Pacific Northwest Research Station Research Articles

Research in Non-Timber Forest Products

Summary Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) have emerged as a complex set of issues reflecting changes in society and how natural resources are regarded. These issues range from the sustainability of forest management practices to the relationship of diverse cultures and communities to public lands and their resources. Research and its relationship to this set of issues is a relatively unknown aspect of NTFPs. This paper reports on early NTFP research by scientists in the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Northwest Research Station. It characterizes efforts over approximately five years and identifies their key elements. It also discusses the role research has and could play in addressing the problems and questions associated with NTFPs and sustainable forestry .

Characterizing fuels in the 21st Century

This paper was presented at the conference ‘Integrating spatial technologies and ecological principles for a new age in fire management’, Boise, Idaho, USA, June 1999 The ongoing development of sophisticated fire behavior and effects models has demonstrated the need for a comprehensive system of fuel classification that more accurately captures the structural complexity and geographic diversity of fuelbeds. The Fire and Environmental Research Applications Team (FERA) of the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, is developing a national system of fuel characteristic classification (FCC). The system is designed to accommodate researchers and managers operating at a variety of scales, and who have access to a variety of kinds of input data. Users can generate fuel characteristics by accessing existing fuelbed descriptions (fuelbed prototypes) using generic information such as cover type or vegetation form. Fuelbed prototypes will provide the best available predictions of the kind, quality and abundance of fuels. Users can accept these default settings or modify some or all of them using more detailed information about vegetation structure and fuel biomass. When the user has completed editing the fuelbed data, the FCC system calculates or infers quantitative fuel characteristics (physical, chemical, and structural properties) and probable fire parameters specific to that fuelbed. Each user-described fuelbed is also assigned to one of approximately 192 stylized fuel characteristic classes.

Book Reviews

Book Reviews Get access Natural Enemies of Forest Insect Pests (Video) Torolf Torgersen USDA–Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station , LaGrande, Oregon , 1990$25.00 for copies or free loan, 23 minutes Kenneth F. Raffa Kenneth F. Raffa Department of Entomology University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisc Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Environmental Entomology, Volume 20, Issue 6, 1 December 1991, Page 1738, https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/20.6.1738 Published: 01 December 1991

A Classification System for California's Hardwood Rangelands

A hardwood rangeland classification system for California is described. The system provides private landowners, land managers, and researchers a unifying framework from which known ecological and management information can be retrieved. Standardization of type names facilitates the exchange of information on hardwood rangelands within and among agencies, landowners, and universities. The dichotomous keys to the type descriptions ensure that the system is field oriented and user-friendly. The classification system consists of 57 subseries arranged hierarchically within 7 Series. The oak series are defined by the dominant oak species present on the site. A Mixed Oak Series is also defined from sites that contain three or more species of oak at constancies of greater than 30%. This system does not include subseries descriptions for Engelmann or garry oak types. The classification system was developed from approximately 4,300 plots collected as part of the Vegetation Type Map (VTM) survey conducted during the 1920s-1940s by the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, and approximately 500 plots collected as part of the Forest Inventory conducted by the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station in the 1970s and 1980s. The base information on species composition, percent cover by species, tree stand structure, and environment was collected on 1/5-acre plots. Species cover was determined from a 33' by 66' belt transect on each plot. The classification structure was developed using TWINSPAN, a polythetic, divisive classification program developed by Hill (1979a). Further analyses were performed using DECORANA, and frequencies, regression, and analysis of variance. The information contained in the final type descriptions was developed from VTM data only. The keys and type descriptions have been field tested and verified at several locations in the State, such as Hopland Field Station, Sierra Field Station, Hastings Reserve, and the San Joaquin Experiment Station. The tests were conducted by individuals familiar with hardwood rangeland ecosystems and those who were not. Ongoing use of the keys and descriptions in other parts of the State will provide information for further refinement of keys and descriptions. Additional information on potential productivity and response to management will be incorporated into the descriptions by users as they identify the types that they are working in by the classification subseries names.