Forests in the Blue Mountains region of eastern Oregon and Washington are facing a large-scale forest health crisis. Poor forest conditions have greatly increased the risk of catastrophic wildfire. Resource managers in the Wallowa-Whitman, Umatilla, and Malheur National Forests are utilizing prescribed fire and mechanized thinning treatments to reduce hazardous...
Biological stain (blue stain) reduces wood value and
prevents its use in many structural applications. Increasing
environmental concerns have restricted the chemicals
available for controlling this damage. As a result,
biological control has received more interest. The
application of these systems to wood has been limited due to
their inability...
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...
Fire exclusion in the western U.S.A. has caused fuel loads to build up and overall forest health to decline. Managers are now looking for ways to reduce these fuel loads while reintroducing some of the desired effects of natural wildfire. One method to do this is thinning using mechanical harvesting...