Treesearch

For over ten years the TreeMap dataset has been widely used to map timber resources, model wildfire risk, estimate smoke emissions, plan fuel treatments, and more. Land managers can now use TreeMap in a new and powerful way to explore the effects of land management activities and compare scenarios.

The 2020 inventory of the forests of the Northern Great Plains States (Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota) reports more than 6.6 million acres of forest land and more than 2.1 billion trees. Forest land is dominated by the ponderosa pine, sugarberry/hackberry/elm/green ash, and elm/ash/black locust forest types, which together occupy 43 percent of the total forest land area. The volume of growing stock on timberland currently totals 3.9 billion cubic feet. The average annual net growth of live trees from 2014 to 2020 was 162.5 million cubic feet per year. This report includes...

The invasive hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae Annand) continues to threaten the survival of eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis (L.) Carr.) and Carolina hemlock (Tsuga caroliniana Engelm.) in eastern North America. Effective restoration efforts will require an integrated understanding of how these species respond to management interventions under current environmental pressures. This study examined the early growth, survival, and pest resilience of eastern and Carolina hemlock seedlings planted under varying competition control, insecticide treatment, and light availability regimes....

Maintaining and promoting forest ecosystem health and landscape management is a global challenge, given the social, ecological, and economic value of forests, the threats that they face from climate change and other stressors, and the substantial funding gap relative to the need to accomplish management objectives. The practice of calculating an economic Return on Investment (ROI) in business applications has migrated to conservation and land management planning as a means of informing and improving the positive impact of investments on forested landscapes. Forest management yields a large...

Wildfires adjacent to highly populated Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) areas are increasingly impacting urban communities in terms of post-fire costs and displacement of populations. But community perception of these socioeconomic and ecological costs, or ecosystem disservices (EDs), before catastrophic events like the 2025 Los Angeles Fires is little understood. Thus, understanding how experts and the urban public perceive fire-related EDs, relative to the risk reduction benefits of prescribed fire, is key. We used a 2023 survey (n= 869) from communities within Greater Los Angeles as well...

Laurel wilt is a vascular disease caused by a non‐native pathogen ( Harringtonia lauricola ) and an associated beetle vector (redbay ambrosia beetle; RAB; Xyleborus glabratus ) affecting several members of the Lauraceae family in North America, including the ecologically and culturally important sassafras ( Sassafras albidum ). Since discovery of the vector in 2002 and the disease in 2004 near Savannah, GA, laurel wilt has spread widely throughout the eastern United States, causing widespread mortality to redbay, sassafras, and other lauraceous species. The objective of this study was to...

Biochar, a carbon-rich material that can be produced from forest byproducts and waste, is emerging as a valuable material for removing heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions. Biochar can be produced by many processes and equipment. Among these, mobile air curtain burners, developed to achieve lower levels of particulate matter and smoke than open pile burning, can be deployed in the field where biomass feedstocks are located. To elucidate lead metal ion (Pb2+) removal mechanisms, this study characterized seven biochars generated by a novel mobile curtain burner, representing the first...

What are some key drivers for woodworkers in construction-based sectors, and the investments being made to advance their capabilities?For perspective, the total value of U.S. private construction was $1.65 trillion in 2025, down 2.6% from 2024 based on U.S. Census Bureau figures. This was driven by declines in all sectors except residential improvements. Specifically, 2025 spending decreased for single-family housing (-3.4%), multi-family construction (-9.1%), and nonresidential construction (-3.2%). In contrast, spending on repair and remodeling increased by 1.2%.The number of single-famil...

National Grasslands offer a variety of ecosystem services that benefit visitors and must be managed to ensure sustained yield. However, a paucity of visitor use management research in National Grasslands has limited the advancement of knowledge about these areas. This exploratory study used a mixed methodology with two connected phases to better understand visitor experiences, perceptions, and enjoyment at Cimarron National Grassland. A survey instrument was constructed with information gathered by semi-structured interviews with managers. The survey was distributed online through the...

Evapotranspiration (ET), the core of ecohydrology, represents a major component of an ecosystem’s water and energy budget, reflecting multiple biophysical processes in the Earth system. This flux represents the sum of evaporation from soil and plant surface, water bodies, and plant transpiration. Accurately quantifying ET at multiple scales is increasingly recognized to be critical for water resource management and sustainable agriculture under a changing climate.