Digital Commons Network^™

Ltreb: Forest Ecosystem Response To Changes In Atmospheric Chemistry And Climate At The Bear Brook Watershed In Maine (Bbwm), Ivan J. Fernandez, Stephen A. Norton, Lindsey Rustad

University of Maine Office of Research Administration: Grant Reports

The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine (BBWM) is a long-term paired, forested watershed research site with each watershed drained by a first order stream through a v-notch weir. One watershed (West Bear) has been treated bimonthly for 12 years with N and S by aerial helicopter applications, with the second watershed (East Bear) serving as the reference watershed. The objectives of this LTREB proposal are to:

1. Study the response of the calibrated East Bear Watershed to long-term patterns of ambient S, N, and base cation deposition. This will be accomplished by maintaining high quality deposition and stream export data …

Watershed Forest Management Information System (Wfmis), Yanli Zhang, P. K. Barten

Faculty Publications

Maintenance of a sustainable clean water supply is critical for our future. However, watershed degradation is a common phenomenon around the world that leads to poor water quality. In order to protect water resources, the Watershed Forest Management Information System (WFMIS), was developed as an extension of ArcGIS® and is described in this paper. There are three submodels to address nonpoint source pollution mitigation, road system management, and silvicultural operations, respectively. The Watershed Management Priority Indices (WMPI) is a zoning approach to prioritize critical areas for conservation and restoration management. It meets the critical need to spatially differentiate land cover …

Earth And Fire: Forests Rely On Healthy Soils For A Well-Rounded Diet, Elise Lequire

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Historically, frequent low-intensity, dormant-season fire shaped the landscape across a variety of forests in the United States, from eastern hardwood and hardwood/conifer mixtures to western coniferous forests. Decades of fire exclusion have resulted in heavy fuel loads and increased threat of severe wildfire compared to historic conditions in most forest types and also resulted in changes in forest composition compared to historic conditions. The Fire and Fire Surrogates Study (FFS) is the first to apply a standard experimental design to compare thinning, thinning followed by prescribed fire, and prescribed fire alone across a wide spectrum of ecological and economic variables. …

Potential Site Productivity Influences The Rate Of Forest Structural Development, Andrew J. Larson, James A. Lutz, Rolf F. Gersonde, Jerry F. Franklin, Forest F. Hietpas

Forest Management Faculty Publications

Development and maintenance of structurally complex forests in landscapes formerly managed for timber production is an increasingly common management objective. It has been postulated that the rate of forest structural development increases with site productivity. We tested this hypothesis for Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) forests using a network of permanent study plots established following complete timber harvest of the original old-growth forests. Forest structural development was assessed by comparing empirical measures of live tree structure to published values for Douglas-fir forests spanning a range of ages and structural conditions. The rate of forest structural development—resilience—exhibited a positive relationship …

A Unique Old-Growth Ponderosa Pine Forest In Northern Arizona, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Old-growth ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests are uncommon in the Southwest, and only one oldgrowth forest (the Gus Pearson Natural Area [GPNA]) has been researched in the ponderosa pine belt surrounding the city of Flagstaff in northern Arizona. The purpose of this study was to measure soil characteristics, current and pre-Euro-American settlement (1885) tree structure, and understory plant composition in a 6-ha remnant old-growth forest on volcanic, red cinder soils. Soil bulk density was extremely low (0.21 Mg/m3) in this forest because of high volumetric contents of cinders >2 mm diameter. As a result, volumetric soil moisture, organic C, and …

The Robert B. Gordon Natural Area For Environmental Studies, Erika Szonntag

Gordon Natural Area History & Strategic Plan Documents

No abstract provided.

Geographic Patterns Of At-Risk Species, Curtis H. Flather, Michael S. Knowles, Jason Mcnees

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

This technical document supports the Forest Service’s requirement to assess the status of renewable natural resources as mandated by the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974. It updates past reports on the trends and geographic patterns of species formally listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. We compare the geographic occupancy of threatened and endangered species at the county-level against the geographic occupancy of a broader set of species thought to be at risk of extinction. This is done to determine if new areas where species rarity may be concentrated emerge. Here …

Evaluating Forest Harvesting To Reduce Its Hydrologic Impact With A Spatial Decision Support System, Yanli Zhang, P. K. Barten, Ramanathan Sugumaran

Faculty Publications

Timber harvesting changes the condition of forest ecosystems, which are a major influence on the characteristics of headwater streams. Such characteristics include the quantity and timing of base flow and storm flow, concentrations of sediment and dissolved nutrients, water temperature, and the stability of the stream channels. This paper explores previous studies dealing with the relationship between timber harvesting and its hydrologic effects, especially long term water yield increase. The watershed disturbance threshold theory is raised and investigated in detail. The development and evaluation of a spatial decision support system, the Harvest Schedule Review System (HSRS), is then described. The …