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Forest Biology

2008

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Study Of Basic Wood Decay Mechanisms And Their Biotechnological Applications, Yuhui Qian Dec 2008

Study Of Basic Wood Decay Mechanisms And Their Biotechnological Applications, Yuhui Qian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overall objective of this thesis was to gain further understanding of the non-enzymatic mechanisms involved in brown-rot wood decay, especially the role of pH, oxalic acid, and low molecular catecholate compounds on the dissolution and reduction of iron, and the formation of reactive oxygen species. Another focus of this study will be the potential application of a biomimetic free radical generating system inspired from fungi wood decay process, especially the non-enzymatic mechanism. The possible pathways of iron uptake and iron redox cycling in non-enzymatic brown-rot decay were investigated in this study. UV-Vis spectroscopy and HPLC were employed to study …

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Livestock Mortality At Beef Farms With Chronic Wolf (Canis Lupus) Depredation In The Western Great Lakes Region (Wglr), Arion Vandergon Dec 2008

Livestock Mortality At Beef Farms With Chronic Wolf (Canis Lupus) Depredation In The Western Great Lakes Region (Wglr), Arion Vandergon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Gray wolf (Canis lupus) depredation on beef calves has been studied extensively in recent years. As wolf populations increase throughout the United States there is a corresponding increase in wolf/livestock interactions. Most research concentrates on summaries of reported depredations and surveys of producers affected by depredations. The objective of this study was to present data on the fate of beef calves on 3 farms in Minnesota and Wisconsin over a 2-year period. Predator presence/absence was studied as an indicator of potential depredations. Also, data are presented comparing 2 techniques that may aid researchers and livestock producers with monitoring …

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Black Bears On The Way Back, Christopher E. Comer Oct 2008

Black Bears On The Way Back, Christopher E. Comer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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Variations In Stomatal Traits Of 14 Bornean Tree Species Growing On Soils With Different Moisture Contents In Lambir Hills National Park, Whitney Logan Cannon Oct 2008

Variations In Stomatal Traits Of 14 Bornean Tree Species Growing On Soils With Different Moisture Contents In Lambir Hills National Park, Whitney Logan Cannon

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

The goal of this study was to look at variations in stomatal traits of tree species on soils with different moisture contents and fertility at Lambir Hills National Park. Stomates are important structures on the surface of leaves that mediate conduction of moisture and gassesin and out of the leaf. If stomatalt raits are important for regulation, then there should be variation in stomatal traits in regards to their soil specialization. The 14 Borneant ree speciess ampledi ncluded6 sandyl oam specialists6, clay specialistsa nd 2 generalistsfo und growing with equald istributionso n both sandyl oam and clay. Confocal microscopy was …

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Plant Recruitment In A Northern Arizona Ponderosa Pine Forest: Testing Seed- And Leaf Litter- Limitation Hypotheses, Scott R. Abella Aug 2008

Plant Recruitment In A Northern Arizona Ponderosa Pine Forest: Testing Seed- And Leaf Litter- Limitation Hypotheses, Scott R. Abella

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Seed availability and leaf litter limit plant establishment in some ecosystems. To evaluate the hypothesis that these factors limit understory plant recruitment in Pinus ponderosa forests, I conducted a seeding and litter removal experiment at six thinned sites in the Fort Valley Experimental Forest, northern Arizona. Experimental seeding of four native species (Penstemon virgatus, Erigeron formosissimus, Elymus elymoides, and Festuca arizonica) and raking of litter occurred in 2005. Seeding resulted in a substantial recruitment of 14 to 103 seedlings/m2 (1 to 10/ft2) one month after seeding for two species (P. virgatus and E. elymoides), but these densities subsequently declined by …

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Tb197: Forest Biomass Estimates In Maine:Statewide, County, And Spatial, Kenneth M. Laustsen Jun 2008

Tb197: Forest Biomass Estimates In Maine:Statewide, County, And Spatial, Kenneth M. Laustsen

Technical Bulletins

In Maine, statewide biomass estimates have increased from 752 million dry tons in 1982 to 980 million dry tons in a 2003 estimate. These estimates are produced using Forest Inventory & Analysis (FIA) data collected during Maine’s periodic and now annualized inventory design. The Maine Forest Service began tracking and reporting on wood flows of biomass in 1986. For the last 20 years (1986–2005) the total annual harvesting of all products has ranged between 6 and 7 million cords, extracted from a standing inventory that is currently estimated to be 277 million cords. The objectives of this current study were …

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The Effects Of Chronically Elevated N And S Deposition On The Nutrition And Physiology Of Sugar Maple At The Bear Brook Watershed In Maine, Suzanne Bethers May 2008

The Effects Of Chronically Elevated N And S Deposition On The Nutrition And Physiology Of Sugar Maple At The Bear Brook Watershed In Maine, Suzanne Bethers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Bear Brook Watershed in Maine is a paired watershed system; one watershed has been acidified bimonthly with granular ammonium sulfate ((NH4)2SO4) since 1989. The adjacent watershed is used as a reference. This acid deposition treatment presents unique opportunities to look at the long term affects of acidification on vegetation. Acidic deposition continues to be a concern for the health of sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marsh.) in northern hardwood forests. Many studies show a connection between base cation depletion induced by acid deposition and sugar maple decline. In this text we …

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Fire Effects On Gambel Oak In Southwestern Ponderosa Pine-Oak Forests, Scott R. Abella, Peter Z. Fule Apr 2008

Fire Effects On Gambel Oak In Southwestern Ponderosa Pine-Oak Forests, Scott R. Abella, Peter Z. Fule

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii) is ecologically and aesthetically valuable in southwestern ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests. Fire effects on Gambel oak are important because fire may be used in pine-oak forests to manage oak directly or to accomplish other management objectives. We used published literature to: (1) ascertain historical fire regimes in pine-oak forests, (2) discern prescribed burning effects on Gambel oak survival and diameter growth, and (3) provide suggestions for using fire to manage oak. Frequent fire is part of Gambel oak’s historical environment, as historical fire return intervals often averaged less than 10 years in pine-oak forests. More …

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Post-Fire Demography Of A Dry Eucalypt Forest In The Midlands, Tasmania: A Pilot Study, Christine Urbanowicz Apr 2008

Post-Fire Demography Of A Dry Eucalypt Forest In The Midlands, Tasmania: A Pilot Study, Christine Urbanowicz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

There have been many efforts to regenerate the threatened and declining dry eucalypt forests found within the Midlands of Tasmania. This pilot study was completed as part of a larger research project on eucalypt regeneration. Researchers need to know where recruits are most successful in order to appropriately place regeneration microsites. I have begun characterizing the baseline demography of a recently burnt remnant forest. I had two objectives: 1. to characterize the stand structure where recruits are successful, and 2. to describe where the recruits are within this structure. Data on location, size, and life history stage of trees were …

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Topographic Factors Affecting The Tree Species Composition Of Forests In The Upper Piedmont Of Virginia, Rachael C. Brown, Todd S. Fredericksen Apr 2008

Topographic Factors Affecting The Tree Species Composition Of Forests In The Upper Piedmont Of Virginia, Rachael C. Brown, Todd S. Fredericksen

Virginia Journal of Science

There are many factors that influence forest species composition and many are linked to topographical features. This study, conducted on the Ferrum College campus in the Upper Piedmont Physiographic Province of Virginia revealed three major forest types associated with topographic factors using cluster analysis and detrended correspondence analysis . The first type of forest occurred mostly on northeastern slopes on toe slope topographic positions and was mainly composed of tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) and red maple (Acer rubrum). The second type of forest was found on shoulder and side slope positions and was composed mostly of …

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Compatible Stem Taper And Total Tree Volume Equations For Loblolly Pine Plantations In Southeastern Arkansas, C. Vanderschaaf Jan 2008

Compatible Stem Taper And Total Tree Volume Equations For Loblolly Pine Plantations In Southeastern Arkansas, C. Vanderschaaf

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

A system of equations was used to produce compatible outside-bark stem taper and total tree volume equations for loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) plantations in southeastern Arkansas. Paired height diameter stem measurements were obtained from trees located in one 45-year-old unthinned plantation. After fitting and integrating the stem taper equation to total tree height, an individual tree constant form factor volume equation was obtained. The stem taper equation can also be integrated to any merchantable height to obtain merchantable volume. To see how the constant form factor volume equation predicts outside bark volume for trees vastly different than those used …

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Use Of Trees By The Texas Ratsnake (Elaphe Obsoleta) In Eastern Texas, Josh B. Pierce, Robert R. Fleet, Lance Mcbrayer, D. Craig Rudolph Jan 2008

Use Of Trees By The Texas Ratsnake (Elaphe Obsoleta) In Eastern Texas, Josh B. Pierce, Robert R. Fleet, Lance Mcbrayer, D. Craig Rudolph

Faculty Publications

We present information on the use of trees by Elaphe obsoleta (Texas Ratsnake) in a mesic pine-hardwood forest in eastern Texas. Using radiotelemetry, seven snakes (3 females, 4 males) were relocated a total of 363 times from April 2004 to May 2005, resulting in 201 unique locations. Snakes selected trees containing cavities and used hardwoods and snags for a combined 95% of arboreal locations. Texas Ratsnake arboreal activity peaked during July and August, well after the peak of avian breeding activity, suggesting arboreal activity involves factors other than avian predation.

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A Synthesis Of Live Fuel Moisture And Wildland Fire And Development Of A National Historical Live Fuel Moisture Database, William M. Jolly Dr. Jan 2008

A Synthesis Of Live Fuel Moisture And Wildland Fire And Development Of A National Historical Live Fuel Moisture Database, William M. Jolly Dr.

JFSP Research Project Reports

Live fuels are a key component to the wildland fuel complex but little is know about their contribution to fire danger or fire behavior. This review attempts to quantify our current understanding of the role that live fuels play in combustion and how those characteristics are quantified into prediction systems that fire managers use to assess fire danger or fire behavior as well as how live fuel parameters for those systems are measured. We review how live fuels are incorporated into three fire danger and fire behavior prediction systems that have found widespread use throughout the world. We discuss the …

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Bringing The Fire Effects Information System Up-To-Date And Improving Service To Land Managers, Jane Kapler Smith, Fire Modeling Institute Information Team Jan 2008

Bringing The Fire Effects Information System Up-To-Date And Improving Service To Land Managers, Jane Kapler Smith, Fire Modeling Institute Information Team

JFSP Research Project Reports

This project delivers up-to-date, science-based information about species nominated by wildland managers for revision in or addition to the Fire Effects Information System (FEIS). FEIS now provides 1,081 literature reviews covering 1,139 taxa. This JFSP task has supported the rewriting of 9% of FEIS reviews, addition of reviews that increase FEIS content by 9%, and small updates to 25% of the database. Each FEIS species review addresses the basic biology of the species, fire regimes, fire's role in the life history and persistence of the species, competition and successional patterns, and issues regarding fuel management, prescribed fire, and postfire rehabilitation. …

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Carbon Cycling At The Landscape Scale: The Effect Of Changes In Climate And Fire Frequency On Age Distribution, Stand Structure, And Net Ecosystem Production., Michael G. Ryan, Daniel M. Kashian, Erica A.H. Smithwick, William H. Romme, Monica G. Turner, Daniel B. Tinker Jan 2008

Carbon Cycling At The Landscape Scale: The Effect Of Changes In Climate And Fire Frequency On Age Distribution, Stand Structure, And Net Ecosystem Production., Michael G. Ryan, Daniel M. Kashian, Erica A.H. Smithwick, William H. Romme, Monica G. Turner, Daniel B. Tinker

JFSP Research Project Reports

Understanding the interactions between climate, fire and forest characteristics-- and how carbon dynamics are affected by these factors--remains an important challenge in ecology. As the size and severity of fires in the western US continues to increase (Westerling et al. 2006), it has become increasingly important to understand carbon dynamics in response to fire. In this study, we investigated these key interactions in the landscape of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). We asked how initial post-fire heterogeneity in forest structure (especially tree density and stand age) controls carbon dynamics over the full life cycle of individual forest stands, and how climate-mediated …

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Behaveplus And Flammap Technology Transfer, Patricia Andrews, Mark Finney Jan 2008

Behaveplus And Flammap Technology Transfer, Patricia Andrews, Mark Finney

JFSP Research Project Reports

This project was conducted in response to the need identified under Task 1 (RFP 2005-4)—extension of technology transfer activities beyond the conclusion of successfully completed JFSP funded projects or other applicable wildland fire research. Development of the BehavePlus fire modeling system and the FlamMap fire behavior analysis and mapping system and supporting technology transfer material was funded in part under JFSP project #98-1-8-02. After successful completion of that project, development of those systems and supporting material continued under other funding. FlamMap was used in JFSP project #01-1-3-21 “Cumulative effects of fuel management on landscape-scale fire behavior and effects.” A significant …

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Delayed Tree Mortality Following Fire In Western Conifers, Sheri Smith, Danny Chuck, Elizabeht Reinhardt, Kevin Ryan, Charles Mchugh Jan 2008

Delayed Tree Mortality Following Fire In Western Conifers, Sheri Smith, Danny Chuck, Elizabeht Reinhardt, Kevin Ryan, Charles Mchugh

JFSP Research Project Reports

We developed 3-year post-fire mortality models for 12 western conifer species by pooling data collected from multiple fire-injury studies. Models were developed for white fir, red fir, subalpine fir, incense cedar, western larch, lodgepole pine, whitebark pine, ponderosa pine, Jeffrey pine, sugar pine, Engelmann spruce, and Douglas-fir. Two sets of models were created, one for use in pre-fire planning where only crown injury and DBH were potential variables, and a second, optimal model for use in post-fire planning that used all significant variables. Predictive accuracy of all models was compared to the accuracy of the mortality model currently used in …

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Burn Severity Mapping Using Simulation Modeling And Satellite Imagery, Robert E. Keane, Eva C. Karau, Elizabeth Reinhardt Jan 2008

Burn Severity Mapping Using Simulation Modeling And Satellite Imagery, Robert E. Keane, Eva C. Karau, Elizabeth Reinhardt

JFSP Research Project Reports

As wildfires becomes an increasingly important issue affecting our nation’s landscapes, fire managers must quickly assess possible adverse fire effects to efficiently allocate resources for rehabilitation or remediation. While burn severity maps derived from satellite imagery can provide a landscape view of relative fire impacts, fire effects simulation models can also provide spatial fire severity estimates along with the biotic context in which to interpret severity. In this project, we evaluated two methods of mapping burn severity for four wildfires in western Montana using 64 plots as field reference: 1) an image-based burn severity mapping approach using the Differenced Normalized …

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Effects Of Fuels Treatments And Wildfire On Understory Species And Fuels In The Ponderosa Pine Zone Of The Colorado Front Range, Paula Fornwalt, Merrill Kaufmann Jan 2008

Effects Of Fuels Treatments And Wildfire On Understory Species And Fuels In The Ponderosa Pine Zone Of The Colorado Front Range, Paula Fornwalt, Merrill Kaufmann

JFSP Research Project Reports

The first clear indication that unnaturally dense forest conditions existed in ponderosa pine – Douglas-fir forests of the Colorado Front Range was the Buffalo Creek Fire, a large, catastrophic wildfire that burned in 1996. Ongoing research in the Front Range indicated that the Buffalo Creek Fire likely would have burned very differently under pre-settlement forest conditions; early photographs and written descriptions, as well as fire history and stand reconstruction data, all suggested that historically these forests were characterized by a matrix of low-density forests and shrubland or grassland openings that was created and maintained by a mixed-severity fire regime. As …

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Effects Of Mechanically Generated Slash Particle Size On Prescribed Fire Behavior And Subsequent Vegetation Effects, Richy J. Harrod, David W. Peterson, Roger Ottmar, Peter Ohlson, Brad Flatten, Arlo Vanderwoude Jan 2008

Effects Of Mechanically Generated Slash Particle Size On Prescribed Fire Behavior And Subsequent Vegetation Effects, Richy J. Harrod, David W. Peterson, Roger Ottmar, Peter Ohlson, Brad Flatten, Arlo Vanderwoude

JFSP Research Project Reports

Forest managers have begun to restore ecosystem structure and function in fire-prone ecosystems that have experienced fire exclusion, commodity based resource extraction, and extensive grazing during much of the 20th century. Mechanical thinning and prescribed burning are the primary tools for thinning dense stands and restoring pre-settlement forest structure, reducing the likelihood of devastating crown fires. Mechanical thinning can be costly when trees are nonmerchantable and prescribed burning can be risky unless fuel loadings are first reduced. Furthermore, stands that remain dense after commercial thinning can produce undesirable wildland fire- or even prescribed fire- effects on vegetation and soils. Land …

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Expansion Of The Southern Variant Of The Fire And Fuels Extension For The Forest Vegetation Simulator, S. M. Zedaker, S. A. Rebain, P. J. Radtke Jan 2008

Expansion Of The Southern Variant Of The Fire And Fuels Extension For The Forest Vegetation Simulator, S. M. Zedaker, S. A. Rebain, P. J. Radtke

JFSP Research Project Reports

This project specifically addressed AFP 2006-3, Task 3, by providing guidance for maintaining effective fire and non-fire fuels treatments, with the aim of supporting long-term fuels management. The overall goals of the project were to parameterize, expand, and improve the Southern Variant of the Fire and Fuels Extension (FFE) to the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) with the best data currently available, to identify data weaknesses and gaps that may require additional research to reduce the uncertainty of Southern FFE model predictions, and to determine a validation framework for the Southern FFE. A wide variety of fire and fuels data and …

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Evaluation Of Science Delivery Of Joint Fire Science Program Research, David Seesholtz Jan 2008

Evaluation Of Science Delivery Of Joint Fire Science Program Research, David Seesholtz

JFSP Research Project Reports

Since its inception in 1998, the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) has funded over 400 projects. The Joint Fire Science Program has long recognized that the investments made in wildland fire science need to be accompanied by an emphasis on science interpretation and delivery. Program success is ultimately measured by how well information from research efforts is being conveyed to resource managers and end users, and whether this information is improving management decisions. This study reviewed a sample of environmental documents from three JFSP sponsoring agencies to determine to what extent JFSP research is being incorporated into local planning efforts …

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Evaluating The Efficacy And Ecological Impacts Of Baer Slope Stabilization Treatments On The Pot Peak/Deep Harbor Wildfire Complex, David W. Peterson, Richy J. Harrod, Terry Lillybridge, Mel Bennett Jan 2008

Evaluating The Efficacy And Ecological Impacts Of Baer Slope Stabilization Treatments On The Pot Peak/Deep Harbor Wildfire Complex, David W. Peterson, Richy J. Harrod, Terry Lillybridge, Mel Bennett

JFSP Research Project Reports

Post-fire slope stabilization treatments are often prescribed for severely burned areas of a wildfire, through burned area emergency response (BAER), to reduce erosion, maintain soil productivity, protect water quality, and reduce risks to human life and property. Prescribed slope stabilization treatments can include seeding of cereal grains or grasses, fertilization, mulching, and installation of physical barriers across slope contours (e.g., contour-felled logs and straw wattles). Seeding and fertilization treatments have been proposed following several high severity wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. These treatments are designed to reduce erosion by supplementing native vegetation recovery with additional populations of fast-growing species (seeding) …

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From Debate To Design: Issues In Clean Energy And Climate Change Law And Policy, Leslie Parker, Jennifer Ronk, Rachel Maxwell, Bradford Gentry, Marijn Wilder, James Cameron Jan 2008

From Debate To Design: Issues In Clean Energy And Climate Change Law And Policy, Leslie Parker, Jennifer Ronk, Rachel Maxwell, Bradford Gentry, Marijn Wilder, James Cameron

Yale School of the Environment Publications Series

A report on the work of the REIL Network 2007-2008

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Early Teee And Ground Cover Establishment As Affected By Seeding And Fertilization Rates In Tennessee, Buckley David, Jennifer Franklin Jan 2008

Early Teee And Ground Cover Establishment As Affected By Seeding And Fertilization Rates In Tennessee, Buckley David, Jennifer Franklin

Jennifer Franklin

Planted ground covers can compete strongly with planted tree seedlings, hindering reforestation efforts. Fertilization increases the growth of ground cover, but its effects on hardwood tree seedlings and competitive interactions between trees and ground cover species are unclear. A 3x3 factorial experiment with 3 levels of fertilizer application and 3 seeding rates wasestablished in 2006 to test for differences in tree seedling growth and survival, and for differences in ground cover establishment and composition. The ground cover was applied by hydroseeding a mixture of native warm-season grasses, annual rye and Korean lespedeza, along with lime, mulch and tackifier. Bareroot, 1-0 …

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A Unique Old-Growth Ponderosa Pine Forest In Northern Arizona, Scott R. Abella Jan 2008

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 …

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Big Changes In The Great Basin, Gail Wells Jan 2008

Big Changes In The Great Basin, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

JFSP-funded researchers are exploring the ecological functioning of sagebrush-steppe communities in the Great Basin and other places in the dry Intermountain West. Their work is helping managers effectively use tools such as tree mastication and prescribed fire to help these communities become more resilient in the face of invasive weeds. Other research is finding ways to reestablish native vegetation on sites where weedy invaders have pushed the community past the point where it can recover on its own.

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Sagebrush Steppe: A Story Of Encroachment And Invasion Jan 2008

Sagebrush Steppe: A Story Of Encroachment And Invasion

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

Sagebrush steppe has been rapidly changing into woodlands of western juniper and pinyon pine since Euroamerican settlement of the West in the middle of the nineteenth century. The change from the dry scattered shrub and grasslands to woodlands has changed more than plants—it has also changed the fi re regime. Studies have revealed a threshold at which understory plants may not rebound after a disturbance—when trees have reached 40- to 50-percent cover. Disturbance—by fi re and overgrazing—also makes resources such as nutrients and soil water available for weeds to exploit, allowing invasives such as cheatgrass to establish and expand into …

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Testing The Conventional Wisdom: Fuel Management Approaches For The Central Hardwood Region, Jake Delwiche Jan 2008

Testing The Conventional Wisdom: Fuel Management Approaches For The Central Hardwood Region, Jake Delwiche

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

It’s not for nothing that Missouri calls itself the “Show Me State.” The name implies a common-sense insistence on seeing the evidence, an interest in seeing the proof. Thus, it is appropriate that an important long-term forestry research project is taking place in Southeastern Missouri. The goal is to test widely held opinions on the role and effectiveness of various forest fuel management strategies. Research results continue to be collected on the effects of overstory thinning and prescribed burning on forest fuelloads, and on using these tools to change the permanent character of the forest itself. The project began in …

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Forecast For The Southern Boreal Forest: An Increasing Incidence Of Severe Disturbance, Elise Lequire Jan 2008

Forecast For The Southern Boreal Forest: An Increasing Incidence Of Severe Disturbance, Elise Lequire

Joint Fire Science Program Briefs (2007-2012)

On Independence Day, 1999, a storm system that originated over the Gulf of Mexico and passed through North Dakota dealt a severe blow to nearly half a million acres of the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota. The blowdown, or derecho, packed winds exceeding 90 miles per hour and left in its wake downed and damaged trees and a dangerously high fuel load. Nearly half a million acres of forest were affected, primarily in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and the Gunfl int Trail Corridor, a strip of land in public and private ownership that supports a thriving …

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