Published Library Resources

This virtual library holds a wide range of urban forestry resources including: research abstracts and full text journal articles, trade magazine articles, CDs, other technology transfer resources, books (or chapters of books), patents, ordinances, theses and dissertations, and conference proceedings.

Characterizing Virginia's private forest owners and their forest lands

A recently completed forest inventory and two woodland owner surveys have given us insight about the owners of private forest lands in Virginia. There is increasing parcelization of forested lands and an increase in the number of nonindustrial private (NIPF) landowners in Virginia. More than half ...

A model for improving community preparedness for wildfire

Reducing wildfire risk is a focus in communities across the country. Even in areas not traditionally considered at high fire risk, storm events, changing climate, and pest/disease outbreaks have focused attention on the potential for catastrophic fire. In addition, in areas where fire is viewed ...

A comparison of various estimators for updating forest area coverage using AVHRR and forest inventory data

Various methods of adjusting low-cost and possibly biased estimates of percent forest coverage from AVHRR data with a subsample of higher-cost estimates from the USDA Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis plots were investigated. Two ratio and two regression estimators were evaluated. ...

How far to the nearest road?

Ecological impacts from roads may be the rule rather than the exception in most of the conterminous United States. We measured the proportion of land area that was located within nine distances from the nearest road of any type, and mapped the results for 164 ecoregions and 2108 watersheds ...

The effect of habitat patch size on small mammal populations

Habitat fragmentation is one of the greatest threats to the conservation of bio­diversity and has 3 components: habitat loss, patch isolation, and patch size. The authors tested the effects of forest-clearing size on small mammal populations in the Upper Coastal Plain of South Carolina. These ...

The Bend community & FireFree: steps to improve community preparedness for wildfire

The Social and Economic Dimensions of Ecosystem Management unit of the USDA Forest Service's North Central Research Station, in cooperation with several universities, initiated a study of communities who are taking steps to increase their preparedness for wildfire. They are seeking answers to two ...

The Applegate fire plan: steps to improve community preparedness for wildlife

The Social and Economic Dimensions of Ecosystem Management unit of the USDA Forest Service's North Central Research Station, in cooperation with several universities, initiated a study of communities who are taking steps to increase their preparedness for wildfire. They are seeking answers to two ...

Survivorship, development, and fecundity of buck moth (Lepidoptera: Saturniidae) on common tree species in the Gulf Coast urban forest

Hemileuca maia maia (Drury), the buck moth, is abundant in urban areas of the Gulf Coast region where it defoliates oaks. However, the extent to which the buck moth can survive on other tree species common in the southern urban forest has not been reported. In the laboratory, the authors studied ...

Spearfish, South Dakota, and the Northern Black Hills: steps to improve community preparedness for wildfire

The Social and Economic Dimensions of Ecosystem Management unit of the USDA Forest Service's North Central Research Station, in cooperation with several universities, initiated a study of communities who are taking steps to increase their preparedness for wildfire. They are seeking answers to two ...

Localizing national fragmentation statistics with forest type maps

Fragmentation of forest types is an indicator of biodiversity in the Montreal Process, but the available national data permit assessment of only overall forestland fragmentation, not forest type fragmentation. Here we illustrate how to localize national statistics from the 2003 National Report on ...

Landscape influences on water chemistry in Midwestern stream ecosystems

1. Landscape characteristics of sixty-two subcatchments within the Saginaw Bay Catchment of central Michigan were examined to identify relationships with stream water chemistry. Land use, land cover and elevation were quantified for both entire catchments and the upland-river ecotone (100 m ...

Waldo, Florida: steps to improve community preparedness for wildfire

The Social and Economic Dimensions of Ecosystem Management unit of the USDA Forest Service's North Central Research Station, in cooperation with several universities, initiated a study of communities who are taking steps to increase their preparedness for wildfire. They are seeking answers to two ...

Understory herbicide as a treatment for reducing hazardous fuels and extreme fire behavior in slash pine plantations

The 1998 wildfires in Florida sparked a serious debate about the accumulation of hazardous forest fuels and the merits of prescribed fire and alternatives for mitigating that problem. One such alternative is application of understory herbicides and anecdotal evidence suggests they may either ...

Transitions in forest fragmentation: implications for restoration opportunities at regional scales

Where the potential natural vegetation is continuous forest (e.g., eastern US), a region can be divided into smaller units (e.g., counties, watersheds), and a graph of the proportion of forest in the largest patch versus the proportion in anthropogenic cover can be used as an index of forest ...

Smoke management: toward a data base to validate pb-piedmont - numerical simulation of smoke on the ground at night

The use of fire for controlled burning to meet objectives for silviculture or for ecosystem management carries the risk of liability for smoke. Near-ground smoke can degrade air quality, reduce visibility, aggravate health problems, and create a general nuisance. At night, smoke can locally limit ...

The role of non-industrial private forest lands in the conservation of southern fire-dependent wildlife

Although scientific support for fire as a land management tool has grown, non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners often fail to burn on their properties. These lands comprise approximately 70 percent of southern forests, making them critical to the long-term conservation of wildlife and ...

The Palm Coast community: steps to improve community preparedness for wildfire

The Social and Economic Dimensions of Ecosystem Management unit of the USDA Forest Service's North Central Research Station, in cooperation with several universities, initiated a study of communities who are taking steps to increase their preparedness for wildfire. They are seeking answers to two ...

The value of endangered species: the importance of conserving biological diversity

Our understanding of the value of endangered species to humans has increased together with the recognition that human activities cause extinction. In general, benefits of species can be classified as ecological, economic, and social. Different combinations of benefits occur for any particular ...

Regional forest fragmentation effects on bottomland hardwood

In human-dominated regions, forest vegetation removal impacts remaining ecosystems but regional-scale biological consequences and resource value changes are not well known. Using forest resource survey data, I examined current bottomland hardwood community types and a range of fragment size classes ...

Recreation options for your forestland

These activities occur on both public and private lands. Public lands managed by the USDA Forest Service and Florida Division of Forestry operate under "multiple-use" principles where recreation is managed along with timber, wildlife, range, soil, water, cultural and environmental resources. On ...

Race, rural residence, and wildland visitation: examining the influence of sociocultural meaning

Previous studies have shown that African Americans have less favorable impressions about wildlands and recreate on wildland areas less frequently than do whites. However, most of these investigations have been conducted on non-rural populations. Rural perceptions of wildlands and visitation to such ...

Providing wildlife cover

Food, water, space and cover are the four essential elements of wildlife habitat. Cover is considered any place an animal can use for living space and can be easily provided by forest landowners. Components of cover include all forms of vegetation and any physical entities such as brush piles, ...

Proceedings of a conference on sustainability of wetlands and water resources: how well can riverine wetlands continue to support society into the 21st century?

The conference focused on recent work in freshwater wetlands [both natural and constructed] with a view toward understanding wetland processes in a watershed context. Since humans have played important roles in watershed dynamics for years, attention was given to the human dimensions of wetland and ...

Presettlement fire frequency regimes of the United States: a first approximation

It is now apparent that fire once played a role in shaping all but the wettest, the most arid, or the most fire-sheltered plant communities of the United States. Understanding the role of fire in structuring vegetation is critical for land management choices that will, for example, prevent ...

Prescribed fire and smoke management in the south: conference proceedings

The deliberate application of fire to produce desired wildland benefits has evolved through the centuries into the art of prescription burning. Southern resource managers became expert at applying this art and practiced it for decades with few operational constraints. However, as the available land ...

Environmental justice and the spatial distribution of outdoor recreation sites: an application of geographic information systems

This study examines the spatial distribution of outdoor recreation sites and their proximity to census block groups (CBGs), in order to determine potential socio-economic inequities. It is framed within the context of environmental justice. Information from the Southern Appalachian Assessment ...

Environmental implications on excessive selenium: a review

Selenium is a trace element that is normally present in surface waters at concentrations of about 0.1 - 0.3 parts-per-billion; Lemly, 1985a. In slightly greater amounts, i. e., l-5 ppb, it can bioaccumulate in aquatic food chains and become a concentrated dietary source of selenium that is highly ...

Ecosystem restoration: fact or fancy?

Ecological restoration is generally accepted as the reestablishment of natural ecological processes that produce certain dynamic ecosystem properties of structure, function, and processes. But restore to what? The most frequently used conceptual model for the restoration process is the shift of ...

Domestic duck problems in urban areas

Large numbers of domestic ducks can be found in Florida. Individuals, organizations, businesses, and local governments have introduced these birds into many canals and small lakes in urban areas (see Figure 1 ). Some urban residents and visitors enjoy watching and feeding ducks ( Figure 2 ); ...

Habitat loss, Florida's changing landscapes: upland forests

The wind whispers from the canopy overhead; the fragrance of pine needles wafts from underfoot; a woodpecker drums in the distance; a deer bolts through the underbrush. Florida's uplands once covered nearly half of the state with pine flatwoods and dry prairies, scrub and high pine, temperate ...

Land use dynamics and ecological transition: the case of South Florida

This study examines the process of land use change in South Florida. Through this discussion, a conceptual model of ecological transition is developed and presented. The model is built on the general principles of neoclassical economic theories of land rent, behavioral models of resource use, and ...

Land cover along an urban-rural gradient: implications for water quality

Development pressures in rural mountainous areas of the United States hold crucial implications for water quality. Especially important arc changes in the extent and pattern of various land uses. We examine how position along an urban-rural gradient affects landscape patterns in a southern ...

Irrigated agriculture and freshwater wetlands: a struggle for coexistence in the western United States

This paper is a review of the major environmental problems associated with irrigated agriculture in the western United States. Freshwater wetlands are being contaminated by subsurface agricultural irrigation drainage in many locations. Historic freshwater inflows have been diverted for agricultural ...

Pine Flatwoods and Xeric Pine Forests of the Southern (Lower) Coastal Plain

Our review is a companion to Chapter 10. We emphasize the pine ecosystems of Florida: pine flatwoods, longleaf pine—turkey oak sandhills, sand pine scrub, scrubby flatwoods, and subtropical pine forests. Of these, Kuchler (1964) recognizes the sand pine scrub of central Florida and the ...

Paying private landowners to conserve wildlife habitat: a unique approach to conservation

Whether RCA as described in the Private Lands Project, or some modification thereof, are eventually implemented remains to be seen. Nonetheless, the incentive-based approach to conservation on private lands provides an exciting and equitable new tool for forging public-private partnerships in ...

On-site wildland activity choices among African Americans and White Americans in the rural south: implications for management

Johnson and Bowker compare wildland activity choices for a sample of rural African Americans and Whites who visited wildland settings in and around the Apalachicola National Forest. The authors also look at intra-racial (same race, different gender) variations for activity participation. This ...

Forest fragmentation of southern U.S. bottomland hardwoods

The magnitude and character of forest fragmentation are evaluated for bottomland hardwoods in the southern United States.Fragment size class is significantly associated with the frequency of bottomland hardwood species, stand size and ownership classes, and land use attributes.Differences in the ...

Forest fires and smoke - impacts on air quality and human health in the USA

Scientific and regulatory interest in the air quality impacts of forest fire smoke (both prescribed and wildfires) followed the implementation of the 1970 Clean Air Act amendments. Attention on forest fires became more focused as a series of new amendments were enacted to protect the air quality ...

Florida Forever: a program for conservation land acquisition

On June 7, 1999, Governor Jeb Bush signed a bill creating a land conservation initiative called "Florida Forever," which succeeds an earlier program known as Preservation 2000. The governor heralded Florida Forever as "the nation's most progressive effort to conserve and preserve land and natural ...

Control of non-native plants in natural areas of Florida

Non-native plants, carried here by humans since Florida's discovery by Columbus, now threaten the state's remaining natural areas. Of the 4,012 plant species now growing on their own without cultivation in Florida, 29% are non-native (Atlas of Florida Flora, R. P Wunderlin). Many of these ...

Comprehensive conservation planning

Florida is experiencing rapid growth. As this growth occurs there is increasing pressure to develop natural and low intensity use areas to more intensive land uses. Effective growth management planning seeks to balance the development of a region with the protection of its natural resources. To ...

Addressing wildlife needs in construction site management plans

Construction activities remove natural habitat requirements so that some native species' needs can no longer be satisfied. Because original habitat conditions are altered by construction operations, new requirements also may be created providing homes for a different array of species. The net ...

A Scientific Framework for Managing Urban Natural Areas

A science-based habitat planning program not only provides a foundation for making the best decisions possible and the flexibility of modifying them, but also fosters confidence and consensus from a public that has to both pay for and then live with the decisions made during this process. A ...

A model for defining and predicting the urban-wildland interface for the piedmont of South Carolina

Resource managers continue to experience a deluge of management conflicts as urban population centers expand into areas that were formerly wildland settings. Traditional forest management practices, fire suppression, recreational opportunities and wildlife management are activities that have become ...

Impacts of free-ranging pets on wildlife

Cats and dogs are domesticated predators. They have natural prey-chasing, capturing, and killing instincts. As a result of this and the large numbers of them in Florida, cats and dogs have the potential to severely impact local wildlife populations. In addition to reducing populations of species ...

History, evolution, and organization of vegetation and human culture

In this chapter, we review the history of the major biotic communities of the southeastern United States. This chapter provides a contemporary viewpoint concerning the fundamental processes that have influenced biotic changes in the Southeast on both evolutionary and ecological time scales, ...

The effect of urban sprawl on timber harvesting

In Mississippi and Alabama, urban population growth is pushing development into rural areas. To study the impact of urbanization on timber harvesting, census and forest inventory data were combined in a geographic information system, and a logistic regression model was used to estimate the ...

The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics

This book seeks to bring together the findings and ideas of workers studying such varied systems as marine invertebrate communities; grasslands; and boreal, temperate, and tropical forests. Our primary goal is to present a synthesis of diverse individual contributions. The book is divided into ...

Suppression of bark beetles and protection of pines in the urban environment: a case study

Southern pine beetles (SPB), and associated bark beetles, have long been recognized as major pests of southern forests. Tactics used for controlling infestations in conventional forest settings have not proven effective at achieving area-wide control, nor are they suitable for the control of ...

Subsurface agricultural irrigation drainage: the need for regulation

Subsurface drainage resulting from irrigated agriculture is a toxic threat to fish and wildlife resources throughout the western United States. Studies by the U.S. Department of the Interior show that migratory waterfowl have been poisoned by drainwater contaminants on at least six national ...

State service foresters and private forest land: opportunities for wildlife management

Probably no 2 groups of natural resources management professionals have a longer history of antagonism and poor cooperation than wildlife biologists and foresters. Often, their disagreements have been most acute concerning the management of nonindustrial, private forest land. Interdisciplinary ...

Southern woods-burners: a descriptive analysis

About 40 percent of the South's nearly 60,000 wildfires yearly are set by woods-burners. A survey of 14 problem areas in four southern States found three distinct sets of woods-burners. Most active woods-burners are young, white males whose activities are supported by their peers. An older but less ...

Methods for spatial and temporal land use and land cover assessment for urban ecosystems and application in the greater Baltimore-Chesapeake region

Understanding contemporary urban landscapes requires multiple sets of spatially and temporally compatible data that can integrate historical land use patterns and disturbances to land cover. This paper presents three principal methods: (1) core analysis; (2) historic mapping; and (3) gradient ...

What is in a natural resource management plan?

Your forest property will serve your needs and interests best if it is managed according to a clear plan. A forest or natural resource management plan is a specific statement of the objectives you have for your land, followed by a series of activities that will take place in order to meet those ...

Understanding broadscale wildfire risks in a human-dominated landscape

Broadscale statistical evaluations of wildfire incidence can answer policy relevant questions about the effectiveness of microlevel vegetation management and can identify subjects needing further study. A dynamic time series cross-sectional model was used to evaluate the statistical links between ...

Wildland recreation in the rural south: an examination of marginality and ethnicity

The ethnicity and marginality explanations of minority recreation participation provide the conceptual basis for the authors'; inquiry. These theories are examined for a sample of rural African-Americans and whites. Using logistic regression, the researchers test for black and while differences in: ...

Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on flora

This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on flora and fuels can assist land managers with ecosystem and fire management planning and in their efforts to inform others about the ecological role of fire. Chapter topics include fire regime classification, autecological effects of fire, ...

Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on fauna

Fires affect animals mainly through effects on their habitat. Fires often cause short-term increases in wildlife foods that contribute to increases in populations of some animals. These increases are moderated by the animals’ ability to thrive in the altered, often simplified, structure of the ...

Wildland fire in ecosystems: effects of fire on air

This state-of-knowledge review about the effects of fire on air quality can assist land, fire, and air resource managers with fire and smoke planning, and their efforts to explain to others the science behind fire-related program policies and practices to improve air quality. Chapter topics include ...

Risk assessment as an environmental management tool: considerations for freshwater wetlands

This paper presents a foundation for improving the risk assessment process for freshwater wetlands. Integrating wetland science, i.e., use of an ecosystem-based approach, is the key concept. Each biotic and abiotic wetland component should be identified and its contribution to ecosystem functions ...

Riparian area management: themes and recommendations

In this final chapter, we consider the overriding themes of riparian area management and list highlights and recommendations from each chapter. Riparian forest management is concerned with the water as well as the forest. The combination of water and forest is both a feature of the landscape, and ...

Restoring the urban forest ecosystem

Urban and community forests are often managed as individual trees instead of whole forest ecosystems. Cities inventory and manage these tree species to meet many important needs such as energy conservation, beauty, and recreation in the city. Yet, there are many opportunities for urban forest ...

The southern global change program

For more than a decade, scientists around the world have expressed concern over observed changes in the Earth's environment that suggest future global environmental problems. They have documented increased levels of air pollutants such as ozone and acid rain, as well as increases in carbon dioxide ...

The impact of open space and potential local desamenities on residential property values in Berks County, Pennsylvania

This research project estimated the impact that surrounding land use and potential local disamenities have on residential property values in Berks County, Pennsylvania. An implicit house price function was estimated based on 8,090 single family houses sold between 1998 and 2002, using regression ...

Responsiveness of rural and urban land uses to land rent determinants in the U.S. south

Ricardian and von Thünen land rent models are combined into a single land use shore model including farm, forest, and urban lurid uses. The lurid share model is applied to the Southern United States, and elasticities are extracted that measure land share response to changes in iqulation, income, ...

Research challenges and opportunities to enhance ecological functions in forested wetlands

Protecting wetland values and functions are important goals for forest managers. Value and function are easy terms to confuse, but they are not interchangeable. Societal values are directly and indirectly associated with ecological functions. For example, forested wetlands may suppress flooding ...

Relationships between bird communities and forest age, structure, species composition and fragmentation in the west Gulf coastal plain

Bird communities of the West Gulf Coastal Plain are strongly influenced by the stage of forest succession, species composition of understory and overstory vegetation, and forest structure. Alteration of plant communities through forest management and natural disturbances typically does not ...

Quantifying urban forest structure, function, and value: the Chicago urban forest climate project

This paper is a review of research in Chicago that linked analyses of vegetation structure with forest functions and values. During 1991, the region’s trees removed an estimated 5575 metric tons of air pollutants, providing air cleansing worth $9.2 million. Each year they sequester an ...

Eight principals for property rights in the anti-sprawl age

Private property is a central institution in American culture. It is one of the pieces that give the nation its identity, and it has helped account both of the vigor of American democracy and the nation’s remarkable economic growth. Yet if private property has been a strength and virtue, it ...

Economic effects of catastrophic wildfires

The objective of this project was to assess the economic effects of catastrophic forest wildfires in Florida and various causal factors contributing to these fires, principal among them the use of prescribed burning. We used static and dynamic analyses at several spatial and temporal scales drawing ...

Designing a prescribed fire demonstration area

Demonstration areas are important implements in the extension agent's toolbox. "Result demonstrations" are typically used to showcase the advantages of a particular practice (Seevers et al. 1997). They offer evidence that the practice works under local conditions and provide examples of what ...

Dealing with unwanted wildlife in an urban environment

Because of its great diversity of habitat types, Florida is home to more wildlife species than most other states. It is literally impossible to live in this state without seeing or hearing wildlife on a daily basis. Many of these experiences are enjoyable; others are confrontational. Unpleasant ...

Land vote 2001: Americans invest in parks & open space

On Election Day 2001, voters in 17 states approved state and local ballot measures that generated $1.2 billion in funding for recreational lands, water supplies, productive farmland and other open space. All told in 2001, 137 measures were approved by voters – totaling almost $1.7 billion ...

Integrating land use planning & biodiversity

With funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Defenders of Wildlife brought together land use planners and conservationists from around the country at a workshop held in the spring of 2002. The workshop's goal was to begin a national dialogue about the integration of biodiversity and land ...

Insurer: cut trees or lose coverage

State Farm is giving customers in wildfire-prone areas about two years to clean brush and trees from around their homes or risk losing coverage. The company next month will begin inspecting properties in areas in Colorado and five other states where wildfires pose the greatest threat. About ...

Patterns of plant species diversity during succession under different disturbance regimes

I suggest that between-community variations in diversity patterns during succession in plant communities are due to the effects of selection on life history strategies under different disturbance regimes. Natural disturbances to plant communities are simultaneously a source of mortality for some ...

Overview of fertility control in urban deer management

The term 'urban deer' has been used to describe deer that have adapted readily to urban and suburban habitats throughout many portions of North America (McAninch 1995). In many of these areas, public opposition, municipal ordinances, or concerns for human safety often prohibit the use of lethal ...

On interpretation: sociology for interpreters of natural and cultural history

The theme of On Interpretation is the application of sociology to interpretation; however, this book is not a complete treatise on the subject. We do not, for example, discuss research that evaluates public response to interpretive programs, nor do we address research on the comparative ...

Fire in the suburbs: ecological impacts of prescribed fire in small remnants of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) sandhill

Logging, fire suppression, and urbanization have all contributed to the serious decline and fragmentation of Pinus palustris (longleaf pine) ecosystems in the southeastern United States. Effective management of the remaining patches of these pyrogenic communities must incorporate periodic ...

Control of pests and pathogens

The ecosystems of the southern Appalachian region contain a rich diversity of plant and animal species. This rich biodiversity, spread across a varying topography, provides a natural beauty that is enjoyed by millions of people each year. All is not well, however, in these ecosystems. Insects, ...

A spatial model of land use change for western Oregon and western Washington

We developed an empirical model describing the probability that forests and farmland in western Oregon and western Washington were developed for residential, commercial, or industrial uses during a 30-year period, as a function of spatial socioeconomic variables, ownership, and geographic and ...

Impact of urbanization and land-use change on climate

The impacts of human activity on global temperatures stem from two main sources: greenhouse gases and the effects of changes in land use. It is difficult to distinguish the respective contributions of these two factors, as both cause warming. But by comparing surface temperatures deduced from a ...

Humans, fires, and forests -- social science applied to fire management

Building a community of scholars working in fire will help individuals and communities of place build the social capital needed to anticipate or recover from fire events as well as foster institutional arrangements that build and sustain civic societies. The political feasibility of policies is ...

How trees grow in the urban environment

Trees grow in response to their environment and their genetic make-up. Environmental factors such as high temperature or soil compaction can influence physiological processes such as photosynthesis and in turn impact growth. Meristems are the areas within the tree where growth occurs. Most trees ...

Southern forest resource assessment

The southern forest resource assessment provides a comprehensive analysis of the history, status, and likely future of forests in the Southern United States. Twenty-three chapters address questions regarding social/economic systems, terrestrial ecosystems, water and aquatic ecosystems, forest ...

Linking forest edge structure to edge function: mediation of herbivore damage

In the north-eastern United States, as elsewhere, fragmentation of landscape structure has increased both the prominence of forest edges and the proportion of forest area that lies close to an edge. While processes characteristic of the forest interior, such as tree regeneration, plant-plant ...

Water 2025: preventing crises and conflict in the west

Water 2025 has two purposes. First, it provides a basis for a public discussion of the realities that face the West so that decisions can be made at the appropriate level in advance of water supply crises. Second, Water 2025 sets forth a framework to identify the problems, solutions, and a plan ...

Trees: the oldest new thing in stormwater treatment?

Before humans changed the landscape, nature had its own way of dealing with stormwater; it soaked into the soil, nurturing the plant life. Stormwater overflows would create floodplains and wetlands. This process still works well, where it's allowed; however, add homes, businesses, and traffic grids ...

The evolution of the sprawl debate in the United States

In sum, the majority of the American public is not unhappy with the current pattern of development in metropolitan areas - it simply can no longer afford it. Thus, the primary concern about sprawl development, at a time when the average American is satisfied with its outcome, is cost. And costs ...

Property, fire, and liability insurance

For the family's financial security, property, fire and liability insurance are important to guard against financial loss. All property that a person owns is subject to loss or damage by a variety of hazards. You own some type of property -- such as a car, household furnishings and personal items. ...

Presettlement fire regimes in southeastern marshes, peatlands, and swamps

Presettlement fire regimes in wetland vegetation can be deduced or reconstructed by synthesizing knowledge of fire behavior on adjacent uplands with information about soils, salinity, landscape factors, remnant vegetation, and historical records. Presettlement fire-return intervals in different ...

Predation in heterogeneous forests: a comparison at natural and anthropogenic edges

The boreal mixed-wood forest is a naturally heterogenous system that has an extensive amount of forest edge. Recent increases in timber harvesting as well as oil and gas exploration have imposed an abundance of anthropogenic forest edges across this landscape. Because past research has indicated ...

Evaluation of relocation and euthanasia methods for urban deer management

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) have become increasingly abundant in urban and suburban areas. Many urban residents are opposed to lethal methods of deer control and insist that live-capture and relocation of deer is a viable and more humane method of population control. We evaluated ...

Designing for diversity

We are not achieving the goals of the National Park Service (NPS) if the treasures of the park system are not being enjoyed by all elements of society. The troubling imbalance has persisted long after a policy was implemented in the 1960s to boost a variety of public services and to add urban ...

Designed to burn: integrating natural resource based recreation uses with ecosystems managed using prescribed fire

Florida's ecosystems developed with fire as an important part of their disturbance regimes. Fires set by lightning and human intervention burned across the land maintaining the soils composition, the plant selection and competition, the growth and regeneration patterns of plants and animals, and ...

Changes in community and population responses across a forest-field gradient

The ground-layer vegetation of a forest-old field edge gradient was sampled to determine the effects of the edge on spatial patterns of plant species and community attributes. Species showed individualistic responses to the forest edge, with peak abundance at different spatial positions relative ...

Changes in area of timberland in the United States, 1952-2040, by ownership, forest type, region, and state

Projection systems were significantly improved for estimating timberland area in the United States through 2040 by region, State, ownership, and forest type. The model for projecting forest area and ownership considers competing land uses. The model for projecting changes in cover types considers ...

Caught wet-handed, a Cape Coral resident argues against a $48.50 ticket for watering her lawn. A drought that began in 1988 forced the Gulf coast city to restrict water usage. All south Florida followed suit this past winter as water supplies reached a

For most of this century, however, natural resources policies and laws have promoted watershed degradation. …More generally, watershed management reflects the recognition that we can only sustain biodiversity by managing entire ecosystems. … Technology enabled us to remove the previous ...

Breeding bird species richness associated with a powerline right-of-way in a Northern mixed forest landscape

Transmission powerline rights-of-way potentially represent a cause of fragmentation and loss of forest habitat. We hypothesized that rights-of-way and associated edge effect could increase local bird species richness in a forested landscape. To address this question, we determined breeding bird ...

Influence of an old field/forest edge on a northeastern United States deciduous forest understory community

Goldblum, D. (Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, WI 53190) and S.W. Beatty (Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309). Influence of an old field/forest edge on a northeastern United States deciduous forest understudy community. J. Torrey Bot. ...