Life Sciences Commons^™

Integrating Hands-On Undergraduate Research In An Applied Spatial Science Senior Level Capstone Course, David Kulhavy, Daniel Unger, I-Kuai Hung, David Douglass

Faculty Publications

A senior within a spatial science Ecological Planning capstone course designed an undergraduate research project to increase his spatial science expertise and to assess the hands-on instruction methodology employed within the Bachelor of Science in Spatial Science program at Stephen F Austin State University. The height of 30 building features estimated remotely with LiDAR data, within the Pictometry remotely sensed web-based interface, and in situ with a laser rangefinder were compared to actual building feature height measurements. A comparison of estimated height with actual height indicated that all three estimation techniques tested were unbiased estimators of height. An ANOVA, conducted …

Nebraska Statewide Forest Action Plan - 2015, Scott Josiah, John Erixson

Nebraska Forest Service: Publications

The Nebraska Forest Action Plan identifies strategic goals based on national objectives collaboratively crafted by both the National Association of State Foresters and the USFS State & Private Forestry Program. The strategic goals and actions identified in this document serve as a blueprint for focusing private, state and federal resources in areas of Nebraska where they will be most effective.

Kentucky Forestry Economic Impact Report 2013-2014, Jeff Stringer, Billy Thomas, Bobby Ammerman, Alison Davis

Kentucky Forestry Economic Impact Reports

Forests are a valuable part of Kentucky’s landscape providing signifi­cant resources and opportunities benefi­ting the Commonwealth. One important and veri­fiable bene­fit is the economic contributions of Kentucky’s forest and wood industries. Analysis of these industries indicated a total economic impact of $12.8 billion and 59,000 jobs in 2013. Kentucky is one of the leading producers of hardwood forest products in the south and exports wood products across the nation and the world. This economic impact was generated from forests located in all 120 counties of the Commonwealth providing resources harvested by over 1,800 logging ­firms and processed at 703 facilities …

Kentucky Forestry Economic Impact Report 2012-2013, Jeff Stringer, Billy Thomas, Bobby Ammerman, Alison Davis

Kentucky Forestry Economic Impact Reports

Kentucky plays a pivotal role in providing forest products to the U.S. and the forestry sector is a major economic force in the Commonwealth providing over 51,000 jobs and $9.9 billion to Kentucky’s economy in 2012. This economic input was generated from 708 facilities located in 109 of Kentucky’s 120 counties including a wide range of industries from logging and sawmills to cabinet manufacturers and paper and producers. In 2012 Kentucky was one of the largest producers of hardwood timber with over 590 million board feet of sawlogs and over 900,000 tons of pulpwood harvested from private family-owned forests. This …

Agent-Based Modeling Of Harvest Decisions By Small Scale Forest Landowners In Maine, Usa, Jessica Leahy, Erika Reeves, Kathleen Bell, Crista L. Straub, Jeremy Wilson

Publications

Small-scale forests are an excellent example of coupled social-ecological systems, which involve human and biophysical subsystems with complex two-way feedback interactions. The multifaceted nature of landowner decisions drives a significant need to better understand decision-making processes, reactions to policy, and combined impacts on ecosystems in a comprehensive manner. Small-scale forests require an integrated approach to modeling the social and biophysical components comprehensively. Agent-based modeling involves modeling individualistic behavior and interpreting patterns that emerge. The interaction between agents and their environments makes this a valuable tool to assess repeated decisions of individual landowners responding to changing environmental conditions. Agent-based models can …

Studies On Water Resources In Forested East Texas, Matthew W. Mcbroom

Faculty Publications

Intensive silvicultural practices have the potential to negatively impact water resources. The effectiveness of forestry best management practices in minimizing potential water resources impacts should be evaluated. The purpose of this study is to conduct urgently needed research on water quality and quantity problems in forested East Texas.

Making Common Cause For Conservation: The Pinchot Institute And Grey Towers National Historic Site, 1963-2013, Char Miller

Pomona Faculty Publications and Research

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation and the donation of the Pinchot family home Grey Towers to the U.S. Forest Service. In the following essay, historian and Pinchot biographer Char Miller discusses how the Institute is applying Gifford Pinchot’s principles to contemporary environmental issues. It is adapted from Seeking the Greatest Good: The Conservation Legacy of Gifford Pinchot, his new history of the Institute, and is published with kind permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.

Sp748 Estimating Weight Of Logs And Standing Timber: A Guide For Foresters, The Forest Industry And Landowners, David Mercker, Adam Taylor

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

No abstract provided.

Res Rep 12-04 Standard Bioassessment Procedures For Evaluating Ecological Restoration In Southeastern Hardwood Bottomlands, Mattew J. Gray, Elizabeth A. Summers

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

No abstract provided.

Use Of Aminocyclopyrachlor For Forestry Site Preparation In The Southeastern U.S., Andrew W. Ezell, Ronnie Turner, Jimmie L. Yeiser

Faculty Publications

It is not often that new chemistry is made available for use in forestry applications. Aminocyclopyrachlor is a new active ingredient which may have usefulness as a forestry herbicide. Research using this active ingredient began in 2005 and is continuing in university projects across the South. Both hardwood control efficacy and pine tolerance have been evaluated in these trials. A total of 60 different treatments have been evaluated for use in site preparation applications in Mississippi and Texas. This herbicide is effective on a number of species including some invasive exotics. It will probably not be a stand alone treatment, …

Clearcutting Has A Long-Lasting Effect On Habitat Connectivity For A Forest Amphibian By Decreasing Permeability To Juvenile Movements, Viorel Popescu, Malcolm L. Hunter Jr.

Publications

Conservation of forest amphibians is dependent on finding the right balance between management for timber production and meeting species' habitat requirements. For many pond-breeding amphibians, successful dispersal of the juvenile stage is essential for long-term population persistence. We investigated the influence of timber-harvesting practices on the movements of juvenile wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus). We used a chronosequence of stands produced by clear-cutting to evaluate how stand age affects habitat permeability to movements. We conducted experimental releases of juveniles in 2008 (n = 350) and 2009 (n = 528) in unidirectional runways in four treatments: mature forest, recent clearcut, …

Pb1751 A Southern Pine Management Guide For Tennessee Landowners, Wayne K. Clatterbuck

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Version 2.0

Pb1767 Wood Protection For Log Home Owners, Adam M. Taylor, Stephen L. Quarles, Karen M. Vail

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

An understanding of wood properties will help log home owners protect and enjoy their homes. This publication is designed to provide basic information about wood, wood protection and the use of large timbers to build log homes.

Version 2.0

W262 Converting Between Doyle And International 1/4" Board Foot Rules, David Mercker

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Renewable Resources Notes

Version 5.0

W261 When A Tornado Strikes: Steps To Claim A Timber Casualty Loss, David Mercker

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Renewable Resources notes

Version 3.0

Sp595 Timber Theft! How To Avoid It And What To Do If It Happens, David Mercker

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Renewable Resources Notes

Version 2.0

Sp482 The Southern Pine Beetle, Larry Tankersley

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Renewable Resources Notes

Version 2.0

Pb1650 Understanding Log Scales And Log Rules, Brian Bond

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Version 2.0

Pb1798 Uneven-Age Management In Mixed Species, Southern Hardwoods: Is It Feasible And Sustainable?, Wayne K. Clatterbuck, Jeffrey W. Stringer, Larry Tankersley

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Version 2.0

Pb1800 A Guide For Matching Oak Species With Sites During Restoration Of Loess-Influenced Bottomlands In The West Gulf Coastal Plain, David Mercker, Ryan Blair, Don Tyler, Joshua Smith

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Version 3.0

Pb1799 Site Preparation For Natural Regeneration Of Hardwoods, Wayne K. Clatterbuck, Greg R. Armel

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Version 1.0

W253 Are Fast-Grown Trees Of Low Quality?, Adam Taylor, Jennifer Franklin

Forestry, Trees, and Timber

Version 4.0

Evaluating Tiffs (Toolbox For Lidar Data Filtering And Forest Studies) In Deriving Forest Measurements From Lidar Data, John Chapman, I-Kuai Hung, Jeff Tippen

Faculty Publications

Recent advances in LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology have allowed for the remote sensing of important forest characteristics to be more reliable and commercially available. Studies have shown that this technology can adequately estimate forest characteristics such as individual tree locations, tree heights, and crown diameters. These values are then used to estimate biophysical properties of forests, such as basal area and timber volume. This study assessed the capability of a commercially available program, Tiffs (Toolbox for Lidar Data Filtering and Forest Studies), to accurately estimate forest characteristics, as compared to data collected at the plot level using traditional …

Comparing Relative Abundance Of Amphibians In Forest Canopy Gaps Of Natural Origin Vs. Timber Harvest Origin, Carol J. Strojny, Malcolm L. Hunter Jr.

Publications

Relative abundance of amphibians in forest canopy gaps of natural origin vs. timber harvest origin.— Small–scale canopy gaps created by logging may retain adequate habitat structure to maintain amphibian abundance. We used pitfalls with drift fences to measure relative abundance of amphibians in 44 harvested gaps, 19 natural treefall gaps, and 36 closed–canopy forest plots. Metamorphs had relatively lower capture rates in large harvest gaps for Ambystoma maculatum, Lithobates catesbeianus, L. clamitans, and L. sylvaticus but we did not detect statistically significant (p < 0.1) differences among gap types for Lithobates palustris metamorphs. L. clamitans juveniles and L. sylvaticus juveniles and adults had relatively …

Forestry And Natural Resources Investment Analysis Via Computer Software, Thomas J. Straka, Steven H. Bullard

Faculty Publications

The valuation of forestry and natural resources investments and projects often present challenging analysis problems that require the use of computer software. Obtaining useful results from such packages are often difficult due to complex user/ program interfaces, while most are also subscriber~based and not freely available.

Examining The Compatibility Between Forestry Incentive Programs In The Us And The Practice Of Sustainable Forest Management, Steven E. Daniels, Michael A. Kilgore, Michael G. Jacobsen, John L. Greene, Thomas J. Straka

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This research explores the intersection between the various federal and state forestry incentive programs and the adoption of sustainable forestry practices on non-industrial private forest (NIPF) lands in the US. The qualitative research reported here draws upon a series of eight focus groups of NIPF landowners (two each in Minnesota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina). Despite minor regional variations, the dominant theme that emerged is that these landowners’ purchase and management decisions are motivated by the “trilogy” of forest continuity, benefit to the owner, and doing the “right thing.” This trilogy is quite consistent with notions of sustainable forestry, but …

Nebraska Statewide Forest Resource Assessment & Strategy - 2010, Scott Josiah, John Erixson

Nebraska Forest Service: Publications

This Assessment relies heavily on the input from our partners. To complete the Assessment, we bolstered our own forest resource data with publicly available data from a variety of sources, including the National Land Cover Dataset, USFS Spatial Analysis Project, U.S. Census Bureau, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Nebraska Department of Roads, Nebraska Natural Resources Districts and input from many partners. Combined, this information provided us with valuable insights about the nature, complexity and value of our forest resources, and helped us identify priority forest areas across the state.

Using the information from the Assessment, we developed strategic goals based …

Conservation Implications Of A Marbled Salamander, Ambystoma Opacum, Metapopulation Model, Ethan B. Plunkett

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Amphibians are in decline globally and a significantly greater percentage of ambystomatid salamander species are in decline relative to other species; habitat loss contributes significantly to this decline. The goals of this thesis is to better understand extinction risk in a marbled salamander (ambystoma opacum) population and how forestry effects extinction risk. To achieve this goal we first estimated an important life history parameter (Chapter 1) then used a metapopulation model to estimate population viability and determine what aspects of their life history put them most at risk (Chapter 2) and finally predicted extinction risk in response to hypothetical forestry …

Historical Evolution And Future Of Natural Resources Law And Policy: The Beginning Of An Argument And Some Modest Predictions, Sally K. Fairfax, Helen Ingram, Leigh Raymond

The Future of Natural Resources Law and Policy (Summer Conference, June 6-8)

8 pages.

Includes bibliographical references

"Sally Fairfax, UC-Berkeley, Helen Ingram, UC-Irvine, and Leigh Raymond, Purdue University" -- Agenda

Building Online Communities In Forestry: The Cases Of Timberia.Org And The Urban Ecology Collaborative, Andrey V. Semenov

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

In recent years, a second generation of Web-based technologies have as “Web 2.0” At the core of Web 2.0 are web-based services, social networking and online collaborative functions. Forestry, like other disciplines, has the potential to take advantage of these technologies to alter or change the way traditional interaction between forestry professionals and other interested parties is undertaken. This dissertation explores the use of Web 2.0 and social networking technologies in two domains: (1) eBusiness and (2) Urban Ecology. The thesis is designed to provide essentially two chapters that stand on their own, and describe the background and the design …