In the field of forest planning, assumptions regarding the appropriate modeling of management behavior, translated through management prescriptions, minimum harvest ages, green-up periods, and other variables are needed if a stand-level optimization process is not used to guide the selection of stand management regimes Forest planners thus generally have a...
This study focuses on the tradeoffs that exist for managing forested landscapes for biodiversity and timber production. Tradeoff evaluation is important to natural resource managers so they can understand the benefits and costs of alternative management prescriptions. The study examines three watersheds in the Oregon Coast Range and 166 terrestrial...
A dynamic programming algorithm (MS PATH) was used to develop a stand level optimization model, FPS Optimizer. The model incorporates a late-seral constraint on the profit maximizing objective function utilizing a four-descriptor structural index as a proxy. This index, the 'Old-Growth Index', rates the late-seral structural quality of a given...
The silviculture of mixed dipterocarp forests of Peninsular Malaysia can potentially be improved by developing quantitative tools and guidelines for this forest type. This thesis addresses three key objectives; 1) to test the hypothesis that a maximum size-density relationship can be identified in hill dipterocarp forests of Peninsular Malaysia, 2)...
This research analyzes how family forest owners conceptualize biodiversity in one high-conservation value area of oak woodland in the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon. Oregon white oak (Quercus garyanna) woodland, one of the most biologically diverse ecotypes in the state of Oregon, is in decline. Much of the oak ecotype...
In recent years, economic, social, technological, and environmental changes have all imposed challenges on forest-based communities. This has revived interest in studying these communities to understand their ability to tackle these challenges. This study is built around a case study of an industrial forest-based community and aims at characterizing the...
Increasing rates of species imperilment and the loss of biological diversity in naturally functioning ecosystems can be directly linked to accelerated urban development and the conversion of natural habitats to satisfy the needs of man. In combating this loss of biodiversity, scientists and policy makers alike recognize the relevance of...
A hybrid landscape optimization/simulation model called SafeD (Simulation and analysis of forests with episodic Disturbances) was built to address the needs of forest management planning in the Applegate River Watershed, southwestern Oregon (the Apple gate Project). There are two goals of the Applegate Project: 1) search for forest policies and...
Conflict over the best way to manage Oregon's public lands makes a land planner's job extremely challenging. Multiple uses, federal mandates, and constantly evolving knowledge all contribute to the difficulty of determining how to best use the land. The Coastal Landscape Analysis and Modeling Study (CLAMS) was developed in 1994...
Plants respond to defoliation in many different and complex ways, depending on their growth habit and form as well as the extent and duration of the defoliation. Tree crowns have been shown to be quite sensitive to disturbances such as defoliation, however quantitative relationships have rarely been developed, making the...
This project was a part of larger work that compared major factors controlling patterns of carbon dynamics in two regions of the globe, the Pacific Northwest, USA and northwestern Russia. It was funded through the NASA foundation (grant # NAG5- 6242). Human economic activity is causing the release of pollutants...
Watershed management is widely recognized as an important component of healthy ecosystems and its success depends on cultivating the good will, stewardship values, and participation of citizens. Because much of the streamside land in Oregon is in private ownership activities on public lands will not be enough to protect salmon...
A crossdated fire history was reconstructed for a 1562 km2 area in the southern Willamette foothills of Oregon, using fire scars and tree origin years from twelve sites. The purpose of this study was to determine fire frequency for each site and to quantify temporal and spatial variability of fire...
Basal area and height growth were analyzed for individual trees in uneven-aged ponderosa and lodgepole pine stands in central Oregon. Basal area growth was modeled as a function of other stand and tree variables to address five general objectives: 1) to compare the predictive ability of distance-dependent versus distance-independent stand...
The behavior of coniferous trees subjected to wind loading was investigated through a series of experiments and also through simulation modeling. Previous studies that measured the natural oscillation frequencies and damping ratios were reviewed and equations were developed for predicting the natural frequency of a tree from the ratio of...
Conventional natural resource management has struggled with effectively addressing dynamically complex natural resource issues. Many organizations structured in the rational-analytical paradigm of resource management are becoming increasingly aware that new management approaches are needed. Particularly in a rapidly changing environment, organizational learning is important for promoting an organization's ability to...
A plant's immediate neighborhood reflects its realized level of competitive stress, since competition and natural selection act at the individual level. In stands with continuous canopies competition for light is the dominant spatial interaction. Over 100 spatially explicit indices have been used to characterize the local competitive environment in models...
Attribution studies in social psychology predict that people tend to attribute the cause of natural disasters to factors associated with humans as opposed to nature per Se. The victims of natural disaster often consider natural disaster to be the result of not only natural forces but also human actions. This...
Ecosystem management has become an increasingly mainstream paradigm for natural
resource management. Nowhere is this more evident than on the public and private forestland
of the Pacific Northwest. While ecosystem management has become a widely
accepted principle of resource management, substantial questions remain about its
implementation. A case in point...