Forest Sciences Commons^™

Impacts Of Forest Tax Programs On Property Tax Rates In Michigan's Upper Peninsula And Northern Wisconsin, Elsa Schwartz

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Forest tax programs offer reduced property taxes to private forest owners as incentive to sustainably manage their forests and to encourage the provision of ecosystem services. They also protect forests from conversion to other land uses and ensure the viable supply of timber for forest products industries. Despite the benefits that these programs provide, they can negatively impact local municipalities by reducing the property tax base, which can then cause local governments to increase tax rates for non-preferential properties in order to maintain revenue needed to run their services. This shifts the tax burden from participating properties to nonparticipating properties. …

Evaluating Long-Term Growth And Yield In Upper Great Lakes Region Northern Hardwoods Cutting Trials, Maeve Draper

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Common partial cutting management methods in Lake States hardwoods include both selection management and diameter-limit cuttings. Single-tree selection in particular is a widely prescribed silvicultural system in northern hardwoods and has an established history of use throughout the entire range of the forest type. Using data from two historic silvicultural studies, long-term comparison of single-tree selection methods and other partial cutting practices in northern hardwoods reveals that single-tree selection to higher residual basal areas, as widely applied in Great Lakes northern hardwood forests, is inferior using financial and volume yield criteria. Alternatives that remove more of the larger trees appear …

Regional Impacts Of Invasive Species And Climate Change On Black Ash Wetlands, Joseph Shannon

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

For more than a decade intensive research on the ecohydrology of black ash wetland ecosystems has been performed to understand these systems before they are drastically altered by the invasive species, emerald ash borer (EAB). In that time there has been little research aimed at the scale and persistence of the alterations. Three distinct but related research articles will be presented to demonstrate a method for moderate resolution mapping of black ash across its entire range, understand the relative impacts of EAB and climate change on probable future wetland conditions, and develop an experimental and modeling approach to quantify and …

Fine-Scale Movements And Behaviors Of Coyotes (Canis Latrans) During Their Reproductive Period, Michael J. Chamberlain, Bradley S. Cohen, Patrick H. Wightman, Emily Rushton, Joseph W. Hinton

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

In canids, resident breeders hold territories but require different resources than transient individuals (i.e., dispersers), which may result in differential use of space, land cover, and food by residents and transients. In the southeastern United States, coyote (Canis latrans) reproduction occurs during spring and is energetically demanding for residents, but transients do not reproduce and therefore can exhibit feeding behaviors with lower energetic rewards. Hence, how coyotes behave in their environment likely differs between resident and transient coyotes. We captured and monitored 36 coyotes in Georgia during 2018–2019 and used data from 11 resident breeders, 12 predispersing residents (i.e., offspring …

Root Biomass And Production By Two Cushion Plant Species Of Tropical High-Elevation Peatlands In The Andean Páramo, Esteban Suárez, Segundo Chimbolema, Rodney Chimner, Erik A. Lilleskov

Michigan Tech Publications, Part 1

High-elevation peatlands in the Andes are receiving increasing attention for their biodiversity and their high rates of carbon accumulation. However, the ecology of these peatlands and the environmental factors that control their carbon dynamics remain under-studied. Here we report on the patterns of root biomass productivity and turnover rates for two cushion plant species (Distichia muscoides, Plantago rigida) that commonly dominate high-elevation peatlands (> 4200 m a.s.l.) in the Andean páramo landscape of Northern Ecuador. Root biomass for P. rigida ranged from 680 to 864 g m-2 and was approximately 40 % higher than for D. muscoides (507–620 g m-2). …

Wildlife Forage Recovery Following Boreal Wildfire, Alexis Jorgensen, Jennifer Baltzer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Climate change is altering the boreal wildfire regime through increases in the extent and severity of burning and reductions in fire return intervals. These changes can alter the regeneration trajectory of canopy species and ground vegetation, with implications for wildlife habitat. There is some uncertainty about the timelines of when different animal species will use burned areas as their preferred forage taxa recover following fire, and how such recovery is mediated by environmental factors. Here, we aim to address these knowledge gaps through the following questions: 1) What are the main forage types consumed by boreal wildlife and how much …

Effects Of Prescribed Fire On Drought Resistance And Recovery In Mixed Conifer Forests Of Lassen Volcanic National Park, California, Zachary J. Wenderott

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Forests throughout much of the western United States are experiencing increasing climatic variability, often resulting in decreased forest productivity and elevated likelihood of tree mortality. Severe drought, such California’s recent 2012-2015 drought, are projected to increase in intensity, frequency, and severity throughout much of this region in coming years. Forest management has long relied on prescribed fire and mechanical thinning to reduce fuel loads and ameliorate potential fire hazards. These treatments may also have the ability to reduce stand density, alleviate competitive pressures, and allow residual trees access to critical resources during periods of extreme stress. Utilizing a long-term National …

Comparison Of Low-Cost Commercial Unpiloted Digital Aerial Photogrammetry To Airborne Laser Scanning Across Multiple Forest Types In California, James Edward Lamping

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Science-based forest management requires quantitative information about forest attributes traditionally collected via sampled field plots in a forest inventory program. Remote sensing tools, such as active three-dimensional (3D) Light Detection and Ranging (lidar), are increasingly utilized to supplement and even replace field-based forest inventories. However, lidar remains cost prohibitive for smaller areas and repeat measurement, often limiting its use to single acquisitions of large contiguous areas. Recent advancements in unpiloted aerial systems (UAS), digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP) and high precision global positioning systems (HPGPS) have the potential to provide low-cost time and place flexible 3D data to support forest inventory …

The Politics Of Biomass Energy In California: How External Benefits Are Used To Support An Economically Marginal Sector, Dana L. Dysthe

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Since the 1990s, there has been a decline in biomass energy generation in California. In order to promote state governmental policies aiming to increase biomass energy generation in California, the sector has been linked to a series of external benefits that biomass energy purportedly brings. Through document analysis, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation, five distinct external benefits were identified that have been used to promote the biomass energy sector. These external benefits are: renewable energy generation, air quality improvements, promotion of forest restoration and fuel removal projects, disposal of wood waste from agricultural and forestry sectors, and rural economic development. …

Analyzing Safety Audits To Improve Logging Safety Performance, George Daniel Nolan Jr

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examines logging safety audits to determine how different variables, and differing amounts of time between audits, affect the outcome of safety score performance. To collect the data for this study a three-page paper audit was used that examined five areas of the logging site which include: Personal protective equipment (PPE), general, felling, mobile equipment and, landing and loading.

The study analyzed 3 aspects of the audit which were the total score and the sub-categories of PPE and felling since they were the two heaviest weighted sections. The analysis only included audits that had a 5 percent or greater …

Effects Of Bark Beetle Outbreaks On Forest Landscape Pattern In The Southern Rocky Mountains, U.S.A., Kyle C. Rodman, Robert A. Andrus, Cori L. Butkiewicz, Teresa B. Chapman, Nathan S. Gill, Brian J. Harvey, Dominik Kulakowski, Niko J. Tutland, Thomas T. Veblen, Sarah J. Hart

Geography

Since the late 1990s, extensive outbreaks of native bark beetles (Curculionidae: Scolytinae) have affected coniferous forests throughout Europe and North America, driving changes in carbon storage, wildlife habitat, nutrient cycling, and water resource provisioning. Remote sensing is a cru-cial tool for quantifying the effects of these disturbances across broad landscapes. In particular, Landsat time series (LTS) are increasingly used to characterize outbreak dynamics, including the presence and severity of bark beetle-caused tree mortality, though broad-scale LTS-based maps are rarely informed by detailed field validation. Here we used spatial and temporal information from LTS products, in combination with extensive field data …

Focus Stacking Images Of Morphological Character States For Differentiating The Adults Of Ixodes Affinis And Ixodes Scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) In Areas Of Sympatry, Robyn M. Nadolny, Marcée Toliver, Holly D. Gaff, John G. Snodgrass, Richard G. Robbins

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Adult females and males of Ixodes affinis and Ixodes scapularis are illustrated by focus stacking image photography, and morphological character states are described that reliably differentiate the two species. In conjunction with other environmental cues, such as the questing phenology of adults, these characteristics will enable the rapid identification of adults of either sex along the southern Coastal Plain of the United States, where these species are sympatric.