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.

Land trusts in the USA

In the USA 857 private local and regional conservation groups known as land trusts have protected some 2 million acres of ecologically or scenically important land from incompatible development using voluntary compensating techniques such as conservation easements. Land trust members often see ...

Interaction of land use and forest island dynamics in central New York

Within man-dominated landscapes, forest islands often play a critical role in maintaining biological diversity across regions. How these forest islands change in density and size over time is important in understanding the effects of isolation and size on-this diversity.. To detail forest island ...

Inside Bushler Bay: Lifeways in counterpoint

Bushler Bay is a small, isolated, rural enclave, which over the years has been inundated with a variety of government employees and their families. The characteristics and interactions of the members of these two categories of people-herein called "locals" and "public employees"- are discussed. We ...

In land we trust

 

Patterns of deforestation and reforestation in different landscape types in Central New York

In landscapes of the eastern U.S.A., deforestation and reforestation are continuing processes. To better understand these processes, we documented the change in density and size of forest islands within individual landscape types of central New York. Thirty-one 30-kml sample landscapes were ...

New Jersey's antilogging ordinance

During the past several years many local governments have enacted ordinances which prohibit, restrict or condition forest management activities, most notably timber harvesting. The proliferation of local regulation has taken many forms: requiring the posting of bonds before operating logging ...

Forestry's hotseat: The urban/forest interface

Foresters who practice their profession in the old, traditional manner may be missing the boat. The new method for practicing forestry, according to Henry Vaux, must include new components: Communication and negotiation with people and political entities. This article is excerpted from a paper ...

Forest water quality protection: A comparison of regulatory approaches in Maryland and voluntary methods in Virginia

 

Forest-land ownership patterns

Analysis of forest-land owners within the Highlands Regional Study Area identified several important changes in ownership patterns. First, more people currently own forest land than ever before. This trend will increase with time causing further parcelization. Second, retirees represent a major ...

Forest fragmentation and its implications in central New York

Both historical and current land use practices have fragmented a forest resource, once covering virtually 100% of Onondaga County, NY, into small isolated forest habitat islands. An inventory of current forested areas taken from aerial photographs showed that many forest islands isolated by ...

Fire hazards at the urban-wildland interface: What the public expects

Urban-wildland issues have become among the most contentious and problematic issues for forest managers. Using data drawn from surveys conducted by the authors and others, this article discusses how public knowledge and perceptions of fire policies and fire hazards change over time, the kinds of ...

County logging and tree protection ordinances in Georgia

Fourteen counties in Georgia have considered or enacted ordinances in the 1980s that regulate logging or trucking activities or that protect large trees from removal. The reasons for enactment of county ordinances are examined, the contents of the ordinances reviewed and summarized, and the ...

County-level logging regulation in Georgia

A survey of Georgia counties vas conducted to determine the growth of county ordinances regulating logging and log trucking since 1988. The School of Forest Resources and Extension Forest Resources Department at the University of Georgia contacted counties in Georgia during the summer of 1991 to ...

Compensated taking and negotiated solutions

This article explores the implications of a resurgent demand for legal guarantees for compensation when environmental regulations "take" individual property. What will happen when a price tag is attached to new or existing environmental laws? Some predict dire results; however, a more balanced and ...

Community stability and timber dependent communities: future research

Resource dependency and its impact upon community stability has long been of interest to rural sociologists. This paper critically evaluates the literature on timber-dependent communities to assess what is known, assumed, ignored, and avoided about the topic. We argue that timber-dependent ...

Adopting a modern ecological view of the metropolitan landscape: The case of a greespace system for the New York City region

Concern about environmental quality and the long-term livability of urban areas is now a driving paradigm for planning professionals. Although a modern ecological framework exists, inappropriate or outdated concepts continue to be used in the context of land-use decision making. These classical ...

Impacts of land use changes on recreation and open space in the New York-New Jersey Highlands Region

The more than 1 million acre New York-New Jersey Highlands Region is a unique forested and rural landscape at the urban/ wildland interface with the New York-New Jersey Metropolitan area where over 18 million people reside. Conversion of land to residential and urban uses, parcellation of lands, ...

Urban development in forests: Sources of American difficulties and possible approaches

 

Urban and suburban woodlands: A changing forest system

Despite the importance of urban and suburban woodlands, we know little about their ecology. Research is needed if managers are to maintain woodlands to provide benefits at minimal costs. This article is a summary of research on the effects of urbanization on urban and suburban woodlands

The development of forest islands in exurban central New York State

Onondaga County in central New York State was extensively cleared for agricultural use, so that by 1930 only 8% of the area maintained small and highly fragmented forest islands. Subsequent natural re-forestation in exurban parts of the county increased the forest cover to 40% of the total land ...

The determinants of right-to-farm conflicts

Previous work posits that agricultural land use conflicts associated with right-to-farm issues are primarily a consequence of urban pressure. This paper examines the role played by farm, farmer, and community characteristics as determinants of these conflicts. The three most common right-to-farm ...

The application of ecological principles to urban and urbanizing landscapes

Vitousek (1994) has identified land-cover changes by humans as a primary effect of humans on natural systems. With the projected global increase of urbanization, land cover conversions for urban use will only increase. An ecological approach to land use planning is not only necessary but essential ...

Temporal changes of wetlands within an urbanizing agricultural landscape

We used aerial photographs from 1926, 1964, and 1988 to map wetlands within a 36 km Z area adjacent to Syracuse, NY. During this 63 year period, land use shifted from an intensively managed agricultural landscape to an urban landscape. We documented temporal changes in the number, total area, mean ...

Symposium on Wildland Fire 2000

 

Structural disturbances in rural communities: Some repercussions of the migration turnaround in Michigan

This paper explores the structural effects of the migration turnaround on the small towns and communities of rural America. It is hypothesized that the rapid immigration of urbanites may give rise to structural disturbances in the rural communities in which it occurs; institutional overload and ...

State forest practice programs: Regulation of private forestry comes of age

Regulation of private forestry practices causes considerable apprehension among professionals and the regulated public. There are more challenges ahead if regulatory programs continue to expand and more forest practice standards are placed in laws or rules. Uncertainty over the legal and ...

State and local regulation of private forestry in the East

State and local regulation of private forestry in the eastern United States is increasing. A number of statewide laws regulate the practice of forestry in some fashion. Many local governments in the northeastern states and a few in the South have enacted or considered ordinances governing logging ...

Stakeholder perspectives on appropriate forest management in the Pacific Northwest

 

Species richness of urban forest patches and implications for urban landscape diversity

The vascular plant species richness of upland urban forest patches in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, was found to be positively related to their size. There was no significant relationship between species richness and the distance of these patches to other patches. Mowing and trampling ...

Managing urban sprawl at the fringe

The rapid urbanization of rural landscapes during the 1970s and 1980s created disagreements on how land should be used. To consider all natural resources in planning, a comprehensive approach is needed. The concept of Limits of Acceptable Change is proposed as a planning tool for urban foresters.

Litter decomposition and nitrogen mineralization in oak stands along an urban-rural land use gradient

We investigated litter mass loss and soil nitrogen (N)-transformation rates in oak stands along a 130-km, urban-rural transect originating in New York City to examine the relationship between changes in these parameters and previously documented differences in soil temperature, heavy metal and ...

Using ordination to analyze the composition and structure of urban forest islands

Ordination is used here to analyze variations in the structure and composition of urban forest islands in St. Paul, Minnesota. Important differences are found between lowland and upland forests and between mown and unmown upland forests. The ordination reveals compositional gradients which vary ...

An ecological approach to natural resource management in the New York-New Jersey highlands region

The intent of this presentation is to focus on the need to create sustainable communities using an ecological approach to natural resource management in the urban/rural gradient, from the inner city to the urban/rural fringe.

Trees, forests and the human environment

 

Timber cutting and the law

 

This land (trust) is your land

In every state land trusts, grassroots land conservation groups, are offering their resources and expertise to help local governments preserve the character of their communities. And they are doing something that is on the minds of nearly all local government officials - saving them money. They do ...

The wildland/urban interface: Site observations and management implications

Wildland recreation areas in two southern California National Forests have been observed for patterns of visitor behavior. The sites have concentrated dispersed usage, are water-based recreation areas, and attract culturally diverse urban visitors. Researchers examined patterns of visitor use, land ...

Soil characteristics of oak stands along an urban-rural land-use gradient

Urban-rural land-use gradients are environmental gradients determined by human-built structures and human activity. Although gradients of land use are readily measurable, little is known about the effects of urbanization on forest soil properties. In this research, soil properties were quantified ...

The law regulating private forest practices

 

The influence of social network ties on recreation and leisure: An exploratory study

Social structural analyses of recreation and leisure experiences have traditionally focused on the influence of small, bounded activity groups, ignoring the extended personal and social networks in which these groups are enmeshed: This paper describes a rationale and process for social structural ...

The wildland residential fire problem: A fire engineer's perspective

The role of the fire protection engineer as a member of the development team designing residential property in wildland areas is presented. Integrated design using the fire protection engineer to review aspects of prevention design and to develop recommendations for protection design is shown to be ...

The urban/rural interface and the preservation of farming

Urban growth is cutting agricultural production two ways: by moving onto farm land and by discouraging farmers from updating farm real estate improvements. The urban/rural interface no longer is a sharp line. Urban influences have penetrated deeply into most farm areas over large parts of the ...

The urban-agricultural fringe

 

Regulation of private forest practices

In the approximately three decades since the advent of the modern environmental movement, the United States has enacted a host of laws, regulations, and other policies designed to protect public and private lands. The environmental laws passed in the 1960s and the 1970s and strengthened since seem ...

Public purpose and private property: The evolution of regulatory taking

Imbedded in the culture of forestry is a history of cooperation with private landowners. Now, however, much of what foresters do in the woods is governed by regulatory laws. Yet public regulation must stay within constitutional limits, which means it must avoid the Fifth Amendment prohibition ...

Protecting people and homes from wildfire in the interior west: Meeting the challenges

 

Problems in the urbanized forest.

There's something new on the American scene these days: the rural forest is becoming urbanized. In every part of the United States, the massive move of people from cities to the countryside in recent years has produced a great population of exurbanites living in hundreds of thousands of homes and ...

Private property rights: The conflict and the movement

The ultimate force behind the private property phenomenon may simply be an increasing population. When users are scarce and resources are plentiful, it makes little sense to organize property. It is when this relationship reverses that it becomes necessary to define an ownership system. As more and ...

Prepare, stay and survive

 

Political constraints and opportunities in wildfire residential areas

 

Planning for the future: How can we better deal with today's and tomorrow's complexities?

Human population growth is the root cause of the escalation in the number of wildfires in rural residential areas. Adoption of growth management strategies such as land use controls, land acquisition, the timing and location of public facility improvements, and the use of tax and fee systems can be ...

Facing harsh realities: Strategic considerations necessary to obtain consensus in methods of protecting interface properties

 

Extension forestry education: Reaching the people who make decisions

This article offers a brief history, current status, and trends relating to Extension forestry. It also identifies problems, including those associated with Extension forestry's institutional home within a sometimes archaic and strongly production-agriculture-oriented bureaucracy. In addition, it ...

Ecosystem structure and function along urban-rural gradients: An unexploited opportunity for ecology

The growth of metropolitan areas in North America and indeed worldwide indicates that knowledge of ecosystems under the influence of urbanization can only become increasingly important. The magnitude and nature of the change in the physical, chemical, and biotic environments that are associated ...

Cultural practices that can reduce fire hazards to homes in the Interior West

Homes in natural grass-, shrub-, and forest lands are susceptible to wildfire. Cultural practices can be used to reduce fire hazard yet maintain a natural appearance. This paper discusses the most appropriate methods to use in each of four natural settings--grass, shrub, and dwarf conifers; ...

Beyond "scoping": Citizens and San Juan National Forest managers, learning together

In a community-public land initiative, southwest Colorado citizens and Forest Service staff worked for two years before starting the revision of the San Juan National Forest land and resource management plan. Community groups studied community values and forest science and management through ...

Be your own best fireman - Don't depend on the government

 

Land use and avian species diversity along an urban gradient

I examined the distribution and abundance of bird species across an urban gradient, and concomitant changes in community structure, by censuring summer resident bird populations at six sites in Santa Clara County, California (all former oak woodlands). These sites represented a gradient of urban ...

In our own backyard: Conserving urban wildlife

Conservation of wildlife and habitat in urban areas can help maintain biological diversity-the numerous species of plants and animals found throughout the world -thus reducing the threat of species becoming endangered or possibly extinct. In discussing the importance of maintaining biological ...

Guidelines for wildland residential subdivision development - an architect's perspective

 

Gradient structure of forest vegetation in the central Washington Cascades

Forest vegetation located in three areas of the central Washington Cascades, arrayed along a gradient of increasing continentality and decreasing rainfall, were compared using ordination methods. Within each region, lower and upper elevation sites were analyzed separately and for each set of sites, ...

Gaining community and public support to solve the wildland residential fire problem: A panel discussion

 

Forest wildlands and their neighbors: Interactions, issues and opportunities

 

Forest-landscape structure along an urban-to-rural gradient

Human activities and forest-landscape structure are examined along a belt transect that extends 140 km from New York City to northwestern Connecticut. The study quantifies urban structures (population density, land use, transportation) and processes (population growth, urban land development) in ...

Forest ecosystem management assessment team: Objective and options

The FEMAT analyzed the ecological, economic, and social implications of 10 management options for federal forests in the range of the northern spotted owl. Figures 5 and 6 present some of these findings in graphic form. Taken together they show that increasing the probable sale quantity requires ...

Firewise Planning

 

Creative techniques for fire hazard planning

Among today's planning tools, there exists attractive, cost-effective techniques which can be voluntarily implemented. When these techniques are employed by knowledgeable landowners, land use planners, and/or fire ecologists, risk of loss by fire can be reduced substantially. Both the landowner and ...

County land use planning, how can planners help the fire services in protecting homes from wildfire

In Jefferson County we have established a procedure that is being implemented now that addresses the issue of wildfire at the development process. As a part of the development process we require that, where a hazard exists, a forest management plan be implemented prior to the conveyance of property ...

Cooperating with the media to promote fire management in wildland residential areas

This workshop focused on using the media to transmit fire management information to the general public and urban/wildland interface homeowners. Two basic questions were addressed: 1. How do we best work with the media during an actual wildland fire crisis? 2. How do we best work with the media to ...

Conflagration prevention systems at the urban wildland interface: High risk forecasting and total mobility

This paper described a first-time Forest Service Regional conflagration fire prevention plan put into action in southern California. Ninety-eight prevention specialists from the Forest Service North Zone and the Pacific Northwest Region along with Bureau of Land Management personnel were organized ...

A primer on fire ecology, fire behavior, and fuel management for the wildland resident

 

A battle over land use

In its most summary form, the problem is this: the paid professional environmentalists, driven by a predominantly urban constituency anxious about the environment, have been systematically rewriting definitions to expand their control over private-sector land use decisions, predominantly in the ...

How to communicate the wildland residential fire problem to political leaders

 

How to communicate about the wildland residential fire problem with homeowners

The most important result of this workshop was the insight gained into the kinds of things that might prevent effective communication between homeowners and the fire services and those that might make it easier, if taken advantage of. The summary will, we hope, be used by researchers to identify ...

Helping homeowners and developers understand wildland residential development problems

The overall purpose of this workshop was to gain a better understanding of homeowners, developers, fire service officials, and elected officials. Also, how understanding ourselves in our various professional roles is equally important to understanding how homeowners and developers can come to grips ...

Heavy metal accumulations in forest soils along an urban-rural gradient in southeastern New York, USA

Heavy metal contents and concentrations of forest floor and mineral soil were determined in nine oak stands situated along an urban-rural gradient. Twelve composite soil and forest floor samples from each stand were analyzed for seven metal cations. Levels of Cu, Ni, and Pb corresponded with the ...

Nature, polis, ethics: Chicago regional planning

The idea for Nature, Polis, Ethics grew out of a strongly felt need to face squarely and systematically the pressing issue of the Chicago region's future development, including the protection of open lands and historical natural and cultural landscapes, in the face of present regional ...

Losing Ground: Land consumption in the Chicago Region, 1900-1998

LOSING GROUND presents the most comprehensive, accurate and current picture of developed land throughout the region ever compiled to date. Its unique set of data culled from a wide variety of sources enables Chicago area residents, for the first time, to accurately analyze past trends and establish ...

Local forest regulatory ordinances

 

Living more safely in the chaparral-urban interface

Urban encroachment into chaparral areas has accelerated the fire-flood-erosion cycle. Preventive maintenance measures can help reduce the damage from fire and flood. This report describes the chaparral environment; how to cope with problems in watershed management, how to landscape for fire and ...

Landscape influences on breeding bird communities in hardwood fragments in South Carolina

Results from studies on the effects of forest fragmentation on bird communities in urban-agricultural landscapes may not be applicable to forested landscapes such as the Southeastern Coastal Plain. During 1993-1994, we measured parameters of avian communities in the Coastal Plain of South Carolina ...

Whither wildlife without fire?

In this paper, our objective is to use case histories from the scientific literature, along with previously unpublished data, to describe why use of prescribed fire is critical for the effective management of numerous wildlife species in southern forests. In our view, some of the major wildlife ...

Watershed management and erosion control in urban/wildland interface areas

The expansion of many cities into rural watershed areas without adequate grading ordinances, building codes, and management guidelines has been a design for predictable disasters and property losses by far exceeding the losses from wildland fires. In response to periodic disasters caused by ...

Using wildland residential standards, laws, and regulations for protection now and in the future

This workshop was conducted in three parts: 1) a panel discussion consisting of Dick Bacon, Tim Murphy, Rich Schell, Jo Bridges, and Don Wood, 2) a question, answer, and concern session, and 3) identification of five key issues. Those key issues were: 1. Develop standards for identification, ...

Urban and built-up land area changes in the United States: An empirical investigation of determinants

This study critically examines alternative measures of built-up area, including the two major data series currently available for the United States; presents a regression model of changes in built-up area; and makes long-term national projections of built-up area under alternative assumptions. For ...

Understanding the "urban" forest visitor

Southern California's four National Forests-the Cleveland, Angeles, Los Padres, and San Bernardino-are all considered by the USDA Forest Service to be "urban" National Forests. That is, they are less than an hour's drive from a population center of more than one million people. Together, these four ...

Under pressure: Land consumption in the Chicago Region 1998-2028

Under Pressure: Land Consumption in the Chicago Region, 1998-2028 is the second of two reports prepared as part of the Strategic Open Lands at Risk (SOLAR) mapping project undertaken by Openlands Project. It features a map of a 13-county Chicago region that extends north into Wisconsin and ...

Two rural/urban interface fires in the Wellington suburb of Karori: assessment of associated burning conditions and fire control strategies

The behavior of two extreme wildfires burning in gorse (Ulex europaeus) fuels in the Wellington suburb of Karori is recorded for the future development and validation of fire behavior prediction models. Burning on steep slopes and in High forest fire danger conditions, the McEwans Fire (6 February ...

Trees in trouble at Lake Tahoe: An urbanizing forest with forestry problems

Imagine a visit to the Lake Tahoe Basin- a pristine mountain lake high in the Sierra. The landscape includes rugged, exposed peaks, smaller glacial lakes in the Desolation Wilderness, and a Jeffrey pine and white fir forest at lake level. But much of the once verdant, forest is now dominated by ...

The wildland-urban interface: What it is, where it is and its fire management problems

Fire managers across the nation are confronting the rapidly developing problem of people moving into wildland areas, increasing what has been termed the wildland-urban interface. To manage more effectively and plan for this situation, fire managers should analyze the problem as three types of ...

The wildland/urban fire problem

 

Wildfire strikes home

 

Seeing around corners: Emerging issues in urban forestry

 

The intrusion of human population into forest and range lands of California

Demographic and economic growth are pushing deeper into California's forest and range lands, making effective fire protection and traditional industrial uses of the land more difficult. Urban forces that will increase the difficulties in the future include: increasing urban population pressures, ...

The impact of laws and regulations on building and the building process

Potential legal and regulatory approaches to reducing fire hazards in the wildland-urban interface are identified, including conventional methods and significant alternatives. Key issues surrounding the principal strategies are discussed, and likely effects on the building process are identified. ...

The health of southern forests

This publication summarizes much of the data contained in a huge GIS data base known as the Southern Forest Atlas. Begun in the mid 80's this GIS represents the first central consolidation of a variety of interacting stressor factors, including weather, ozone, and numerous forest pests. Scientists ...

The Florida Palm Coast fire: An analysis of fire incidence and residence characteristics

A quantitative analysis of the relationship between residential fire incidence, fire intensity, house characteristics, and location is presented. Fire intensity (ground vs. crown fire) was shown to be the most significant factor. Brush clearance and type of soffit vent were also shown to be related ...

The federal government's role in major disasters: An overview of national, state and local government relationships

This presentation provides an overview of the role of the Federal government in major disasters, and the Federal, State and local relationships involved. It should be noted that Federal disaster assistance always is supplementary to the disaster relief efforts of the affected State and local ...

Resource managers as policy entrepreneurs: Governance challenges of the urban-forest interface

Governing in the urban-forest interface has challenged our traditional institutions because the policy stakeholders do not fit neatly into residentially defined polities. Nor are these stakeholders specific to any particular agency or problem. The essence of the interface context is that ...

Developing customized wildland fire training to protect people, homes and other resources at the urban/wildland interface

Federal, state and local resource management agencies have special and unique responsibilities at the urban/rural/wildland interface. Prescribed fire and fire suppression training may be one of these responsibilities. agencies may use prescribed fire as a management tool and escape fires do occur. ...