Research on skyline machines and techniques currently available for yarding smallwood is reviewed. Three categories of machines are discussed: used yarders (with a low initial cost) adaptable to smallwood, new and versatile yarders (with a high Initial cost) manufactured in the United States, and new, foreign-built yarders (with a low...
Regression equations for estimating the aboveground biomass (ovendry weight) of individual plants of 10 shrub and 2 pine species were developed from data collected in south central Oregon. All include a single independent variable and were generated from logarithmically transformed data. Total aboveground biomass of each shrub species is predicted...
This paper is a detailed description of a method for calculating and analyzing losses and recoveries in a veneer peeling/clipping operation. The method involves filming veneer sheets as they exit the clipper, digitizing this film, and using the digitized information in a computer analysis.
The use of Landsat data has historically been constrained to spectral and spatial information derived from a carefully selected image or set of images. However, free and open access to Landsat imagery combined with advances in data storage and computing are revolutionizing how the Landsat temporal domain is used to...
A study was conducted in summer of 1973 to assess impact of fluoride-insect damage on radial growth of lodgepole pine near the Anaconda Aluminum Company at Columbia Falls, Montana. Statistically significant growth losses attributed primarily to the effects of fluorides were found in 40 14 of 17 unmanaged stands for...
There are four sources of biomass fuels for generating electricity in southwest Oregon: noncommercial hardwoods, logging residues, mill residues, and municipal solid wastes. Noncommercial hardwoods and logging residues exist in sufficient quantities to support 100 MWe of generating capacity for 20 years. Logging residues are costly to harvest and would...
The purpose of this study was to provide the USDA-Forest Service,
Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and other agencies or industries
that may deal with temporary and intermittent use roads with
the necessary background information for the identification, economic
evaluation, and selection of the alternate surfacing systems and to
determine...
For more than a decade now, the use of herbicides (especially phenoxy herbicides) in forestry has been the subject of intense controversy. The debate has touched upon many aspects of herbicides, ranging from ecology to economics. But at the center of discussion has been the issue of possible adverse effects...
Forest growth and yield models are critical to supporting decision making in forestry, but often lack considerations for wood properties. The feasibility of simulating wood properties in the context of a Douglas-fir individual tree growth and yield model was evaluated. This assessment explored the effect of predicted sapwood width, stem...
This report is one of a series issued in cooperation with the Army-Navy-Civil Committee on Aircraft Design Criteria under the supervision of the Aeronautical Board. Information reviewed and reaffirmed March 1956. Original publication dated May 1948.
Broad-scale estimates of above ground forest biomass (AGB) are typically produced by applying individual-tree equations to inventory data consisting of measurements from probabilistically or purposively selected trees. The associated uncertainty for these estimates depends primarily on three sources of error that interact and propagate: (1) measurement error, the quality of...
This manual describes the rules for reforesting after harvest of small woodlands, gives guidance for the decisions the landowner must make, and gives step-by-step instructions for planting and taking care of seedlings.
Fuel accumulation and climate shifts are predicted to increase the frequency of high-severity fires in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws) forests of central Oregon. The combustion of fuels containing large downed wood can result in intense soil heating, alteration of soil properties, and mortality of microbes. Previous studies...
This report summarizes published information on Oregon hardwoods. Discussions of the trees and their woods include strength properties; appearance; gluability; machinability; steam bending; seasoning; treatability and durability; and special products.
Both the structure and composition of naturally generated early-seral forests in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) can be profoundly different than that of more developed forest seres, especially in the period after a major disturbance but before conifers re-develop a closed canopy. While it is reasonable to suggest that the unique...
The College of Forestry Integrated Research Project (CFIRP) is an on-going experiment in the eastern Coast Range foothills of western Oregon. Started in 1989, a team of scientists, resource managers, and students at Oregon State University designed and implemented silvicultural alternatives to clearcutting. These silvicultural practices aimed to create and...
Procedures outlined in this publication show how to estimate standing volume and annual growth of individual timber stands that are relatively uniform in species, age, size, and density. Estimates of volume and growth are helpful in planning when to harvest or how much to remove in a thinning operation. These...
The forests in the Pacific Northwest are highly productive for timber and are a major factor in the economies of the region. The Pacific Northwest is the leading producer of lumber and plywood in the country. The use of harvester-forwarder cut-to-length harvest systems as a method for timber harvests in...
Wildland fires are an increasingly extensive, expensive, and frequent occurrence in dry forests of the western United States. Fuel reduction treatments are designed to reduce extreme fire behavior, promote resilient forest structure, and facilitate fire control efforts. Although there is widespread recognition that repeated treatments are needed to maintain desired...
In the last 200 years there have been significant declines in the amount and structural complexity of oak-dominated forests and savannahs in the Pacific Northwest. Restoring oak systems often involves selectively thinning stands of oaks in order to reduce competition for sunlight. In choosing which trees to cut, land managers...
Dwarf mistletoes, obligate, parasitic plants with diminutive aerial shoots, have long-term effects on host tree water relations, hydraulic architecture, and photosynthetic gas exchange and can eventually lead to tree death. To investigate the long-term impacts of dwarf mistletoe on gas exchange of host western hemlock trees, I compared growth, gas...
Society derives many critical and irreplaceable values from forests. With a growing global human population and rates of consumption, forests are under increasing pressure to provide all these values simultaneously. To meet societal demands for wood products, tree plantations are becoming increasingly common and are replacing native forests. Yet, forests...
This study quantifies the short-term effects of low-, moderate-, and high-severity fire on carbon pools and fluxes in the Eastern Cascades of Oregon. We surveyed 64 forest stands across four fires that burned 41,000 ha (35%) of the Metolius Watershed in 2002 and 2003, stratifying the landscape by burn severity...
Uneven-aged management has been suggested as a method for balancing biodiversity conservation and wood production goals from managed forests in a variety of regions. In coastal Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) forests of the Pacific Northwest, implementation of uneven-aged management is hindered by a lack of experience with uneven-aged silvicultural systems, including...
To meet the challenges of climate change and make progress on lagging large-scale sustainability and watershed goals requires an integrated social-ecological approach to natural resource planning on the ground-level. This case study of a small equestrian farm in the Chesapeake Bay watershed incorporates theory with practice, by adding interviews focused...
As the global demand for natural resources increases, more land will be intensively managed for the production of commodities such as timber, with potential consequences to biodiversity, ecological functioning and ecosystem services provided to society. Although there is strong consensus that intensive land management practices can negatively affect biodiversity, less...
The search for the stand density that optimizes growth and hence generates the maximum amount of wood is one of the philosopher’s stone in modern forestry. Since scientific methods were applied to forestry, numerous generations of foresters have studied the relations between stocking density and growth, obtaining diverse results and...
A new class of enclosed path gas analyzers suitable for eddy covariance applications combines the advantages
of traditional closed-path systems (small density corrections, good performance in poor weather)
and open-path systems (good spectral response, low power requirements), and permits estimates of
instantaneous gas mixing ratio. Here, the extent to which...
This study explored the relationship of mature ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws) tree vigor and competitive zone density following thinning and fuel reduction treatments. Competitive zone density (CZD) was defined as the total tree basal area (m²/ha) surrounding a given ponderosa pine tree within a 10m fixed radius...
Carbon sequestration in tropical secondary forests growing in all climates must be quantified to understand their potential role in adaptation and mitigation strategies of global climate change. Total aboveground biomass (TAGB), soil carbon, and total ecosystem carbon (TEC) were measured in 54 secondary forests growing along a broad bioclimatic gradient...
Understanding the mechanisms of disease in forest pathology is a critical component to learning how to most efficiently manage tree diseases like Swiss needle cast (SNC). SNC is an economically important, fungal disease of Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirb.] Franco) that is prevalent in coastal areas of the Pacific Northwest. This...
In this study an improved model of biomass and nutrient estimation of coastal Douglas-fir (Psuedotsuga menziesii) in the Pacific Northwest has been developed across a wide range of stand management regimes. This study quantifies and defines the type and intensity of biomass harvest and associated removal for actively managed stands...
Guatemala is internationally recognized as a country suitable to invest in the forestry industry. The first Guatemalan Forest Incentive Program – PINFOR- was implemented in 1996 to foster local forestry through cost-sharing. However, it lacks both formal land use planning processes and mechanisms to assess economic potential of projects, so...
The forest sector forms an important part of Oregon’s economy, especially in rural communities. However, the economic performance and development of the sector are subject to both significant natural disturbances and to new and existing policies. The most common and disastrous natural disturbances in Oregon are wildfires. The Biscuit Fire...
Natural resource challenges in the American West feature a suite of actors and processes operating at different spatial and political scales, and crossing several administrative jurisdictions. I applied concepts of new environmental governance to Oregon’s greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) conservation strategy, focusing, in particular, on features of voluntary conservation arrangements...
Silvopasture is the planned and managed agroforestry system in which forage, livestock, and trees or shrubs are integrated in order to enhance individual components. Silvopasture has been identified as the most promising agroforestry system for the Pacific Northwest and Southeast United States. However, there have been few studies describing the...
Despite the importance of fire for maintaining the health of many ecosystems, the social and economic costs of wildfires have risen sharply in recent years. Across the western United States, historical land and fire management practices combined with climate change and modern human development pressures, are contributing to increased wildfire...
Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx) is a species with high phenotypic plasticity and a broad distribution that, in the last decade, has experienced climate stress-induced mortality called Sudden Aspen Decline (SAD). In order to help mitigate the effects of SAD in the future, we need a better understanding of aspen’s...
Hemlock dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobium tsugense subsp. tsugense) is an arboreal, hemiparasitic plant that principally parasitizes western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla). Hemlock dwarf mistletoe exerts a profound influence on infected trees that can drastically change the structure of the tree crown due to reduced growth, top dieback, branch deformation and death, resulting...
Global environmental change is causing local extinctions of species. When species depend on one another, as in the mutualistic relationship between plants and pollinators, loss of one interaction partner may cause cascading effects within the community – such as additional extinctions and reduced pollination services. Network theory provides a way...
The purpose of the workshop was to exchange information on sampling procedures, research methodologies, preparation and
interpretation of specimen material, terminology, and the application
and significance of findings, emphasizing the relationship of dendrochronology procedures to fire history interpretations.
The concept of the fundamental niche is frequently used in ecology to define the set of environmental conditions needed by a species to survive and reproduce (Hutchinson 1957). In contrast, the realized niche constitutes the locations where a species actually occurred, which is a function of both the environmental (abiotic)...
Forced removal of Indigenous communities and subsequent colonial forest management have led to landscape homogenization, fuel abundance, conifer encroachment, and, therefore, a loss of forest and fire resilience in the Western US. This loss of forest and fire resilience leads to a loss of social resilience as forested communities struggle...
As it was conceptualized, the manual is aligned with other field manual that are currently in use by different universities, such as Mississippi State University, Stephen F Austin, or University of British Columbia. The present manual is the first unified version of Louisiana Tech University of a Field Manual to...
Wildfire impacts have intensified in many ecosystems across the western United States due to the combined impact of fire exclusion, climate change, and land management practices. However, on many of these landscapes, fire is a fundamental ecological process that has shaped vegetation structural and compositional diversity, ecosystem function, landscape pattern,...
Populated and developed areas at the fringes of or intermixed with undeveloped landscapes are referred to as the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). There are many unique benefits associated with living in the WUI that understandably attract people to move to them. However, there are also potential wildfire-related risks particular to...
The spread of invasive species into the Pacific Northwest (PNW) of the United States poses a serious threat to the valuable forest resources of the region. Many insects and diseases that are a threat to these forest resources can be transported inside firewood. When campers transport their firewood across borders...
Fuel accumulation and climate shifts are predicted to increase the frequency of high-severity fires in pon-derosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) forests of central Oregon. The combustion of fuels containing large downedwood can result in intense soil heating, alteration of soil properties, and mortality of microbes. Previousstudies show ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) improve...