Other Forestry and Forest Sciences Commons^™

The Imperative Of Conserving California's Foothill Oak Woodlands, Lauren Phillips

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Climate Change And North American Rangelands: Assessment Of Mitigation And Adaptation Strategies, Linda A. Joyce, David D. Briske, Joel R. Brown, H. Wayne Polley, Bruce A. Mccarl, Derek W. Bailey

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Recent climatic trends and climate model projections indicate that climate change will modify rangeland ecosystem functions and the services and livelihoods that they provision. Recent history has demonstrated that climatic variability has a strong influence on both ecological and social components of rangeland systems and that these systems possess substantial capacity to adapt to climatic variability. Specific objectives of this synthesis are to: 1) evaluate options to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and future climate change; 2) survey actions that individuals, enterprises, and social organizations can use to adapt to climate change; and 3) assess options for system transformation when adaptation …

Herbaceous 2013, Julia I. Chapman, Amy L. Myers, Ryan W. Mcewan

Data Files: Drew Woods Permanent Plots

Herbaceous vegetation data collected in 2013 at Drew Woods State Nature Preserve in Darke County, OH. Data key is provided in a supplemental file.

A Wildfire Risk Assessment Framework For Land And Resource Management, Joe H. Scott, Matthew P. Thompson, David E. Calkin

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Wildfires can result in significant, long-lasting impacts to ecological, social, and economic systems. It is necessary, therefore, to identify and understand the risks posed by wildland fire, and to develop cost-effective mitigation strategies accordingly. This report presents a general framework with which to assess wildfire risk and explore mitigation options, and illustrates a process for implementing the framework. Two key strengths of the framework are its flexibility— allowing for a multitude of data sources, modeling techniques, and approaches to measuring risk—and its scalability, with potential application for project, forest, regional, and national planning. The specific risk assessment process we introduce …

A National Approach For Integrating Wildfire Simulation Modeling Into Wildland Urban Interface Risk Assessments Within The United States, Jessica R. Haas, David E. Calkin, Matthew P. Thompson

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Ongoing human development into fire-prone areas contributes to increasing wildfire risk to human life. It is critically important, therefore, to have the ability to characterize wildfire risk to populated places, and to identify geographic areas with relatively high risk. A fundamental component of wildfire risk analysis is establishing the likelihood of wildfire occurrence and interaction with social and ecological values. A variety of fire modeling systems exist that can provide spatially resolved estimates of wildfire likelihood, which when coupled with maps of values-at-risk enable probabilistic exposure analysis. With this study we demonstrate the feasibility and utility of pairing burn probabilities …

Beech Bark Disease Distribution And Resistance In Michigan And Fungal Endophyte Ecology Of Resistant And Susceptible Beech (Fagus Grandifolia Ehrh.), Rachel E. Griesmer-Zakhar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports - Open

Beech bark disease (BBD), a non-native association of the fungal pathogen Neonectria faginata and the beech scale insect Cryptococcus fagisuga, has dramatically affected American beech within North American forests. To monitor the spread and effects of BBD in Michigan, a network of forest health monitoring plots was established in 2001 following the disease discovery in Ludington State Park (Mason County). Forest health canopy condition and basic forestry measurements including basal area were reassessed on beech trees in these plots in 2011 and 2012. The influence of bark-inhabiting fungal endophytes on BBD resistance was investigated by collecting cambium tissue from …

Carbon Storage And Sequestration By Trees In Urban And Community Areas Of The United States, David J. Nowak, Eric J. Greenfield, Robert E. Hoehn, Elizabeth Lapoint

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Carbon storage and sequestration by urban trees in the United States was quantified to assess the magnitude and role of urban forests in relation to climate change. Urban tree field data from 28 cities and 6 states were used to determine the average carbon density per unit of tree cover. These data were applied to statewide urban tree cover measurements to determine total urban forest carbon storage and annual sequestration by state and nationally. Urban whole tree carbon storage densities average 7.69 kg C m^‒2 of tree cover and sequestration densities average 0.28 kg C m^‒2 of tree …

Carbon Benefits From Protected Areas In The Conterminous United States, Daolan Zheng, Linda S. Heath, Mark J. Ducey

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Background: Conversion of forests to other land cover or land use releases the carbon stored in the forests and reduces carbon sequestration potential of the land. The rate of forest conversion could be reduced by establishing protected areas for biological diversity and other conservation goals. The purpose of this study is to quantify the efficiency and potential of forest land protection for mitigating GHG emissions.

Results: The analysis of related national-level datasets shows that during the period of 1992–2001 net forest losses in protected areas were small as compared to those in unprotected areas: -0.74% and −4.07%, respectively. …

Wildlife Population And Harvest Trends In The United States A Technical Document Supporting The Forest Service 2010 Rpa Assessment, Curtis H. Flather, Michael S. Knowles, Martin F. Jones, Carol Schilli

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act (RPA) of 1974 requires periodic assessments of the condition and trends of the nation’s renewable natural resources. Data from many sources were used to document recent historical trends in big game, small game, migratory game birds, furbearers, nongame, and imperiled species. Big game and waterfowl have generally increased in population and harvest trends. Many small upland and webless migratory game bird species have declined notably in population or harvest. Considerable declines in fur harvest since the 2000 RPA Assessment have occurred. Among the 426 breeding bird species with sufficient data to estimate …

Integrating Biodiversity And Drinking Water Protection Goals Through Geographic Analysis, James D. Wickham, Curtis H. Flather

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Aim Biodiversity and drinking water share a common interest in land conservation. Our objective was to identify where that common interest occurs geographically to inform conservation planning.

Location The study focused on 2112 eight-digit hydrologic units (watersheds) occurring in the conterminous United States.

Methods Data on aquatic-dependent species occurrence, drinking water intakes, protected land status and land cover change were compiled for each watershed. We compared these four datasets after defining ‘hotspots’ based on attribute-specific thresholds that included (1) the 90th percentile of at-risk aquatic biodiversity, (2) with and without drinking water intakes, (3) above and below the median percentage …

A Polygon-Based Modeling Approach To Assess Exposure Of Resources And Assets To Wildfire, Matthew P. Thompson, Joe Scott, Jeffrey D. Kaiden, Julie W. Gilbertson-Day

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Spatially explicit burn probability modeling is increasingly applied to assess wildfire risk and inform mitigation strategy development. Burn probabilities are typically expressed on a per-pixel basis, calculated as the number of times a pixel burns divided by the number of simulation iterations. Spatial intersection of highly valued resources and assets (HVRAs) with pixel-based burn probability estimates enables quantification of HVRA exposure to wildfire in terms of expected area burned. However, statistical expectations can mask variability in HVRA area burned across all simulated fires. We present an alternative, polygon-based formulation for deriving estimates of HVRA area burned. This effort enhances investigations …

The Influence Of Vertical And Horizontal Habitat Structure On Nationwide Patterns Of Avian Biodiversity, Patrick D. Culbert, Volker C. Radeloff, Curtis H. Flather, Josef M. Kellndorfer, Chadwick D. Rittenhouse, Anna M. Pidgeon

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

With limited resources for habitat conservation, the accurate identification of high-value avian habitat is crucial. Habitat structure affects avian biodiversity but is difficult to quantify over broad extents. Our goal was to identify which measures of vertical and horizontal habitat structure are most strongly related to patterns of avian biodiversity across the conterminous United States and to determine whether new measures of vertical structure are complementary to existing, primarily horizontal, measures. For 2,546 North American Breeding Bird Survey routes across the conterminous United States, we calculated canopy height and biomass from the National Biomass and Carbon Dataset (NBCD) as measures …

Keeping It Wild: Mapping Wilderness Character In The United States, Steve Carver, James Tricker, Peter Landres

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

A GIS-based approach is developed to identify the state of wilderness character in US wilderness areas using Death Valley National Park (DEVA) as a case study. A set of indicators and measures are identified by DEVA staff and used as the basis for developing a flexible and broadly applicable framework to map wilderness character using data inputs selected by park staff. Spatial data and GIS methods are used to map the condition of four qualities of wilderness character: natural, untrammelled, undeveloped, and solitude or primitive and unconfined recreation. These four qualities are derived from the US 1964 Wilderness Act and …

Interpretation Of Gypsy Moth Frontal Advance Using Meteorology In A Conditional Algorithm, K. L. Frank, P. C. Tobin, H. W. Thistle Jr., Laurence S. Kalkstein

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The gypsy moth, Lymantria dispar, is a nonnative species that continues to invade areas in North America. It spreads generally through stratified dispersal where local growth and diffusive spread are coupled with long-distance jumps ahead of the leading edge. Longdistance jumps due to anthropogenic movement of life stages is a well-documented spread mechanism. Another mechanism is the atmospheric transport of early instars and adult males, believed to occur over short distances. However, empirical gypsy moth population data continue to support the possibility of alternative methods of longrange dispersal. Such dispersal events seemed to have occurred in the mid- to …

Forest Recovery Patterns In Response To Divergent Disturbance Regimes In The Border Lakes Region Of Minnesota (Usa) And Ontario (Canada), Brian R. Sturtevant, Brian R. Miranda, Peter T. Wolter, Patrick M.A. James, Marie-Josée Fortin, Philip A. Townsend

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The persistence of landscape-scale disturbance legacies in forested ecosystems depends in part on the nature and strength of feedback among disturbances, their effects, and subsequent recovery processes such as tree regeneration and canopy closure. We investigated factors affecting forest recovery rates over a 25-year time period in a large (6 million ha) landscape where geopolitical boundaries have resulted in important land management legacies (managed forests of Minnesota, USA; managed forests of Ontario, Canada; and a large unmanaged wilderness). Stand-replacing disturbance regimes were quantified across management zones, both inside and outside a central ecoregion, using a time series of classified land …

Factors Influencing The Establishment And Survival Of Native Hardwood Tree Seedlings Of The Kentucky Inner Bluegrass Blue Ash-Oak Savanna-Woodland, James D. Shaffer

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Historically, the Kentucky Inner Bluegrass blue ash-oak savanna-woodland was the primary ecosystem of the Inner Bluegrass Region (IBR) of Kentucky. After European settlement, the majority (>99%) of Bluegrass savanna was converted to agricultural and urban land uses. Currently remnant savanna tree species are failing to recruit. Therefore, a long-term restoration ecology project researching competition and disturbance on seedling establishment, survival, and growth has been established at Griffith Woods (the largest remaining savanna in Kentucky) in Harrison Co., KY. Fourteen native hardwood tree species (a total of 6,168 seedlings) have been experimentally planted. Light, soil, surrounding vegetation, and herbivory, factors …

Experiments To Measure The Effects Of Timber Harvesting Equipment On Surface Lithic Scatters, Douglas J. Baughman

All Master's Theses

The importance of cultural resource preservation cannot be overstated; however local economies are at least as important. Due to conservative archaeological site protection practices in Region 5 of the United States Forest Service, the economy of Northeastern California is being adversely affected. In an attempt to help the Forest Service make more informed management decisions and improve the Northeastern California economy, I undertook experiments on the effects of timber harvesting on lithic scatters on Modoc National Forest. The experiments involved placement of 225 glass tiles (proxy lithics) in each of three plots subject to vehicle traffic and log dragging by …

Mortality Assessment Of Redwood And Mixed Conifer Forest Types In Santa Cruz County Following Wildfire, Steve R. Auten

Master's Theses

On August 12, 2009, the Lockheed Fire ignited the west slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains burning approximately 7,819 acres. Foresters and other land managers were left with challenging decisions on how to evaluate tree mortality. Big Creek Lumber Company, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly)’s Swanton Pacific Ranch (SPR), and other resource professionals familiar with this region teamed up to develop a method for evaluating damage and thereby mortality for redwood, California nutmeg, live oak, tanoak, California bay, Pacific madrone, big leaf maple, Douglas-fir, Monterey pine, and knobcone pine. Quantitative damage criteria were used to design …

Herbaceous 2012 (June 3), Amy L. Myers, Julia I. Chapman, Ryan W. Mcewan

Data Files: Drew Woods Permanent Plots

Herbaceous vegetation data collected in 2012 at Drew Woods State Nature Preserve in Darke County, OH. Data key is provided in a supplemental file.

Herbaceous 2012 (May 19), Amy L. Myers, Julia I. Chapman, Ryan W. Mcewan

Data Files: Drew Woods Permanent Plots

Herbaceous vegetation data collected in 2012 at Drew Woods State Nature Preserve in Darke County, OH. Data key is provided in a supplemental file.

Herbaceous 2012 (May 5), Amy L. Myers, Julia I. Chapman, Ryan W. Mcewan

Data Files: Drew Woods Permanent Plots

Herbaceous vegetation data collected in 2012 at Drew Woods State Nature Preserve in Darke County, OH. Data key is provided in a supplemental file.

Cheating Cheatgrass: New Research To Combat A Wily Invasive Weed, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

Cheatgrass and its cousin, red brome, are exotic annual grasses that have invaded and altered ecosystem dynamics in more than 41 million acres of desert shrublands between the Rockies and the Cascade-Sierra chain. A fungus naturally associated with these Bromus species has been found lethal to the plants’ soil-banked dormant seeds. Supported by the Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP), researchers Susan Meyer, Phil Allen, and Julie Beckstead cultured this fungus, Pyrenophora semeniperda, in the laboratory and developed an experimental field application that, in some trials, killed all the dormant soil-banked Bromus seeds, leaving none to germinate the following year. The …

Herbaceous 2012 (April 21), Amy L. Myers, Julia I. Chapman, Ryan W. Mcewan

Data Files: Drew Woods Permanent Plots

Herbaceous vegetation data collected in 2012 at Drew Woods State Nature Preserve in Darke County, OH. Data key is provided in a supplemental file.

Herbaceous 2012 (April 9), Amy L. Myers, Julia I. Chapman, Ryan W. Mcewan

Data Files: Drew Woods Permanent Plots

Herbaceous vegetation data collected in 2012 at Drew Woods State Nature Preserve in Darke County, OH. Data key is provided in a supplemental file.

Herbaceous 2012 (March 25), Amy L. Myers, Julia I. Chapman, Ryan W. Mcewan

Data Files: Drew Woods Permanent Plots

Herbaceous vegetation data collected in 2012 at Drew Woods State Nature Preserve in Darke County, OH. Data key is provided in a supplemental file.

Nebraska’S Forest Resources, 2012, Dacia M. Meneguzzo, Chuck Barnett

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

This publication provides an overview of forest resource attributes for Nebraska based on an annual inventory conducted by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program at the Northern Research Station of the U.S. Forest Service. These estimates, along with web-posted core tables, will be updated annually. For more information please refer to page 5 of this report.

Climate Change On The Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming: A Synthesis Of Past Climate, Climate Projections, And Ecosystem Implications, Janine Rice, Andrew Tredennick, Linda A. Joyce

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The Shoshone National Forest (Shoshone) covers 2.4 million acres of mountainous topography in northwest Wyoming and is a vital ecosystem that provides clean water, wildlife habitat, timber, grazing, recreational opportunities, and aesthetic value. The Shoshone has experienced and adapted to changes in climate for many millennia, and is currently experiencing a warming trend that is expected to accelerate in the next century. Climate change directly and indirectly affects the Shoshone’s high-elevation, mountainous terrain that supports unique and sometimes rare ecological components. Several vulnerable and very responsive resources and processes on the Shoshone could interact to produce unforeseeable or undesirable ecosystem …

Wildlife-Associated Recreation Trends In The United States A Technical Document Supporting The Forest Service 2010 Rpa Assessment, Miranda H. Mockrin, Richard A. Aiken, Curtis H. Flather

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

The Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act (RPA) of 1974 requires periodic assessments of the condition and trends of the Nation’s renewable natural resources. In this report, we document recent and historical trends in hunting and wildlife watching to fulfill RPA requirements. Using data from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation we present historical trends back to 1955 as well as recent changes from the past 10 to 20 years to evaluate changes in recreation since the 2000 RPA Assessment. We report on several attributes of wildlife …

Changing The Way We Address Change, Richard Straight

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Covers factors impacting private forest management in the United States, and other related issues.

Assessment Of Windbreak Condition And Indicators To Renovate, Steve Rasmussen

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

A presentation covering assessment of windbreak condition and indicators to renovate.