Forest Management Commons^™

Multi-Scale Environmental Conditions Associated With Shade-Tolerant Conifer Regeneration In Forest Park, Portland, Oregon, Matthew Cook

Dissertations and Theses

Forest Park is a 5,100-acre urban forest located in Portland, Oregon, that has been impacted by various anthropogenic stressors including logging, fragmentation, invasive species, air pollution and recreation use due to its proximity to the urban environment. This legacy of land use coupled with natural disturbances has resulted in changes to forest structure, composition, and function--threatening the long-term sustainability of the park. Past research in Forest Park has identified a lack of regenerating shade-tolerant conifers, particularly western hemlock and western red cedar species, in the section of the park closest to the city. Typically, western hemlock and western red cedar …

Opportunities And Challenges In The Collection And Use Of Socio-Spatial Data In National Forest Planning, Diane Trechsel Besser

Dissertations and Theses

Understanding human-environment connections to places is an important component of land-use management. Tools for collecting geographically referenced public values-based data (defined as socio-spatial data) for use in natural resource planning have been reported in academic journals for decades. The utility of socio-spatial data is in making public values tangible and potentially actionable in land-use analyses and decision processes. However, there is a lack of comprehensive documentation on the ways in which socio-spatial data is perceived, collected, interpreted and applied at a practical level. A better understanding of these factors allows planners to mitigate barriers and leverage opportunities to more …

Scientists, Uncertainty And Nature, An Analysis Of The Development, Implementation And Unintended Consequences Of The Northwest Forest Plan, Gilbert David Miller

Dissertations and Theses

The conflict in the Pacific Northwest between competing visions of how federal forests should be managed resulted in a political stalemate in the early 1990s. The Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) was initiated to resolve the demands for maintaining ecosystem processes and biological diversity with the social and economic needs for timber harvest. The foundation for the plan rested with the development of ecosystem management. The intent of this research is to explore the events which led up to the adoption of the NWFP, how it was implemented by the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management and the subsequent …

Assessing The Effects Of Climate Change And Fuel Treatments On Forest Dynamics And Wildfire In Dry Mixed-Conifer Forests Of The Inland West: Linking Landscape And Social Perspectives, Brooke Alyce Cassell

Dissertations and Theses

Over the past century in the western United States, warming has produced larger and more severe wildfires than previously recorded. General circulation models and their ensembles project continued increases in temperature and the proportion of precipitation falling as rain. Warmer and wetter conditions may change forest successional trajectories by modifying rates of vegetation establishment, competition, growth, reproduction, and mortality. Many questions remain regarding how these changes will occur across landscapes and how disturbances, such as wildfire, may interact with changes to climate and vegetation. Forest management is used to proactively modify forest structure and composition to improve fire resilience. Yet, …

Systems Thinking In The Forest Service: A Framework To Guide Practical Application For Social-Ecological Management In The Enterprise Program, Megan Kathleen Kmon

Dissertations and Theses

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) Enterprise Program (EP), which provides fee-for-service consulting services to the USFS, is interested in integrating systems thinking into its service offerings. Despite there being several excellent sources on the range and diversity of systems thinking, no single framework exists that thoroughly yet concisely outlines what systems thinking is along with its deep history, theoretical tenets, and soft and hard approaches. This thesis is an attempt to create such a framework, aimed specifically at practical application in a land management agency, through literature synthesis injected with original analysis. The usefulness of the framework is then tested …

Do Forest Commons Contribute To International Environmental Initiatives? A Socio-Ecological Analysis Of Nepalese Forest Commons In View Of Redd+, Harisharan Luintel

Dissertations and Theses

Forests in developing countries have the potential to contribute to global efforts to mitigate climate change, promote biodiversity and support the livelihoods of rural, local people. Approximately one-fourth of such forests are under the control of local communities, which primarily manage forests for subsistence and to meet their livelihood needs. The trend of bottom-up community control is increasing through the adoption of decentralization reforms over the last 40 years. In contrast, the United Nations has introduced the top-down program, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) for the conservation and enhancement of forest carbon and the sustainable management of …

Effects Of Selective Logging And Roads On Instream Fine Sediments And Macroinvertebrate Assemblages In The Clackamas Basin, Oregon, Paula Elizabeth Hood

Dissertations and Theses

Logging and associated skid trails, haul routes, and roads can have significant impacts on the magnitude and timing of sediments in streams in forested watersheds. Loss of vegetation, soil compaction, use of heavy logging equipment, and alteration of natural hydrologic patterns within the watershed can increase landslide rates, create erosion, and generate fine sediments. Selective logging, also called thinning, is a logging practice that leaves some trees within sale units unharvested. The ecological impacts of thinning on stream ecosystems are not fully understood and need further study. My hypothesis was that macroinvertebrate assemblages would be different in streams in non-reference …

Informal Trails And The Spread Of Invasive Species In Urban Natural Areas: Spatial Analysis Of Informal Trails And Their Effects On Understory Plant Communities In Forest Park, Portland, Oregon, Jill Elise Van Winkle

Dissertations and Theses

The risk of spread and establishment of invasive species to interior habitat within urban parks is of great concern to park managers and ecologists. Informal trails as a vector for this transmission are not well understood. To characterize effects of informal trails on understory plant communities, I conducted a study of the informal trail network in Forest Park, Portland, Oregon. The system of 382 informal trails was mapped and evaluated qualitatively, and from this population a systematic sample was selected for analysis. To identify hotspots of informal trail activity, showing the relationship of informal trails to formal trails, other park …

Managing For Resistance And Resilience Of Northern Great Lakes Forests To The Effects Of Climate Change, Matthew Joshua Duveneck

Dissertations and Theses

Climate change is expected to drastically change the environmental conditions which forests depend. Lags in tree species movements will likely be outpaced by a more rapidly changing climate. This may result in species extirpation, a change in forest structure, and a decline in resistance and resilience (i.e., the ability to persist and recover from external perturbations, respectively). In the northern Great Lakes region of North America, an ecotone exists along the boreal-temperate transition zone where large changes in species composition exist across a climate gradient. Increasing temperatures are observed in the more southern landscapes. As climate change is expected to …

Preserving Nature Through Film: Wilderness Alps Of Stehekin And The North Cascades, 1956-1968, Nicolas Timothy Bergmann

Dissertations and Theses

On March 22, 1958 David Brower's film Wilderness Alps of Stehekin premiered to an audience of conservationists in Seattle, Washington. Almost two years in the making, the thirty-one minute film advocated the preservation of nature in Washington's North Cascades through the creation of a national park. Over the next decade, Wilderness Alps of Stehekin became the most influential publicity tool in the struggle to preserve the North Cascades. Because of the region's geographic isolation, the film was the first time many people throughout the nation were exposed to the scenic grandeur of the area. Images of craggy peaks and colorful …

Forest Landscape Change Detection In The Meseta PuréPecha, MichoacáN, MéXico, John Malcolm Chase

Dissertations and Theses

Social, political, economic, and environmental factors converge in developing countries to stimulate high rates of deforestation. Forest conversion reduces biodiversity, contributes to carbon loading of the atmosphere, alters the global water balance, and degrades the quality of life for rural people. Mexico is the fifth most biologically diverse country in the world and temperate and tropical forests in Mexico are rapidly disappearing with environmental and cultural repercussions for people and ecosystems.

This study examines changes in the forest landscape surrounding two communidades indigenas in Michoacan, Mexico over a 15-year period. The research area includes communal forest, pasture, and agricultural land …

The Effect Of Declining Timber Supplies And Productivity Increases In The Forest Products Industries Upon Employment In Douglas County, Oregon, Patrick L. Burden

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines some of the factors that will have significant impact upon employment in Douglas County, Oregon to the year 2000.

The major question this research attempts to answer is: Given a continuation of current policies and programs, what will future employment levels in the forest product industries and total employment levels in all industries in Douglas County be to the year 2000.