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Full-Text Articles in Forest Sciences
Assessing The Structure And Function Of Utility Forests In Massachusetts, Ryan Suttle
Assessing The Structure And Function Of Utility Forests In Massachusetts, Ryan Suttle
Masters Theses
Trees in a community provide numerous benefits, including reducing ambient temperature, removing gaseous and particulate pollutants from the air, sequestering atmospheric carbon, and improving stormwater retention and filtration. However, trees also pose risks, especially in proximity to overhead utility lines. Trees near utility lines cause a large proportion of electrical power outages. As such, trees must be frequently and often severely pruned away from lines to minimize this risk. Presumably, community trees not growing near overhead utility lines are not pruned as frequently or severely. The objectives of this study are to (i) assess factors related to both individual trees …
Can Volunteers Learn To Prune Trees?, Ryan W. Fawcett
Can Volunteers Learn To Prune Trees?, Ryan W. Fawcett
Masters Theses
Volunteer pruning programs are becoming an important tool in helping municipal arborists manage the urban forest. To find if volunteers can learn to prune trees well, the ability of volunteers to prune small trees after receiving training was assessed in three different ways, a written exam, a pruning prescription assessment, and a pruning cut assessment. Volunteers were assigned to either an indoor, lecture-based training or an outdoor, hands-on training session. After the training volunteers were asked to complete a written exam to gauge their understanding of the curriculum. Volunteers were then asked to perform a pruning prescription on small street …
Use Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uav) For Urban Tree Inventories, Brian Ritter
Use Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Uav) For Urban Tree Inventories, Brian Ritter
All Theses
In contrast to standard aerial imagery, unmanned aerial systems (UAS) utilize recent technological advances to provide an affordable alternative for imagery acquisition. Increased value can be realized through clarity and detail providing higher resolution (2-5 cm) over traditional products. Many natural resource disciplines such as urban forestry will benefit from UAS. Tree inventories for risk assessment, biodiversity, planning, and design can be efficiently achieved with the UAS. Recent advances in photogrammetric processing have proved automated methods for three dimensional rendering of aerial imagery. Point clouds can be generated from images providing additional benefits. Association of spatial locational information within the …
The Effects Of Fire And Deer Herbivory On Oak Regeneration In An Eastern Deciduous Forest, Julie La Spina
The Effects Of Fire And Deer Herbivory On Oak Regeneration In An Eastern Deciduous Forest, Julie La Spina
Honors Theses
In the past, oak was one of the most dominant species groups in the deciduous forests of the northeastern United States. More recently, a variety of factors, including interspecific competition, fire suppression and deer herbivory, have led to the decline of oaks. We studied how oaks regenerate and grow following a major disturbance, and how their growth interacts with deer herbivory. We measured the growth of seedlings of three tree species following the 1,200 hectare Overlook Fire that occurred in Minnewaska State Park, NY in April 2008. At each of three sites, we measured the growth of twenty Quercus prinus, …