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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Nebraska Forest Action Plan - 2020, John Erixson Dec 2020

Nebraska Forest Action Plan - 2020, John Erixson

Nebraska Forest Service: Publications

Nebraska’s Forest Action Plan – 2020 represents a multiyear effort by Nebraska Forest Service staff to ensure trees continue to play a role in the lives of all Nebraskans. It includes assessments in locations considered to be priority forested areas; the strategies that will be implemented to address the challenges described in the preceding paragraph; and, how the agency’s resources will coalesce to bring the state’s trees and forests to a healthy and sustainable condition. Additionally, this plan maintains flexibility that allows for response to changes in the natural environment, state or federal policy, and the priorities of constituents and …


Conceptual Design, Engineering & Pricing Of A Clt Addition To Umaine’S Composites Center To House The Gem Factory Of The Future, Advanced Structures & Composites Center, University Of Maine, Russell Edgar, Benjamin Herzog Nov 2020

Conceptual Design, Engineering & Pricing Of A Clt Addition To Umaine’S Composites Center To House The Gem Factory Of The Future, Advanced Structures & Composites Center, University Of Maine, Russell Edgar, Benjamin Herzog

General University of Maine Publications

In October 2019, the Advanced Structures & Composites Center (ASCC) at the University of Maine (UMaine) was awarded one of ten University Mass Timber Grants, meant to support demonstration projects showcasing mass timber technologies on university campuses. Two of the ten awards were given to Maine colleges and universities, the one described herein focused on a CLT addition to the ASCC to (1) demonstrate to regional stakeholders the viability of CLT as a structural building material, (2) demonstrate cost-effective use of CLT in large, warehouse-style buildings, (3) show Maine’s support for mass timber technologies to further encourage investment in CLT …


Can Trees Get Cancer?, Michael Kuhns Nov 2020

Can Trees Get Cancer?, Michael Kuhns

All Current Publications

This factsheet describes various cancer-like growths that are commonly found on trees.


Tree Seedling Planting Guide, Gabrielle Harden, Michael R. Kuhns Oct 2020

Tree Seedling Planting Guide, Gabrielle Harden, Michael R. Kuhns

All Current Publications

A seedling is a tree less than three feet in height. This fact sheet covers obtaining, planting, and caring for small seedling trees and other woody plants. These trees can be sold and planted as bare-root or containerized stock.


The Impacts Of Prescribed Burning And Mechanical Thinning On Insect Communities In The Arkansas Ozarks, Aaron P. Tormanen Aug 2020

The Impacts Of Prescribed Burning And Mechanical Thinning On Insect Communities In The Arkansas Ozarks, Aaron P. Tormanen

Theses and Dissertations from 2020

Insects are important in woodland ecosystems due to their role as pollinators and as prey for bats. My research investigated the relationships between forest management, vegetation, and insects in the Ozark National Forest in Arkansas. I selected 30 stands burned at varying frequencies in the last 12 years. Twelve of these stands were burned and mechanically thinned, 12 were only burned, and 6 were untreated. I deployed blacklight traps and malaise traps in each stand monthly from mid-March to mid- November 2019. Over 42,391 insects were collected, and Lepidoptera was the most abundant order. Insects were dried, weighed, and identified …


Aspen Next Generation: Conversations From Southern Colorado And Northern New Mexico, Dan Binkley, Bill Romme Jul 2020

Aspen Next Generation: Conversations From Southern Colorado And Northern New Mexico, Dan Binkley, Bill Romme

Aspen Bibliography

Aspen trees and forests are especially important in the Rocky Mountains. Aspens add beauty to landscapes, foster high diversity and productivity of understory plants, provide for the habitat needs of many species of animals, and moderate fire behavior. There is a perception that aspen trees and stands are not regenerating well in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico; cohorts of trees younger than a few decades are scarce, at least in some areas. The next generation of aspen in the southern Rockies will be influenced by land use decisions, including harvesting, fire policy and management, and browsing by livestock and …


Are We Producing Society-Ready Foresters? A Quantitative Content Analysis Of Graduate-Level Forestry Curriculum, Jacqueline Meyer Jun 2020

Are We Producing Society-Ready Foresters? A Quantitative Content Analysis Of Graduate-Level Forestry Curriculum, Jacqueline Meyer

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Forestry education in the United States has been hailed for its ability to provide students with the scientific and technical skills needed for a career in forestry as much as it has been criticized for ignoring social dimensions of the discipline. Its inability to adapt curriculum to the increasingly multidisciplinary nature of the forestry profession has led to stagnant or decreasing enrollment and lack of student diversity in recent years. While forestry education and curriculum has been thoroughly analyzed at the undergraduate level, no such analysis exists for graduate curriculum. This study analyzes the course content of 40 graduate-level forestry …


Hosting Flame Cap Biochar Kiln Workshops To Teach Hazardous Fuel Reduction, Darren Mcavoy, Michael R. Kuhns, Megan Dettenmaier, Lauren Nicole Dupéy Jun 2020

Hosting Flame Cap Biochar Kiln Workshops To Teach Hazardous Fuel Reduction, Darren Mcavoy, Michael R. Kuhns, Megan Dettenmaier, Lauren Nicole Dupéy

Extension Research

The combination of large volumes of woody fuel needing disposal after forestry activities and evolving regulatory restrictions makes traditional methods of pile burning increasingly difficult. Alternatively, using small kilns to pyrolyze these fuels on-site yields a potentially valuable product: biochar. In this article, we describe an educational program on the use of small kilns for fuel treatment and biochar production. Survey results from our series of demonstrations indicate that 69% of respondents added biochar to their soils and 100% of respondents increased their interest in biochar. Moreover, we reduced hazardous fuel in Utah by more than 20 semitruck loads by …


Simulated Mine Land Reclamation Impact On Biomass Partitioning And Nutrient Contents In Loblolly Pine, Osarumen Egharevba May 2020

Simulated Mine Land Reclamation Impact On Biomass Partitioning And Nutrient Contents In Loblolly Pine, Osarumen Egharevba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Forest productivity on reclaimed mine land is hindered by soil compaction. Different techniques have been used to alleviate the effect of compaction to various degrees of success. The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) was developed in the Appalachians and has been used to improve forest productivity on reclaimed mines in this region. The FRA provides a step by step method designed to reduce compaction, control erosion, provide land stabilization and accelerate forest succession. This method had not been evaluated in the Gulf Coastal Plain, where the pan scraper reclamation method is commonly used. However, using pan scrapers increases mine soil compaction …


Tapping The Sweet Spot: Predicting The Suitability Of A Woodlot’S Potential To Transition Into A Productive Sugarbush In Maine, Deven M. Teisl May 2020

Tapping The Sweet Spot: Predicting The Suitability Of A Woodlot’S Potential To Transition Into A Productive Sugarbush In Maine, Deven M. Teisl

Non-Thesis Student Work

Through conversations with Dr. Sara Velardi, a postdoctoral research associate who has been doing research on maple producers’ scale management decisions in Maine, most current owners and operators in the maple syrup industry have the common interest of expanding their current operations, but they are unsure of how to approach that problem. Due to these current issues, my research focused on creating a sugarbush assessment tool. This assessment tool consists of a set of guidelines which can be utilized by current or future producers and can be used to easily assess woodlots without having to hire a consulting forester to …


Severe Thunderstorms Create Windfall Of Opportunity For Ecosystem-Based Management Of Mixed Northern Hardwoods, Elizabeth Montgomery Barnes Jan 2020

Severe Thunderstorms Create Windfall Of Opportunity For Ecosystem-Based Management Of Mixed Northern Hardwoods, Elizabeth Montgomery Barnes

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The regeneration and reorganization of organisms and their habitat post-disturbance is a primary mechanism by which ecosystems maintain functionality in a changing environment. This adaptation to disturbance lends dynamism and resiliency to landscapes. Yet, the 20th century was marked by an alarming loss of global biodiversity, pointing to the likelihood that the rate of ecological disturbance generated by human systems today is either too frequent or too intense to be beneficial to ecosystems, and rather poses a risk to ecosystem functionality and the carrying capacity of Earth systems. Compounding these risks is high uncertainty regarding the potential for stronger, …


Remote Sensing Approaches To Predict Forest Characteristics In Northwest Montana, Ryan P. Rock Jan 2020

Remote Sensing Approaches To Predict Forest Characteristics In Northwest Montana, Ryan P. Rock

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Remote sensing can be utilized by land management organizations to save money and time. Mapping vegetation using either aerial photographs or satellite imagery and the applications for forest management are of particular interest to the Montana Department of Natural Resources. In 2018, the organization began a pilot program to test the incorporation of raster analysis of remotely sensed data into their inventory program and had limited success. This analysis identified two areas of improvement: the selection method of inventory plots and the imagery used for classification and metrics. This study found that selecting inventory plots using a generalized random tessellation …