Commercial thinning in fully-stocked normal Douglas-fir stands of merchantable size is evaluated and compared to the alternatives of leaving stands to grow unthinned or of liquidating them. Comparisons are made in terms of volume production and financial returns.

Cofiring wood and coal at Fairbanks, Alaska, area electrical generation facilities represents an opportunity to use woody biomass from clearings within the borough's wildland-urban interface and from other sources, such as sawmill residues and woody material intended for landfills. Potential benefits of cofiring include air quality improvements, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, market and employment development opportunities, and reduction of municipal wood residues at area landfills. Important issues that must be addressed to enable cofiring include wood chip uniformity and quality, fuel mixing procedures, transportation and wood chip processing costs, infrastructure requirements, and long-term biomass supply. Additional steps in implementing successful cofiring programs could include test burns, an assessment of area biomass supply and treatment needs, and a detailed economic and technical feasibility study. Although Fairbanks North Star Borough is well positioned to use biomass for cofiring at coal burning facilities, long-term cofiring operations would require expansion of biomass sources beyond defensible-space-related clearings alone. Long-term sources could potentially include a range of woody materials including forest harvesting residues, sawmill residues, and municipal wastes.

Agencies and organizations deploy various strategies in response to environmental challenges, including the formulation of policy, programs, and regulations. Citizen-based environmental stewardship is increasingly seen as an innovative and important approach to improving and conserving landscape health. A new research focus on the stewardship of urban natural resources is being launched by the U.S. Forest Service in the Pacific Northwest region. Early scoping efforts are addressing various scales of human systems ranging from individuals to organizations to the entire positive "footprint" of stewardship on the land. This report addresses a fundamental need—to understand and describe civic environmental stewardship in urban settings. Stewardship has been described and defined in diverse ways within a variety of contexts, including the philosophical literature of environmentalism, agency program descriptions, and outreach by sponsoring organizations. Constructing a framework to convey the layered meanings of stewardship will help to focus and guide future research. A cognitive mapping technique was used to elicit responses to the question "What is environmental stewardship?" Semistructured interviews were conducted with representatives of nine Seattle environmental organizations, a group of practitioners who collectively represent over 100 years of experience in the field. Program planners and managers have particularly direct experiences of stewardship. Cognitive mapping enables participants to explore, then display, their particular knowledge and perceptions about an idea or activity. Analysis generated thematic, structural representations of shared concepts. Results show that the practitioners have multilayered perceptions of stewardship, from environmental improvement to community building, and from actions to outcomes. The resulting conceptual framework demonstrates the full extent of stewardship activity and meaning, which can aid stewardship sponsors to improve stewardship programs, leading to better experiences for participants and higher quality outcomes for projects and environments.

We conducted an experimental study of infection, transmission, and persistence of a nucleopolyhedrovirus (NPV) of Douglas-fir tussock moth (Orgyia pseudotsugata) to better understand mechanisms determining the efficacy of the virus when it is used as a microbial control agent. In a field experiment, we quantified infection rates of larvae exposed to either Tussock Moth Biocontrol-1, the strain currently used for control by the U.S. Forest Service, or a wild-type strain isolated from a natural population. We first allowed each pathogen to decay on experimental branches for 0, 1, or 3 days before allowing uninfected larvae to feed on the branches, and then we fit both a generalized linear model and an epidemiological model of virus transmission to the infection data. Longer decay of the NPV resulted in lower infection rates, but evidence that overall virus transmission differed between wild and pesticide isolates of NPV was weak. The short persistence time of the virus suggests that it does not last long on foliage, in turn suggesting that application of TM Biocontrol-1 must be carefully timed to ensure maximum mortality.

These cosy and comforting banana bread recipes are healthy, easy to make and delicious

While it is not illegal to have a bonfire, some Surrey councils are urging residents not to light them

Forget adding oil and eggs, you only need a can of fizzy to make the famous cake box

Have you had any that are worse?

There are two new sites, one in Cranleigh and the other in Farnham

Effectively addressing wildfire risk to communities on large multi-owner landscapes requires an understanding of the biophysical factors that influence risk, such as fuel loads, topography, and weather, and social factors such as the capacity and willingness for communities to engage in fire-mitigation activities.

In the Pacific Northwest, native salmon and trout are some of the toughest survivors on the block. Over time, these fish have evolved behavioral adaptations to natural disturbances, and they rely on these disturbances to deliver coarse sediment and wood that become complex stream habitat. Powerful disturbances such as wildfire, postfire landslides, and debris flows may be detrimental to fish populations in the short term, but over time, they enrich instream habitats, enhancing long-term fish survival and productivity.

Interest in landscape-scale approaches to fire management and forest restoration is growing with the realization that these approaches are critical to maintaining healthy forests and protecting nearby communities. However, coordinated planning and action across multiple ownerships have been elusive because of differing goals and forest management styles among landowners. Scientists with the Pacific Northwest Research Station and their colleagues recognized that working at the landscape scale requires integrating the biophysical, social, and economic dimensions of the problem, and this necessitates collecting new types of information and inventing new tools.

Although burned trees are the most visible damage following a wildfire, a forest’s soil can also be damaged. The heat generated by a wildfire can alter the soil’s physical properties and kill the fungi and bacteria that are responsible for nutrient cycling and other ecosystem services. What isn’t well understood is the extent of the heating within the soil and how quickly the soil recovers.

Diameter growth is seasonal in Douglas-fir, the evergreen tree found in much of western Washington, Oregon, and northern California. Initiation and cessation of diameter growth are both triggered by environmental cues. The tree responds to these cues to improve its chances of growing under favorable conditions. As environmental conditions change, however, land managers want to know how warmer summers and falls may affect diameter growth in Douglas-fir.

The marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) is a threatened coastal bird that feeds on fish and nests in old-growth forests. In northwest Washington, murrelet populations are declining despite protections provided by the Northwest Forest Plan.

Principal findings of the National Fire and Fire Surrogate (FFS) study are presented in an annotated bibliography and summarized in tabular form by site, discipline (ecosystem component), treatment type, and major theme. Composed of 12 sites, the FFS is a comprehensive multidisciplinary experiment designed to evaluate the costs and ecological consequences of alternative fuel reduction treatments in seasonally dry forests of the United States. The FFS has a common experimental design across the 12-site network, with each site a fully replicated experiment that compares four treatments: prescribed fi re, mechanical treatments, mechanical + prescribed fire, and an unmanipulated control. We measured treatment cost and variables within several components of the ecosystem, including vegetation, the fuel bed, soils, bark beetles, tree diseases, and wildlife in the same 10-ha experimental units. This design allowed us to assemble a fairly comprehensive picture of ecosystem response to treatment at the site scale, and to compare treatment response across a wide variety of conditions.

This publication describes the bird communities of major mainland rivers of southeast Alaska and is based on a review of all known relevant studies as well as recent fieldwork. We synthesized information on the composition, structure, and habitat relationships of bird communities at 11 major mainland rivers. Information on current management concerns and research needs are also included.

The Malheur model for fire-caused delayed mortality is presented as an easily interpreted graph (mortality-probability calculator) as part of a one-page field guide that allows the user to determine postfire probability of mortality for ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws.).

Black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill) B.S.P) is the dominant forest cover type in interior Alaska and is prone to frequent, stand-replacing wildfires.

We used two data sets to evaluate stream and watershed condition for sixth-field watersheds in each aquatic province within the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) area: stream data and upslope data. The stream evaluation was based on inchannel data (e.g., substrate, pieces of large wood, water temperature, pool frequency, and macroinvertebrates) we sampled from 2002 to 2009 (193 watersheds) as part of a repeating sample design. We just completed our first round of sampling, so only current condition was calculated for this data set. When condition scores for the inchannel data were grouped into categories, relatively few fell into the low (10 percent) and very low (1 percent) categories. The majority of inchannel attribute scores fell into the moderate (35 percent) and high (41 percent) condition ranges, with relatively few (12 percent) in the very high category. For low-scoring watersheds, water temperature was often the most influential factor. Aquatic invertebrate scores also appeared influential in producing the low scores.

A method of creating irregular shaped image maps with ease exploiting an odd effect when using Microsofts AlphaImageLoader to render background PNG images. Only for IE though.

A circular menu with CSS3 enhancements.

A circular icon menu with circular icon sub menus and animation.

Using CSS3 to rotate a set of thumbnail images and display a large images, all with a cick of a button.

A second version of the marquee demo using CSS3 and keyframes to produce an interactive marquee for any length of text.

Using CSS3 transitions, transforms and keyframes to produce a 3D animation of the Earth, Mars, Jupiter and the Moon.

Using CSS3 transitions, transforms and keyframes to produce a 3D Dymaxion Map of the Earth's surface.

Using just CSS to produce a circular set of icons with enlarge on hover.

A circular corner menu with animation.

A simple iris/diaphragm open/close menu.

A CSS only circular menu with bounce animation using cubic-bezier timing.

An update to a previous circular menu (July 2011) using the latest CSS techniques.

Prior to the existence of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Forest Service district rangers had considerable latitude to make resource management decisions and execute management plans with relatively little encumbrance by documentation and process requirements.

The spitfires will be flying over 11 locations across the three counties

A driver of a car collided with a bridge barrier and two lorries

The latest figures have been announced by NHS England

A London Ambulance Service worker and Weybridge teacher both needed to use the site, but experienced a number of problems

Eyewitnesses said flames leaped 100 feet into the air above Thursley, which was classed as one of the worst-hit areas during the fires in July 1976

The latest NHS figures show a small increase in recorded deaths

Crews and officers from Surrey Fire and Rescue Service and Surrey Police were in attendance

This report examines socioeconomic changes that took place between 1990 and 2003 on and around lands managed by the Klamath National Forest in California to assess the effects of the Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan) on rural economies and communities there. Three case communities were studied: Scott Valley, Butte Valley, and Mid-Klamath.

Increasingly large and severe wildfires threaten millions of forested acres throughout the West. Under certain conditions, mechanical thinning can address these hazardous conditions while providing opportunitiesto create renewable energy and reduce our carbon footprint but how do land managers decide whether thinning is a good idea? How do they decide where to begin, and what to do with the removed trees? Prioritizing treatment areas and determining the most effective techniques for fuel hazard reduction depends on various factors such as owner objectives, forest types, and the availability of processing facilities.

Edge-glued panels could become a natural extension for the birch (Betula papyrifera Marsh.) lumber industry in Alaska, resulting in greater utilization of the birch resource while allowing producers to explore a wider variety of products and markets.

April 2012—To anticipate how a changing climate might impact future forest fires, scientists need to understand the past. But how can you tell the frequency and severity of wildfires that occurred hundreds—or, even, thousands—of years ago? Part of the answer lies in tree rings (6:09)

In forest reserves of the U.S. Pacific Northwest, management objectives include protecting late-seral habitat structure by reducing the threat of large-scale disturbances like wildfire. We simulated how altering within and among-stand structure with silvicultural treatments of differing intensity affected late-seral forest (LSF) structure and fire threat (FT) reduction over 30 years in a 6070-ha reserve. We then evaluated how different financial requirements influenced the treatment mix selected for each decade, the associated effects on FT reduction and LSF structure in the reserve, and treatment costs. Requirements for treatments to earn money (NPV+), break even (NPVO), or to not meet any financial goal at the scale of the entire reserve (landscape) affected the predicted reduction of FT and the total area of LSF structure in different ways. With or without a requirement to break even, treatments accomplished about the same landscape level of FT reduction and LSF structure. Although treatment effects were similar, their associated net revenues ranged from negative $1 million to positive $3000 over 30 years. In contrast, a requirement for landscape treatments to earn money ($0.5 to $1.5 million NPV) over the same period had a negative effect on FT reduction and carried a cost in terms of both FT reduction and LSF structure. Results suggest that the spatial scale at which silvicultural treatments were evaluated was influential because the lowest cost to the reserve objectives was accomplished by a mix of treatments that earned or lost money at the stand level but that collectivel broke even at the landscape scale. Results also indicate that the timeframe over which treatments were evaluated was important because if breaking even was required within each decade instead of cumulatively over all three, the cost in terms of FT reduction and LSF structure was similar to requiring landscape treatments to earn $0.5 million NPV.

A century of effective fire suppression has radically transformed many forested landscapes on the east side of the Cascades. Managers of dry forests critically need information to help plan for and implement forest restoration. Management priorities include the stabilization of fire regimes and the maintenance of habitat for the northern spotted owl and other old-forest associates.

In the mid-1990s, forest managers on the Malheur National Forest were concerned about their prescribed fire program. Although they have only a few weeks of acceptable conditions available in the spring and fall, they were worried that spring-season prescribed burning might be exacerbating black stain root disease and having negative effects on understory plants.

A century of fire suppression has resulted in dense fuel loads within the dry pine forests of eastern Oregon . To alleviate the risk of stand-replacing wildfire, forest managers are using prescribed fire and thinning treatments. Until recently, the impact of these fuel treatments on soil productivity has been largely unknown. Such information is essential for making sound management decisions about the successful reintroduction of fire to the ecosystem to retain biodiversity of soil fungi and achieve the desired future condition of large ponderosa pines with low fuel loads. In a recent pair of studies, led by researchers at the PNW Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Corvallis, Oregon, novel molecular techniques were utilized to investigate the response of soil ecosystems to prescribed burning and thinning. The research compared impacts of the season of burn and various combinations of fuel-reducing treatments. Results suggest that overly severe fires can damage soil productivity and that less intense fires can be used to gradually reduce accumulations of fuel. The findings are currently being implemented in decisions about forest management and contribute important new information to the science.

The socioeconomic monitoring report addresses two evaluation questions posed in the Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan) Record of Decision and assesses progress in meeting five Plan socioeconomic goals. Volume I of the report contains key findings. Volume II addresses the question, Are predictable levels of timber and nontimber resources available and being produced? It also evaluates progress in meeting the goal of producing a predictable level of timber sales, special forest products, livestock grazing, minerals, and recreation opportunities. The focus of volume III is the evaluation question, Are local communities and economies experiencing positive or negative changes that may be associated with federal forest management? Two Plan goals are also assessed in volume III: (1) to maintain the stability of local and regional economies on a predictable, long-term basis and, (2) to assist with long-term economic development and diversification to minimize adverse impacts associated with the loss of timber jobs. Progress in meeting another Plan goal-to promote agency-citizen collaboration in forest management-is evaluated in volume IV. Volume V reports on trends in public values regarding forest management in the Pacific Northwest over the past decade, community views of how well the forest values and environmental qualities associated with late-successional, old-growth, and aquatic ecosystems have been protected under the Plan (a fifth Plan goal), and issues and concerns relating to forest management under the Plan expressed by community members. Volume VI provides a history of the Northwest Forest Plan socioeconomic monitoring program and a discussion of potential directions for the program.

The Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan) is a large-scale ecosystem management plan for federal land in the Pacific Northwest. Marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) populations and habitat were monitored to evaluate effectiveness of the Plan. The chapters in this volume summarize information on marbled murrelet ecology and present the monitoring results for marbled murrelets over the first 10 years of the Plan, 1994 to 2003.