Measurements on growth traits up to 41 years of age
from 68 progeny sites in eight first-generation breeding
zones of coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii
[MIRB.] FRANCO var. menziesii) in the US Pacific Northwest
were used to investigate age trends of genetic parameters
and to determine optimum age of selection. Heritabilities...
The number of wildland–urban interface communities affected by wildfire is increasing, and both wildfire suppression and losses are costly. However, little is known about post-wildfire response by homeowners and communities after buildings are lost. Our goal was to characterise rebuilding and new development after wildfires across the conterminous United States....
Over the past 60 years, housing growth has outpaced population growth
in the United States. Conservationists are concerned about the far-reaching environmental
impacts of housing development, particularly in rural areas. We use
clustering analysis to examine the pattern and distribution of housing development
since 1940 in and around the Northern...
US forestlands are increasingly subject to disturbances including wildfire, insects and disease, and urban and exurban development. Devising strategies for addressing these "forest threats" depends on anticipating where individual disturbances are most likely and where they might occur in combination. However, many spatial data sets describing forest threats are produced...
In this article the authors examine the impact of recent
immigration on rates of serious property crime across communities in
Austin, Texas. The greater Austin foreign-born population has increased
by more than 580 percent since 1980, and Austin is considered a “pre-emerging” immigrant gateway city to the United States. The...
Swiss needle cast (SNC) is a disease specific to Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) caused by the ascomycete Phaeocryptopus gaeumannii. Here we examine characteristics of the EM fungus community that are potentially useful in predictive models that would monitor forest health. We found that mean EM density (number of colonized root tips/soil...
The wildland urban interface (WUI) delineates the areas where wildland fire hazard most directly impacts human communities and threatens lives and property, and where houses exert the strongest influence on the natural environment. Housing data are a major problem for WUI mapping. When housing data are zonal, the concept of...
National-scale analyses of fire occurrence are needed to prioritize fire policy and
management activities across the United States. However, the drivers of national-scale
patterns of fire occurrence are not well understood, and how the relative importance of human
or biophysical factors varies across the country is unclear. Our research goal...