Forest Sciences Commons^™

Forage Yields In Turkey Hill Wilderness In East Texas For White-Tailed Deer, Brian P. Oswald, Kenneth W. Farrish, Bret Gentzler

Faculty Publications

Wilderness areas are often considered quality areas where natural processes occur without human activity. It is often assumed that these unmanaged areas will provide and support quality wildlife habitat. The objective of this study was to evaluate the forage production and stocking potential of an unmanaged wilderness area in east Texas. Four different community types were evaluated for forage yield, forage availability, and browse utilization for white-tailed deer. Results show that although a wide range of forage yields were measured in the spring, summer forage yield did not differ among the various communities. Availability also differed between community types, but …

Vegetative Community Development Over 30 Years Within Mixed Pine-Hardwood Mine Reclamation Sites In East Texas, Christy Christian, Brian P. Oswald, Hans M. Williams, Kenneth W. Farrish

Faculty Publications

The practice of mine reclamation aims to balance the energy needs of society with proactive environmental restoration of degraded land, and long-term studies of vegetative community development on reclaimed mine land have been invaluable in developing effective reclamation practices. This study investigated vegetative community characteristics (composition, richness, species importance)over a 30 year time frame in planted mixed pine-hardwood areas on reclaimed surface coal mine land in East Texas,United States. Reclaimed sites werecompared vegetatively to unmined reference forests. A chronological pattern wasshown for reclaimedcommunity developmentin both understory and overstorystrata. Understory community development exhibitednatural patterns, while theoverstory community varied with different groups …

Overstory Tree Mortality In The Ponderosa Pine And Spruce-Fir Ecosystems, Following A Drought In Northern New Mexico, Brian P. Oswald, Sean Dugan, Randy Balice, Daniel Unger

Faculty Publications

Drought-caused tree dieback is an issue around the world as climates change and many areas become dryer and hotter. A drought from 1998-2004 resulted in a significant tree dieback event in many of the wooded areas in portions of the Jemez Mountains and the adjacent Pajarito Plateau in northern New Mexico. The objectives of this study were to evaluate and quantify the differences in tree mortality before and after a recent drought in the ponderosa pine and spruce-fir ecosystems, and to assess the effect of mechanical thinning on ponderosa pine mortality. Significant increases in mortality were observed in the unthinned …

Comparing Remotely Sensed Pictometry® Web Based Slope Distance Estimates With In Situ Total Station And Tape Slope Distance Estimates, David Kulhavy, Daniel Unger, Yanli Zhang, Phillip Bedford, I-Kuai Hung

Faculty Publications

Slope distance was measured between the top of 30 light poles and their respective ground level coordinate identified within a central parking lot on the campus of Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas. Slope distance measured using Pictometry^® hyperspatial 4-inch (10.2 centimeters) multispectral imagery within a web based interface was compared to in situ total station and tape measured slope distance. The range for mean slope distance for Pictometry^®, total station, and tape measured slope distance was 0.05 meters. Mean slope distance was 15.36 meters, 15.37 meters, and 15.41 meters for Pictometry^®, total station, …

Incorporating Applied Undergraduate Research In Senior To Graduate Level Remote Sensing Courses, Richard Henley, Daniel Unger, David Kulhavy, I-Kuai Hung

Faculty Publications

An Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture (ATCOFA) senior spatial science undergraduate student engaged in a multi-course undergraduate research project to expand his expertise in remote sensing and assess the applied instruction methodology employed within ATCOFA. The project consisted of performing a change detection land-use/land-cover classification for Nacogdoches and Angelina counties in Texas using satellite imagery. The dates for the imagery were spaced approximately ten years apart and consisted of four different acquisitions between 1984 and 2013. The classification procedure followed and expanded upon a series of concrete theoretical remote sensing principles, transforming the four remotely sensed raster images …

Effects Of First Thinning On Growth Of Loblolly Pine Plantations In The West Coastal Plain, Dean W. Coble, Jason Grogan

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this research is to analyze thinning response in basal area and height growth of residual loblolly pine trees growing in plantations located in the West Gulf Coastal Plain. Thinning is a well-known silvicultural practice that increases the growing space available to desirable trees by removing competing trees.

Use Of A Portable Sawmill For Forestry Instruction, Matthew Mcbroom, David Kulhavy, Jeremy Stovall, Ryan P. Grisham

Faculty Publications

The Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX, has implemented an experiential learning exercise to improve student learning related to the forest products industry. During the week-long sophomore- or junior-level course Harvesting and Processing, forestry students tour multiple wood products facilities such as sawmills. These mills use complex technologies to maximize the lumber produced from each log, and students were having difficulty understanding the underlying concepts. As part of this course beginning in 2012, students began working in teams to estimate the lumber that will be recovered from a log and …

Evaluating Interactive Transect Area Assessments Hands-On Instruction For Natural Resource Undergraduate Students, Daniel Unger, Sarah Schwab, Ryan Jacques, Yanli Zhang, I-Kuai Hung, David L. Kulhavy

Faculty Publications

Undergraduate students pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Spatial Science degree at Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU) receive instruction in the spatial sciences with a focus on hands-on applications. All undergraduate students take the course Introduction to Spatial Science which includes a comprehensive overview of spatial science incorporating a comparison of standard inexpensive area assessment techniques with high-end computer based area assessment methodologies. Students within this course were instructed how to assess the area of a surface feature on an aerial image with a ruler applying the transect method. Student's average Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) between a student's …

Spatial Distribution Of Earthworms In An East Texas Forest Ecosystem, Melissa A. Bozarth, Kenneth W. Farrish, George A. Damoff, James Van Kley, J. Leon Young

Faculty Publications

Earthworms were collected and identified in different ecological habitats of the Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest (SFAEF) in the Piney Woods Ecoregion (PWE) of Texas. Earthworm spatial distribution data were collected over four distinct ecological habitats with a range of soil conditions and vegetative cover. A total of 128 sampling plots were surveyed in two different, broadly defined locations (mesic slope = 68 plots, dry-mesic upland = 60 plots). Using multivariate classification/ordination (TWINSPAN) and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) of overstory vegetation data, these two locations were further divided into four distinct habitats: dry-mesic mixed upland, transitional zone, mesic slope and …

Riparian Trees And Aridland Streams Of The Southwestern United States: An Assessment Of The Past, Present, And Future, D. Max Smith, Deborah M. Finch

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

Riparian ecosystems are vital components of aridlands within the southwestern United States. Historically, surface flows influenced population dynamics of native riparian trees. Many southwestern streams has been altered by regulation, however, and will be further affected by greenhouse warming. Our analysis of stream gage data revealed that decreases in volume of annual discharge and mean peak discharge and a shift to earlier peak discharge will occur in the Southern Rockies region of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. These changes will likely decrease rates of reproduction and survival of cottonwood (Populus fremontii and Populus deltoides ssp. wislizenii), Goodding's willow …

Review Of Broad-Scale Drought Monitoring Of Forests: Toward An Integrated Data Mining Approach, Steven P. Norman, Frank H. Koch, William W. Hargrove

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

Efforts to monitor the broad-scale impacts of drought on forests often come up short. Drought is a direct stressor of forests as well as a driver of secondary disturbance agents, making a full accounting of drought impacts challenging. General impacts can be inferred from moisture deficits quantified using precipitation and temperature measurements. However, derived meteorological indices may not meaningfully capture drought impacts because drought responses can differ substantially among species, sites and regions. Meteorology-based approaches also require the characterization of current moisture conditions relative to some specified time and place, but defining baseline conditions over large, ecologically diverse regions can …

Conditions Inside Fisher Dens During Prescribed Fires; What Is The Risk Posed By Spring Underburns?, Craig M. Thompson, Kathryn L. Purcell

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

The use of spring prescribed fires to reduce accumulated fuel loads in western forests and facilitate the return of natural fire regimes is a controversial topic. While spring burns can be effective at reducing fuel loads and restoring heterogeneous landscapes, concerns exist over the potential impacts of unnaturally timed fires to native species. To protect native wildlife from disturbance during critical periods, limited operating periods (LOPs) are often implemented. However when LOPs for multiple species are combined into an integrated management plan, very few time windows for implementing prescribed fires remain. The use of spring burns is often effectively eliminated, …

Working Trees Info: How Can Agroforestry Help Pollinators?

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Over one hundred crop species in North America require a visit from an insect pollinator to be most productive. In the past, native bees, feral honey bees, and other pollinators could meet the needs of these diverse crops because farms were typically interspred with pollinator habitat. Today, farms in the United States are larger and have less nearby habitat to support pollinators.

Private landowners can do a lot to support these critical pollinators by providing habitat and food sources for honey bees, native bees, butterflies, and others. Pollinator habitat and floral diversity on the farm also benefit producers of insect …

Bigtooth And Quaking Aspen Propagation From Roots Versus Seed, Joseph M. Vande Hey

Aspen Bibliography

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Forestry Economic Impact Report 2015, Jeff Stringer, Billy Thomas, Bobby Ammerman, Alison Davis

Kentucky Forestry Economic Impact Reports

Forests cover nearly one-half of Kentucky and provide a wide range of both economic and non-economic benefits to the Commonwealth. The primary economic contributor is derived from the utilization of timber and wood resources. Analysis of Kentucky’s forest and wood industries in 2015 indicated an estimated direct economic impact of $9.1 billion (up 9 percent from 2014). These industries employed over 28,000 individuals. Total economic impacts in 2015 were estimated above $14 billion for the first time ($14.6 billion) with a total employment of 62,445. This increase in both direct and total impacts has been on-going since 2012 with a …

Financial Investment Management For Forest Sustainability, Zarina Ismailova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is paper is discussion about main problems of forest management, whether financial investment has a substantial impact on the long term perspective of forest landscape restoration and, more specifically, what strategy and what financial options are available to make the forest projects more sustainable. A few relevant questions to ask are: who are the main actors in the implementation of FLR projects; which steps have to be taken; and, which financial options would more suitable and would be feasible to implement. There are three main parts of this research to be investigated:

1. forest issues along with their respective solutions, …

Ecological Predictors And Consequences Of Non-Native Earthworms In Kennebec County, Maine, Julia Rogers

Honors Theses

Non-native earthworms are found throughout much of the United States and southern Canada in areas that were glaciated during the most recent glaciation. These earthworms are changing nutrient cycling, modifying soil structure, and influencing diversity in forests throughout the Northern United States, and their invasion northward is facilitated by human activities. Although worms are present in compost piles and gardens of all Maine counties, there are no comprehensive studies of earthworms distributions in forested areas of Maine. I documented the presence and absence of earthworms in forested recreation areas in Kennebec County, Maine, and investigated ecological and landscape level variables …

Impact Of Long Term Soil Management Practices On The Fertility Andweed Flora Of An Almond Orchard, Giovanna Cucci, Giovanni Lacolla, Carmine Crecchio, Silvia Pascazio, Donato De Giorgio

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Soil management techniques can definitely influence soil quality, and particularly soil organic matter content, biological complexity, structure, and water holding capacity. Tillage may also have a negative effect by increasing erosion and organic matter oxidation processes, which have unavoidable repercussions on fertility. The objective of the current research was to test the effects of five different management techniques applied for 35 years on a rain-fed almond grove (Prunus amygdalus Batsch) in a hot-dry environment on some physicochemical, hydrological, and biological parameters. The following soil management techniques were compared: no-till (NT), with weed control by preemergence herbicides; NT, with chemical weed …

Evaluating Soil Quality And Bioefficacy Study Of Cajanus Cajan L. In Coal Mine-Degraded Land, Shrabani Sen, Vipin Kumar

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Surface mining activities in past and recent times have resulted in the existence of a number of overburden dumps (mine spoils) through excavation and deposition of removed soil and rock debris. These spoils require environmental stabilization/restoration through proper revegetation. The present study was undertaken to examine the influence of various amendments to soil properties and the growth and yield of Cajanus cajan L. cultivation in mine-degraded soils. An experiment was conducted with nine combinations of various amendments to C. cajan L., a widely cultivating legume in India for its highly nutritious seeds. The physicochemical and biological properties of mine spoil …

The Pyrolysis Characteristics Of Wood Waste Containing Different Types Of Varnishes, Günay Özbay, Ayhan Özçi̇fçi̇, Erkan Sami̇ Kökten

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

The wood industry produces large amounts of wood waste. This waste usually contains a number of nonwood materials, such as paints or varnishes. In this study, the pyrolysis characteristics of wood waste containing synthetic, polyurethane, and polyester varnishes were investigated for conversion into renewable liquid fuels. The elemental analysis and higher heating values of the bio-oils were determined. The chemical compounds present in the bio-oils obtained at an optimum temperature were identified by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy analysis. The product yields and compositions were affected by the types of varnishes. The maximum bio-oil yield of 46.7% was obtained from pyrolysis of …