based SIF agreed with SIF from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (r 2 = 0.82). Finally, our results provide ground-based evidence that SIF is directly related to both APAR and LUE and thus GPP, and confirm that satellite SIF can be used as a proxy for GPP.« less

Ultrasonic Sensor Signals and Optimum Path Forest Classifier for the Microstructural Characterization of Thermally-Aged Inconel 625 Alloy

PubMed Central

de Albuquerque, Victor Hugo C.; Barbosa, Cleisson V.; Silva, Cleiton C.; Moura, Elineudo P.; Rebouças Filho, Pedro P.; Papa, João P.; Tavares, João Manuel R. S.

2015-01-01

Secondary phases, such as laves and carbides, are formed during the final solidification stages of nickel-based superalloy coatings deposited during the gas tungsten arc welding cold wire process. However, when aged at high temperatures, other phases can precipitate in the microstructure, like the γ” and δ phases. This work presents an evaluation of the powerful optimum path forest (OPF) classifier configured with six distance functions to classify background echo and backscattered ultrasonic signals from samples of the inconel 625 superalloy thermally aged at 650 and 950 °C for 10, 100 and 200 h. The background echo and backscattered ultrasonic signals were acquired using transducers with frequencies of 4 and 5 MHz. The potentiality of ultrasonic sensor signals combined with the OPF to characterize the microstructures of an inconel 625 thermally aged and in the as-welded condition were confirmed by the results. The experimental results revealed that the OPF classifier is sufficiently fast (classification total time of 0.316 ms) and accurate (accuracy of 88.75% and harmonic mean of 89.52) for the application proposed. PMID:26024416

Ultrasonic sensor signals and optimum path forest classifier for the microstructural characterization of thermally-aged inconel 625 alloy.

PubMed

de Albuquerque, Victor Hugo C; Barbosa, Cleisson V; Silva, Cleiton C; Moura, Elineudo P; Filho, Pedro P Rebouças; Papa, João P; Tavares, João Manuel R S

2015-05-27

Secondary phases, such as laves and carbides, are formed during the final solidification stages of nickel-based superalloy coatings deposited during the gas tungsten arc welding cold wire process. However, when aged at high temperatures, other phases can precipitate in the microstructure, like the γ'' and δ phases. This work presents an evaluation of the powerful optimum path forest (OPF) classifier configured with six distance functions to classify background echo and backscattered ultrasonic signals from samples of the inconel 625 superalloy thermally aged at 650 and 950 °C for 10, 100 and 200 h. The background echo and backscattered ultrasonic signals were acquired using transducers with frequencies of 4 and 5 MHz. The potentiality of ultrasonic sensor signals combined with the OPF to characterize the microstructures of an inconel 625 thermally aged and in the as-welded condition were confirmed by the results. The experimental results revealed that the OPF classifier is sufficiently fast (classification total time of 0.316 ms) and accurate (accuracy of 88.75%" and harmonic mean of 89.52) for the application proposed.

Recreation-related perceptions of natural resource managers in the Saranac Lakes wild forest area

Treesearch

Diane Kuehn; Mark Mink; Rudy Schuster

2007-01-01

Public forest managers often work with diverse stakeholder groups as they implement forest management policies. Within the Saranac Lakes Wild Forest area of New York State's Adirondack Park, stakeholder groups such as visitors, business owners, and landowners often have conflicting perceptions about issues related to water-based recreation in the region's...

Hurricane Hugo Effects on South Carolina's Forest Resource

Treesearch

Raymond M. Sheffield; Michael T. Thompson

1992-01-01

Hurricane Hugo struck South Carolina in September 1989 causing extensive mortality and damage to forest stands in 23 counties. The Forest Inventory and Analysis Work Unit at the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station conducted a special inventory of the damaged area in 1990. This Paper presents the results of that inventory and documents procedures used in the...

Measuring fire weather and forest inflammability

Treesearch

H. T. Gisborne

1936-01-01

In the measurement of fire weather and forest inflammability, now practiced regularly at more than 90 forest stations in northern Idaho and western Montana, it is necessary to use many methods that are peculiar to this work. Some of these methods are familiar to meteorologists, but few foresters have had any appreciable training in meteorology. Others are of such,...

Current Research on Wood Decay in the USDA Forest Service

Treesearch

Harold H. Burdsall Jr.

1991-01-01

The Forest Service's research on decay fungi and decay caused by fungi is done mainly in two research work units at the Forest Products Laboratory. One unit, the Center for Forest Mycology Research, performs biosystematic research on root-rot and products-rot fungi in the genera Armillaria, Phellinus, and Phlebia and maintains the culture collection supporting...

New technology in forest operations

Treesearch

Bob Rummer

2009-01-01

Many forest landowners are looking for forest operations that are low impact or that will work on smaller forest tracts. In general, these objectives lend themselves toward smaller or lowground pressure equipment and systems. Landowners cannot afford to bring a whole high-production mechanized crew onto a 10-acre parcel unless they plan to cut everything. Low impact or...

Stability and change in forest-based communities: a selected bibliography.

Treesearch

Catherine Woods Richardson

1996-01-01

This bibliography lists literature dealing with the concept of community stability, the condition of forest-based communities, and the relations between forest management and local community conditions. Most citations are from the 1970s to the mid 1990s, though some particularly pertinent earlier works also appear. The emphasis is on forest-based communities in the...

Windows into the forest: extending long-term small-watershed research

Treesearch

Sally Duncan

2004-01-01

Interactions among forests, forestry, and water remain a critical aspect of Forest Service land stewardship. Small, experimental watershed studies managed by Forest Service Research and Development have a long history of advancing science and management and have resulted in a rich collection of long-term data. Early work addressed effects of forestry practices in...

Forest resources of Montana

Treesearch

S. Blair Hutchinson; Paul D. Kemp

1952-01-01

In 1928 Congress passed the McSweeney-McNary Forest Research Act authorizing a comprehensive survey of the timber supplies in the United States. Responsibility for this survey was assigned to the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture. The work in Montana has been under the direction of the Northern Rockv Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. This is a...

Forest inventory, catastrophic events and historic geospatial assessments in the south

Treesearch

Dennis M. Jacobs

2007-01-01

Catastrophic events are a regular occurrence of disturbance to forestland in the Southern United States. Each major event affects the integrity of the forest inventory database developed and maintained by the Forest Inventory & Analysis Research Work Unit of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. Some of these major disturbances through the years have...

Proceedings: population dynamics, impacts, and integrated management of forest defoliating insects

Treesearch

M.L. McManus; A.M., eds. Liebhold

1998-01-01

This publication contains 52 research papers about the population ecology and management of forest insect defoliators. These papers were presented at a joint meeting of working parties S7.03.06, "Integrated Management of Forest Defoliating Insects", and S7.03.07, "Population dynamics of forest insects", of the International Union of Forestry...

Forest Service's Northern Research Station FIA launches 24-state study of forest regeneration

Treesearch

Will McWilliams; Shawn Lehman; Paul Roth; Jim. Westfall

2012-01-01

Inventory foresters often quake when asked to count tree seedlings, because the work is tedious and sometimes means tallying hundreds of stems. They also know that the density and quality of advance regeneration are key to the success of new stand establishment. Seedling counts provide valuable information on regeneration adequacy, forest diversity, wildlife habitat,...

Regression and Geostatistical Techniques: Considerations and Observations from Experiences in NE-FIA

Treesearch

Rachel Riemann; Andrew Lister

2005-01-01

Maps of forest variables improve our understanding of the forest resource by allowing us to view and analyze it spatially. The USDA Forest Service's Northeastern Forest Inventory and Analysis unit (NE-FIA) has used geostatistical techniques, particularly stochastic simulation, to produce maps and spatial data sets of FIA variables. That work underscores the...

Incidence and impact of damage to Virginia's timber, 1986

Treesearch

Cindy M. Huber; Joe P. McClure; Noel D. Cost

1987-01-01

This bulletin reports survey data on agents damaging trees in Virginia's forests. Data were collected in 1984 and 1985 by the Forest Inventory and Analysis Work Unit of the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station. This effort was part of the fifth inventory of the State's forests. Damage information similiar to the previous survey was gathered for this...

Proceedings: third lake states forest tree improvement conference

Treesearch

Forest Service U.S.

1958-01-01

The Third Lake States Forest Tree Improvement Conference culminated the activities of the Lake States Forest Tree Improvement Committee and offered an opportmity to report on committee work for the past biennium. It also provided an important means for the Committee to meet its major objective - the encouraging and coordinating of forest tree improvement activities in...

Hardwood Projections For Southeastern U.S.

Treesearch

William Bechtold

1988-01-01

Much of what is covered here is based on data collected by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Work Unit of the Forest Service Southeastern Forest Experiment Station. Southeast FIA is responsible of monitoring the forest resources of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The first survey of the Southeast began in Florida in 1934. Our field...

Vegetation Response to Upper Pliocene Glacial/Interglacial Cyclicity in the Central Mediterranean

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Combourieu-Nebout, Nathalie

1993-09-01

New detailed pollen analysis of the lower part of the Upper Pliocene Semaforo section (Crotone, Italy) documents cyclic behavior of vegetation at the beginning of the Northern Hemisphere glaciations. The competition between four vegetation units (subtropical humid forest, deciduous temperate forest, altitudinal coniferous forest, and open xeric assemblage) probably reflects modifications of vegetation belts at this montane site. Several increases in herbaceous open vegetation regularly alternate with subtropical humid forest, which expresses rapid climatic oscillations. The complete temporal succession—deciduous forest (rich in Quercus), followed by subtropical humid forest (Taxodiaceae and Cathaya), then altitudinal coniferous forest ( Tsuga, Cedrus, Abies, and Picea), and finally herbaceous open vegetation (Graminae, Compositae, and Artemisia )—displays the climatic evolution from warm and humid interglaciation to cold and dry glaciation. It also suggests an independent variation of temperature and humidity, the two main climatic parameters. The vegetation history of southern Calabria recorded in the Semaforo section have been correlated with the ∂ 18O signal established in the Atlantic Ocean.

Nitrogen dynamics in managed boreal forests: Recent advances and future research directions.

PubMed

Sponseller, Ryan A; Gundale, Michael J; Futter, Martyn; Ring, Eva; Nordin, Annika; Näsholm, Torgny; Laudon, Hjalmar

2016-02-01

Nitrogen (N) availability plays multiple roles in the boreal landscape, as a limiting nutrient to forest growth, determinant of terrestrial biodiversity, and agent of eutrophication in aquatic ecosystems. We review existing research on forest N dynamics in northern landscapes and address the effects of management and environmental change on internal cycling and export. Current research foci include resolving the nutritional importance of different N forms to trees and establishing how tree-mycorrhizal relationships influence N limitation. In addition, understanding how forest responses to external N inputs are mediated by above- and belowground ecosystem compartments remains an important challenge. Finally, forestry generates a mosaic of successional patches in managed forest landscapes, with differing levels of N input, biological demand, and hydrological loss. The balance among these processes influences the temporal patterns of stream water chemistry and the long-term viability of forest growth. Ultimately, managing forests to keep pace with increasing demands for biomass production, while minimizing environmental degradation, will require multi-scale and interdisciplinary perspectives on landscape N dynamics.

An ecological interpretation of the difference in leaf anatomy and its plasticity in contrasting tree species in orange kloof, table mountain, South Africa.

PubMed

Hlwatika, C N M; Bhat, R B

2002-01-01

Leaf anatomy and morphology were studied in 11 tree species growing in an undisturbed forest and the adjoining fynbos for over 50 years. Functional anatomical results suggest that the forest and the fynbos are ecologically distinct. Moreover, leaf anatomy suggests that the foliage is primarily adapted for photosynthesis rather than for control of transpirational water loss. Forest precursor tree species and scrub species exhibit xeromorphy in the fynbos whereas they exhibit mesomorphic features inside the forest. The wide-ranging species, such as Olea capensis subsp. capensis, simulated the response of the forest precursors, with the cuticle being phenotypically plastic between the forest and the fynbos but not between the stream and non-stream habitats. Finally, the forest precursors, the scrub species, and the wide-ranging taxa seem to have anatomical characters which can be modified in the fynbos and therefore allow its colonization by a variety of different species.

Vegetation survey in Amazonia using LANDSAT data. [Brazil

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parada, N. D. J. (Principal Investigator); Shimabukuro, Y. E.; Dossantos, J. R.; Deaquino, L. C. S.

1982-01-01

Automatic Image-100 analysis of LANDSAT data was performed using the MAXVER classification algorithm. In the pilot area, four vegetation units were mapped automatically in addition to the areas occupied for agricultural activities. The Image-100 classified results together with a soil map and information from RADAR images, permitted the establishment of the final legend with six classes: semi-deciduous tropical forest; low land evergreen tropical forest; secondary vegetation; tropical forest of humid areas, predominant pastureland and flood plains. Two water types were identified based on their sediments indicating different geological and geomorphological aspects.

Analysis of Pooled FIA and Remote Sensing Data for Fiber Supply Assessment at the Warnell School of Forest Resources at the University of Georgia - Other Studies and Effective Information Dissemination

Treesearch

Chris J. Cieszewski; Michael Zasada; Tripp Lowe; Bruce Borders; Mike Clutter; Richard F. Daniels; Robert I. Elle; Robert Izlar; Jarek Zawadzki

2005-01-01

We provide here a short description of the origin, current work, and future outlook of the Fiber Supply Assessment program at the D.B. Warnell School of Forest Resources, University of Georgia, whose work includes various analyses of FIA data. Since 1997, the program has intended to assist the implementation of the new Southern Annual Forest Inventory System through...

76 FR 19744 - Final Tropic to Hatch 138 kV Transmission Line Project Environmental Impact Statement and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-04-08

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Final Tropic to Hatch 138 kV Transmission Line Project..., has prepared a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Tropic to Hatch 138 kV Transmission.... ADDRESSES: Copies of the Tropic to Hatch 138 kV Transmission Line Project FEIS/PMPA for the Grand Staircase...

Final Scientific/Technical Report for DOE/EERE Comprehensive Community Renewable Energy Implementation Plan in Forest County and Milwaukee County

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Karman, Nathan

2014-06-27

Forest County Potawatomi Community (the “Community”) sought and obtained Community Renewable Energy Deployment funding from the Department of Energy to evaluate and implement a diverse number of renewable energy technologies throughout its lands held in trust or owned in fee simple in Forest County and Milwaukee County (the “Project”). The technologies and sites evolved during the Project, ultimately leading to the investigation of biomass and solar projects on the Community’s reservation in Forest County, as well as the investigation and eventual deployment of a solar project and an anaerobic digestion and biogas project on Community lands in Milwaukee.

Northwest Forest Plan—the first 10 years (1994–2003): first-decade results of the Northwest Forest Plan.

Treesearch

Valerie Rapp

2008-01-01

The Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan) was developed in 1994 to resolve debates over old-growth forests and endangered species on federal forests in the range of the northern spotted owl. In 2005, federal agencies reviewed the first 10 years under the Plan to learn what worked and what did not, what changed, and what new information or surprises might influence these...

One-hundred years of wildfire research: A legacy of the Priest River, Deception Creek, and Boise Basin Experimental Forests of Idaho [Chapter 21

Treesearch

Russell T. Graham; Theresa B. Jain; Kathy L. Graham; Robert Denner; Colin Hardy

2014-01-01

The 1910 fires, which burned more than 1.3 million ha of northern Rocky Mountain forests, provided a mission and management objectives for the newly created Forest Service. By 1911, the Priest River Experimental Station (Forest- PREF) was established in northern Idaho to help meet the needs of the Forest Service. Harry T. Gisborne, whose work was centered at PREF,...

Accident rates and types among self-employed private forest owners.

PubMed

Lindroos, Ola; Burström, Lage

2010-11-01

Half of all Swedish forests are owned by private individuals, and at least 215,000 people work in these privately owned forest holdings. However, only lethal accidents are systematically monitored among self-employed forest workers. Therefore, data from the registries of the Swedish Work Environment Authority, the Labor Insurance Organization and the regional University Hospital in Umeå were gathered to allow us to perform a more in-depth assessment of the rate and types of accidents that occurred among private forest owners. We found large differences between the registries in the type and number of accidents that were reported. We encountered difficulties in defining "self-employed forest worker" and also in determining whether the accidents that did occur happened during work or leisure time. Consequently, the estimates for the accident rate that we obtained varied from 32 to > or = 4300 injured persons per year in Sweden, depending on the registry that was consulted, the definition of the sample population that was used, and the accident severity definition that was employed. Nevertheless, the different registries gave a consistent picture of the types of accidents that occur while individuals are participating in self-employed forestry work. Severe accidents were relatively common, as self-employed forestry work fatalities constituted 7% of the total number of fatalities in the work authority registry. Falling trees were associated with many of these fatal accidents as well as with accidents that resulted in severe non-fatal injuries. Thus, unsafe work methods appeared more related to the occurrence of an accident than the equipment that was being used at the time of the accident (e.g., a chainsaw). Improvement of the workers' skills should therefore be considered to be an important prevention measure that should be undertaken in this field. The challenges in improving the safety in these smallest of companies, which fall somewhere between the purview of occupational and consumer safety, are exemplified and discussed. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Live-load distribution on glued-laminated timber girder bridges : final report : conclusions and recommendations

Treesearch

Fouad Fanous; Jeremy May; Terry Wipf; Michael Ritter

2011-01-01

Increased use of timber bridges in the U.S. transportation system has required additional research to improve the current design methodology of these bridges. For this reason, the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL), and the Federal Highway Administration have supported several research programs to attain the objective listed above. This report is a...

Site-index curves for young-growth ponderosa pine in northern Arizona

Treesearch

Charles O. Minor

1964-01-01

The productive capacity or site quality of an area enters into nearly every phase of forest management from regeneration to final harvest. No standards or measures of site quality have been developed specifically for ponderosa pine in the Southwest, which handicaps the forest manager. The major objective of the present study was to develop the basic site-index curves...

Seed production of Douglas-fir increased by thinning.

Treesearch

Donald L. Reukema

1961-01-01

In planning thinnings and final harvest cuttings for stands of young-growth Douglas-fir, foresters need reliable information on the capacity of young-growth stands to bear seed, on the periodicity of seed crops, and on the effects of thinning and other forest practices on seed production. One of the first studies designed to help provide this information was begun in...

CARBON AND NUTRIENT FLOW THROUGH MULTIPLE TROPHIC LEVELS IN A CO2-ENRICHED SOUTHERN PINE FOREST COMMUNITY - FINAL TECHNICAL REPORT

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

The ability to predict the consequences of global change is predicated on our understanding of controls of energy and material flows through ecosystems. Research was conducted at the Forest Atmosphere CO2 Transfer and Storage-1 (FACTS-1) site at Duke University. This is a flagship experiment of the ...

Employer Follow-Up Survey: Employer Assessment of 1983-84 Forest Park Graduates. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapraun, E. Daniel; Nienkamp, Roger L.

An employer follow-up study was conducted to gather information from the employers of 1983-84 graduates of St. Louis Community College at Forest Park regarding the preparation and performance of these graduates. A previous survey of the 1983-84 graduates had identified 221 of their employers, who were mailed a questionnaire asking for ratings of…

Freight transportation and the potential for invasions of exotic insects in urban and periurban forests of the United States

Treesearch

Manuel Colunga-Garcia; Robert A. Haack; Adesoji O. Adelaja

2009-01-01

Freight transportation is an important pathway for the introduction and dissemination of exotic forest insects (EFI). Identifying the final destination of imports is critical in determining the likelihood of EFI establishment. We analyzed the use of regional freight transport information to characterize risk of urban and periurban areas to EFI introductions. Specifc...

Cradle to Gate Life Cycle Assessment of Softwood Lumber Production from the Northeast-North Central

Treesearch

Maureen Puettmann; Elaine Oneil; Richard Bergman

2013-01-01

CORRIM, the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials, has derived life cycle inventory (LCI) data for major wood products and wood production regions in the United States. The life cycle inventory data cover from forest regeneration through to final product at the mill gate. Research has covered nine major forest products including both structural and...

Southern forest resource assessment: Conducting science in the public eye

Treesearch

John G. Greis; David N. Wear

2002-01-01

Questions about the long-term sustainability of southern forest benefits, including wildlife habitat, water quality, and timber supply, prompted this regional assessment and guided the process by which it was conducted. SFRA’s final report is descriptive—not prescriptive—and is intended to inform debate and policymaking in technically defensible, unbiased, and...

[Remote sensing estimation of urban forest carbon stocks based on QuickBird images].

PubMed

Xu, Li-Hua; Zhang, Jie-Cun; Huang, Bo; Wang, Huan-Huan; Yue, Wen-Ze

2014-10-01

Urban forest is one of the positive factors that increase urban carbon sequestration, which makes great contribution to the global carbon cycle. Based on the high spatial resolution imagery of QuickBird in the study area within the ring road in Yiwu, Zhejiang, the forests in the area were divided into four types, i. e., park-forest, shelter-forest, company-forest and others. With the carbon stock from sample plot as dependent variable, at the significance level of 0.01, the stepwise linear regression method was used to select independent variables from 50 factors such as band grayscale values, vegetation index, texture information and so on. Finally, the remote sensing based forest carbon stock estimation models for the four types of forest were established. The estimation accuracies for all the models were around 70%, with the total carbon reserve of each forest type in the area being estimated as 3623. 80, 5245.78, 5284.84, 5343.65 t, respectively. From the carbon density map, it was found that the carbon reserves were mainly in the range of 25-35 t · hm(-2). In the future, urban forest planners could further improve the ability of forest carbon sequestration through afforestation and interplanting of trees and low shrubs.

Mite communities (Acari: Mesostigmata) in young and mature coniferous forests after surface wildfire.

PubMed

Kamczyc, Jacek; Urbanowski, Cezary; Pers-Kamczyc, Emilia

2017-06-01

Density, diversity and assemblage structure of Mesostigmata (cohorts Gamasina and Uropodina) were investigated in Scots pine forests differing in forest age (young: 9-40 years and mature: 83-101 years) in which wildfire occurred. This animal group belongs to the dominant acarine predators playing a crucial role in soil food webs and being important as biological control agents. In total, six forests (three within young and three within mature stands) were inspected in Puszcza Knyszyńska Forest Complex in May 2015. At each forest area, sampling was done from burned and adjacent control sites with steel cylinders for heat extraction of soil fauna. Data were analyzed statistically with nested ANOVA. We found a significant effect on mite density of both fire and forest age, with more mites in mature forests and control plots. In total, 36 mite taxa were identified. Mite diversity differed significantly between forest ages but not between burned versus control. Our study indicated that all studied forests are characterized by unique mite species and that the mite communities are dominated by different mite species depending on age forest and surface wildfire occurrence. Finally, canonical correspondence analysis ranked the mite assemblages from control mature, through burned young and burned mature, away from the control young.

Global patterns and determinants of forest canopy height.

PubMed

Tao, Shengli; Guo, Qinghua; Li, Chao; Wang, Zhiheng; Fang, Jingyun

2016-12-01

Forest canopy height is an important indicator of forest biomass, species diversity, and other ecosystem functions; however, the climatic determinants that underlie its global patterns have not been fully explored. Using satellite LiDAR-derived forest canopy heights and field measurements of the world's giant trees, combined with climate indices, we evaluated the global patterns and determinants of forest canopy height. The mean canopy height was highest in tropical regions, but tall forests (>50 m) occur at various latitudes. Water availability, quantified by the difference between annual precipitation and annual potential evapotranspiration (P-PET), was the best predictor of global forest canopy height, which supports the hydraulic limitation hypothesis. However, in striking contrast with previous studies, the canopy height exhibited a hump-shaped curve along a gradient of P-PET: it initially increased, then peaked at approximately 680 mm of P-PET, and finally declined, which suggests that excessive water supply negatively affects the canopy height. This trend held true across continents and forest types, and it was also validated using forest inventory data from China and the United States. Our findings provide new insights into the climatic controls of the world's giant trees and have important implications for forest management and improvement of forest growth models. © 2016 by the Ecological Society of America.

Contribution of Near Real Time MODIS-Based Forest Disturbance Detection Products to a National Forest Threat Early Warning System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spruce, Joseph; Hargrove, William; Gasser, Gerald; Smoot, James; Kuper, Philip

2011-01-01

U.S. forests occupy approx. 751 million acres (approx. 1/3 of total land). These forests are exposed to multiple biotic and abiotic threats that collectively damage extensive acreages each year. Hazardous forest disturbances can threaten human life and property, bio-diversity and water supplies. Timely regional forest monitoring products are needed to aid forest management and decision making by the US Forest Service and its state and private partners. Daily MODIS data products provide a means to monitor regional forest disturbances on a weekly basis. In response, we began work in 2006 to develop a Near Real Time (NRT) forest monitoring capability, based on MODIS NDVI data, as part of a national forest threat early warning system (EWS)

National Tree Climbing Guide [2015 Electronic Edition

Treesearch

Jerry Berdeen; Burnham Chamberlain; Teryl Grubb; Art Henderson; Brock Mayo; Manfred Mielke; Kathryn Purcell; Dennis Ringnes; Marc Roberts; Donna Stubbs; Micah Thorning

2015-01-01

The Forest Service Tree Climbing Program provides direction that protects Forest Service employees while ascending, descending, and working aloft in trees by establishing national direction based on recognized industry standards, procedures and practices. Climbing and working in trees demands specialized equipment and skills. The potential for a serious injury or fatal...

36 CFR 212.3 - Cooperative work.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... MANAGEMENT Administration of the Forest Transportation System § 212.3 Cooperative work. (a) Cooperative... contributed in advance shall be deposited in the United States Treasury to the credit of the Forest Service... governmental agency is unable to contribute funds under the Act of March 3, 1925, as amended, in advance but is...

36 CFR 212.4 - Construction and maintenance.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Construction and maintenance... TRAVEL MANAGEMENT Administration of the Forest Transportation System § 212.4 Construction and maintenance. (a) Construction and maintenance work on forest transportation facilities with appropriated funds...

Forest science in the South - 2001

Treesearch

Southern Research Station USDA Forest Service

2002-01-01

This publication synthesizes the Southern Research Station's major accomplishments and research products during the period from October 2000 through September 2001, FY 01. Forest Science in the South presents emerging research priorities and highlights research work units and experimental forests, including collaborative research and budget...

Woody Species Diversity in Forest Plantations in a Mountainous Region of Beijing, China: Effects of Sampling Scale and Species Selection

PubMed Central

Zhang, Yuxin; Zhang, Shuang; Ma, Keming; Fu, Bojie; Anand, Madhur

2014-01-01

The role of forest plantations in biodiversity conservation has gained more attention in recent years. However, most work on evaluating the diversity of forest plantations focuses only on one spatial scale; thus, we examined the effects of sampling scale on diversity in forest plantations. We designed a hierarchical sampling strategy to collect data on woody species diversity in planted pine (Pinus tabuliformis Carr.), planted larch (Larix principis-rupprechtii Mayr.), and natural secondary deciduous broadleaf forests in a mountainous region of Beijing, China. Additive diversity partition analysis showed that, compared to natural forests, the planted pine forests had a different woody species diversity partitioning pattern at multi-scales (except the Simpson diversity in the regeneration layer), while the larch plantations did not show multi-scale diversity partitioning patterns that were obviously different from those in the natural secondary broadleaf forest. Compare to the natural secondary broadleaf forests, the effects of planted pine forests on woody species diversity are dependent on the sampling scale and layers selected for analysis. Diversity in the planted larch forest, however, was not significantly different from that in the natural forest for all diversity components at all sampling levels. Our work demonstrated that the species selected for afforestation and the sampling scales selected for data analysis alter the conclusions on the levels of diversity supported by plantations. We suggest that a wide range of scales should be considered in the evaluation of the role of forest plantations on biodiversity conservation. PMID:25545860

Role of the U.S. Forest Service: Helping forests, grasslands, and wildlife adapt to shifts in climate

Treesearch

Monica S. Tomosy; Frank R. Thompson; Douglas Boyce

2011-01-01

This fall, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) will release a comprehensive new guidebook designed to help managers develop climate adaptation options for National Forests (Peterson et al. 2011, in press). The adaptation process is based on partnerships between local resource managers and scientists working collaboratively to understand potential climate change effects,...

The forest resources of New Hampshire

Treesearch

Northeastern Forest Experiment Station

1954-01-01

Through the McSweeney-McNary Act of 1928, Congress authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct a comprehensive survey of the forest resources of the United States. This work was assigned to the Forest Service. The purposes of this forest survey are (1) to make a field inventory of the present supply of standing timber; (2) to ascertain its current rate of growth...

Introduction to special issue on remote sensing for advanced forest inventory

Treesearch

Andrew T. Hudak; E. Louise Loudermilk; Joanne C. White

2016-01-01

Information needs associated with sustainable forest management are evolving rapidly as the forest sector works to satisfy an increasingly complex set of economic, environmental, and social policy goals. A barrier to the sustainable management of forests and the provision of ecosystem goods and services under these new pressures is a lack of up-to-date and detailed...

Health of Idaho's Forests: A Summary of conditions, issues and implications

Treesearch

David Atkins; James Byler; Ladd Livingston; Paul Rogers; Dayle Bennett

1999-01-01

The desire for lasting and healthy forests in which to live, work and play is something we all share - not only in Idaho but across our nation. In Idaho we have a number of forest health issues confronting us, our forest ecosystems are not as resilient as desired and the ability to sustain our communities is at risk.

Bibliography of Pacific Northwest forest soils publications through 1955.

Treesearch

Robert F. Tarrant

1956-01-01

During the past ten years, interest and development of research in forest soils has grown steadily in the Pacific Northwest. Prior to 1946, no full-time work in forest soils was being done in the region. Today, both private and public land-management organizations employ forest soils research technicians. In addition, two colleges in the region offer instruction in...

It's not easy being green: the tricky world of small-diameter timber.

Treesearch

Sally Duncan

1998-01-01

Big shifts have been made over the last decade in how society thinks forest lands should be managed. Forest policy has subsequently changed. Land managers now grapple with how to make society's intentions work in the forests of today.This issue of PNW Science Findings presents the Colville study's examination of the vast forests of small-diameter...

Half a century of research - Fort Valley Experimental Forest 1908-1958

Treesearch

Edward M. Gaines; Elmer W. Shaw

1958-01-01

Fifty years ago in 1908, the U. S. Forest Service launched its research program in forest management on the Fort Valley Experimental Forest near Flagstaff, Arizona. This was the first scientific venture of its kind in America - - now the oldest.From the beginning the chief aim of research here has been to work out better ways of managing ponderosa...

Area and percent of forest affected by abiotic agents beyond reference conditions

Treesearch

2012-01-01

Criterion 3, Indicator 16, of the Montréal Process Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests was designed to assess the impact of abiotic agents upon forests (Montréal Process Working Group 2007). Various abiotic agents, both natural and human-induced, can change forest structure and species composition....

Forestry in urban and urbanizing areas of the United States; connecting people with forest in the 21st century

Treesearch

John F. Dwyer; Gina M. Childs; David J. Nowak

2000-01-01

Resource managers worldwide face challenges in responding to expanding urbanization and its effects on forest resources. These challenges can be met head on if managers work toward: (1) comprehensive management of forest resources in urban and urbanizing areas, and (2)connection of urban people with forests and their management. Opportunities exist for...

Do carbon offsets work? The role of forest management in greenhouse gas mitigation

Treesearch

Marie Oliver; Jeremy Fried

2013-01-01

As forest carbon offset projects become more popular, professional foresters are providing their expertise to support them. But when several members of the Society of American Foresters questioned the science and assumptions used to design the projects, the organization decided to convene a task force to examine whether these projects can provide the intended climate...

Greener cities: U.S. Forest Service software package helps cities manage their urban treescape

Treesearch

Jim Kling; Greg Featured: McPherson

2008-01-01

Urban forests don't get the recognition that natural forests do. They don't encompass sweeping vistas and magnificent views and they don't provide critical habitat to endangered species. Nevertheless, they are vital. More than 90 percent of all Californians live, work, and play in urban forests. Trees in the urban landscape provide vital ecosystem...

Landowner and visitor response to forest landscape restoration: the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest Northeast Sands Project

Treesearch

Kristin Floress; Anna Haines; Emily Usher; Paul Gobster; Mike Dockry

2018-01-01

This report is intended to support the ongoing pine barrens restoration on work in the Lakewood-Laona Ranger District on the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (CNNF). The report provides the results from 2016 surveys and focus groups examining landowner and visitor attitudes toward forest management treatments, communication, and restoration project outcomes; their...

36 CFR 64.14 - Project inspections.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Project inspections. 64.14... Project inspections. All State and local projects will receive a final inspection by the Bureau. Final... as deemed necessary by the Bureau. Preapproval inspections will also be conducted prior to project...

36 CFR 64.14 - Project inspections.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Project inspections. 64.14... Project inspections. All State and local projects will receive a final inspection by the Bureau. Final... as deemed necessary by the Bureau. Preapproval inspections will also be conducted prior to project...

36 CFR 64.14 - Project inspections.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Project inspections. 64.14... Project inspections. All State and local projects will receive a final inspection by the Bureau. Final... as deemed necessary by the Bureau. Preapproval inspections will also be conducted prior to project...

36 CFR 64.14 - Project inspections.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 1 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Project inspections. 64.14... Project inspections. All State and local projects will receive a final inspection by the Bureau. Final... as deemed necessary by the Bureau. Preapproval inspections will also be conducted prior to project...

Management Effectiveness of a Secondary Coniferous Forest for Landscape Appreciation and Psychological Restoration

PubMed Central

Fujiwara, Akio; Saito, Haruo; Horiuchi, Masahiro

2017-01-01

We investigated the influence of forest management on landscape appreciation and psychological restoration in on-site settings by exposing respondents to an unmanaged, dense coniferous (crowding) forest and a managed (thinned) coniferous forest; we set the two experimental settings in the forests of the Fuji Iyashinomoroi Woodland Study Center. The respondents were individually exposed to both settings while sitting for 15 min and were required to answer three questionnaires to analyze the psychological restorative effects before and after the experiment (feeling (the Profile of Mood States), affect (the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule), and subjective restorativeness (the Restorative Outcome Scale). To compare landscape appreciation, they were required to answer another two questionnaires only after the experiment, for scene appreciation (the semantic differential scale) and for the restorative properties of each environment (the Perceived Restorativeness Scale). Finally, we obtained these findings: (1) the respondents evaluated each forest environment highly differently and evaluated the thinned forest setting more positively; (2) the respondents’ impressions of the two physical environments did not appear to be accurately reflected in their evaluations; (3) forest environments have potential restorative effects whether or not they are managed, but these effects can be partially enhanced by managing the forests. PMID:28718831

Relative contributions of set-asides and tree retention to the long-term availability of key forest biodiversity structures at the landscape scale.

PubMed

Roberge, Jean-Michel; Lämås, Tomas; Lundmark, Tomas; Ranius, Thomas; Felton, Adam; Nordin, Annika

2015-05-01

Over previous decades new environmental measures have been implemented in forestry. In Fennoscandia, forest management practices were modified to set aside conservation areas and to retain trees at final felling. In this study we simulated the long-term effects of set-aside establishment and tree retention practices on the future availability of large trees and dead wood, two forest structures of documented importance to biodiversity conservation. Using a forest decision support system (Heureka), we projected the amounts of these structures over 200 years in two managed north Swedish landscapes, under management scenarios with and without set-asides and tree retention. In line with common best practice, we simulated set-asides covering 5% of the productive area with priority to older stands, as well as ∼5% green-tree retention (solitary trees and forest patches) including high-stump creation at final felling. We found that only tree retention contributed to substantial increases in the future density of large (DBH ≥35 cm) deciduous trees, while both measures made significant contributions to the availability of large conifers. It took more than half a century to observe stronger increases in the densities of large deciduous trees as an effect of tree retention. The mean landscape-scale volumes of hard dead wood fluctuated widely, but the conservation measures yielded values which were, on average over the entire simulation period, about 2.5 times as high as for scenarios without these measures. While the density of large conifers increased with time in the landscape initially dominated by younger forest, best practice conservation measures did not avert a long-term decrease in large conifer density in the landscape initially comprised of more old forest. Our results highlight the needs to adopt a long temporal perspective and to consider initial landscape conditions when evaluating the large-scale effects of conservation measures on forest biodiversity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Forests on the Edge: A GIS-based Approach to Projecting Housing Development on Private Forests

Treesearch

Ron McRoberts; Mark Nelson; David Theobald; Mike Eley; Mike Dechter

2006-01-01

The private working land base of America’s forests, farms, and ranches is being converted at the rate of nearly 1,620 ha (4,000 acres) per day with tremendous economic, ecological, and social impacts. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service is sponsoring the “Forests on the Edge” project to develop a better understanding of the contributions...

Use of NASA Satellite Data to Improve Coastal Cypress Forest Management

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spurce, Joseph; Graham, William; Barras, John

2010-01-01

Problem: Information gaps exist regarding health status and location of cypress forests in coastal Louisiana (LA). Such information is needed to aid coastal forest conservation and restoration programs. Approach to Issue Mitigation: Use NASA data to revise cypress forest cover type maps. Landsat and ASTER data. Use NASA data to identify and track cypress forest change. Landsat, ASTER, and MODIS data. Work with partners and end-users to transfer useful products and technology.

Birds of Upland Oak Forests in the Arkansas Ozarks: Present Community Structure and Potential Impacts of Burning, Borers, and Forestry Practices

Treesearch

Kimberly Smith; Michael Mlodinow; Janet S. Self; Thomas M. Haggerty; Tamara R. Hocut

2004-01-01

Based on published works, our own research, and the U.S. Forest Service’s R8 Bird database, we characterize breeding bird communities in mesic and xeric upland hardwood forests of the Arkansas Ozarks. Although 59 species have been recorded as breeding, typical breeding assemblages in mesic forests are 20-25 species, with only 5 species commonly found in xeric forests....

Forest nursery pests

Treesearch

Michelle M. Cram; Michelle S. Frank; Katy M. Mallams

2012-01-01

This edition of Forest Nursery Pests, Agriculture Handbook No. 680, was made possible by the work of many people from around the country. Contributing authors include U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service and Agricultural Research Service entomologists and pathologists, university professors and researchers, State extension specialists, consultants, and plant...

75 FR 64985 - National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-10-21

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service National Urban and Community Forestry Advisory Council AGENCY: Forest Service, USDA. ACTION: Notice of meeting. SUMMARY: The National Urban and Community..., recommendations for the Secretary of Agriculture, develop the 2011 plan of work, meet with the Forest Services's...

75 FR 3193 - Information Collection; Annual Wildfire Summary Report

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-01-20

... addressed to Tim Melchert, Fire and Aviation Management, National Interagency Fire Center, Forest Service... Forest Service State and Private Forestry Cooperative Fire Program. The program provides supplemental funding for State and local fire fighting agencies. The Forest Service works cooperatively with State and...

Developing technology -- a forest health partnership

Treesearch

John W. Barry; Harold W. Thistle

1995-01-01

Since the early 1960's Missoula Technology and Development Center (MTDC) and Forest Pest Management (FPM) have worked in partnership developing technology to support forest health and silviculture. Traditionally this partnership has included cooperators from other agencies, States, foreign governments, academia, industry, and individual landowners. The FPM...

The health effects of a forest environment on subclinical cardiovascular disease and heath-related quality of life.

PubMed

Tsao, Tsung-Ming; Tsai, Ming-Jer; Wang, Ya-Nan; Lin, Heng-Lun; Wu, Chang-Fu; Hwang, Jing-Shiang; Hsu, Sandy-H J; Chao, Hsing; Chuang, Kai-Jen; Chou, Charles-C K; Su, Ta-Chen

2014-01-01

Assessment of health effects of a forest environment is an important emerging area of public health and environmental sciences. To demonstrate the long-term health effects of living in a forest environment on subclinical cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) compared with that in an urban environment. This study included the detailed health examination and questionnaire assessment of 107 forest staff members (FSM) and 114 urban staff members (USM) to investigate the long-term health effects of a forest environment. Air quality monitoring between the forest and urban environments was compared. In addition, work-related factors and HRQOL were evaluated. Levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and fasting glucose in the USM group were significantly higher than those in the FSM group. Furthermore, a significantly higher intima-media thickness of the internal carotid artery was found in the USM group compared with that in the FSM group. Concentrations of air pollutants, such as NO, NO2, NOx, SO2, CO, PM2.5, and PM10 in the forest environment were significantly lower compared with those in the outdoor urban environment. Working hours were longer in the FSM group; however, the work stress evaluation as assessed by the job content questionnaire revealed no significant differences between FSM and USM. HRQOL evaluated by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF questionnaire showed FSM had better HRQOL scores in the physical health domain. This study provides evidence of the potential beneficial effects of forest environments on CVDs and HRQOL.

Nitrogen as a factor for enhanced carbon sequestration: Results from four NitroEurope-IP forest supersites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ibrom, A.

2012-04-01

Nitrogen (N) fertilization, both intended and unintended, interacts with carbon cycling in terrestrial ecosystems, because the major processes of carbon (C) turnover depend on enzymes and thus on N availability. Comparisons between annual carbon dioxide flux (CO2) budgets and wet N deposition in forests showed a very strong linear increase of CO2 sequestration with increased N deposition. After considering total rather than only wet N deposition the ratios between increased carbon uptake and atmospheric N input were closer to C/N that can be found in wood. This suggested that the observed ecosystems responses to enhanced N inputs were mainly driven by plant responses. Finally, looking at changes in soil organic matter changes indicated even lower sensitivities of carbon sequestration to N addition. The objective of this study is to describe the mechanisms of the responses and the fate of the N in the ecosystem based on results from intensively investigated forest sites. Within the European NitroEuope-IP project the annual fluxes and pool sizes of C and N were estimated in four so-called forest supersites, including temperate coniferous forests in Southern Germany (Höglwald) and in the Netherlands (Speulderbos), one temperate beech forest close to Sorø on Zealand in Denmark and a boreal pine forest (Hyytiälä, Southern Finland). Due to differences in vegetation, bedrock and climate history, soils differed in acidity, organic matter content and biological activity; the levels of atmospheric N deposition varied from very low (Hyytiälä) to high (the other sites). Comparisons of N and C budgets of plants and soils confirmed a simple and stoichiometric effect dCuptake/dNdep = constant and in the order of magnitude of (C/N)wood for plants but not for soils and thus not for the forest ecosystems as a whole. Differences in soil processes as indicated by the differing C/N of SOM, differing amounts of N stored in the soil and considerable differences in N leaching rates even at comparable N deposition levels, showed clearly that the diversity of soils play a large role in the N use for C sequestration and thus for the beneficial effects of additional N loads on climate change mitigation effects in forests. An important conclusion of the study for intended forest fertilization is to consider N leaching to the ground water, which might even enhance the greenhouse effect through increased N2O emissions from streams, estuaries and coasts rather than mitigating it via increased CO2 sequestration at the forest site. Acknowledgements This work has been funded by the European Commission via the NitroEurope and CarboEurope integrated projects.

76 FR 29782 - Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge, Hawai‘i County, HI; Final Comprehensive Conservation...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-23

... this final CCP, we describe how we will manage this refuge for the next 15 years. ADDRESSES: You may view or obtain copies of the final CCP and FONSI by any of the following methods. You may request a... lava tubes and lava tube skylights. We announce our decision and the availability of the FONSI for the...

Role of MODIS Vegetation Phenology Products in the U.S. for Warn Early Warning System for Forest Threats

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spruce, Joseph; Hargrove, William; Norman, Steve; Gasser, Gerald; Smoot, James; Kuper, Philip

2012-01-01

U.S. forests occupy approx 751 million acres (approx 1/3 of total land). Several abiotic and biotic damage agents disturb, damage, kill, and/or threaten these forests. Regionally extensive forest disturbances can also threaten human life and property, bio-diversity and water supplies. timely regional forest disturbance monitoring products are needed to aid forest health management work at finer scales. daily MODIS data provide a means to monitor regional forest disturbances on a weekly basis, leveraging vegetation phenology. In response, the USFS and NASA began collaborating in 2006 to develop a Near Real Time (NRT) forest monitoring capability, based on MODIS NDVI data, as part of a national forest threat Early Warning System (EWS).

Experiences from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest: ecological findings and conservation initiatives.

PubMed

Joly, Carlos A; Metzger, Jean Paul; Tabarelli, Marcelo

2014-11-01

The Brazilian Atlantic Forest hosts one of the world's most diverse and threatened tropical forest biota. In many ways, its history of degradation describes the fate experienced by tropical forests around the world. After five centuries of human expansion, most Atlantic Forest landscapes are archipelagos of small forest fragments surrounded by open-habitat matrices. This 'natural laboratory' has contributed to a better understanding of the evolutionary history and ecology of tropical forests and to determining the extent to which this irreplaceable biota is susceptible to major human disturbances. We share some of the major findings with respect to the responses of tropical forests to human disturbances across multiple biological levels and spatial scales and discuss some of the conservation initiatives adopted in the past decade. First, we provide a short description of the Atlantic Forest biota and its historical degradation. Secondly, we offer conceptual models describing major shifts experienced by tree assemblages at local scales and discuss landscape ecological processes that can help to maintain this biota at larger scales. We also examine potential plant responses to climate change. Finally, we propose a research agenda to improve the conservation value of human-modified landscapes and safeguard the biological heritage of tropical forests. © 2014 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2014 New Phytologist Trust.

Tropical forests and the changing earth system.

PubMed

Lewis, Simon L

2006-01-29

Tropical forests are global epicentres of biodiversity and important modulators of the rate of climate change. Recent research on deforestation rates and ecological changes within intact forests, both areas of recent research and debate, are reviewed, and the implications for biodiversity (species loss) and climate change (via the global carbon cycle) addressed. Recent impacts have most likely been: (i) a large source of carbon to the atmosphere, and major loss of species, from deforestation and (ii) a large carbon sink within remaining intact forest, accompanied by accelerating forest dynamism and widespread biodiversity changes. Finally, I look to the future, suggesting that the current carbon sink in intact forests is unlikely to continue, and that the tropical forest biome may even become a large net source of carbon, via one or more of four plausible routes: changing photosynthesis and respiration rates, biodiversity changes in intact forest, widespread forest collapse via drought, and widespread forest collapse via fire. Each of these scenarios risks potentially dangerous positive feedbacks with the climate system that could dramatically accelerate and intensify climate change. Given that continued land-use change alone is already thought to be causing the sixth mass extinction event in Earth's history, should such feedbacks occur, the resulting biodiversity and societal consequences would be even more severe.

A strategy for nontimber forest products research and technology transfer for southern United States

Treesearch

James L. Chamberlain

2003-01-01

In mid-2001, the Southern Research Station (SRS) and the Southern Regional Office (R8) of the U.S. Forest Service worked through a 3-day facilitated discussion to develop a strategy to guide research and technology transfer on non-timber forest products (NTFPs). In all, more than 14 specialists took part in developing the strategy, representing the Forest Service...

Potentials for mutually beneficial collaboration between FIA specialists and IEG-40 pathologists and geneticists working on fusiform rust

Treesearch

Ellis Cowling; KaDonna Randolph

2013-01-01

The purpose of this article is to encourage development of an enduring mutually beneficial collaboration between data and information analysts in the US Forest Service’s "Enhanced Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program" and forest pathologists and geneticists in the information exchange group (IEG) titled "Genetics and Breeding of Southern Forest...

Crime in woods: role of law enforcement officers in national forests

Treesearch

Joanne F. Tynon; Deborah J. Chavez; Joshua W. R. Baur

2010-01-01

This first nationwide study of US Forest Service (USFS) law enforcement officers (LEOs) examined respondents’ roles in the USFS, what they perceived as their highest work priority, and what their relationship with the rest of the USFS should be. Results show that LEOs believe they have a high priority for protecting forest users and they believe that National Forest...

Raccoon ecological management area: partnership between Forest Service research and Mead Corporation

Treesearch

Daniel Yaussy; Wayne Lashbrook; Walt Smith

1997-01-01

The Chief of the Forest Service and the Chief Executive Officer of Mead Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understating (MOU) that created the Raccoon Ecological Management Area (REMA). This MOU designated nearly 17,000 acres as a special area to be co-managed by Mead and the Forest Service. The REMA is a working forest that continues to produce timber and pulpwood for...

Wartime lumber production in the Appalchian hardwood region

Treesearch

J.W. Cruikshank

1942-01-01

Through the McSweeny-McNary Act of 1928, Congress authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct a comprehensive survey of the forest resources of the United States, The Forest Survey was organized by the Forest Service to carry out the provisions of the Act, and each of the 11 Regional Forest Experiment Stations is responsible for the work in its territory. In the...

Procurement contracting in the affected counties of the Northwest Forest Plan: 12 years of change.

Treesearch

Cassandra Moseley

2006-01-01

As part of the 10-year socioeconomic monitoring of the Northwest Forest Plan, this report evaluates changes in Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) procurement contracting between 1990 and 2002 by asking, (1) How much and what kind of work did the Forest Service and BLM contract during this period, and (2) who received economic benefits from this...

Opening remarks for the Fort Valley Centennial Celebration

Treesearch

G. Sam Foster

2008-01-01

The Rocky Mountain Research Station recognizes and values the contributions of our scientists and collaborators for their work over the past century at Fort Valley Experimental Forest. With the help of our partners and collaborators, Rocky Mountain Research Station is working to improve coordination across its research Program Areas and Experimental Forests and Ranges...

Nonindustrial forest landowner research: A synthesis and new directions

Treesearch

Gregory S. Amacher; M. Christine Conway; J. Sullivan

2004-01-01

In this chapter, we review recent empirical work related to the economics of nonindustrial forest landowner behavior, discuss emerging problems involving these landowners, and suggest topics for future research. Before the late 1980s, most work in this area was aimed at identifying variables affecting reforestation or harvesting decisions. Recently, researchers have...

Working Together: California Indians and the Forest Service. Accomplishment Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Forest Service (USDA), Berkeley, CA. Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station.

This report describes accomplishments of the Forest Services's Tribal Relations Program in California, highlighting coordinated efforts with tribal governments and Native American communities throughout California's national forests. The regional office provided intensive training on federal-tribal relations to key staff throughout the region, and…

Data bases for forest inventory in the North-Central Region.

Treesearch

Jerold T. Hahn; Mark H. Hansen

1985-01-01

Describes the data collected by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Research Work Unit at the North Central Forest Experiment Station. Explains how interested parties may obtain information from the databases either through direct access or by special requests to the FIA database manager.

Developing statistical wildlife habitat relationships for assessing cumulative effects of fuels treatments: Final Report for Joint Fire Science Program Project

Treesearch

Samuel A. Cushman; Kevin S. McKelvey

2006-01-01

The primary weakness in our current ability to evaluate future landscapes in terms of wildlife lies in the lack of quantitative models linking wildlife to forest stand conditions, including fuels treatments. This project focuses on 1) developing statistical wildlife habitat relationships models (WHR) utilizing Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) and National Vegetation...

Finnish Comprehensive School Students Contemplate the Forest Fires of Indonesia 1997 from Internet and Newspaper Reports

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallin-Oittinen, Toini

2004-01-01

The topic of the assignment for eighth-grade students was reporting on the forest fires in Indonesia in chronological order, from 26 August to 27 September 1997. The final stage of the assignment was composing a report in essay format. The goal of this presentation was to examine the historical interpretation of the events and to simultaneously…

Final Environmental Assessment, Construct Guard House at Cape Cod Air Force Station, Massachusetts

DTIC Science & Technology

2004-01-01

Pine - Scrub Oak Forest Northern Pine Barren with Oak Forest... barren vegetation communities were identified on Cape Cod AFS, pitch pine – scrub oak barren and northern pine barren with oak trees. The majority of...area on the east side of the access road just north of the installation is northern pine barren with oak trees. Pitch pine and scarlet oak

36 CFR 1260.78 - What is the appeal process when an MDR request for Executive Branch information in NARA's legal...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false What is the appeal process... part? 1260.78 Section 1260.78 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS... Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD. If a final decision on the appeal is not made...

36 CFR 1260.78 - What is the appeal process when an MDR request for Executive Branch information in NARA's legal...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false What is the appeal process... part? 1260.78 Section 1260.78 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS... Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD. If a final decision on the appeal is not made...

Cadastre (forest maps) and spatial land uses planning, strategic tool for sustainable development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Drosos, Vasileios C.

2014-08-01

The rise in the living standards of the Greeks created, especially since 1970, along with other needs and the need for second or holiday home since 1990 after finding the first house on the outskirts of large urban centers. Trying to find land for the creation of new resorts or new type of permanent residences (maisonettes with or without garden, depending on the financial position of each) had the painful consequence of wasteful and uncontrolled use of land, without a program, without the fundamental rules of land planning and the final creation was usually unsightly buildings. The costs were to pay as usually the forest rural lands. The national spatial planning of land use requires that we know the existing land uses in this country, and based on that we can design and decide their land uses on the future in a rational way. On final practical level, this planning leads to mark the boundaries of specific areas of land that are permitted and may change uses. For this reason, one of the most valuable "tools" of that final marking the boundaries is also the forest maps. The paper aims the investigation to determine the modern views on the issues of Cadastre and Land Management with an ulterior view to placing the bases for creating a building plan of an immediate completion of forest maps. Sustainable development as a term denoting a policy of continued economic and social development that does not involve the destruction of the environment and natural resources, but rather guarantees their rational viability.

A baseline assessment of forest composition, structure, and health in the Hawai‘i experimental tropical forests

Treesearch

Robert R. Pattison; Andrew N. Gray; Lori Tango

2015-01-01

The US Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) Research Station has been working in the Hawaiian islands since 2010. During this time they have installed a base grid of field plots across all of the Hawaiian Islands and an intensified sample of two experimental forests, the Laupāhoehoe and Pu‘u Wa‘awa‘a units of the...

Tree-cover and topography effects on local-infrasound propagation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McKenna, S. M.; Swearingen, M.; Ketcham, S.; White, M.

2013-12-01

Infrasound can propagate very long distances and remain at measurable levels. As a result infrasound sensing is used for remote monitoring in many applications. At local ranges terrain relief is capable of scattering and blocking the propagation and assessment of the influence of the presence or absence of forests on the propagation of infrasonic signals is necessary. Because the wavelengths of interest are much larger than the scale of individual components, the forest is modeled as a porous material. This approximation is developed starting with the Relaxation model of porous materials. This representation is then incorporated into a Crank-Nicholson method parabolic equation solver to determine the relative impacts of the physical parameters of a forest (trunk size and basal area), the presence of gaps/trees in otherwise continuous forest/open terrain, and the effects of meteorology coupled with the porous layer. Finally, the simulations are compared to experimental data from a 10.9 kg blast propagated 14.5 km. Comparison to the experimental data shows that appropriate inclusion of a forest layer along the propagation path provides a closer fit to the data than solely changing the ground type across the frequency range from 1-30 Hz. Spatially discontinuous tree cover is a novel undertaking with forested volumes represented as a flow-resisting porous material. With only terrain topography but without tree cover, the model has conformity with measured signals, but addition of treecover properties does not significantly improve this conformity, though this result is consistent with theoretical expectations for the specific central Mississippi forest densities modeled. This study found that continuous tracts of forest produce some sound enhancement for frequencies below 25 Hz, and additional attenuation between 25-50 Hz. These effects are stronger for forests with higher densities of trees present and decrease as forest density decreases. At distances several kilometers, small (up to 500 m) gaps in otherwise continuous forest or stands of trees in otherwise open areas have nearly negligible impacts. However, if the area of interest is close, say within 1 km, of such a change, or within the alternative medium, then the forest properties need to be considered. The effects of meteorology cannot be ignored, and they are coupled with the porous material properties. In upwind conditions, the forest's influence on the microclimate is stronger than the influence of including only a layer, while the opposite is generally true in the downwind condition. The porous layer representation of forests does provide some value in comparisons to experimental data. Particularly at frequencies above 5 Hz, the forest layer appears to have a ducting effect that effectively brings the predicted levels closer to the experimentally measured levels than does simply providing appropriate ground conditions. The method has been shown to work well, albeit with minimal impact in the case studied, in a Finite Difference Time Domain framework as well. While the method is flexible enough to accommodate modeling the entire trees instead of only trunks, the added benefit does not elicit sufficient improvements to accuracy to merit their inclusion.

Landsat TM as a Tool for Locating Habitat for Cerulean Warblers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kellner, Chris

2000-01-01

I believe that I made significant strides in three areas between fall of 1997 and fall of 2000 when I concluded my participation in the JOVE program. First, I acquired skill in digital remote sensing. This was significant to me because it had been 20 years since I had done any work utilizing remote sensing. I used my new skills in two classroom settings (forest ecology and GIS). In addition, I will participate as an instructor of digital remote sensing in a workshop for secondary educators this coming spring. Second, I received funding from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and the U.S. Forest Service to supplement JOVE funds. Third, and most importantly, a students and I developed a technique using LandSAT TM for identifying habitat for cerulean warblers. We developed a habitat model using logistic regression to discriminate between pixels that had a high probability of representing good cerulean warbler habitat and pixels that had a low probability of representing cerulean warbler habitat. Using this model, we located five significant populations of cerulean warblers in the Ozark National Forest of Arkansas. These populations were unknown before the initiation of this research and further represent a significant proportion of the known cerulean warblers in Arkansas. Preliminary findings were presented at the Ornithological Societies of America meeting in August of 1999. I also presented findings at the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Research Symposium held in June of 2000. Finally, one paper is in press: James, D. A., C.J. Kellner, J. Self, and J. Davis., 'Breeding season distribution of cerulean warblers in Arkansas in the 1990's'. In addition, one paper is under construction: 'Population fluctuation and habitat selection by cerulean warblers in upland forests of Arkansas,' and one paper is under consideration: 'LandSAT TM and Logistic regression for identification of cerulean warbler habitat in upland forests of Arkansas.'

Final Technical Report: The effects of climate, forest age, and disturbance history on carbon and water processes at AmeriFlux sites across gradients in Pacific Northwest forests

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Law, Beverly E.

Investigate the effects of disturbance and climate variables on processes controlling carbon and water processes at AmeriFlux cluster sites in semi-arid and mesic forests in Oregon. The observations were made at three existing and productive AmeriFlux research sites that represent climate and disturbance gradients as a natural experiment of the influence of climatic and hydrologic variability on carbon sequestration and resulting atmospheric CO 2 feedback that includes anomalies during the warm/ dry phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation.

Forest inventory: Peter T. Johnson Wildlife Mitigation Unit, Craig Mountain, Idaho. Final Report.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Narolski, Steven W.

The primary objective of this report is to determine the quantity and quality of existing forest habitat types on the 59,991-acre Peter T. Johnson Wildlife Mitigation Unit (WMU). Products from this effort include a description of the ecological condition, a map of habitat types, and an inventory of forest resources on the WMU lands. The purpose of this and other resource inventories (plant and wildlife) is to assess the current resources condition of the WMU and to provide necessary information to generate a long-term management for this area.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Richard F. Daniels; Alexander Clark III

The forest industry will increasingly rely on fast-growing intensively managed southern pine plantations to furnish wood and fiber. Intensive silvicultural practices, including competition control, stand density control, fertilization, and genetic improvement are yielding tremendous gains in the quantity of wood production from commercial forest land. How these technologies affect wood properties was heretofore unknown, although there is concern about the suitability of fast-grown wood for traditional forest products. A four year study was undertaken to examine the effects of these intensive practices on the properties of loblolly and slash pine wood by applying a common sampling method over 10 existingmore » field experiments. Early weed control gets young pines off to a rapid start, often with dramatically increased growth rates. This response is all in juvenile wood however, which is low in density and strength. Similar results are found with early Nitrogen fertilization at the time of planting. These treatments increase the proportion of juvenile wood in the tree. Later, mid-rotation fertilization with Nitrogen and Phosphorus can have long term (4-8 year) growth gains. Slight reductions in wood density are short-lived (1-2 years) and occur while the tree is producing dense, stiff mature wood. Impacts of mid-rotation fertilization on wood properties for manufacturing are estimated to be minimal. Genetic differences are evident in wood density and other properties. Single family plantings showed somewhat more uniform properties than bulk improved or unimproved seedlots. Selection of genetic sources with optimal wood properties may counter some of the negative impacts of intensive weed control and fertilization. This work will allow forest managers to better predict the effects of their practices on the quality of their final product.« less

N : P stoichiometry in a forested runoff during storm events: comparisons with regions and vegetation types.

PubMed

Guo, Lanlan; Chen, Yi; Zhang, Zhao; Fukushima, Takehiko

2012-01-01

Nitrogen and phosphorus are considered the most important limiting elements in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. however, very few studies have focused on which is from forested streams, a bridge between these two systems. To fill this gap, we examined the concentrations of dissolved N and P in storm waters from forested watersheds of five regions in Japan, to characterize nutrient limitation and its potential controlling factors. First, dissolved N and P concentrations and the N : P ratio on forested streams were higher during storm events relative to baseflow conditions. Second, significantly higher dissolved inorganic N concentrations were found in storm waters from evergreen coniferous forest streams than those from deciduous broadleaf forest streams in Aichi, Kochi, Mie, Nagano, and with the exception of Tokyo. Finally, almost all the N : P ratios in the storm water were generally higher than 34, implying that the storm water should be P-limited, especially for Tokyo.

N : P Stoichiometry in a Forested Runoff during Storm Events: Comparisons with Regions and Vegetation Types

PubMed Central

Guo, Lanlan; Chen, Yi; Zhang, Zhao; Fukushima, Takehiko

2012-01-01

Nitrogen and phosphorus are considered the most important limiting elements in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. however, very few studies have focused on which is from forested streams, a bridge between these two systems. To fill this gap, we examined the concentrations of dissolved N and P in storm waters from forested watersheds of five regions in Japan, to characterize nutrient limitation and its potential controlling factors. First, dissolved N and P concentrations and the N : P ratio on forested streams were higher during storm events relative to baseflow conditions. Second, significantly higher dissolved inorganic N concentrations were found in storm waters from evergreen coniferous forest streams than those from deciduous broadleaf forest streams in Aichi, Kochi, Mie, Nagano, and with the exception of Tokyo. Finally, almost all the N : P ratios in the storm water were generally higher than 34, implying that the storm water should be P-limited, especially for Tokyo. PMID:22547978

A primer on stand and forest inventory designs

Treesearch

H. Gyde Lund; Charles E. Thomas

1989-01-01

Covers designs for the inventory of stands and forests in detail and with worked-out examples. For stands, random sampling, line transects, ricochet plot, systematic sampling, single plot, cluster, subjective sampling and complete enumeration are discussed. For forests inventory, the main categories are subjective sampling, inventories without prior stand mapping,...

Characterizing the community of Phytophthora species in an Oregon forest stream

Treesearch

Philippe Remigi; Wendy Sutton; Paul Reeser; Everett Hansen

2009-01-01

Phytophthora species are best known as pathogens of agricultural crops, or invasive pathogens destroying forests. Little is known about indigenous species, especially in wild ecosystems. Previous work showed that Phytophthora species are relatively abundant in natural streams in forests, but the species present are poorly...

Branching Out: Forest Studies with Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Argast, Susan; Macdonald, Cheryl

1996-01-01

Describes activities which sharpen awareness of trees through the senses in this first of a two-part integrated unit for teaching children about forest ecosystems. Students interact and work in collaborative groups; learn about the impact of forests on daily life; explore the interdependence of plants, animals, soil, water, air, and light; explore…

[Estimation of forest canopy chlorophyll content based on PROSPECT and SAIL models].

PubMed

Yang, Xi-guang; Fan, Wen-yi; Yu, Ying

2010-11-01

The forest canopy chlorophyll content directly reflects the health and stress of forest. The accurate estimation of the forest canopy chlorophyll content is a significant foundation for researching forest ecosystem cycle models. In the present paper, the inversion of the forest canopy chlorophyll content was based on PROSPECT and SAIL models from the physical mechanism angle. First, leaf spectrum and canopy spectrum were simulated by PROSPECT and SAIL models respectively. And leaf chlorophyll content look-up-table was established for leaf chlorophyll content retrieval. Then leaf chlorophyll content was converted into canopy chlorophyll content by Leaf Area Index (LAD). Finally, canopy chlorophyll content was estimated from Hyperion image. The results indicated that the main effect bands of chlorophyll content were 400-900 nm, the simulation of leaf and canopy spectrum by PROSPECT and SAIL models fit better with the measured spectrum with 7.06% and 16.49% relative error respectively, the RMSE of LAI inversion was 0. 542 6 and the forest canopy chlorophyll content was estimated better by PROSPECT and SAIL models with precision = 77.02%.

Global forest cover mapping for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization forest resources assessment 2000 program

USGS Publications Warehouse

Zhu, Z.; Waller, E.

2003-01-01

Many countries periodically produce national reports on the status and changes of forest resources, using statistical surveys and spatial mapping of remotely sensed data. At the global level, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has conducted a Forest Resources Assessment (FRA) program every 10 yr since 1980, producing statistics and analysis that give a global synopsis of forest resources in the world. For the year 2000 of the FRA program (FRA2000), a global forest cover map was produced to provide spatial context to the extensive survey. The forest cover map, produced at the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) EROS Data Center (EDC), has five classes: closed forest, open or fragmented forest, other wooded land, other land cover, and water. The first two forested classes at the global scale were delineated using combinations of temporal compositing, modified mixture analysis, geographic stratification, and other classification techniques. The remaining three FAO classes were derived primarily from the USGS global land cover characteristics database (Loveland et al. 1999). Validated on the basis of existing reference data sets, the map is estimated to be 77% accurate for the first four classes (no reference data were available for water), and 86% accurate for the forest and nonforest classification. The final map will be published as an insert to the FAO FRA2000 report.

Bringing Together Users and Developers of Forest Biomass Maps

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, Molly Elizabeth; Macauley, Molly K.

2012-01-01

Forests store carbon and thus represent important sinks for atmospheric carbon dioxide. Reducing uncertainty in current estimates of the amount of carbon in standing forests will improve precision of estimates of anthropogenic contributions to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere due to deforestation. Although satellite remote sensing has long been an important tool for mapping land cover, until recently aboveground forest biomass estimates have relied mostly on systematic ground sampling of forests. In alignment with fiscal year 2010 congressional direction, NASA has initiated work toward a carbon monitoring system (CMS) that includes both maps of forest biomass and total carbon flux estimates. A goal of the project is to ensure that the products are useful to a wide community of scientists, managers, and policy makers, as well as to carbon cycle scientists. Understanding the needs and requirements of these data users is helpful not just to the NASA CMS program but also to the entire community working on carbon-related activities. To that end, this meeting brought together a small group of natural resource managers and policy makers who use information on forests in their work with NASA scientists who are working to create aboveground forest biomass maps. These maps, derived from combining remote sensing and ground plots, aim to be more accurate than current inventory approaches when applied at local and regional scales. Meeting participants agreed that users of biomass information will look to the CMS effort not only to provide basic data for carbon or biomass measurements but also to provide data to help serve a broad range of goals, such as forest watershed management for water quality, habitat management for biodiversity and ecosystem services, and potential use for developing payments for ecosystem service projects. Participants also reminded the CMS group that potential users include not only public sector agencies and nongovernmental organizations but also the private sector because much forest acreage in the United States is privately held and needs data for forest management. Additional key outcomes identified by meeting participants include the following: (1) Priority should be given to building into the biomass product ease of use and low costs (including costs of hardware, software, and analysis requirements), (2) CMS products should also be relevant to other biomass measures for forest watershed management, habitat protection for biodiversity, and assessment of markets for ecosystem services, (3) CMS leadership should engage with the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change as they establish measuring, reporting, and verification standards, and (4) CMS leadership should continue to keep sister agencies and other organizations informed as CMS develops, particularly via the agencies active in the U.S. Global Change Research Program Carbon Cycle Interagency Working Group (U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and nongovernmental organizations.

Incidence and impact of damage to North Carolina's timber, 1984

Treesearch

Cindy M. Huber; Joe P. McClure; Noel D. Cost

1985-01-01

This bulletin reports survey data on agents damaging trees in North Carolina’s forests. Data were collected in 1982, 1983, and 1984 by the Forest Inventory and Analysis Work Unit of the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station. This effort was part of the fifth inventory of the State’s forests. Considerably more information was gathered for this inventory than in the...

Protecting forests across landscapes and through generations: the Sonoma County Forest Conservation Working Group

Treesearch

Frederick D. Euphrat; Steven Swain; Dee Swanhuyser; Dee Butler; Amy Chesnut; Kim Batchelder; Caerleon Safford; Earle Cummungs

2012-01-01

There are approximately 513,000 acres of coniferous forests and oak woodlands in Sonoma County, California, situated about 50 miles north of San Francisco. Most of the oak woodland, and over 68 percent (132,000 acres) of the coniferous forestland, is in private ownerships of 50 acres and less. These forests are unique, with 10 species of true oak and 19 species of...

Wildfire management policies in Algeria: present and future needs

Treesearch

Ouahiba Meddour-Sahar; Armando González-Cabán; Rachid Meddour; Arezki Derridj

2013-01-01

Algerian forest lands cover 4,115,908 hectares (ha), of which 2,413,090 (58%) ha are bush or maquis. Recent work has shown that forest fires are the main factor explaining (90%) degradation of Algeria forest lands at an annual rate of 45,000 to 50,000 ha. From 1985 to 2010 in 40 provinces of northern Algeria, 42,555 forest fires have burned a total...

Long-term longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) plantation studies on the palustris experimental forest: growing timber to provide habitat

Treesearch

J.C.G. Goelz; J.P. Barnett

2006-01-01

In 1935 the 7,500 acre palustris experimental forest was ordained by Congress to provide an area for conducting forestry research. However, work was already underway to establish research studies before the area was officially designated as an experimental forest within the boundaries of the Kistachie National Forest. At the time, much of the region consisted of...

Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis of ecosystem response to industrial pollution in the Niepolomice Forest in southern Poland

Treesearch

January Weiner; Stefan Fredo-Boniecki; David Reed; Ann Maclean; Marshall Strong; Michael Hyslop

1998-01-01

The Niepolomice Forest is located near the city of Krakow in southern Poland. Since the erection of large iron works in the 1950's, the forest has suffered from heavy pollution with SO2 and industrial dusts containing heavy metals. During the past 10 years, the ecology of the Niepolomice Forest has been intensively studied and the impact of...

Effects of historic forest disturbance on water quality and flow in the Interior Western U.S

Treesearch

M. Matyjasik; G. Moisen; C. Combe; T. Hathcock; S. Mitts; M. Hernandez; T. Frescino; T. Schroeder

2014-01-01

Water quality and flow is affected my many complex factors in the Interior Western U.S. While many studies focus on individual water parameters response to a limited number of changing conditions, little work looks at long term effects of diverse forest disturbances on a broader array of water quality and flow metrics. The U.S. Forest Service Forest Inventory and...

Financial rates of return on thinned and unthinned stands, using large-scale forest inventory data in Mississippi and Arkansas, 1977 to 1995

Treesearch

Andrew J. Hartsell

2010-01-01

Providing landowners and natural resource managers information on financial rates of return (ROR) plays a vital role in providing and promoting forest management. I combined Timber Mart-South stumpage price data with forest inventory data spanning 17 years from the Southern Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis work unit for the States of Arkansas and...

Area and percent of forest affected by biotic agents beyond reference conditions

Treesearch

Jeffrey A. Mai

2012-01-01

Criterion 3, Indicator 15, of the Montréal Process identifies the impact that biotic processes and agents have on forests (Montréal Process Working Group 2007). Where change due to these agents and processes occurs beyond a critical threshold, forest ecosystem health and vitality may be significantly altered and a forest’s ability to recover could be reduced or lost....

Interpreting forest and grassland biome productivity utilizing nested scales of image resolution and biogeographical analysis

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iverson, Louis R.; Cook, Elizabeth A.; Graham, Robin L.; Olson, Jerry S.; Frank, Thomas; Ke, Ying; Treworgy, Colin; Risser, Paul G.

1987-01-01

This report summarizes progress made in our investigation of forest productivity assessment using TM and other biogeographical data during the third six-month period of the grant. Data acquisition and methodology hurdles are largely complete. Four study areas for which the appropriate TM and ancillary data were available are currently being intensively analyzed. Significant relationships have been found on a site by site basis to suggest that forest productivity can be qualitatively assessed using TM band values and site characteristics. Perhaps the most promising results relate TM unsupervised classes to forest productivity, with enhancement from elevation data. During the final phases of the research, multi-temporal and regional comparisons of results will be addressed, as well as the predictability of forest productivity patterns over a large region using TM data and/or TM nested within AVHRR data.

Application of a CO2 dial system for infrared detection of forest fire and reduction of false alarm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bellecci, C.; Francucci, M.; Gaudio, P.; Gelfusa, M.; Martellucci, S.; Richetta, M.; Lo Feudo, T.

2007-04-01

Forest fires can be the cause of serious environmental and economic damages. For this reason considerable effort has been directed toward forest protection and fire fighting. The means traditionally used for early fire detection mainly consist in human observers dispersed over forest regions. A significant improvement in early warning capabilities could be obtained by using automatic detection apparatus. In order to early detect small forest fires and minimize false alarms, the use of a lidar system and dial technique will be considered. A first evaluation of the lowest detectable concentration will be estimated by numerical simulation. The theoretical model will also be used to get the capability of the dial system to control wooded areas. Fixing the burning rate for several fuels, the maximum range of detection will be evaluated. Finally results of simulations will be reported.

Estimation of Forest Biomass Based on Muliti-Source Remote Sensing Data Set - a Case Study of Shangri-La County

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Feng, Wanwan; Wang, Leiguang; Xie, Junfeng; Yue, Cairong; Zheng, Yalan; Yu, Longhua

2018-04-01

Forest biomass is an important indicator for the structure and function of forest ecosystems, and an accurate assessment of forest biomass is crucial for understanding ecosystem changes. Remote sensing has been widely used for inversion of biomass. However, in mature or over-mature forest areas, spectral saturation is prone to occur. Based on existing research, this paper synthesizes domestic high resolution satellites, ZY3-01 satellites, and GLAS14-level data from space-borne Lidar system, and other data set. Extracting texture and elevation features respectively, for the inversion of forest biomass. This experiment takes Shangri-La as the research area. Firstly, the biomass in the laser spot was calculated based on GLAS data and other auxiliary data, DEM, the second type inventory of forest resources data and the Shangri-La vector boundary data. Then, the regression model was established, that is, the relationship between the texture factors of ZY3-01 and biomass in the laser spot. Finally, by using this model and the forest distribution map in Shangri-La, the biomass of the whole area is obtained, which is 1.3972 × 108t.

Forest transition in Vietnam and displacement of deforestation abroad

PubMed Central

Meyfroidt, Patrick; Lambin, Eric F.

2009-01-01

In some countries across the globe, tropical forest cover is increasing. The national-scale reforestation of Vietnam since 1992 is assumed to contribute to this recovery. It is achieved, however, by the displacement of forest extraction to other countries on the order of 49 (34–70) M m3, or ≈39% of the regrowth of Vietnam's forests from 1987 to 2006. Approximately half of wood imports to Vietnam during this period were illegal. Leakage due to policies restricting forest exploitation and displacement due to growing domestic consumption and exports contributed respectively to an estimated 58% and 42% of total displacement. Exports of wood products from Vietnam also grew rapidly, amounting to 84% of the displacement, which is a remarkable feature of the forest transition in Vietnam. Attribution of the displacement and corresponding forest extraction to Vietnam, the source countries or the final consumers is thus debatable. Sixty-one percent of the regrowth in Vietnam was, thus, not associated with displacement abroad. Policies allocating credits to countries for reducing deforestation and forest degradation should monitor illegal timber trade and take into account the policy-induced leakage of wood extraction to other countries. PMID:19805270

Forest transition in Vietnam and displacement of deforestation abroad.

PubMed

Meyfroidt, Patrick; Lambin, Eric F

2009-09-22

In some countries across the globe, tropical forest cover is increasing. The national-scale reforestation of Vietnam since 1992 is assumed to contribute to this recovery. It is achieved, however, by the displacement of forest extraction to other countries on the order of 49 (34-70) M m(3), or approximately 39% of the regrowth of Vietnam's forests from 1987 to 2006. Approximately half of wood imports to Vietnam during this period were illegal. Leakage due to policies restricting forest exploitation and displacement due to growing domestic consumption and exports contributed respectively to an estimated 58% and 42% of total displacement. Exports of wood products from Vietnam also grew rapidly, amounting to 84% of the displacement, which is a remarkable feature of the forest transition in Vietnam. Attribution of the displacement and corresponding forest extraction to Vietnam, the source countries or the final consumers is thus debatable. Sixty-one percent of the regrowth in Vietnam was, thus, not associated with displacement abroad. Policies allocating credits to countries for reducing deforestation and forest degradation should monitor illegal timber trade and take into account the policy-induced leakage of wood extraction to other countries.

36 CFR 1254.104 - How does NARA determine fees to prepare documents for microfilming?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... benefits) and supply costs when we perform the work. When a NARA contractor performs the work, the fees are... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false How does NARA determine fees to prepare documents for microfilming? 1254.104 Section 1254.104 Parks, Forests, and Public Property...

FireWorks curriculum featuring ponderosa, lodgepole, and whitebark pine forests

Treesearch

Jane Kapler Smith; Nancy E. McMurray

2000-01-01

FireWorks is an educational program for students in grades 1-10. The program consists of the curriculum in this report and a trunk of laboratory materials, specimens, and reference materials. It provides interactive, hands-on activities for studying fire ecology, fire behavior, and the influences of people on three fire-dependent forest types - Pinus ponderosa...

Opening remarks for the Fort Valley Centennial Celebration (P-53)

Treesearch

G. Sam Foster

2008-01-01

The Rocky Mountain Research Station recognizes and values the contributions of our scientists and collaborators for their work over the past century at Fort Valley Experimental Forest. With the help of our partners and collaborators, Rocky Mountain Research Station is working to improve coordination across its research Program Areas and Experimental Forests and Ranges...

Individual tree detection in intact forest and degraded forest areas in the north region of Mato Grosso State, Brazilian Amazon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Santos, E. G.; Jorge, A.; Shimabukuro, Y. E.; Gasparini, K.

2017-12-01

The State of Mato Grosso - MT has the second largest area with degraded forest among the states of the Brazilian Legal Amazon. Land use and land cover change processes that occur in this region cause the loss of forest biomass, releasing greenhouse gases that contribute to the increase of temperature on earth. These degraded forest areas lose biomass according to the intensity and magnitude of the degradation type. The estimate of forest biomass, commonly performed by forest inventory through sample plots, shows high variance in degraded forest areas. Due to this variance and complexity of tropical forests, the aim of this work was to estimate forest biomass using LiDAR point clouds in three distinct forest areas: one degraded by fire, another by selective logging and one area of intact forest. The approach applied in these areas was the Individual Tree Detection (ITD). To isolate the trees, we generated Canopy Height Models (CHM) images, which are obtained by subtracting the Digital Elevation Model (MDE) and the Digital Terrain Model (MDT), created by the cloud of LiDAR points. The trees in the CHM images are isolated by an algorithm provided by the Quantitative Ecology research group at the School of Forestry at Northern Arizona University (SILVA, 2015). With these points, metrics were calculated for some areas, which were used in the model of biomass estimation. The methodology used in this work was expected to reduce the error in biomass estimate in the study area. The cloud points of the most representative trees were analyzed, and thus field data was correlated with the individual trees found by the proposed algorithm. In a pilot study, the proposed methodology was applied generating the individual tree metrics: total height and area of the crown. When correlating 339 isolated trees, an unsatisfactory R² was obtained, as heights found by the algorithm were lower than those obtained in the field, with an average difference of 2.43 m. This shows that the algorithm used to isolate trees in temperate areas did not obtained satisfactory results in the tropical forest of Mato Grosso State. Due to this, in future works two algorithms, one developed by Dalponte et al. (2015) and another by Li et al. (2012) will be used.

The Health Effects of a Forest Environment on Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease and Heath-Related Quality of Life

PubMed Central

Tsao, Tsung-Ming; Wang, Ya-Nan; Lin, Heng-Lun; Wu, Chang-Fu; Hwang, Jing-Shiang; Hsu, Sandy-H.J.; Chao, Hsing; Chuang, Kai-Jen; Chou, Charles- CK.

2014-01-01

Background Assessment of health effects of a forest environment is an important emerging area of public health and environmental sciences. Purpose To demonstrate the long-term health effects of living in a forest environment on subclinical cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) compared with that in an urban environment. Materials and Methods This study included the detailed health examination and questionnaire assessment of 107 forest staff members (FSM) and 114 urban staff members (USM) to investigate the long-term health effects of a forest environment. Air quality monitoring between the forest and urban environments was compared. In addition, work-related factors and HRQOL were evaluated. Results Levels of total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and fasting glucose in the USM group were significantly higher than those in the FSM group. Furthermore, a significantly higher intima-media thickness of the internal carotid artery was found in the USM group compared with that in the FSM group. Concentrations of air pollutants, such as NO, NO2, NOx, SO2, CO, PM2.5, and PM10 in the forest environment were significantly lower compared with those in the outdoor urban environment. Working hours were longer in the FSM group; however, the work stress evaluation as assessed by the job content questionnaire revealed no significant differences between FSM and USM. HRQOL evaluated by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF questionnaire showed FSM had better HRQOL scores in the physical health domain. Conclusions This study provides evidence of the potential beneficial effects of forest environments on CVDs and HRQOL. PMID:25068265

Secondary Forest as a counterbalance on the deforestation effects: its role on evapotranspiration and water use efficiency

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Von Randow, Rita C. S.; Tomasella, Javier; Von Randow, Celso; Araujo, Alessandro C.; Manzi, Antonio O.

2017-04-01

Since the 70's, the Amazon basin is under constant pressure first because of agricultural expansion, and recently also because of resources extraction. The conversion of pristine forest to other types of land cover as pasture and agriculture, affects the local water balance diminishing the evapotranspiration and increasing the discharge. Those changes can buffer the climate change effects and vice-versa. On the other hand, secondary forest growth resulting from abandoned deforested areas presents higher evaporative fraction (Giambelluca, 2002), leading to higher evapotranspiration rates than pristine forests, what can compensate the effects of deforestation on energy and water balances. In this work we will show four years of eddy flux measurements of a pristine forest and of a secondary growth about 20 years old, located in Central Amazonia, comparing the evapotranspiration and water use efficiency of both sites. The innovative aspect of the present work is the measurement of fluxes above a secondary growth forest in a relatively advanced stage. The measurements of eddy covariance are in accordance with the increase of evaporative fraction with the age of secondary forest presented by Giambelluca (2002). The yearly evaporative fraction (ratio of energy used for evapotranspiration to net radiation) on the primary forest was 0.74-0.81, while in the secondary forest it was 0.85-0.87. On the other hand, secondary forest shows a water use efficiency of 1.9 g C kg-1 H2O, while the pristine forest gives 2.9 g C kg-1 H2O.

Extrapolating carbon dynamics of tropical dry forests into future climates: improving simulation models with empirical observations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Medvigy, David; Waring, Bonnie; Vargas, German; Xu, Xiangtao; Smith, Christina; Becknell, Justin; Trierweiler, Annette; Brodribb, Timothy; Powers, Jennifer

2017-04-01

Tropical dry forests occur in areas with warm temperatures and a pronounced dry season with little to no rainfall that lasts 3 to 7 months. The potential area covered by this biome is vast: globally, 47% of all forest occurs in tropical and subtropical latitudes, and of all tropical forests approximately 42% are classified as dry forests. Throughout the last several centuries, the area covered by tropical dry forests has been dramatically reduced through conversion to grazing and croplands, and they are now considered the most threatened tropical biome. However, in many regions, tropical dry forests are now growing back. There is growing concern that this recovery process will be strongly impacted by climate variability and change. Observations show that climate is changing in the seasonal tropics, and climate models forecast that neotropical dry forests will receive significantly less rainfall in the 21st century than in the 20th century. Rates of nitrogen deposition are also changing rapidly in this sector, and the fertility of some soils may still be recovering from past land use. We are engaged in several efforts to understand how water and nutrients limit the productivity of these forests, including manipulative experiments, modeling, and investigation of responses to natural climate variability. In 2015, at a well-characterized site in Guanacaste, Costa Rica, we established a full-factorial fertilization experiment with N and P in diverse mature forest stands. Initial responses highlight stronger ecosystem sensitivity to P addition than to N addition. Intriguingly, pre-experiment numerical simulations with a mechanistic ecosystem model had indicated the reverse. Work is ongoing to use field observations to better represent critical processes in the model, and ultimately to improve the model's sensitivity to nutrients and water. In addition, in 2016, we established a full factorial nutrient addition and drought experiment in plantations. Thus far, soil moisture has been successfully reduced in the drought treatments. Finally, we are investigating the impact of an extreme climatic event, the 2015 drought, on the productivity of this forest. The fingerprint of the drought on tree mortality is very strong. We found that plot-level mortality rates were two to three times higher during the drought than before the drought, and varied from 0 to >50% among species. In contrast to observations at moist tropical forests, tree size had little influence on mortality. In terms of functional groups, mortality rates of evergreen oaks growing on nutrient-poor soils particularly increased during drought. However, elevated mortality rates were not clearly correlated with commonly-measured traits like wood density or specific leaf area. In addition, trees that died during the drought tended to have smaller relative growth rate prior to the drought than trees that survived the drought. Mechanistic models are able to simulate stand-level mortality following the drought, and model-data comparison highlights different tree hydraulic strategies that can mitigate drought effects.

An eco-efficient and economical optimum evaluation technique for the forest road networks: the case of the mountainous forest of Metsovo, Greece.

PubMed

Tampekis, Stergios; Samara, Fani; Sakellariou, Stavros; Sfougaris, Athanassios; Christopoulou, Olga

2018-02-12

The sustainable forest management can be achieved only through environmentally sound and economically efficient and feasible forest road networks and transportation systems that can potentially improve the multi-functional use of forest resources. However, road network planning and construction suggest long-term finance that require a capital investment (cash outflow), which would be equal to the value of the total revenue flow (cash inflow) over the whole lifecycle project. This paper emphasizes in an eco-efficient and economical optimum evaluation method for the forest road networks in the mountainous forest of Metsovo, Greece. More specifically, with the use of this technique, we evaluated the forest roads' (a) total construction costs, (b) annual maintenance cost, and (c) log skidding cost. In addition, we estimated the total economic value of forest goods and services that are lost from the forest roads' construction. Finally, we assessed the optimum eco-efficient and economical forest roads densities based on linear equations that stem from the internal rate of return method (IRR) and have been presented graphically. Data analysis and its presentation are achieved with the contribution of geographic information systems (GIS). The technique which is described in this study can be for the decision makers an attractive and useful implement in order to select the most eco-friendly and economical optimum solution to plan forest road network or to evaluate the existing forest transportation systems. Hence, with the use of this method, we can combine not only the multi-objective utilization of natural resources but also the environmental protection of forest ecosystems.

36 CFR § 1260.78 - What is the appeal process when an MDR request for Executive Branch information in NARA's legal...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2013-07-01 2012-07-01 true What is the appeal process... part? § 1260.78 Section § 1260.78 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS... Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD. If a final decision on the appeal is not made...

Final Program Report for 2010-2012: Monitoring and evaluation for conserving biological resources of the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area

Treesearch

Stephen J. Solem; Burton K. Pendleton; Casey Giffen; Marc Coles-Ritchie; Jeri Ledbetter; Kevin S. McKelvey; Joy Berg; Jim Menlove; Carly K. Woodlief; Luke A. Boehnke

2013-01-01

The Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (SMNRA) includes approximately 316,000 acres of National Forest System (NFS) lands managed by the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Clark and Nye Counties, Nevada (see fig. 1-1). The Spring Mountains have long been recognized as an island of endemism, harboring flora and fauna found nowhere else in the world. Conservation...

A national analytical quality assurance program: Developing guidelines and analytical tools for the forest inventory and analysis program

Treesearch

Phyllis C. Adams; Glenn A. Christensen

2012-01-01

A rigorous quality assurance (QA) process assures that the data and information provided by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program meet the highest possible standards of precision, completeness, representativeness, comparability, and accuracy. FIA relies on its analysts to check the final data quality prior to release of a State’s data to the national FIA...

Allocation strategies of savanna and forest tree seedlings in response to fire and shading: outcomes of a field experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gignoux, Jacques; Konaté, Souleymane; Lahoreau, Gaëlle; Le Roux, Xavier; Simioni, Guillaume

2016-12-01

The forest-savanna ecotone may be very sharp in fire-prone areas. Fire and competition for light play key roles in its maintenance, as forest and savanna tree seedlings are quickly excluded from the other ecosystem. We hypothesized a tradeoff between seedling traits linked to fire resistance and to competition for light to explain these exclusions. We compared growth- and survival-related traits of two savanna and two forest species in response to shading and fire in a field experiment. To interpret the results, we decomposed our broad hypothesis into elementary tradeoffs linked to three constraints, biomass allocation, plant architecture, and shade tolerance, that characterize both savanna and adjacent forest ecosystems. All seedlings reached similar biomasses, but forest seedlings grew taller. Savanna seedlings better survived fire after topkill and required ten times less biomass than forest seedlings to survive. Finally, only savanna seedlings responded to shading. Although results were consistent with the classification of our species as mostly adapted to shade tolerance, competition for light in the open, and fire tolerance, they raised new questions: how could savanna seedlings survive better with a 10-times lower biomass than forest seedlings? Is their shade intolerance sufficient to exclude them from forest understory?

Ecological responses to el Niño-induced surface fires in central Brazilian Amazonia: management implications for flammable tropical forests.

PubMed Central

Barlow, Jos; Peres, Carlos A

2004-01-01

Over the past 20 years the combined effects of El Niño-induced droughts and land-use change have dramatically increased the frequency of fire in humid tropical forests. Despite the potential for rapid ecosystem alteration and the current prevalence of wildfire disturbance, the consequences of such fires for tropical forest biodiversity remain poorly understood. We provide a pan-tropical review of the current state of knowledge of these fires, and include data from a study in a seasonally dry terra firme forest of central Brazilian Amazonia. Overall, this study supports predictions that rates of tree mortality and changes in forest structure are strongly linked to burn severity. The potential consequences for biomass loss and carbon emissions are explored. Despite the paucity of data on faunal responses to tropical forest fires, some trends are becoming apparent; for example, large canopy frugivores and understorey insectivorous birds appear to be highly sensitive to changes in forest structure and composition during the first 3 years after fires. Finally, we appraise the management implications of fires and evaluate the viability of techniques and legislation that can be used to reduce forest flammability, prevent anthropogenic ignition sources from coming into contact with flammable forests and aid the post-fire recovery process. PMID:15212091

75 FR 68355 - Environmental Impacts Statements; Notice of Availability

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-11-05

... District Olympic National Forest, Olympic National Park, Jefferson County, WA, Wait Period Ends: 12/06/2010...: Lynne Urquhart 334-274-6371. EIS No. 20100431, Final EIS, USFS, WA, Dosewallips Road Washout Project, To...: 12/20/2010, Contact: Amy Henry 865-632-4045. EIS No. 20100433, Final EIS, USFS, CA, Plumas National...

Patterns in foliar nutrient resorption stoichiometry at multiple scales: controlling factors and ecosystem consequences (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reed, S.; Cleveland, C. C.; Davidson, E. A.; Townsend, A. R.

2013-12-01

During leaf senescence, nutrient rich compounds are transported to other parts of the plant and this 'resorption' recycles nutrients for future growth, reducing losses of potentially limiting nutrients. Variations in leaf chemistry resulting from nutrient resorption also directly affect litter quality, in turn, regulating decomposition rates and soil nutrient availability. Here we investigated stoichiometric patterns of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) resorption efficiency at multiple spatial scales. First, we assembled a global database to explore nutrient resorption among and within biomes and to examine potential relationships between resorption stoichiometry and ecosystem nutrient status. Next, we used a forest regeneration chronosequence in Brazil to assess how resorption stoichiometry linked with a suite of other nutrient cycling measures and with ideas of how nutrient limitation may change over secondary forest regrowth. Finally, we measured N:P resorption ratios of six canopy tree species in a Costa Rican tropical forest. We calculated species-specific resorption ratios and compared them with patterns in leaf litter and topsoil nutrient concentrations. At the global scale, N:P resorption ratios increased with latitude and decreased with mean annual temperature (MAT) and precipitation (MAP; P<0.001 for each). In particular, we observed a notable switch across latitudes: N:P resorption ratios were generally <1 in latitudes <23° and >1 in latitudes >23°. Focusing on tropical sites in our global dataset we found that, despite fewer data and a restricted latitudinal range, a significant relationship between latitude and N:P resorption ratios persisted (P<0.001). In contrast, tropical N:P resorption ratios did not vary with MAT (P=0.965) and the relationship with MAP was only marginally significant (P=0.089). Data suggest that soil type, at least in part, helps explain N:P resorption patterns across tropical latitudes: plants on more weathered soils (Oxisols and Ultisols) resorbed much more P relative to N and weathered soils were proportionally more abundant at the lowest latitudes. In our assessment of nutrient resorption along an Amazon Basin chronosequence of regenerating forests, where previous work reported a transition from apparent N limitation in younger forests to P limitation in mature forests, we found N resorption was highest in the youngest forest, whereas P resorption was greatest in the mature forest. Over the course of succession, N resorption efficiency leveled off but P resorption continued to increase with forest age. In Costa Rica, though we found species-specific patterns in resorption, data support the idea that lowland tropical forest plants on highly weathered soils resorb more P relative to N. Together, these data highlight how stoichiometric perspectives can help distill the complexity of coupled biogeochemical cycles and suggest that nutrient resorption ratios offer a complementary metric for assessing nutrient limitation in terrestrial ecosystems.

Improved agriculture and forest management in Africa through the AGRICAB project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bydekerke, L.; Tote, C.; Jacobs, T.; Gilliams, S.

2012-04-01

Agriculture and forestry are key economic sectors in many African countries. A sound management of these resources, in order to ensure stable food supply, is key for development. In many countries in Africa both forest and agricultural resources are under stress due to, among others, a growing population, land reforms, climate variability and change. Sound information is required to efficiently manage these resources. Remote sensing contributes significantly to these information needs and for this reason more and more institutes and agencies integrate this technology into their daily work. In this context, there is a growing need for enhancing remote sensing capacity in Africa and for this reason the European Commission launched the AGRICAB Project, funded by the FP7 Programme. The main focus of AGRICAB 'A Framework for enhancing earth observation capacity for agriculture and forest management in Africa as a contribution to GEOSS', is to link European and African research capacity in the use of earth observation technology for agriculture and forestry. The project consortium consists of 17 partners located in 12 different countries (5 in Europe, 10 in Africa and 1 in South America) and has three main components. Firstly, AGRICAB aims to ensure satellite data access, partly through GEONETCast. Secondly, AGRICAB will enhance research capacity through partnerships between African and European institutes in the following thematic areas (a) yield forecasting, (b) early warning and agricultural mapping of food crops, (c) agricultural statistics, (d) livestock and rangeland monitoring, and (e) forest and forest fire monitoring. Thirdly, a significant part is dedicated to training and building awareness concerning the advantage and benefits of the use of remote sensing in forest and agricultural management. AGRICAB intends to allow African partners: (i) to get exposed to state-of-the art techniques and models for agricultural and forest monitoring, (ii) to discover these techniques and models through workshops and dedicated training, (iii) to gain experience in the application of these techniques and models on the local conditions in various use cases, and finally, (iv) to adapt appropriate models for integration in the local operational workflows. Through use cases, located in Northern Africa, Senegal, Kenya, Mozambique and South-Africa, methodologies will be adapted to local conditions and demonstrated in different agro-meteorological conditions.

Forest statistics for Georgia, 1997

Treesearch

Michael T. Thompson

1998-01-01

This report summarizes a 1997 inventory of the forest resources for the State of Georgia. Major findings are highlighted in text and graphs; detailed data are presented in 51 tables. This report highlights the principal findings of the seventh forest survey of Georgia. Field work began in November 1995 and was completed in April 1998. Six previous surveys,...

Flora of the Fraser Experimental Forest, Colorado

Treesearch

Steve J. Popovich; Wayne D. Shepperd; Donald W. Reichert; Michael A. Cone

1993-01-01

This report lists 441 vascular plant taxa in 228 genera and 63 families encountered on the 9,300-ha Fraser Experimental Forest in central Colorado. Synonyms appearing in previous publications and other works pertaining to the Fraser Experimental Forest, as well as appropriate Colorado floras and less-technical field guides, are included. Plant communities and habitats...

Landscape Scale Management in the Ouachita Mountains - Where Operational Practices Meet Research

Treesearch

Hunter Speed; Ronald J. Perisho; Samuel Larry; James M. Guldin

1999-01-01

Implementation of ecosystem management on National Forest System lands in the Southern Region requires that the best available science be applied to support forest management practices. On the Ouachita National Forest in Arkansas, personnel from the Jessieville and Winona Ranger Districts and the Southern Research Station have developed working relationships that...

Tennessee forest resources

Treesearch

Richard A. Birdsey

1979-01-01

This report presents the principal findings of a new forest survey of Tennessee. Field work was conducted between March 1979 and November 1980. The inventory is reported for 1980. Data for growth and cut are given for the inter-survey period from 1971 to 1980. A canvass of forest products output in the 1979 provided additional information on removals.

Forest statistics for Southwest Mississippi counties - 1994

Treesearch

Joanne L. Faulkner; Andrew J. Hartsell; Jack D. London

1995-01-01

Tabulated results were derived from data obtained during a 1994 forest inventory of southwest Mississippi counties (fig. I). These data are considered preliminary. Field work was conducted from February to august 1994. Core tables 1 through 25 are compatible among forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) units in the Eastern United States. Supplemental tables 26 through 44...

Systematic Evaluation of the "Forests in Schools" (SIS) Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

School Research Newsletter, 1985

1985-01-01

The purpose of an inquiry was to study the feasibility, content, mediation, and results of the Swedish "Forests in Schools" (SIS) project, an example of a link between schools and working life (the latter represented by forest enterprise in general). It also sought to describe and, if possible, explain the effects of the activities…

Forest productivity: an integrated research and development program

Treesearch

Daniel C. Dey; Thomas R. Crow; Don E. Riemenschneider

2003-01-01

In 2000, the North Central Research Station initiated the Forest Productivity Integrated Research Program (North Central Research Station 2001). This program combines the efforts of scientists from across the Station's 13 research work units to examine the current condition of the forests in the North Central Region and their prospects for producing wood and fiber...

The Western Bark Beetle Research Group: a unique collaboration with Forest Health Protection-proceedings of a symposium at the 2007 Society of American Foresters conference

Treesearch

J.L. Hayes; J.E. Lundquist

2009-01-01

The compilation of papers in this proceedings is based on a symposium sponsored by the Insect and Diseases Working Group (D5) at the 2007 Society of American Foresters (SAF) convention in Portland, Oregon. The selection of topics parallels the research priorities of the Western Bark Beetle Research Group (WBBRG) (USDA Forest Service, Research and Development), which...

Observations of Diurnal to Weekly Variations of Monoterpene-Dominated Fluxes of Volatile Organic Compounds from Mediterranean Forests: Implications for Regional Modeling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fares, Silvano; Schnitzhofer, Ralf; Jiang, Xiaoyan

2013-10-01

The Estate of Castelporziano (Rome, Italy) hosts many ecosystems representative of Mediterranean vegetation, especially holm oak and pine forests and dune vegetation. In this work, basal emission factors (BEFs) of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) obtained by Eddy Covariance in a field campaign using a proton transfer reaction–time-of-flight–mass spectrometer (PTR-TOF-MS) were compared to BEFs reported in previous studies that could not measure fluxes in real-time. Globally, broadleaf forests are dominated by isoprene emissions, but these Mediterranean ecosystems are dominated by strong monoterpene emitters, as shown by the new BEFs. The original and new BEFs were used to parametrize the modelmore » of emissions of gases and aerosols from nature (MEGAN v2.1), and model outputs were compared with measured fluxes. Results showed good agreement between modeled and measured fluxes when a model was used to predict radiative transfer and energy balance across the canopy. We then evaluated whether changes in BVOC emissions can affect the chemistry of the atmosphere and climate at a regional level. MEGAN was run together with the land surface model (community land model, CLM v4.0) of the community earth system model (CESM v1.0). Finally, results highlighted that tropospheric ozone concentration and air temperature predicted from the model are sensitive to the magnitude of BVOC emissions, thus demonstrating the importance of adopting the proper BEF values for model parametrization.« less

Seeing the wood for the trees: a forest of methods for optimization and omic-network integration in metabolic modelling.

PubMed

Vijayakumar, Supreeta; Conway, Max; Lió, Pietro; Angione, Claudio

2017-05-30

Metabolic modelling has entered a mature phase with dozens of methods and software implementations available to the practitioner and the theoretician. It is not easy for a modeller to be able to see the wood (or the forest) for the trees. Driven by this analogy, we here present a 'forest' of principal methods used for constraint-based modelling in systems biology. This provides a tree-based view of methods available to prospective modellers, also available in interactive version at http://modellingmetabolism.net, where it will be kept updated with new methods after the publication of the present manuscript. Our updated classification of existing methods and tools highlights the most promising in the different branches, with the aim to develop a vision of how existing methods could hybridize and become more complex. We then provide the first hands-on tutorial for multi-objective optimization of metabolic models in R. We finally discuss the implementation of multi-view machine learning approaches in poly-omic integration. Throughout this work, we demonstrate the optimization of trade-offs between multiple metabolic objectives, with a focus on omic data integration through machine learning. We anticipate that the combination of a survey, a perspective on multi-view machine learning and a step-by-step R tutorial should be of interest for both the beginner and the advanced user. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Final report for DOE Award # DE- SC0010039*: Carbon dynamics of forest recovery under a changing climate: Forcings, feedbacks, and implications for earth system modeling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anderson-Teixeira, Kristina J.; DeLucia, Evan H.; Duval, Benjamin D.

2015-10-29

To advance understanding of C dynamics of forests globally, we compiled a new database, the Forest C database (ForC-db), which contains data on ground-based measurements of ecosystem-level C stocks and annual fluxes along with disturbance history. This database currently contains 18,791 records from 2009 sites, making it the largest and most comprehensive database of C stocks and flows in forest ecosystems globally. The tropical component of the database will be published in conjunction with a manuscript that is currently under review (Anderson-Teixeira et al., in review). Database development continues, and we hope to maintain a dynamic instance of the entiremore » (global) database.« less

Vegetation recovery after fire in the Klamath-Siskiyou region, southern Oregon

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hibbs, David; Jacobs, Ruth

2011-01-01

In July 2002, lightning strikes started five forest fires that merged into one massive wildfire in the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion of southern Oregon. Aided by drought, severe weather conditions, dry fuels, and steep topography, the fire grew to more than 200,000 hectares of mostly public forest land. Known as the Biscuit Fire, it was Oregon's largest forest fire in more than 130 years and one of the largest wildfires on record in the United States. Discussions centered around why such a massive fire was happening, how large would it become, who was keeping communities and homes safe, and what would be the final economic and ecological outcome. Weeks later when the fire was out, conversations turned to other questions, including what, if anything, should happen for forest recovery.

Design and realization of disaster assessment algorithm after forest fire

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Xu, Aijun; Wang, Danfeng; Tang, Lihua

2008-10-01

Based on GIS technology, this paper mainly focuses on the application of disaster assessment algorithm after forest fire and studies on the design and realization of disaster assessment based on GIS. After forest fire through the analysis and processing of multi-sources and heterogeneous data, this paper integrates the foundation that the domestic and foreign scholars laid of the research on assessment for forest fire loss with the related knowledge of assessment, accounting and forest resources appraisal so as to study and approach the theory framework and assessment index of the research on assessment for forest fire loss. The technologies of extracting boundary, overlay analysis, and division processing of multi-sources spatial data are available to realize the application of the investigation method of the burnt forest area and the computation of the fire area. The assessment provides evidence for fire cleaning in burnt areas and new policy making on restoration in terms of the direct and the indirect economic loss and ecological and environmental damage caused by forest fire under the condition of different fire danger classes and different amounts of forest accumulation, thus makes forest resources protection operated in a faster, more efficient and more economical way. Finally, this paper takes Lin'an city of Zhejiang province as a test area to confirm the method mentioned in the paper in terms of key technologies.

Effects of Increased Nitrogen Availability on C and N Cycles in Tropical Forests: A Meta-Analysis.

PubMed

Bejarano-Castillo, Marylin; Campo, Julio; Roa-Fuentes, Lilia L

2015-01-01

Atmospheric N deposition is predicted to increase four times over its current status in tropical forests by 2030. Our ability to understand the effects of N enrichment on C and N cycles is being challenged by the large heterogeneity of the tropical forest biome. The specific response will depend on the forest's nutrient status; however, few studies of N addition appear to incorporate the nutrient status in tropical forests, possibly due to difficulties in explaining how this status is maintained. We used a meta-analysis to explore the consequences of the N enrichment on C and N cycles in tropical montane and lowland forests. We tracked changes in aboveground and belowground plant C and N and in mineral soil in response to N addition. We found an increasing trend of plant biomass in montane forests, but not in lowland forests, as well as a greater increase in NO emission in montane forest compared with lowland forest. The N2O and NO emission increase in both forest; however, the N2O increase in lowland forest was significantly even at first time N addition. The NO emission increase showed be greater at first term compared with long term N addition. Moreover, the increase in total soil N, ammonium, microbial N, and dissolved N concentration under N enrichment indicates a rich N status of lowland forests. The available evidence of N addition experiments shows that the lowland forest is richer in N than montane forests. Finally, the greater increase in N leaching and N gas emission highlights the importance of study the N deposition effect on the global climate change.

Forest canopy height estimation using double-frequency repeat pass interferometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karamvasis, Kleanthis; Karathanassi, Vassilia

2015-06-01

In recent years, many efforts have been made in order to assess forest stand parameters from remote sensing data, as a mean to estimate the above-ground carbon stock of forests in the context of the Kyoto protocol. Synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) techniques have gained traction in last decade as a viable technology for vegetation parameter estimation. Many works have shown that forest canopy height, which is a critical parameter for quantifying the terrestrial carbon cycle, can be estimated with InSAR. However, research is still needed to understand further the interaction of SAR signals with forest canopy and to develop an operational method for forestry applications. This work discusses the use of repeat pass interferometry with ALOS PALSAR (L band) HH polarized and COSMO Skymed (X band) HH polarized acquisitions over the Taxiarchis forest (Chalkidiki, Greece), in order to produce accurate digital elevation models (DEMs) and estimate canopy height with interferometric processing. The effect of wavelength-dependent penetration depth into the canopy is known to be strong, and could potentially lead to forest canopy height mapping using dual-wavelength SAR interferometry at X- and L-band. The method is based on scattering phase center separation at different wavelengths. It involves the generation of a terrain elevation model underneath the forest canopy from repeat-pass L-band InSAR data as well as the generation of a canopy surface elevation model from repeat pass X-band InSAR data. The terrain model is then used to remove the terrain component from the repeat pass interferometric X-band elevation model, so as to enable the forest canopy height estimation. The canopy height results were compared to a field survey with 6.9 m root mean square error (RMSE). The effects of vegetation characteristics, SAR incidence angle and view geometry, and terrain slope on the accuracy of the results have also been studied in this work.

Manpower training in eastern forest industry: a review and assessment

Treesearch

1980-01-01

Most training in forest industry takes place on the job and is more effective in sawmilling than in logging. Many training programs for woods workers have been ineffective because the rewards of the work are insufficient to attract capable people, leaving the industry to operate in a secondary labor market. Some characteristics of the work and of the technology suggest...

Forest pathology in Yap, Palau, Pohnpei, Kosrae, Guam and Saipan, Sept. 2013

Treesearch

Phil Cannon

2014-01-01

In September of 2013, an opportunity was seized by the Regional Forest Pathologist to do some work on the following islands in Micronesia and the Marianas: Yap, Palau, Guam, Saipan, Pohnpei, and Kosrae. The principle justification for doing the work at this time was that satellite images showed large areas of dead mangroves on Yap (Liu, pers. com). Many...

Wood-destroying organisms in the new millennium : where have we gone since Bend 1989?

Treesearch

Michael Haverty; Jessie Micales-Glaeser

2004-01-01

At the joint meeting of the Western International Forest Disease Work Conference and the Western Forest Insect Work Conference, held in Bend, OR, on September 13, 1989, a symposium was convened entitled "Current Research on Wood-destroying Organisms and Future Prospects for Protecting Wood in Use. "Presentations were made by three pathologists and nine...

Advances in Canadian forest hydrology, 1995-1998

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buttle, J. M.; Creed, I. F.; Pomeroy, J. W.

2000-06-01

Approximately 42% of Canada is covered by forests, which in turn can be subdivided into nine distinct forest ecozones. Many forested ecozones are located in northern Canada, where cold winters and cool summers provide forest environments that are less well-understood than those in more temperate locations. A number of major developments in recent years have stressed the need for enhanced understanding of hydrological processes in these forest landscapes. These include an increased emphasis on sustainable forest management in Canada as well as major scientific initiatives (e.g. BOREAS) examining water, carbon and energy fluxes in forest ecosystems, with a particular focus on boreal and subarctic forests. Recent progress in our understanding of forest hydrology across Canada is reviewed. Studies of hydrological processes across the spectrum of forest ecozones are highlighted, as well as work on hydrological responses to forest disturbance and recovery. Links between studies of hydrological processes in Canada's forests and other fields of research are examined, with particular attention paid to ongoing efforts to model hydrological impacts and interactions with the climate, biogeochemistry, geomorphology and ecology of forested landscapes.

Forest ecosystems in the Alaskan taiga

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Van Cleve, K.; Chapin, F.S. III; Flanagan, P.W.

1986-01-01

This volume in the series ''Ecological Studies'' provides an overview and synthesis of research on the structure and function of taiga forest ecosystems of interior Alaska. The first section discusses the nature of the taiga environment and covers climate, forest ecosystem distribution, natural regeneration of vegetation, and the role of fire. The second edition focuses on environmental controls over organism activity with discussions on growth and nutrient use, nitrogen fixation, physiological ecology of mosses, and microbial activity and element availability. The final section considers environmental controls over ecosystem processes with discussions of processes, plant-animal interactions, and a model of forestmore » growth and yield.« less

Random-Forest Classification of High-Resolution Remote Sensing Images and Ndsm Over Urban Areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sun, X. F.; Lin, X. G.

2017-09-01

As an intermediate step between raw remote sensing data and digital urban maps, remote sensing data classification has been a challenging and long-standing research problem in the community of remote sensing. In this work, an effective classification method is proposed for classifying high-resolution remote sensing data over urban areas. Starting from high resolution multi-spectral images and 3D geometry data, our method proceeds in three main stages: feature extraction, classification, and classified result refinement. First, we extract color, vegetation index and texture features from the multi-spectral image and compute the height, elevation texture and differential morphological profile (DMP) features from the 3D geometry data. Then in the classification stage, multiple random forest (RF) classifiers are trained separately, then combined to form a RF ensemble to estimate each sample's category probabilities. Finally the probabilities along with the feature importance indicator outputted by RF ensemble are used to construct a fully connected conditional random field (FCCRF) graph model, by which the classification results are refined through mean-field based statistical inference. Experiments on the ISPRS Semantic Labeling Contest dataset show that our proposed 3-stage method achieves 86.9% overall accuracy on the test data.

Retinal layer segmentation of macular OCT images using boundary classification

PubMed Central

Lang, Andrew; Carass, Aaron; Hauser, Matthew; Sotirchos, Elias S.; Calabresi, Peter A.; Ying, Howard S.; Prince, Jerry L.

2013-01-01

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has proven to be an essential imaging modality for ophthalmology and is proving to be very important in neurology. OCT enables high resolution imaging of the retina, both at the optic nerve head and the macula. Macular retinal layer thicknesses provide useful diagnostic information and have been shown to correlate well with measures of disease severity in several diseases. Since manual segmentation of these layers is time consuming and prone to bias, automatic segmentation methods are critical for full utilization of this technology. In this work, we build a random forest classifier to segment eight retinal layers in macular cube images acquired by OCT. The random forest classifier learns the boundary pixels between layers, producing an accurate probability map for each boundary, which is then processed to finalize the boundaries. Using this algorithm, we can accurately segment the entire retina contained in the macular cube to an accuracy of at least 4.3 microns for any of the nine boundaries. Experiments were carried out on both healthy and multiple sclerosis subjects, with no difference in the accuracy of our algorithm found between the groups. PMID:23847738

Bridging the gap between data analysis and data collection in FIA and forest monitoring globally: successes, research findings, and lessons learned from the Western US and Southeast Asia

Treesearch

Leif Mortenson

2015-01-01

Globally, national forest inventories (NFI) require a large work force typically consisting of multiple teams spread across multiple locations in order to successfully capture a given nation’s forest resources. This is true of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program in the US and in many inventories in developing countries that are supported by USFS...

Advances in Canadian forest hydrology, 1999-2003

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buttle, J. M.; Creed, I. F.; Moore, R. D.

2005-01-01

Understanding key hydrological processes and properties is critical to sustaining the ecological, economic, social and cultural roles of Canada's varied forest types. This review examines recent progress in studying the hydrology of Canada's forest landscapes. Work in some areas, such as snow interception, accumulation and melt under forest cover, has led to modelling tools that can be readily applied for operational purposes. Our understanding in other areas, such as the link between runoff-generating processes in different forest landscapes and hydrochemical fluxes to receiving waters, is much more tentative. The 1999-2003 period saw considerable research examining hydrological and biogeochemical responses to natural and anthropogenic disturbance of forest landscapes, spurred by major funding initiatives at the provincial and federal levels. This work has provided valuable insight; however, application of the findings beyond the experimental site is often restricted by such issues as a limited consideration of the background variability of hydrological systems, incomplete appreciation of hydrological aspects at the experiment planning stage, and experimental design problems that often bedevil studies of basin response to disturbance. Overcoming these constraints will require, among other things, continued support for long-term hydroecological monitoring programmes, the embedding of process measurement and modelling studies within these programmes, and greater responsiveness to the vagaries of policy directions related to Canada's forest resources. Progress in these and related areas will contribute greatly to the development of hydrological indicators of sustainable forest management in Canada. Copyright

Normalizing Landsat and ASTER Data Using MODIS Data Products for Forest Change Detection

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gao, Feng; Masek, Jeffrey G.; Wolfe, Robert E.; Tan, Bin

2010-01-01

Monitoring forest cover and its changes are a major application for optical remote sensing. In this paper, we present an approach to integrate Landsat, ASTER and MODIS data for forest change detection. Moderate resolution (10-100m) images (e.g. Landsat and ASTER) acquired from different seasons and times are normalized to one "standard" date using MODIS data products as reference. The normalized data are then used to compute forest disturbance index for forest change detection. Comparing to the results from original data, forest disturbance index from the normalized images is more consistent spatially and temporally. This work demonstrates an effective approach for mapping forest change over a large area from multiple moderate resolution sensors on various acquisition dates.

Working woods: A case study of sustainable forest management on Vermont family forests

Treesearch

Neal F. Maker; Rene H. Germain; Nathaniel M. Anderson

2014-01-01

Families own 35% of US forestland and 67% of Vermont forestland. Sustainable management of their woodlots could provide social and economic benefits for generations. We examined sustainable forest management across four counties in Vermont by evaluating the use of silvicultural practices and best management practices on 59 recently harvested, family-owned properties...

Midcycle survey of Arkansas' forest resources

Treesearch

Roy C. Beltz; Randall Leister; Walter R. Smith

1987-01-01

This report summarizes an interim survey of Arkansas’ forest resources. Field work was completed in April 1985. The survey provides new estimates of forest area and inventory for both the State’s softwoods and hardwoods. This survey was cooperative effort with the Arkansas forestry commission, the soil conservation service, the statistical reporting service, and the...

Comparing the costs of agency and contract fire crews.

Treesearch

G.H. Donovan

2007-01-01

This paper compares the cost of using Forest Service fire crews versus contract fire crews. Results suggest that if sufficient work is available to keep a Forest Service crew productively employed throughout a fire season, then the daily cost of a Forest Service type II crew is lower than the daily cost of a contract crew.

Forest statistics for North Georgia, 1998

Treesearch

Michael T. Thompson

1998-01-01

This report summarizes a 1998 inventory of the forest resources of a 21-county area of Georgia. Major findings are highlighted in text and graphs; detailed data are presented in 51 tables. This report highlights the principal findings of the seventh forest survey of North Georgia. Field work began in October 1997 and was completed in April 1998. Six previous...

Proceedings: second Lake States forest tree improvement conference

Treesearch

Lake States Forest Experiment Station

1955-01-01

I am firmly convinced that the Lake States Forest Tree Improvement Committee, and similar groups in other regions, can play an important role in encouraging and coordinating research and other activities in forest genetics. As this new field of work continues to expand, which it assuredly will, it will become of increasing importance to maintain close liaison among the...

A user's guide to nursery stock types

Treesearch

R. Kasten Dumroese; Peyton W. Owston

2003-01-01

Foresters must consider many factors when selecting nursery stock types for their planting projects. Forest nurseries can now produce a vast array of stock types to meet any challenge in the field - these target seedlings can be defined for particular sites. It is important that foresters work with a nursery that is known from experience or reputation to provide a...

Development and use of a commercial-scale biochar spreader

Treesearch

Deborah S. Page-Dumroese; Nathaniel M. Anderson; Keith N. Windell; Karl Englund; Kevin Jump

2016-01-01

Applying biochar to forest sites can be problematic and costly because of the need to keep the forest floor as undisturbed as possible during and after harvest operations. The Missoula Technology and Development Center of the U.S. Forest Service, working with Rocky Mountain Research Station scientists, developed and tested a high-capacity biochar spreader that can be...

Applying the SWAT hydrologic model on a watershed containing forested karst.

Treesearch

Devendra M. Amatya; Amy E. Edwards

2009-01-01

The US Forest Service Center for Forested Wetlands Research is working on a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (SC DHEC)'s Section 319 Grant Program funded Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) project for the watershed of Chapel Branch Creek (CBC) draining to Lake Marion in Santee, South Carolina (Fig. 1)....

Forest mapping of Central America and Mexico with AVHRR data

Treesearch

Keith B. Lannom

2001-01-01

Concerns over changes in global forest resource distributions have prompted a number of studies to examine and map forest areas at continental scales with various types of satillite data. The work described here details the use of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) data in concert with Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Systeme Probatoire d'...

Trading off species protection and timber production in forests managed for multiple objectives

Treesearch

Vladimir Marianov; Stephanie Snyder; Charles ReVelle

2004-01-01

We address a multiobjective forest-management problem that maximizes harvested timber volume and maximizes the protection of species through the selection of protected habitat reserves. As opposed to reserving parcels of the forest for general habitat purposes, as most published works do, the model we present, and its several variants, concentrate on the preservation...

Condition varies with habitat choice in postbreeding forest birds

Treesearch

Scott H. Stoleson

2013-01-01

Many birds that are experiencing population declines require extensive tracts of mature forest habitat for breeding. Recent work suggests that at least some may shift their habitat use to early-successional areas after nesting but before migration. I used constant-effort mist netting in regenerating clearcuts (4-8 years postcut) and dense mature-forest understories to...

An Old-Growth Definition for Wet Pine Forests, Woodlands, and Savannas

Treesearch

William R. Harms

1996-01-01

The ecological, site, and vegetation characteristics of pine wetland forests of the flatwoods region of the Southeastern United States are described. Provisional working definitions of old-growth characteristics are provided for longleaf pine, slash pine, and pond pine forests. These definitions can be used to identify and evaluate stands for retention in old-growth...

Lava, VOG, and tropical forests: working with the FIA program in Hawaii

Treesearch

Thomas McGinley; Ashley Lehman

2015-01-01

In the winter of 2009, the Pacific Northwest Research Station initiated the ground implementation of their Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program on the Hawaiian Islands. In the Pacific, people from the indigenous to the transplanted, hold intrinsic and utilitarian values of their forests that often differ considerably from values of mainstream mainland USA. These...

Working forests, forest health and management challenges in the redwood region

Treesearch

Ken Pimlott

2017-01-01

As California continues into a fifth year of drought, tree mortality enhanced by the unprecedented bark beetle epidemic contributes to wildfires that continue to increase in frequency and severity. Recent fires have posed increasing fire suppression challenges, life safety concerns, post fire watershed impacts and lasting damage to forested landscapes. The ability of...

Effects of Increased Nitrogen Availability on C and N Cycles in Tropical Forests: A Meta-Analysis

PubMed Central

2015-01-01

Atmospheric N deposition is predicted to increase four times over its current status in tropical forests by 2030. Our ability to understand the effects of N enrichment on C and N cycles is being challenged by the large heterogeneity of the tropical forest biome. The specific response will depend on the forest’s nutrient status; however, few studies of N addition appear to incorporate the nutrient status in tropical forests, possibly due to difficulties in explaining how this status is maintained. We used a meta-analysis to explore the consequences of the N enrichment on C and N cycles in tropical montane and lowland forests. We tracked changes in aboveground and belowground plant C and N and in mineral soil in response to N addition. We found an increasing trend of plant biomass in montane forests, but not in lowland forests, as well as a greater increase in NO emission in montane forest compared with lowland forest. The N2O and NO emission increase in both forest; however, the N2O increase in lowland forest was significantly even at first time N addition. The NO emission increase showed be greater at first term compared with long term N addition. Moreover, the increase in total soil N, ammonium, microbial N, and dissolved N concentration under N enrichment indicates a rich N status of lowland forests. The available evidence of N addition experiments shows that the lowland forest is richer in N than montane forests. Finally, the greater increase in N leaching and N gas emission highlights the importance of study the N deposition effect on the global climate change. PMID:26633681

Structural and compositional controls on transpiration in 40- and 450-year-old riparian forests in western Oregon, USA.

PubMed

Moore, Georgianne W; Bond, Barbara J; Jones, Julia A; Phillips, Nathan; Meinzer, Federick C

2004-05-01

Large areas of forests in the Pacific Northwest are being transformed to younger forests, yet little is known about the impact this may have on hydrological cycles. Previous work suggests that old trees use less water per unit leaf area or sapwood area than young mature trees of the same species in similar environments. Do old forests, therefore, use less water than young mature forests in similar environments, or are there other structural or compositional components in the forests that compensate for tree-level differences? We investigated the impacts of tree age, species composition and sapwood basal area on stand-level transpiration in adjacent watersheds at the H.J. Andrews Forest in the western Cascades of Oregon, one containing a young, mature (about 40 years since disturbance) conifer forest and the other an old growth (about 450 years since disturbance) forest. Sap flow measurements were used to evaluate the degree to which differences in age and species composition affect water use. Stand sapwood basal area was evaluated based on a vegetation survey for species, basal area and sapwood basal area in the riparian area of two watersheds. A simple scaling exercise derived from estimated differences in water use as a result of differences in age, species composition and stand sapwood area was used to estimate transpiration from late June through October within the entire riparian area of these watersheds. Transpiration was higher in the young stand because of greater sap flux density (sap flow per unit sapwood area) by age class and species, and greater total stand sapwood area. During the measurement period, mean daily sap flux density was 2.30 times higher in young compared with old Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) trees. Sap flux density was 1.41 times higher in young red alder (Alnus rubra Bong.) compared with young P. menziesii trees, and was 1.45 times higher in old P. menziesii compared with old western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) trees. Overall, sapwood basal area was 21% higher in the young stand than in the old stand. In the old forest, T. heterophylla is an important co-dominant, accounting for 58% of total sapwood basal area, whereas P. menziesii is the only dominant conifer in the young stand. Angiosperms accounted for 36% of total sapwood basal area in the young stand, but only 7% in the old stand. For all factors combined, we estimated 3.27 times more water use by vegetation in the riparian area of the young stand over the measurement period. Tree age had the greatest effect on stand differences in water use, followed by differences in sapwood basal area, and finally species composition. The large differences in transpiration provide further evidence that forest management alters site water balance via elevated transpiration in vigorous young stands.

A Project to Map and Monitor Baldcypress Forests in Coastal Louisiana, Using Landsat, MODIS, and ASTER Satellite Data

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spruce, Joseph; Sader, Steven; Smoot, James

2012-01-01

Cypress swamp forests of Louisiana offer many important ecological and economic benefits: wildlife habitat, forest products, storm buffers, water quality, and recreation. Such forests are also threatened by multiple factors: subsidence, salt water intrusion, sea level rise, persistent flooding, hydrologic modification, hurricanes, insect and nutria damage, timber harvesting, and land use conversion. Unfortunately, there are many information gaps regarding the type, location, extent, and condition of these forests. Better more up to date swamp forest mapping products are needed to aid coastal forest conservation and restoration work (e.g., through the Coastal Forest Conservation Initiative or CFCI). In response, a collaborative project was initiated to develop, test and demonstrate cypress swamp forest mapping products, using NASA supported Landsat, ASTER, and MODIS satellite data. Research Objectives are: Develop, test, and demonstrate use of Landsat and ASTER data for computing new cypress forest classification products and Landsat, ASTER, and MODIS satellite data for detecting and monitoring swamp forest change

78 FR 56650 - Boundary Description and Final Map for Sandy Wild and Scenic River, Upper Portion, Mount Hood...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-09-13

... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service Boundary Description and Final Map for Sandy Wild and...: Notice of availability. SUMMARY: In accordance with section 3(b) of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the... Sandy Wild and Scenic River, Upper Portion, to Congress. DATES: The boundaries and classification of the...

77 FR 64097 - Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to the 2011 Final EIS for the Leasing and Underground...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-10-18

... Final EIS for the Leasing and Underground Mining of the Greens Hollow Federal Coal Lease Tract (UTU... Mining of the Greens Hollow Federal Coal Lease Tract UTU-84102. Supplemental analyses are required to... mining methods, with foreseeable access from existing adjacent leases. The Forest Service and BLM have...

Restoration of mangrove forest landscape in Babulu Laut village, sub district of Babulu, Penajam Paser Utara district

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Febrina, W. K.; Marjenah; Sumaryono

2018-04-01

The reforestation activities of mangrove forest carried out in various regions have not been well known as the success and influence of landscape in rehabilitation area. Utilization of existing land along the coastal Babulu Laut Village has reduced the area of mangrove forest from day to day. Due to the use of land by the community without considering the conservation aspect causes the loss of mangrove forest. This study aims to determine the final condition of the success rate of forest and land rehabilitation, land cover and the benefits of mangrove forest restoration for the surrounding people. The research method used is the preparation and orientation of research location, data input, codefication, data processing, the field verification and analysis of data. The results of the execution of the inventory mangrove in 22 research location in the Babulu Laut Village, Babulu Subdistrict, Penajam Paser Utara District of 125 ha of plant a whole is kind of Rhizophora sp, where the intensity of sampling 2% with the growing plants of 65.92 %or 2,175 stem/ha then success rate of Mangrove Forest Rehabilitation at Babulu Laut Village Babulu Subdistrict is medium level (55-75%).

Predicting forest height using the GOST, Landsat 7 ETM+, and airborne LiDAR for sloping terrains in the Greater Khingan Mountains of China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gu, Chengyan; Clevers, Jan G. P. W.; Liu, Xiao; Tian, Xin; Li, Zhouyuan; Li, Zengyuan

2018-03-01

Sloping terrain of forests is an overlooked factor in many models simulating the canopy bidirectional reflectance distribution function, which limits the estimation accuracy of forest vertical structure parameters (e.g., forest height). The primary objective of this study was to predict forest height on sloping terrain over large areas with the Geometric-Optical Model for Sloping Terrains (GOST) using airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data and Landsat 7 imagery in the western Greater Khingan Mountains of China. The Sequential Maximum Angle Convex Cone (SMACC) algorithm was used to generate image endmembers and corresponding abundances in Landsat imagery. Then, LiDAR-derived forest metrics, topographical factors and SMACC abundances were used to calibrate and validate the GOST, which aimed to accurately decompose the SMACC mixed forest pixels into sunlit crown, sunlit background and shade components. Finally, the forest height of the study area was retrieved based on a back-propagation neural network and a look-up table. Results showed good performance for coniferous forests on all slopes and at all aspects, with significant coefficients of determination above 0.70 and root mean square errors (RMSEs) between 0.50 m and 1.00 m based on ground observed validation data. Higher RMSEs were found in areas with forest heights below 5 m and above 17 m. For 90% of the forested area, the average RMSE was 3.58 m. Our study demonstrates the tremendous potential of the GOST for quantitative mapping of forest height on sloping terrains with multispectral and LiDAR inputs.

Mapping forest height in Alaska using GLAS, Landsat composites, and airborne LiDAR

USGS Publications Warehouse

Peterson, Birgit; Nelson, Kurtis

2014-01-01

Vegetation structure, including forest canopy height, is an important input variable to fire behavior modeling systems for simulating wildfire behavior. As such, forest canopy height is one of a nationwide suite of products generated by the LANDFIRE program. In the past, LANDFIRE has relied on a combination of field observations and Landsat imagery to develop existing vegetation structure products. The paucity of field data in the remote Alaskan forests has led to a very simple forest canopy height classification for the original LANDFIRE forest height map. To better meet the needs of data users and refine the map legend, LANDFIRE incorporated ICESat Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) data into the updating process when developing the LANDFIRE 2010 product. The high latitude of this region enabled dense coverage of discrete GLAS samples, from which forest height was calculated. Different methods for deriving height from the GLAS waveform data were applied, including an attempt to correct for slope. These methods were then evaluated and integrated into the final map according to predefined criteria. The resulting map of forest canopy height includes more height classes than the original map, thereby better depicting the heterogeneity of the landscape, and provides seamless data for fire behavior analysts and other users of LANDFIRE data.

Final Report, 2011-2014. Forecasting Carbon Storage as Eastern Forests Age. Joining Experimental and Modeling Approaches at the UMBS AmeriFlux Site

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Curtis, Peter; Bohrer, Gil; Gough, Christopher

2015-03-12

At the University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS) AmeriFlux sites (US-UMB and US-UMd), long-term C cycling measurements and a novel ecosystem-scale experiment are revealing physical, biological, and ecological mechanisms driving long-term trajectories of C cycling, providing new data for improving modeling forecasts of C storage in eastern forests. Our findings provide support for previously untested hypotheses that stand-level structural and biological properties constrain long-term trajectories of C storage, and that remotely sensed canopy structural parameters can substantially improve model forecasts of forest C storage. Through the Forest Accelerated Succession ExperimenT (FASET), we are directly testing the hypothesis that forest Cmore » storage will increase due to increasing structural and biological complexity of the emerging tree communities. Support from this project, 2011-2014, enabled us to incorporate novel physical and ecological mechanisms into ecological, meteorological, and hydrological models to improve forecasts of future forest C storage in response to disturbance, succession, and current and long-term climate variation« less

Design and Implementation of an Interactive Web-Based Near Real-Time Forest Monitoring System.

PubMed

Pratihast, Arun Kumar; DeVries, Ben; Avitabile, Valerio; de Bruin, Sytze; Herold, Martin; Bergsma, Aldo

2016-01-01

This paper describes an interactive web-based near real-time (NRT) forest monitoring system using four levels of geographic information services: 1) the acquisition of continuous data streams from satellite and community-based monitoring using mobile devices, 2) NRT forest disturbance detection based on satellite time-series, 3) presentation of forest disturbance data through a web-based application and social media and 4) interaction of the satellite based disturbance alerts with the end-user communities to enhance the collection of ground data. The system is developed using open source technologies and has been implemented together with local experts in the UNESCO Kafa Biosphere Reserve, Ethiopia. The results show that the system is able to provide easy access to information on forest change and considerably improves the collection and storage of ground observation by local experts. Social media leads to higher levels of user interaction and noticeably improves communication among stakeholders. Finally, an evaluation of the system confirms the usability of the system in Ethiopia. The implemented system can provide a foundation for an operational forest monitoring system at the national level for REDD+ MRV applications.

An ecohydrological model to quantify the risk of drought-induced forest mortality events across climate regimes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Parolari, A.; Katul, G. G.; Porporato, A. M.

2013-12-01

Regional scale drought-induced forest mortality events are projected to become more frequent under future climates due to changes in rainfall patterns. However, the ability to predict the conditions under which such events occur is currently lacking. To quantify and understand the underlying causes of drought-induced forest mortality, we propose a stochastic ecohydrological model that explicitly couples tree water and carbon use strategies with climate characteristics, such as the frequency and severity of drought. Using the model and results from a controlled drought experiment, we identify the soil, vegetation, and climate factors that underlie tree water and carbon deficits and, ultimately, the risk of drought-induced forest mortality. This mortality risk is then compared across the spectrum of anisohydric-isohydric stomatal control strategies and a range of rainfall regimes. These results suggest certain soil-plant combinations may maximize the survivable drought length in a given climate. Finally, we discuss how this approach can be expanded to estimate the effect of anticipated climate change on drought-induced forest mortality and associated consequences for forest water and carbon balances.

Effects of site on the demographics of standing dead trees in eastside pine forests

Treesearch

William F. Jr. Laudenslayer

2005-01-01

In the last several decades there has been a growing awareness of the value of snags in forests. Recent work has resulted in management standards and guidelines that set objectives for species such as cavity-nesting birds, but the numbers of snags required may not be attainable or sustainable across the landscape. Work reported here on snag demography in eastside pine...

The Cooperative Forest Ecosystem Research Program

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

2002-01-01

Changes in priorities for forest management on federal and state lands in the Pacific Northwest have raised many questions about the best ways to manage young-forest stands, riparian areas, and forest landscapes. The Cooperative Forest Ecosystem Research (CFER) Program draws together scientists and managers from the U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, Oregon Department of Forestry, and Oregon State University to find science-based answers to these questions. Managers, researchers, and decisionmakers, working within the CFER program, are helping develop and disseminate the knowledge needed to carry out ecosystem-based management successfully in the Pacific Northwest.

Assessing Potential of VIIRS Data for Contribution to a Forest Threat Early Warning System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spruce, Joseph P.

2007-01-01

This viewgraph presentation reviews the contributions by the Rapid Prototyping Capability (RPC) towards using Visible Infrared Imager / Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) data in assessing the damage to forests. The Healthy Forest Restoration Act of 2003 mandates development of national Early Warning System (EWS) for forest threat monitoring and mitigation. NASA Stennis is working with the US Forest Service to develop needed components of this EWS. The use of MODIS data for monitoring forest disturbance at broad regional scales is a componet of this program. This RPC experiment was initiated to assess potential of the MODIS follow-on, VIIRS, for monitoring forest disturbance at broad scales and thereby contributing to the EWS. This presentation reviews the potential use of the VIIRS to examine the damage to forests caused by gyspy moths in the West Virginia and Virginia area.

Interactions among Amazon land use, forests and climate: prospects for a near-term forest tipping point.

PubMed

Nepstad, Daniel C; Stickler, Claudia M; Filho, Britaldo Soares-; Merry, Frank

2008-05-27

Some model experiments predict a large-scale substitution of Amazon forest by savannah-like vegetation by the end of the twenty-first century. Expanding global demands for biofuels and grains, positive feedbacks in the Amazon forest fire regime and drought may drive a faster process of forest degradation that could lead to a near-term forest dieback. Rising worldwide demands for biofuel and meat are creating powerful new incentives for agro-industrial expansion into Amazon forest regions. Forest fires, drought and logging increase susceptibility to further burning while deforestation and smoke can inhibit rainfall, exacerbating fire risk. If sea surface temperature anomalies (such as El Niño episodes) and associated Amazon droughts of the last decade continue into the future, approximately 55% of the forests of the Amazon will be cleared, logged, damaged by drought or burned over the next 20 years, emitting 15-26Pg of carbon to the atmosphere. Several important trends could prevent a near-term dieback. As fire-sensitive investments accumulate in the landscape, property holders use less fire and invest more in fire control. Commodity markets are demanding higher environmental performance from farmers and cattle ranchers. Protected areas have been established in the pathway of expanding agricultural frontiers. Finally, emerging carbon market incentives for reductions in deforestation could support these trends.

Fungal decomposers of leaf litter from an invaded and native mountain forest of NW Argentina.

PubMed

Fernandez, Romina Daiana; Bulacio, Natalia; Álvarez, Analía; Pajot, Hipólito; Aragón, Roxana

2017-09-01

The impact of plant species invasions on the abundance, composition and activity of fungal decomposers of leaf litter is poorly understood. In this study, we isolated and compared the relative abundance of ligninocellulolytic fungi of leaf litter mixtures from a native forest and a forest invaded by Ligustrum lucidum in a lower mountain forest of Tucuman, Argentina. In addition, we evaluated the relationship between the relative abundance of ligninocellulolytic fungi and properties of the soil of both forest types. Finally, we identified lignin degrading fungi and characterized their polyphenol oxidase activities. The relative abundance of ligninocellulolytic fungi was higher in leaf litter mixtures from the native forest. The abundance of cellulolytic fungi was negatively related with soil pH while the abundance of ligninolytic fungi was positively related with soil humidity. We identified fifteen genera of ligninolytic fungi; four strains were isolated from both forest types, six strains only from the invaded forest and five strains were isolated only from the native forest. The results found in this study suggest that L. Lucidum invasion could alter the abundance and composition of fungal decomposers. Long-term studies that include an analysis of the nutritional quality of litter are needed, for a more complete overview of the influence of L. Lucidum invasion on fungal decomposers and on leaf litter decomposition.

Comment on "The extent of forest in dryland biomes".

PubMed

Griffith, Daniel M; Lehmann, Caroline E R; Strömberg, Caroline A E; Parr, Catherine L; Pennington, R Toby; Sankaran, Mahesh; Ratnam, Jayashree; Still, Christopher J; Powell, Rebecca L; Hanan, Niall P; Nippert, Jesse B; Osborne, Colin P; Good, Stephen P; Anderson, T Michael; Holdo, Ricardo M; Veldman, Joseph W; Durigan, Giselda; Tomlinson, Kyle W; Hoffmann, William A; Archibald, Sally; Bond, William J

2017-11-17

Bastin et al (Reports, 12 May 2017, p. 635) infer forest as more globally extensive than previously estimated using tree cover data. However, their forest definition does not reflect ecosystem function or biotic composition. These structural and climatic definitions inflate forest estimates across the tropics and undermine conservation goals, leading to inappropriate management policies and practices in tropical grassy ecosystems. Copyright © 2017 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.

Global Boreal Forest Mapping with JERS-1: North America

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Williams, Cynthia L.; McDonald, Kyle; Chapman, Bruce

2000-01-01

Collaborative effort is underway to map boreal forests worldwide using L-band, single polarization Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery from the Japanese Earth Resources (JERS-1) satellite. Final products of the North American Boreal Forest Mapping Project will include two continental scale radar mosaics and supplementary multitemporal mosaics for Alaska, central Canada, and eastern Canada. For selected sites, we are also producing local scale (100 km x 100 km) and regional scale maps (1000 km x 1000 km). As with the nearly completed Amazon component of the Global Rain Forest Mapping project, SAR imagery, radar image mosaics and SAR-derived texture image products will be available to the scientific community on the World Wide Web. Image acquisition for this project has been completed and processing and image interpretation is underway at the Alaska SAR Facility.

Fire-mediated dieback and compositional cascade in an Amazonian forest.

PubMed

Barlow, Jos; Peres, Carlos A

2008-05-27

The only fully coupled land-atmosphere global climate model predicts a widespread dieback of Amazonian forest cover through reduced precipitation. Although these predictions are controversial, the structural and compositional resilience of Amazonian forests may also have been overestimated, as current vegetation models fail to consider the potential role of fire in the degradation of forest ecosystems. We examine forest structure and composition in the Arapiuns River basin in the central Brazilian Amazon, evaluating post-fire forest recovery and the consequences of recurrent fires for the patterns of dominance of tree species. We surveyed tree plots in unburned and once-burned forests examined 1, 3 and 9 years after an unprecedented fire event, in twice-burned forests examined 3 and 9 years after fire and in thrice-burned forests examined 5 years after the most recent fire event. The number of trees recorded in unburned primary forest control plots was stable over time. However, in both once- and twice-burned forest plots, there was a marked recruitment into the 10-20cm diameter at breast height tree size classes between 3 and 9 years post-fire. Considering tree assemblage composition 9 years after the first fire contact, we observed (i) a clear pattern of community turnover among small trees and the most abundant shrubs and saplings, and (ii) that species that were common in any of the four burn treatments (unburned, once-, twice- and thrice-burned) were often rare or entirely absent in other burn treatments. We conclude that episodic wildfires can lead to drastic changes in forest structure and composition, with cascading shifts in forest composition following each additional fire event. Finally, we use these results to evaluate the validity of the savannization paradigm.

Adaptive Cluster Sampling for Forest Inventories

Treesearch

Francis A. Roesch

1993-01-01

Adaptive cluster sampling is shown to be a viable alternative for sampling forests when there are rare characteristics of the forest trees which are of interest and occur on clustered trees. The ideas of recent work in Thompson (1990) have been extended to the case in which the initial sample is selected with unequal probabilities. An example is given in which the...

Together We Can! The Collaborative Spirit at Forest Lake Elementary Technology Magnet School Energizes Learning for Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steck, Kappy; Padget, Lizzie

2012-01-01

Collaboration is the key! It is the driving force that has allowed Forest Lake Elementary Technology Magnet School to be consistently recognized as a "school that works" for all members of the learning community. Forest Lake's staff, teachers, students, and parents enthusiastically embrace the collaborative spirit that is a vital,…

Assessing the viability and adaptability of forest-dependent communities in the United States.

Treesearch

Richard W. Haynes

2003-01-01

The work responds to the need to assess progress toward sustainable forest management as established by the Montréal Process of Criteria and Indicators. The focus is on a single indicator (commonly referred to as Indicator 46), which addresses the “viability and adaptability to changing economic conditions, of forest-dependent communities, including indigenous...

Toward robust estimation of the components of forest population change: simulation results

Treesearch

Francis A. Roesch

2014-01-01

This report presents the full simulation results of the work described in Roesch (2014), in which multiple levels of simulation were used to test the robustness of estimators for the components of forest change. In that study, a variety of spatial-temporal populations were created based on, but more variable than, an actual forest monitoring dataset, and then those...

Estate planning for forest landowners: what will become of your timberland?

Treesearch

William C. Siegel; Harry L. Haney; John L. Greene

2009-01-01

The purpose of this book is to provide guidelines and assistance to nonindustrial private forest owners and the legal, tax, financial, insurance, and forestry professionals who serve them on the application of estate planning techniques to forest properties. The book presents a working knowledge of the Federal estate and gift tax law as of September 30, 2008, with...

Assessment of forest quality in southwestern Poland with the use of remotely sensed data

Treesearch

Zbigniew Bochenek; Andrzej Ciolkosz; Maria Iracka

1998-01-01

A three-stage approach was applied to assess the quality of forests in southwestern Poland, which are heavily affected with air pollution and insect infestations. In the first stage a ground evaluation of spruce stands was done within the selected test areas. Three main characteristics of forest quality were determined as a result of these works: defoliation,...

Proceedings of the sixth Lake States forest tree improvement conference

Treesearch

Paul O. Rudolf

1964-01-01

In April of 1953 the Lake States Forest Tree Improvement Committee was formed, following a regional conference sponsored by the Lake States Forest Experiment Station. Since that time there has been a marked increase in the amount of tree improvement work done in this region, and the Committee has performed a valuable service in encouraging and coordinating such...

Fire behavioral changes as a result of sudden oak death in coastal California forests

Treesearch

Y. Vlachovic; C. Lee; H. Scanlon; J.M. Varner; R. Glebocki; B.D. Graham; D.M. Rizzo

2013-01-01

Field observations and anecdotal evidence suggest that sudden oak death (SOD), a disease caused by the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, may alter fuel loading in affected forests. Though it is reasonable to assume that a disease resulting in leaf blight, dead branches, and tree mortality would increase forest fuels, little work has been done to...

The Fraser Experimental Forest ... its work and aims

Treesearch

L. D. Love

1960-01-01

In 1937 the Fraser Experimental Forest was established in the heart of the Central Rocky Mountains near the Continental Divide 65 miles north and west of Denver. This 36-square-mile outdoor research laboratory is well suited for the study of pressing problems related to water yield from high-elevation forests and alpine areas. (Originally published in 1952; revised in...

Rocky Mountain Research Station Part 2 [U.S. Forest Service scientists continue work with the Lincoln National Forest

Treesearch

Todd A. Rawlinson

2010-01-01

The Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) is studying the effects of fuels reduction treatments on Mexican Spotted Owls and their prey in the Sacramento Mountains of New Mexico. One challenge facing Forest Service managers is that much of the landscape is dominated by overstocked stands resulting from years of fire suppression.

Long-term data from silvicultural studies: interpreting and assessing old records for economic insights

Treesearch

Paul E. Sendak; Robert M. Frank; William B. Leak

2006-01-01

Long-term silvicultural studies on the Penobscot Experimental Forest in Maine and Bartlett Experimental Forest in New Hampshire offer opportunities for the patient financial analyst. The economist working with carefully collected growth and yield data can increase the value of these studies to other researchers and ultimately to forest managers. Issues related to data...

Measurement, monitoring, and verification: make it work!

Treesearch

Coeli M. Hoover

2011-01-01

The capacity of forests to absorb and store carbon is certainly, as the authors note, an important tool in the greenhouse gas mitigation toolbox. Our understanding of what elements can make forest carbon offset projects successful has grown a great deal over time, as the global community has come to understand that forest degradation and conversion are the result of a...

The politics of forestry [book review

Treesearch

Brian Sturtevant

2010-01-01

This book is a call to action--nearly a call to arms--designed to put a face on the plight of ancient forests both within the United States (US) and world-wide. In the author's words, "The purpose of this book is to explain how forests work, to discuss the fate of forests, and to suggest principles to their proper management." It accomplishes this with...

Personal PM2.5 exposure among wildland firefighters working at prescribed forest burns in southeastern United States

Treesearch

O Adetona; K Dunn; Gary Achtemeier; A Stock; L Naeher

2011-01-01

Wildland firefighters are primarily responsible forwildfire suppression in wildlands, including forests, grasslands, and brush, but also engage in prescribed burning. Prescribed burns, as opposed to wildfires, are intentionally set by firefighters and are used as a land management tool for improving forage value of the forests, and reducing wildfire hazard and...

East Oklahoma, 2008 Forest Inventory and Analysis factsheet

Treesearch

Richard Harper

2010-01-01

This science update summarizes the key findings of the seventh forest survey of east Oklahoma representing the period of 1993 to 2008 (16 years since the last survey). Field work for cycle 6 data collection ended in December 1992; however, historical reports are labeled 1993. The science update will use 1992 as the correct year for the cycle 6 survey. Currently, Forest...

Reducing fire hazard: balancing costs and outcomes.

Treesearch

Valerie Rapp

2004-01-01

Massive wildfires in recent years have given urgency to questions of how to reduce fire hazard in Western forests, how to finance the work, and how to use the wood, especially in forests crowded with small trees. Scientists have already developed tools that estimate fire hazard in a forest stand. But hazard is more difficult to estimate at a landscape scale, involving...

Quantifying aboveground forest carbon pools and fluxes from repeat LiDAR surveys

Treesearch

Andrew T. Hudak; Eva K. Strand; Lee A. Vierling; John C. Byrne; Jan U. H. Eitel; Sebastian Martinuzzi; Michael J. Falkowski

2012-01-01

Sound forest policy and management decisions to mitigate rising atmospheric CO2 depend upon accurate methodologies to quantify forest carbon pools and fluxes over large tracts of land. LiDAR remote sensing is a rapidly evolving technology for quantifying aboveground biomass and thereby carbon pools; however, little work has evaluated the efficacy of repeat LiDAR...

Trailblazing the Carbon Cycle of Tropical Forests from Puerto Rico

Treesearch

Sandra Brown; Ariel Lugo

2017-01-01

We review the literature that led to clarifying the role of tropical forests in the global carbon cycle from a time when they were considered sources of atmospheric carbon to the time when they were found to be atmospheric carbon sinks. This literature originates from work conducted by US Forest Service scientists in Puerto Rico and their collaborators. It involves the...

Wildland–Urban Interface Forest Entrepreneurs: A Look at a New Trend

Treesearch

R. Bruce Hull; Katie Nelson

2011-01-01

Wildland–Urban interface forest (WUIF) entrepreneurs are finding a niche in fragmenting forests. Most successful entrepreneurs are either scaling down from their forestry and logging backgrounds or scaling up from green industry. They are skilled in some aspects of working with WUIF owners but often need additional tools, including people and marketing skills, business...

Effects of fire exclusion on forest structure and composition in unlogged ponderosa pine/Douglas-fir forests

Treesearch

Eric G. Keeling; Anna Sala; Thomas H. DeLuca

2006-01-01

Research to date on effects of fire exclusion in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests has been limited by narrow geographical focus, by confounding effects due to prior logging at research sites, and by uncertainty from using reconstructions of past conditions to infer changes. For the work presented here, reference stands in unlogged ponderosa...

The USDA Forest Service National Seed Laboratory

Treesearch

Robert P. Karrfalt

2006-01-01

The USDA Forest Service National Seed Laboratory has provided seed technology services to the forest and conservation seed and nursery industry for more than 50 years. This paper briefly traces the lab’s evolution from a regional facility concerned principally with southern pines to its newest mission as a national facility working with all native U.S. plants and...

Air pollution and watershed research in the central Sierra Nevada of California: nitrogen and ozone

Treesearch

Carolyn Hunsaker; Andrzej Bytnerowicz; Jessica Auman; Ricardo Cisneros

2007-01-01

Maintaining healthy forests is the major objective for the Forest Service scientists and managers working for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Air pollution, specifically ozone (O3) and nitrogenous (N) air pollutants, may severely affect the health of forest ecosystems in the western U.S. Thus, the monitoring of air pollution concentration and...

Demonstrating appropriate silviculture for sustainable forestry in central Siberia: a Russian - American partnership

Treesearch

J. C. Brissette; S. T. Eubanks; A. J. R. Gillespie; R. J. Lasko; A. V. Rykoff

1997-01-01

A joint Northeastern Forest Experiment Station - Eastern Region team is working with Russian counterparts on a Forests for the Future Initiative in the Krasnoyarsk region of central Siberia. Russian team members include scientists from the Sukachev Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, managers from a number of units of the Federal Forest Service of Russia, and...

Snow and frost measurements in a watershed-management research program

Treesearch

Richard S. Sartz

1957-01-01

I am going to tell you about our snow and frost work on the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Hubbard Brook is one of several experimental areas scattered throughout the country on which personnel of the United States Forest Service are seeking to learn how different kinds of forests and methods of managing them affect...

Internal defect detection success story : industry taps into the Forest Products Laboratory's research capabilities-so can you

Treesearch

John Dramm; Bill Adam

2000-01-01

This presentation discusses a success story of cooperative research and development (R&D) and commercialization of ultrasonic detection technology for locating internal defects in lumber. The R&D work described in this paper is the result of a unique federal laboratory and private sector partnership between the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (...

Volume, yield, and stand tables for second-growth southern pines

Treesearch

USDA Forest Service

1929-01-01

The bulk of the field work was done by the Southern Forest Experiment Station which, however, received generous cooperation from the State foresters of the Southern States. For this cooperation grateful acknowledgement is made. Office computations and the preparation of all tables were in the hands of the Forest Service under the general direction of Donald Bruce. The...

Ground-Level Digital Terrain Model (DTM) Construction from Tandem-X InSAR Data and Worldview Stereo-Photogrammetric Images

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lee, Seung-Kuk; Fatoyinbo, Temilola; Lagomasino, David; Osmanoglu, Batuhan; Feliciano, Emanuelle

2016-01-01

The ground-level digital elevation model (DEM) or digital terrain model (DTM) information are invaluable for environmental modeling, such as water dynamics in forests, canopy height, forest biomass, carbon estimation, etc. We propose to extract the DTM over forested areas from the combination of interferometric complex coherence from single-pass TanDEM-X (TDX) data at HH polarization and Digital Surface Model (DSM) derived from high-resolution WorldView (WV) image pair by means of random volume over ground (RVoG) model. The RVoG model is a widely and successfully used model for polarimetric SAR interferometry (Pol-InSAR) technique for vertical forest structure parameter retrieval [1][2][3][4]. The ground-level DEM have been obtained by complex volume decorrelation in the RVoG model with the DSM using stereo-photogrammetric technique. Finally, the airborne lidar data were used to validate the ground-level DEM and forest canopy height results.

Characterization and spatial distribution of mangrove forest types based on ALOS-PALSAR mosaic 25m-resolution in Southeast Asia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Darmawan, S.; Takeuchi, W.; Nakazono, E.; Parwati, E.; Dien, V. T.; Oo, K. S.; Wikantika, K.; Sari, D. K.

2016-06-01

The objective of this research is to investigate characteristics of mangrove forest types and to identify spatial distribution of mangrove forest based on ALOS PALSAR mosaic 25m- resolution in Southeast Asia. Methodology consists of collecting of ALOS PALSAR image for overall Southeast Asia region, preprocessing include converting DN to NRCS and filtering, collecting regions of interest of mangrove forest in Southeast Asia, plotting, characterization and classification. Result on this research we found characteristics of mangrove forest on HH values around -10.88 dB to -6.65 dB and on HV value around -16.49 dB to -13.26 dB. On polarization of HH which the highest backscattering value is mangrove forest in Preak Piphot River Cambodia, Thái Thủy Thai Binh Vietnam, and Vạn Ninh tp. Móng Cái Quảng Ninh Vietnam whereas the lowest backscattering value is mangrove forest in Thailand area. On polarization of HV which the highest backscattering value is mangrove forest in Preak Piphot River Cambodia, Sorong and Teluk Bintuni Indonesia whereas the lowest backscattering value is mangrove forest in Subang Indonesia, Giao Thiện Giao Thuỷ Nam Định, Vietnam and Puyu Mueng Satun Thailand. Based on characterization, we create a rule criteria for classification of mangrove areas and non mangrove area. Finally we found spatial distribution of mangrove forest based on ALOS PALSAR 25m-resolution in Southeast Asia.

Advanced Subspace Techniques for Modeling Channel and Session Variability in a Speaker Recognition System

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-01

with each SVM discriminating between a pair of the N total speakers in the data set. The (( + 1))/2 classifiers then vote on the final...classification of a test sample. The Random Forest classifier is an ensemble classifier that votes amongst decision trees generated with each node using...Forest vote , and the effects of overtraining will be mitigated by the fact that each decision tree is overtrained differently (due to the random

Message from the President of the United States, A Report of the Secretary of Agriculture in Relation to the Forests, Rivers, and Mountains of the Southern Appalachian Region

Treesearch

Theodore Roosevelt

1902-01-01

To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of Agriculture, prepared in collaboration with the Department of the Interior, upon the forests, rivers, and mountains; of the Southern Appalachian region, and upon its agricultural situation as affected by them. The report of the Secretary presents the final results of an...

The importance of forest structure to biodiversity–productivity relationships

PubMed Central

Huth, Andreas

2017-01-01

While various relationships between productivity and biodiversity are found in forests, the processes underlying these relationships remain unclear and theory struggles to coherently explain them. In this work, we analyse diversity–productivity relationships through an examination of forest structure (described by basal area and tree height heterogeneity). We use a new modelling approach, called ‘forest factory’, which generates various forest stands and calculates their annual productivity (above-ground wood increment). Analysing approximately 300 000 forest stands, we find that mean forest productivity does not increase with species diversity. Instead forest structure emerges as the key variable. Similar patterns can be observed by analysing 5054 forest plots of the German National Forest Inventory. Furthermore, we group the forest stands into nine forest structure classes, in which we find increasing, decreasing, invariant and even bell-shaped relationships between productivity and diversity. In addition, we introduce a new index, called optimal species distribution, which describes the ratio of realized to the maximal possible productivity (by shuffling species identities). The optimal species distribution and forest structure indices explain the obtained productivity values quite well (R2 between 0.7 and 0.95), whereby the influence of these attributes varies within the nine forest structure classes. PMID:28280550

75 FR 45091 - Federal Advisory Committee Meeting To Be Held Authorized Under the Secure Rural Schools and...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-08-02

... working relationships among community members and national forest personnel. Five Florida counties... approved must benefit National Forest lands. Projects can maintain infrastructure, improve the health of...

Countryside biogeography of Neotropical reptiles and amphibians.

PubMed

Mendenhall, Chase D; Frishkoff, Luke O; Santos-Barrera, Georgina; Pacheco, Jesús; Mesfun, Eyobed; Mendoza Quijano, Fernando; Ehrlich, Paul R; Ceballos, Gerardo; Daily, Gretchen C; Pringle, Robert M

2014-04-01

The future of biodiversity and ecosystem services depends largely on the capacity of human-dominated ecosystems to support them, yet this capacity remains largely unknown. Using the framework of countryside biogeography, and working in the Las Cruces system of Coto Brus, Costa Rica, we assessed reptile and amphibian assemblages within four habitats that typify much of the Neotropics: sun coffee plantations (12 sites), pasture (12 sites), remnant forest elements (12 sites), and a larger, contiguous protected forest (3 sites in one forest). Through analysis of 1678 captures of 67 species, we draw four primary conclusions. First, we found that the majority of reptile (60%) and amphibian (70%) species in this study used an array of habitat types, including coffee plantations and actively grazed pastures. Second, we found that coffee plantations and pastures hosted rich, albeit different and less dense, reptile and amphibian biodiversity relative to the 326-ha Las Cruces Forest Reserve and neighboring forest elements. Third, we found that the small ribbons of "countryside forest elements" weaving through farmland collectively increased the effective size of a 326-ha local forest reserve 16-fold for reptiles and 14-fold for amphibians within our 236-km2 study area. Therefore, countryside forest elements, often too small for most remote sensing techniques to identify, are contributing -95% of the available habitat for forest-dependent reptiles and amphibians in our largely human-dominated study region. Fourth, we found large and pond-reproducing amphibians to prefer human-made habitats, whereas small, stream-reproducing, and directly developing species are more dependent on forest elements. Our investigation demonstrates that tropical farming landscapes can support substantial reptile and amphibian biodiversity. Our approach provides a framework for estimating the conservation value of the complex working landscapes that constitute roughly half of the global land surface, and which are experiencing intensification pressure worldwide.

A survey of forest workers in New Zealand. Do hours of work, rest, and recovery play a role in accidents and injury?

PubMed

Lilley, Rebbecca; Feyer, Anne-Marie; Kirk, Patrick; Gander, Philippa

2002-01-01

A number of structural and organizational changes have occurred recently within the New Zealand Forestry Industry, with concerns being raised about the impact of these changes on the forestry worker in terms of fatigue, sleepiness, and compromised safety. This study explored the relationship of fatigue, and some of its key determinants, with accidents and injuries in a group of forestry industry workers in New Zealand. A total of 367 forestry workers responded to a self-administered questionnaire. Fatigue was found to be commonly experienced at work in the forest, with 78% of workers reporting that they experienced fatigue at least "sometimes." This study found that certain groups of workers reported long working hours, reduced sleep, compromised recovery time, and intensely paced work. The results of logistic regression analysis showed that recent sleep, number of breaks taken during the workday, and specific job/tasks were independently associated with reporting of high fatigue levels at work. Near-miss injury events were significantly more common among those reporting a high level of fatigue at work. Accidents and lost-time injury were associated with length of time at work, ethnicity, and having had near-miss injury events. Together, these results suggest that fatigue and aspects of work organization, which are likely to be fatiguing, may be associated with compromised safety for forest workers. With an already slim margin of error present in forest operations, an impairment due to increased fatigue may constitute a significant risk factor for accidents and injuries in this workforce. The results indicate the need for further examination of shift and workload management among forestry workers, as well as a role for improving industry awareness about the causes and consequences of fatigue.

JPRS Report, East Asia, Southeast Asia

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-07-23

festival hall, the KUFNCD National Council, in cooperation with the Information and Culture Ministry, organized a solemn meeting to mark the 36th...and for tourism . The forestry services must also define clearly the limit of forests reserved for wood and forest product business operations, the...acts. One concerns copyrights. As for copyrights, if you write a literary work, produce a work of art, compose a piece of music , or make a movie

Summary of tree-breeding experiments by The Northeastern Forest Experiment Station 1947-1950

Treesearch

Jonathan W. Wright

1953-01-01

The tree-breeding work of the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station has its roots in a project started in 1924 by the Oxford Paper Company of Rumford, Maine, to develop fast-growing poplars that would be suitable for pulpwood. The initial tree-breeding work in this project was done by A. B. Stout and Ernst J. Schreiner, most of it at the New York Botanical Garden and...

IUFRO Fourth Meeting of Working Party 7.02.09, Phytophthoras in Forest and Natural Ecosystems: Meeting Summary

Treesearch

Susan Frankel

2009-01-01

On behalf of the Fourth Phytophthoras in Forest and Natural Ecosystems local organizing committee and co-chairs Everett Hansen, Clive Brasier, and Giles Hardy, I thank you for your contributions to this Working Party meeting. The past week has stimulated much thought and discussion, thanks to the 100 participants from 15 countries, 48 papers and 31 posters, two field...

GOFC-GOLD :: Global Observation of Forest and Land Cover Dynamics

Science.gov Websites

GTOS HOME OVERVIEW CALENDAR ORGANIZATION LAND TEAM FIRE TEAM NETWORKS WORKING GROUPS PARTNERS DATA availability of observations of forests and land cover at regional and global scales and to produce useful

Lake States regional forest resources assessment: technical papers.

Treesearch

Henry H. Webster; J. Michael Vasievich

1997-01-01

Contains 21 technical working papers prepared for the Lake States regional forest resources assessment, Lake States Forestry Alliance 1995. They represent significant contributions from many individuals and organizations and form the technical background for the assessment.

A WebGIS-based command control system for forest fire fighting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yang, Jianyu; Ming, Dongping; Zhang, Xiaodong; Huang, Haitao

2006-10-01

Forest is a finite resource and fire prevention is crucial work. However, once a forest fire or accident occurs, timely and effective fire-fighting is the only necessary measure. The aim of this research is to build a computerized command control system based on WEBGIS to direct fire-fighting. Firstly, this paper introduces the total technique flow and functional modules of the system. Secondly, this paper analyses the key techniques for building the system, and they are data obtaining, data organizing & management, architecture of WebGIS and sharing & interoperation technique. In the end, this paper demonstrates the on line martial symbol editing function to show the running result of system. The practical application of this system showed that it played very important role in the forest fire fighting work. In addition, this paper proposes some strategic recommendations for the further development of the system.

What Data to Use for Forest Conservation Planning? A Comparison of Coarse Open and Detailed Proprietary Forest Inventory Data in Finland

PubMed Central

Lehtomäki, Joona; Tuominen, Sakari; Toivonen, Tuuli; Leinonen, Antti

2015-01-01

The boreal region is facing intensifying resource extraction pressure, but the lack of comprehensive biodiversity data makes operative forest conservation planning difficult. Many countries have implemented forest inventory schemes and are making extensive and up-to-date forest databases increasingly available. Some of the more detailed inventory databases, however, remain proprietary and unavailable for conservation planning. Here, we investigate how well different open and proprietary forest inventory data sets suit the purpose of conservation prioritization in Finland. We also explore how much priorities are affected by using the less accurate but open data. First, we construct a set of indices for forest conservation value based on quantitative information commonly found in forest inventories. These include the maturity of the trees, tree species composition, and site fertility. Secondly, using these data and accounting for connectivity between forest types, we investigate the patterns in conservation priority. For prioritization, we use Zonation, a method and software for spatial conservation prioritization. We then validate the prioritizations by comparing them to known areas of high conservation value. We show that the overall priority patterns are relatively consistent across different data sources and analysis options. However, the coarse data cannot be used to accurately identify the high-priority areas as it misses much of the fine-scale variation in forest structures. We conclude that, while inventory data collected for forestry purposes may be useful for forest conservation purposes, it needs to be detailed enough to be able to account for more fine-scaled features of high conservation value. These results underline the importance of making detailed inventory data publicly available. Finally, we discuss how the prioritization methodology we used could be integrated into operative forest management, especially in countries in the boreal zone. PMID:26317227

What Data to Use for Forest Conservation Planning? A Comparison of Coarse Open and Detailed Proprietary Forest Inventory Data in Finland.

PubMed

Lehtomäki, Joona; Tuominen, Sakari; Toivonen, Tuuli; Leinonen, Antti

2015-01-01

The boreal region is facing intensifying resource extraction pressure, but the lack of comprehensive biodiversity data makes operative forest conservation planning difficult. Many countries have implemented forest inventory schemes and are making extensive and up-to-date forest databases increasingly available. Some of the more detailed inventory databases, however, remain proprietary and unavailable for conservation planning. Here, we investigate how well different open and proprietary forest inventory data sets suit the purpose of conservation prioritization in Finland. We also explore how much priorities are affected by using the less accurate but open data. First, we construct a set of indices for forest conservation value based on quantitative information commonly found in forest inventories. These include the maturity of the trees, tree species composition, and site fertility. Secondly, using these data and accounting for connectivity between forest types, we investigate the patterns in conservation priority. For prioritization, we use Zonation, a method and software for spatial conservation prioritization. We then validate the prioritizations by comparing them to known areas of high conservation value. We show that the overall priority patterns are relatively consistent across different data sources and analysis options. However, the coarse data cannot be used to accurately identify the high-priority areas as it misses much of the fine-scale variation in forest structures. We conclude that, while inventory data collected for forestry purposes may be useful for forest conservation purposes, it needs to be detailed enough to be able to account for more fine-scaled features of high conservation value. These results underline the importance of making detailed inventory data publicly available. Finally, we discuss how the prioritization methodology we used could be integrated into operative forest management, especially in countries in the boreal zone.

Prediction of forest fires occurrences with area-level Poisson mixed models.

PubMed

Boubeta, Miguel; Lombardía, María José; Marey-Pérez, Manuel Francisco; Morales, Domingo

2015-05-01

The number of fires in forest areas of Galicia (north-west of Spain) during the summer period is quite high. Local authorities are interested in analyzing the factors that explain this phenomenon. Poisson regression models are good tools for describing and predicting the number of fires per forest areas. This work employs area-level Poisson mixed models for treating real data about fires in forest areas. A parametric bootstrap method is applied for estimating the mean squared errors of fires predictors. The developed methodology and software are applied to a real data set of fires in forest areas of Galicia. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Incidence and impact of damage to Florida's timber, 1980

Treesearch

Robert L. Anderson; Joe P. McClure; Noel D. Cost; William H. Hoffard

1983-01-01

This bulletin reports survey data on agents damaging trees in Florida’s forests. Data were collected in 1978, 1979, and 1980 by the Renewable Resources Evaluation Work Unit of the Southeastern Forest Experiment Station. This effort was part of the fifth inventory of the State’s forests. Considerably more information was gathered in this than in previous inventories....

A conceptual framework for characterizing forest areas with high societal values: experiences from the Pacific Northwest of USA and Central Europe

Treesearch

Tina Simonèiè; Thomas A. Spies; Robert L. Deal; Andrej Bonèina

2015-01-01

In recent decades, much work has been invested to describe forest allocations with high societal values. Yet, few comparative analyses have been conducted on their importance and differences across the regions of the globe. This paper introduces a conceptual framework to characterize forest priority areas defined as areas with identified higher importance of societal...

A history of forest entomology in the Intermountain and Rocky Mountain areas, 1901 to 1982

Treesearch

Malcolm M. Furniss

2007-01-01

This account spans the time from A.D. Hopkins' trip to the Black Hills, SD, in 1901 to my retirement in 1982. The focus is on personnel and the work of the Division of Forest Insect Investigations, USDA, and the Forest Service experiment stations in the Rocky Mountain and Intermountain areas. Information for the Intermountain and Northern Rocky Mountain station...

Managing timber to promote sustainable forests: a second-level course for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative of Pennsylvania

Treesearch

James C. Finley; Susan L. Stout; Timothy G. Pierson; Barbara J. McGuinness

2007-01-01

At least 80 percent of the raw material used for wood products by the forest industry is from privately owned woodlands. This publication provides material for a course designed to help landowners, foresters, and loggers work together to assess whether a planned timber harvest will retain the diversity of species on site. It includes methods for collecting overstory...

Effects of climate change and shifts in forest composition on forest net primary production

Treesearch

Jyh-Min Chiang; Louts [Louis] R. Iverson; Anantha Prasad; Kim J. Brown

2008-01-01

Forests are dynamic in both structure and species composition, and these dynamics are strongly influenced by climate. However, the net effects of future tree species composition on net primary production (NPP) are not well understood. The objective of this work was to model the potential range shifts of tree species (DISTRIB Model) and predict their impacts on NPP (...

Working with knowledge at the science/policy interface: a unique example from developing the Tongass Land Management Plan.

Treesearch

Charles G. Shaw; Fred H. Everest; Douglas N. Swanston

2000-01-01

An innovative, knowledge-based partnership between research scientists and resource managers in the U.S. Forest Service provided the foundation upon which the Forest Plan was developed that will guide management on the Tongass National Forest for the next 10-15 years. Criteria developed by the scientists to evaluate if management decisions were consistent with the...

Rocky Mountain Research Station Part 1 [U.S. Forest Service scientists continue work with the Lincoln National Forest

Treesearch

Todd Rawlinson

2010-01-01

The Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) is one of five regional Research Stations that make up the US Forest Service Research and Development organization. RMRS is organized into eight science program areas, with an overall mission to develop new and synthesize existing knowledge to foster improved management of natural resources. Scientists with the Wildlife and...

Southern forest resource conditions and management practices from 1900-1950: Benefits of research

Treesearch

James P. Barnett

2004-01-01

The vast harvest of the native forests of the South in the 19th and early 20th centuries created a great need for reforestation and silvicultural knowledge. An emphasis on forestry research that changed the face of the South began with the establishment of the Southern and Appalachian Forest Experiment Stations in 1921. Working under primitive conditions, early...

Some estimates of growth and mortality from the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon.

Treesearch

Donald R. Gedney; Floyd A. Johnson; Vernon E. Hicks

1959-01-01

During 1955-56 an inventory was made of forested land in the Middle Fork Working Circle of the Malheur National Forest to provide information necessary for calculation of the allowable cut and for other management purposes. The growth and mortality estimates in the following report were obtained from this inventory. Although the estimates apply directly to the Middle...

Wildlife conservation in fragmented tropical forests: A case of South Garo Hills, Meghalaya, North East India

Treesearch

Ashish Kumar; Bruce G. Marcot; Rohitkumar Patel

2017-01-01

This volume presents findings on, and implications for, wildlife conservation in the tropical forests in Garo Hills of Meghalaya state in the North East India. A companion volume presented the findings on forest fragmentation due to practice of slash and burn agriculture in the region. Both of the volumes summarize work completed over more than a decade on...

Use of Forest Inventory and Analysis information in wildlife habitat modeling: a process for linking multiple scales

Treesearch

Thomas C. Edwards; Gretchen G. Moisen; Tracey S. Frescino; Joshua L. Lawler

2002-01-01

We describe our collective efforts to develop and apply methods for using FIA data to model forest resources and wildlife habitat. Our work demonstrates how flexible regression techniques, such as generalized additive models, can be linked with spatially explicit environmental information for the mapping of forest type and structure. We illustrate how these maps of...

When the douglas-firs were counted: The beginning of the Forest Survey

Treesearch

Ivan Doig

1976-01-01

The wonders which Phil Briegleb remembered from that stint of work - the dark green spill of forest from ridgeline to valley floor, the colonnade of giant boles crowding acre upon acre, the Depression-staving paycheck earned by sizing up this big timber - may have been grand, all right, but no more so than the language which spelled out the project. The Forest Survey...

Modeling the long-term effects of oak shelterwood regeneration treatments on species diversity and oak abundance in southern Appalachian forests of North Carolina

Treesearch

Tara L. Keyser; Chad E. Keyser

2013-01-01

In April 2008, the Upland Hardwoods Ecology and Management Research Work Unit of the U.S. Forest Service, Southern Research Station began a long-term cooperative study to describe forest ecosystem response to three oak (Quercus spp.) shelterwood regeneration treatments in the central hardwoods region of the United States. Pretreatment inventory data...

Classification of very high resolution satellite remote sensing data in a pilot phase of the forest cover classification of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Forêts d'Afrique Central Evaluées par Télédetection (FACET) product

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Singa Monga Lowengo, C.

2012-12-01

The Observatoire Satellital des Forêts d'Afrique Centrale (OSFAC) based in Kinshasa, serves as the focal point of the GOFC-GOLD network for Central Africa. OSFAC's long term objective is building regional capacity to use remotely sensed data to map forest cover and forest cover change across Central Africa. OSFAC archives and disseminates satellite data, offers training in geospatial data applications in coordination with the University of Kinshasa, and provides technical support to CARPE partners. Forêts d'Afrique Centrale Évaluées par Télédétection (FACET) is an OSFAC initiative that implements the UMD/SDSU methodology at the national level and quantitatively evaluates the spatiotemporal dynamics of forest cover in Central Africa. The multi-temporal series of FACET data is a useful contribution to many projects, such as biodiversity monitoring, climate modeling, conservation, natural resource management, land use planning, agriculture and REDD+. I am working as Remote Sensing and GIS Officer in various projects of OSFAC. My activities include forest cover and lands dynamics monitoring in Congo Basin. I am familiar with the use of digital mapping software, GIS and RS (Arc GIS, ENVI and PCI Geomatica etc.), classification and spatial Analysis of satellite images, 3D modeling, etc. I started as an intern at OSFAC, Assistant Trainer (Professional Training) and Consultant than permanent employee since October 2009. To assist in the OSFAC activities regarding the monitoring of forest cover and the CARPE program in the context of natural resources management, I participated in the development of the FACET Atlas (Republic of Congo). I received data from Matt Hansen (map.img), WRI and Brazzaville (shapefiles). With all these data I draw maps of the ROC Atlas and statistics of forest cover and forest loss. We organize field work on land to collect data to validate the FACET product. Therefore, to assess forest cover in the region of Kwamouth and Kahuzi-Maiko Biega landscape with very high resolution data and field work for validating FACET product (Remotelly Sensing Product).;

Influence of Forest Management Regimes on Forest Dynamics in the Upstream Region of the Hun River in Northeastern China

PubMed Central

Yao, Jing; He, Xingyuan; Wang, Anzhi; Chen, Wei; Li, Xiaoyu; Lewis, Bernard J.; Lv, Xiaotao

2012-01-01

Balancing forest harvesting and restoration is critical for forest ecosystem management. In this study, we used LANDIS, a spatially explicit forest landscape model, to evaluate the effects of 21 alternative forest management initiatives which were drafted for forests in the upstream region of the Hun River in northeastern China. These management initiatives included a wide range of planting and harvest intensities for Pinus koraiensis, the historically dominant tree species in the region. Multivariate analysis of variance, Shannon's Diversity Index, and planting efficiency (which indicates how many cells of the target species at the final year benefit from per-cell of the planting trees) estimates were used as indicators to analyze the effects of planting and harvesting regimes on forests in the region. The results showed that the following: (1) Increased planting intensity, although augmenting the coverage of P. koraiensis, was accompanied by decreases in planting efficiency and forest diversity. (2) While selective harvesting could increase forest diversity, the abrupt increase of early succession species accompanying this method merits attention. (3) Stimulating rapid forest succession may not be a good management strategy, since the climax species would crowd out other species which are likely more adapted to future climatic conditions in the long run. In light of the above, we suggest a combination of 30% planting intensity with selective harvesting of 50% and 70% of primary and secondary timber species, respectively, as the most effective management regime in this area. In the long run this would accelerate the ultimate dominance of P. koraiensis in the forest via a more effective rate of planting, while maintaining a higher degree of forest diversity. These results are particularly useful for forest managers constrained by limited financial and labor resources who must deal with conflicts between forest harvesting and restoration. PMID:22723930

Charcoal records reveal past occurrences of disturbances in the forests of the Kisangani region, Democratic Republic of the Congo

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tshibamba Mukendi, John; Hubau, Wannes; Ntahobavuka, Honorine; Boyemba Bosela, Faustin; De Cannière, Charles; Beeckman, Hans

2014-05-01

Past disturbances have modified local density, structure and floristic composition of Central African rainforests. As such, these perturbations represent a driving force for forest dynamics and they were presumably at the origin of present-day forest mosaics. One of the most prominent disturbances within the forest is fire, leaving behind charcoal as a witness of past forest dynamics. Quantification and identification of ancient charcoal fragments found in soil layers (= pedoanthracology) allows a detailed reconstruction of forest history, including the possible occurrence of past perturbations. The primary objective of this study is to present palaeoenvironmental evidence for the existence of past disturbances in the forests of the Kisangani region (Democratic Republic of the Congo) using a pedoanthracological approach. We quantified and identified charcoal fragments from pedoanthracological excavations in the Yangambi, Yoko, Masako and Kole forest regions. Charcoal sampling was conducted in pit intervals of 10 cm, whereby pottery fragments were also registered and quantified. Floristic identifications were conducted using former protocols based on wood anatomy, which is largely preserved after charcoalification. 14 excavations were conducted and charcoal was found in most pit intervals. Specifically, 52 out of 56 sampled intervals from the Yangambi forest contained charcoal, along with 47 pit intervals from the Yoko forest reserve, 34 pit intervals from the Masako forest and 16 from the Kole forest. Highest specific anthracomasses were recorded in Yoko (167 mg charcoal per kg soil), followed by Yangambi (133 mg/kg), Masako (71,89 mg/kg) and finally Kole (42,4 mg/kg). Charcoal identifications point at a manifest presence of the family of Fabaceae (Caesalpinioideae). This family is characteristic for the tropical humid rainforest. The presence of charcoal fragments from these taxa, associated with pottery sherds on different depths within the profiles, suggests past occurrences of anthropogenic perturbations in these forests. Insights in past forest dynamics and the relative roles of climatic and anthropogenic disturbances enhance our overall understanding of present and future forest dynamics.

Final Environmental Impact Statement. Upper and Lower Red Lakes. Operation and Maintenance Activities, Red Lake River Basin, Minnesota.

DTIC Science & Technology

1975-03-01

Smith, Jr. 1971. Annual Catch of Yellow Perch from Red Lakes, Minnesota, in Relation to Growth Rate and Fishing Effort. University of Minnesota...forest... The stream borders become marshy... growths of wild rice.., muskrats and ducks, muddy game trails between r water and woods... Hardwood forest...the Reservation itself, the Red Lake River drained what was then-so far as I could see from the canoe--real wilderness...There were heavy growths of

Final Environmental Assessment: Lease with Omaha Public Power District (OPPD) to Support New United States Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) Facility and Existing Base Load

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-02-01

Biological Resources The area around and encompassing Offutt AFB is the western edge of the Eastern Deciduous Forest and borders on the ecotone...that separates the Eastern Deciduous Forest from the Tall and Mid Grass Prairies. Early photos of the Offutt AFB area indicate that it was grassland...regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Washington

Accuracy Assessment of Crown Delineation Methods for the Individual Trees Using LIDAR Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, K. T.; Lin, C.; Lin, Y. C.; Liu, J. K.

2016-06-01

Forest canopy density and height are used as variables in a number of environmental applications, including the estimation of biomass, forest extent and condition, and biodiversity. The airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is very useful to estimate forest canopy parameters according to the generated canopy height models (CHMs). The purpose of this work is to introduce an algorithm to delineate crown parameters, e.g. tree height and crown radii based on the generated rasterized CHMs. And accuracy assessment for the extraction of volumetric parameters of a single tree is also performed via manual measurement using corresponding aerial photo pairs. A LiDAR dataset of a golf course acquired by Leica ALS70-HP is used in this study. Two algorithms, i.e. a traditional one with the subtraction of a digital elevation model (DEM) from a digital surface model (DSM), and a pit-free approach are conducted to generate the CHMs firstly. Then two algorithms, a multilevel morphological active-contour (MMAC) and a variable window filter (VWF), are implemented and used in this study for individual tree delineation. Finally, experimental results of two automatic estimation methods for individual trees can be evaluated with manually measured stand-level parameters, i.e. tree height and crown diameter. The resulting CHM generated by a simple subtraction is full of empty pixels (called "pits") that will give vital impact on subsequent analysis for individual tree delineation. The experimental results indicated that if more individual trees can be extracted, tree crown shape will became more completely in the CHM data after the pit-free process.

Ecological Status of a Patagonian Mountain River: Usefulness of Environmental and Biotic Metrics for Rehabilitation Assessment.

PubMed

Laura, Miserendino M; Adriana, M Kutschker; Cecilia, Brand; La Ludmila, Manna; Cecilia, Prinzio Y Di; Gabriela, Papazian; José, Bava

2016-06-01

This work evaluates the consequences of anthropogenic pressures at different sections of a Patagonian mountain river using a set of environmental and biological measures. A map of risk of soil erosion at a basin scale was also produced. The study was conducted at 12 sites along the Percy River system, where physicochemical parameters, riparian ecosystem quality, habitat condition, plants, and macroinvertebrates were investigated. While livestock and wood collection, the dominant activities at upper and mean basin sites resulted in an important loss of the forest cover still the riparian ecosystem remains in a relatively good status of conservation, as do the in-stream habitat conditions and physicochemical features. Besides, most indicators based on macroinvertebrates revealed that both upper and middle basin sections supported similar assemblages, richness, density, and most functional feeding group attributes. Instead, the lower urbanized basin showed increases in conductivity and nutrient values, poor quality in the riparian ecosystem, and habitat condition. According to the multivariate analysis, ammonia level, elevation, current velocity, and habitat conditions had explanatory power on benthos assemblages. Discharge, naturalness of the river channel, flood plain morphology, conservation status, and percent of urban areas were important moderators of plant composition. Finally, although the present land use in the basin would not produce a significant risk of soil erosion, unsustainable practices that promotes the substitution of the forest for shrubs would lead to severe consequences. Mitigation efforts should be directed to protect headwater forest, restore altered riparian ecosystem, and to control the incipient eutrophication process.

Ecological Status of a Patagonian Mountain River: Usefulness of Environmental and Biotic Metrics for Rehabilitation Assessment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laura, Miserendino M.; Adriana, M. Kutschker; Cecilia, Brand; La Ludmila, Manna; Cecilia, Prinzio Y. Di; Gabriela, Papazian; José, Bava

2016-06-01

This work evaluates the consequences of anthropogenic pressures at different sections of a Patagonian mountain river using a set of environmental and biological measures. A map of risk of soil erosion at a basin scale was also produced. The study was conducted at 12 sites along the Percy River system, where physicochemical parameters, riparian ecosystem quality, habitat condition, plants, and macroinvertebrates were investigated. While livestock and wood collection, the dominant activities at upper and mean basin sites resulted in an important loss of the forest cover still the riparian ecosystem remains in a relatively good status of conservation, as do the in-stream habitat conditions and physicochemical features. Besides, most indicators based on macroinvertebrates revealed that both upper and middle basin sections supported similar assemblages, richness, density, and most functional feeding group attributes. Instead, the lower urbanized basin showed increases in conductivity and nutrient values, poor quality in the riparian ecosystem, and habitat condition. According to the multivariate analysis, ammonia level, elevation, current velocity, and habitat conditions had explanatory power on benthos assemblages. Discharge, naturalness of the river channel, flood plain morphology, conservation status, and percent of urban areas were important moderators of plant composition. Finally, although the present land use in the basin would not produce a significant risk of soil erosion, unsustainable practices that promotes the substitution of the forest for shrubs would lead to severe consequences. Mitigation efforts should be directed to protect headwater forest, restore altered riparian ecosystem, and to control the incipient eutrophication process.

Contributions of a global network of tree diversity experiments to sustainable forest plantations.

PubMed

Verheyen, Kris; Vanhellemont, Margot; Auge, Harald; Baeten, Lander; Baraloto, Christopher; Barsoum, Nadia; Bilodeau-Gauthier, Simon; Bruelheide, Helge; Castagneyrol, Bastien; Godbold, Douglas; Haase, Josephine; Hector, Andy; Jactel, Hervé; Koricheva, Julia; Loreau, Michel; Mereu, Simone; Messier, Christian; Muys, Bart; Nolet, Philippe; Paquette, Alain; Parker, John; Perring, Mike; Ponette, Quentin; Potvin, Catherine; Reich, Peter; Smith, Andy; Weih, Martin; Scherer-Lorenzen, Michael

2016-02-01

The area of forest plantations is increasing worldwide helping to meet timber demand and protect natural forests. However, with global change, monospecific plantations are increasingly vulnerable to abiotic and biotic disturbances. As an adaption measure we need to move to plantations that are more diverse in genotypes, species, and structure, with a design underpinned by science. TreeDivNet, a global network of tree diversity experiments, responds to this need by assessing the advantages and disadvantages of mixed species plantations. The network currently consists of 18 experiments, distributed over 36 sites and five ecoregions. With plantations 1-15 years old, TreeDivNet can already provide relevant data for forest policy and management. In this paper, we highlight some early results on the carbon sequestration and pest resistance potential of more diverse plantations. Finally, suggestions are made for new, innovative experiments in understudied regions to complement the existing network.

Comparing ensemble learning methods based on decision tree classifiers for protein fold recognition.

PubMed

Bardsiri, Mahshid Khatibi; Eftekhari, Mahdi

2014-01-01

In this paper, some methods for ensemble learning of protein fold recognition based on a decision tree (DT) are compared and contrasted against each other over three datasets taken from the literature. According to previously reported studies, the features of the datasets are divided into some groups. Then, for each of these groups, three ensemble classifiers, namely, random forest, rotation forest and AdaBoost.M1 are employed. Also, some fusion methods are introduced for combining the ensemble classifiers obtained in the previous step. After this step, three classifiers are produced based on the combination of classifiers of types random forest, rotation forest and AdaBoost.M1. Finally, the three different classifiers achieved are combined to make an overall classifier. Experimental results show that the overall classifier obtained by the genetic algorithm (GA) weighting fusion method, is the best one in comparison to previously applied methods in terms of classification accuracy.

An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 Thematic Mapper data for the classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Quattrochi, D. A.; Anderson, J. E.; Brannon, D. P.; Hill, C. L.

1982-01-01

An initial analysis of LANDSAT 4 thematic mapper (TM) data for the delineation and classification of agricultural, forested wetland, and urban land covers was conducted. A study area in Poinsett County, Arkansas was used to evaluate a classification of agricultural lands derived from multitemporal LANDSAT multispectral scanner (MSS) data in comparison with a classification of TM data for the same area. Data over Reelfoot Lake in northwestern Tennessee were utilized to evaluate the TM for delineating forested wetland species. A classification of the study area was assessed for accuracy in discriminating five forested wetland categories. Finally, the TM data were used to identify urban features within a small city. A computer generated classification of Union City, Tennessee was analyzed for accuracy in delineating urban land covers. An evaluation of digitally enhanced TM data using principal components analysis to facilitate photointerpretation of urban features was also performed.

Application of lifting wavelet and random forest in compound fault diagnosis of gearbox

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Tang; Cui, Yulian; Feng, Fuzhou; Wu, Chunzhi

2018-03-01

Aiming at the weakness of compound fault characteristic signals of a gearbox of an armored vehicle and difficult to identify fault types, a fault diagnosis method based on lifting wavelet and random forest is proposed. First of all, this method uses the lifting wavelet transform to decompose the original vibration signal in multi-layers, reconstructs the multi-layer low-frequency and high-frequency components obtained by the decomposition to get multiple component signals. Then the time-domain feature parameters are obtained for each component signal to form multiple feature vectors, which is input into the random forest pattern recognition classifier to determine the compound fault type. Finally, a variety of compound fault data of the gearbox fault analog test platform are verified, the results show that the recognition accuracy of the fault diagnosis method combined with the lifting wavelet and the random forest is up to 99.99%.

Study and Evaluation of the Alcublas (Valencia, Spain) forest fire of Summer 2012

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mora Sanchez, Francisco; Lopez-Baeza, Ernesto

This work studies and quantifies the forest fire that took place in the province of Valencia, Spain, that particularly affected the municipality of Alcublas. This fire was one of the most intense and catastrophic fires that extended over the Valencian Community. Besides quantifying the area affected by the fire according to a severity index, the analysis was carried out from different viewpoints, namely land use, municipal, and cadastral. The data used were, on the one hand, two images from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite, respectively before and after the fire. On the other hand, we also used CORINE Land Cover 2006 Land Use data, a digital terrain model (DTM), the cadastre or land registration from Alcublas and the Spanish topographic map at scale 1:25000 (MTN25). The method used consisted of different steps: atmospheric correction of the images with the dark-object subtraction technique, topographic correction of the images with a 5 m resolution DTM and the Minnaert method, and the elimination of the Landsat 7 Scan Line Corrector (SLC-off) effect by using the Delaunay triangulation method. Once the images were corrected, we computed the Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR) to highlight and characterise the areas that were burnt by means of a standard severity index. The estimation of the affected area was done through the difference of the images respectively before and after the fire that was also trimmed off to actually obtain the affected area. Once the forest fire was classified, the total affected area was estimated for each severity index and overlaid the Spanish topographic map (1:25000) thus being able to calculate the affected area for each municipality, land use and cadastrial property. The total burnt area was 19910 ha, the most affected municipality -in extension- was Andilla with 4966 ha. But the most significant one was precisely Alcublas with 60,64% of its area burnt. The area burnt for each land use was also estimated according to its severity by using the CORINE Land Cover Map. The most affected uses were transition forest shrubs (matorral) (11313 ha), sclerophyllous matorral (3966 ha) and coniferous forests (2821 ha). Finally, for the Alcublas cadastre, it was checked that the fire devastated all the natural vegetation of the hilly forests around the village but practically did not affect any urban or rural plot.

A Hierarchical Analysis of Tree Growth and Environmental Drivers Across Eastern US Temperate Forests

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mantooth, J.; Dietze, M.

2014-12-01

Improving predictions of how forests in the eastern United States will respond to future global change requires a better understanding of the drivers of variability in tree growth rates. Current inventory data lack the temporal resolution to characterize interannual variability, while existing growth records lack the extent required to assess spatial scales of variability. Therefore, we established a network of forest inventory plots across ten sites across the eastern US, and measured growth in adult trees using increment cores. Sites were chosen to maximize climate space explored, while within sites, plots were spread across primary environmental gradients to explore landscape-level variability in growth. Using the annual growth record available from tree cores, we explored the responses of trees to multiple environmental covariates over multiple spatial and temporal scales. We hypothesized that within and across sites growth rates vary among species, and that intraspecific growth rates increase with temperature along a species' range. We also hypothesized that trees show synchrony in growth responses to landscape-scale climatic changes. Initial analyses of growth increments indicate that across sites, trees with intermediate shade tolerance, e.g. Red Oak (Quercus rubra), tend to have the highest growth rates. At the site level, there is evidence for synchrony in response to large-scale climatic events (e.g. prolonged drought and above average temperatures). However, growth responses to climate at the landscape scale have yet to be detected. Our current analysis utilizes hierarchical Bayesian state-space modeling to focus on growth responses of adult trees to environmental covariates at multiple spatial and temporal scales. This predictive model of tree growth currently incorporates observed effects at the individual, plot, site, and landscape scale. Current analysis using this model shows a potential slowing of growth in the past decade for two sites in the northeastern US (Harvard Forest and Bartlett Experimental Forest), however more work is required to determine the robustness of this trend. Finally, these observations are being incorporated into ecosystem models using the Brown Dog informatics tools and the Predictive Ecosystem Analyzer (PEcAn) data assimilation workflow.

Aquatic biodiversity in forests: A weak link in ecosystem services resilience

USGS Publications Warehouse

Penaluna, Brooke E.; Olson, Deanna H.; Flitcroft, Rebecca L; Weber, Matthew A.; Bellmore, J. Ryan; Wondzell, Steven M.; Dunham, Jason B.; Johnson, Sherri L.; Reeves, Gordon H.

2017-01-01

The diversity of aquatic ecosystems is being quickly reduced on many continents, warranting a closer examination of the consequences for ecological integrity and ecosystem services. Here we describe intermediate and final ecosystem services derived from aquatic biodiversity in forests. We include a summary of the factors framing the assembly of aquatic biodiversity in forests in natural systems and how they change with a variety of natural disturbances and human-derived stressors. We consider forested aquatic ecosystems as a multi-state portfolio, with diverse assemblages and life-history strategies occurring at local scales as a consequence of a mosaic of habitat conditions and past disturbances and stressors. Maintaining this multi-state portfolio of assemblages requires a broad perspective of ecosystem structure, various functions, services, and management implications relative to contemporary stressors. Because aquatic biodiversity provides multiple ecosystem services to forests, activities that compromise aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity could be an issue for maintaining forest ecosystem integrity. We illustrate these concepts with examples of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services in forests of northwestern North America, also known as Northeast Pacific Rim. Encouraging management planning at broad as well as local spatial scales to recognize multi-state ecosystem management goals has promise for maintaining valuable ecosystem services. Ultimately, integration of information from socio-ecological ecosystems will be needed to maintain ecosystem services derived directly and indirectly from forest aquatic biota.