Governor Gavin Newsom has announced an exciting new plan in California to bring three nutritious meals a day to seniors in need, while providing meaningful work to those who have lost their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic. The first program of its kind in the nation, ‘Great Plates Delivered’ will support struggling restaurants to […]

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Restaurants from Starbucks to Krispy Kreme are offering up free food and coffee to the North American workers fighting the coronavirus outbreaks.

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Up to 3,000 people gathered in Munich, Germany, on May 9 to demonstrate against the restrictions put in place throughout the country to stem the spread of the coronavirus, according to local outlet TAG24. TAG24 reported that the protest had only been registered for 80 people. A larger crowd of people assembled, as this video shot in the central Marienplatz area of Munich shows. Similar protests took place across Germany on the same day in cities such as Berlin, Stuttgart, and Nuremburg. No violence was reported. On May 6, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced steps to ease the country’s coronavirus lockdown and introduced a new “emergency mechanism” that can be triggered by regional authorities to contain local Covid-19 outbreaks. As of May 9, Germany had over 171,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and 7,525 deaths, according to figures published in Tagesspiegel. Credit: @Franzisker2 via Storyful

Queensland has recorded its third day of zero cases this week but authorities warn the virus has not been eradicated and more cases are expected.

Fungi are key players in the health, diversity, and productivity of forest ecosystems in Pacific Northwest forests, as mycorrhizal associations, pathogens, decomposers, nontimber resources, and food resources for wildlife. A number of invertebrate species are associated with wood decay fungi, serve as vectors for fungal pathogens, or are fungivorous (consume fungi) and influence rates of wood decay and nutrient mineralization. In Washington and Oregon, 31 wildlife species among 8 families are fungivores, and at least 14 wildlife species disperse fungi. Down wood can provide nurse substrates for seedlings and beneficial mycorrhizal fungi, refuges from pathogenic soil fungi, sources of nutrients for decay fungi, and substrates supporting overall fungal diversity. Presence, density, distribution, and diversity of fungi are influenced by forest stand management practices, forest age class, and effects of fire. Old forests provide for a suite of rare fungi species. Old legacy trees retained during forest harvest can provide some degree of conservation of beneficial and rare fungi. Fungi can be difficult to detect and monitor; surveying for fungi at various times of the year, for multiple (at least 5) years, and by including hypogeous (belowground) samples, can improve detection rates. Studies are needed in the Pacific Northwest to quantify the amount of down wood—number of pieces, sizes, total biomass, percentage of forest floor cover, and other attributes—necessary for maintaining or restoring fungal biodiversity and viable levels of individual fungi species, especially rare species.

The Silvies Valley Ranch is an example of using local innovation to combat the global problem of incised streams on rangelands. Incised channels reduce the flow between water in the channel and water in the surrounding soils, which reduces the vegetation available for wildlife habitat and cattle forage. One of the ranch owners, Scott Campbell, a doctor of veterinary medicine, believes that stream incision is related to the decline of beaver populations; thus, the ranch’s approach to restoration includes efforts to mimic beavers’ influence on the system. He is using an extensive network of low-rise dams made from locally available materials (dirt, gravel, rock, and logs), commonly referred to as “artificial beaver dams” (ABDs). Campbell said that the ABDs on the ranch successfully increased stream connectivity to their floodplains and increased the quantity and forage quality of wet meadows on the property, with no changes in where cattle were grazing. The experiences of this landowner exemplify a unique approach that provides a model for others facing similar challenges to doing restoration on private land. The transformation taking place on the Silvies Valley Ranch has garnered the attention of neighboring ranch owners, some of whom are beginning to experiment with similar restoration technologies. Campbell would like to continue installing structures, but has encountered numerous roadblocks in the permitting process. He has since taken an active role in building legislative support for the ABD technology being used on the ranch, and in facilitating its adoption in other places. This case study—based on interviews with stakeholders involved in the Silvies Valley Ranch project—highlights the social benefits and challenges experienced by one rancher using ABDs as a restoration tool, and provides insights for improving their use in the future. It is part of a larger interdisciplinary study that explores the potential of different beaver-related restoration approaches for achieving watershed restoration and livestock production goals on rangelands in the Western United States.

The Chugach and Tongass National Forests are changing, possibly in response to global warming.

Societies use biologically active chemicals as medicines and pesticides to protect human and agricultural health. But widespread use of synthetic compounds raises concerns about their safety, and resistance development in targeted pests.

As a signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the United States annually compiles a report on the nation's carbon flux—the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere compared to the amount stored by terrestrial landscapes.

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.

Resource managers have long mapped biophysical forest data. Often lacking, however, is relevant social science data for understanding the variety of human needs a given landscape fulfills.

Millions of people head to federal lands every year for recreation—891 million visits in 2016 alone. These visits have significant economic implications, not only for restaurants, resorts, outfitters, and other businesses near recreation sites, but also for the people actually participating in outdoor recreation.

Old-growth forests provide unique habitat features and landscape functions compared to younger stands. The goals of many forest management plans in the Pacific Northwest include increasing the area of late-successional and old-growth forests.

Two series of single and stereo photographs display a range of natural conditions and fuel loadings in post-hurricane forests in the southeastern United States. Each group of photos includes inventory information summarizing vegetation composition, structure and loading, woody material loading and density by size class, forest floor loading, and various site characteristics. The natural fuels photo series is designed to help land managers appraise fuel and vegetation conditions in natural settings.

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.

Provides current information on lumber and plywood production and prices; employment in the forest industries; international trade in logs, lumber, and plywood; volume and average prices of stumpage sold by public agencies; and other related items.

Provides current information on lumber and plywood production and prices; employment in the forest industries; international trade in logs, lumber, and plywood; volume and average prices of stumpage sold by public agencies; and other related items.

Our January 2020 CDP newsletter, “Items of photographic interest” was sent via email this week to subscribers, and it is also now available as a free downloadable PDF. Download: Jan-2020-CDP-newsletter.pdf List of primary links found in this month’s newsletter: Delicate Arch, with Moon (photo) Managing Your Photo Library: Pruning Old Growth (CDP post) Complete Digital Photography ebook (CDP […]

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Many of America's national forests and grasslands—collectively called the National Forest System—face increased risks and alterations from escalating housing development on private rural lands along their boundaries. National forests and grasslands provide critical social, ecological, and economic benefits to the American public. This study projects future housing density increases on private rural lands at three distances—2, 3, and 10 miles—from the external boundaries of all national forests and grasslands across the conterminous United States. Some 21.7 million acres of rural private lands (about 8 percent of all private lands) located within 10 miles of the National Forest System boundaries are projected to undergo increases in housing density by 2030. Nine national forests are projected to experience increased housing density on at least 25 percent of adjacent private lands at one or more of the distances considered. Thirteen national forests and grasslands are each projected to have more than a half-million acres of adjacent private rural lands experience increased housing density. Such development and accompanying landscape fragmentation pose substantial challenges for the management and conservation of the ecosystem services and amenity resources of National Forest System lands, including access by the public. Research such as this can help planners, managers, and communities consider the impacts of local land use decisions.

Over the past 7 years, a strong collaboration has emerged between the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest ecosystem research group and the Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word, an independently funded program for nature writing based in the Department of Philosophy, Oregon State University. The program is called Long-Term Ecological Reflections and it brings together scientists, creative writers, and environmental philosophers to consider new ways to conceptualize and communicate views of long-term ecological change in forests and watersheds and the participation of humans in that change. The program is designed to parallel the Long-Term Ecological Research program, a national science program initiated in 1980 and involving the Andrews Forest. Both programs focus on primary inquiry and have 200-year planning horizons, which have resulted in some uniquely farsighted perspectives and astute ecological observations.

This report examines public perspectives on disturbance-based management conducted in the central Cascade Range in Oregon as part of the Blue River Landscape Strategy.

The original Forests on the Edge report (FOTE 1) indicated that 44.2 million acres of private forest land was projected to experience substantial increases in residential development in the coming decades.

In recent years, the Forest Service and the public have placed increasing priority on making sure that management of public lands takes into account the needs of nearby communities, regional residents, national residents, and even members of the public who may not currently visit public lands.

This report chronicles a large-scale effort to map place values across the Pacific Northwest Region (Washington and Oregon) of the U.S. Forest Service.

This study updates an earlier assessment of the past, current, and prospective situation for the Nation's land base. We describe area changes among major land uses on the U.S. land base for historical trends from 1982 to 2002 and projections out to 2062.

Some restrictions will stay in force for the foreseeable future, but others may be lifted in the next few days

Morels are prized edible mushrooms that fruit, sometimes prolifically, in many forest types throughout western North America. They are collected for personal consumption and commercially harvested as valuable special (nontimber) forest products. Large gaps remain, however, in our knowledge about their taxonomy, biology, ecology, cultivation, safety, and how to manage forests and harvesting activities to conserve morel populations and ensure sustainable crops. This publication provides forest managers, policymakers, mycologists, and mushroom harvesters with a synthesis of current knowledge regarding these issues, regional summaries of morel harvesting and management, and a comprehensive review of the literature.

Changes in forest management have detrimentally affected the economic health of small communities in the Blue Mountain region of Oregon over the past few decades. A build-up of small trees threatens the ecological health of these forests and increases wildland fire hazard. Hoping to boost their economies and also restore these forests, local leaders are interested in the economic value of timber that might be available from thinning treatments on these lands.

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.

Provides historical information on log harvest; employment in the forest industries; international trade in logs, lumber, and chips; and volume and average prices of sawtimber stumpage sold by national forests.

This report highlights key findings from the most recent (2001-2005) data collected by the Forest Inventory and Analysis Program across all forest land in California.

This report highlights key findings from the most recent (2001-2005) data collected by the Pacific Northwest Forest Inventory and Analysis (PNW-FIA) Program across all ownerships in Oregon.

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.

Increasing concern over the management and harvest of special forest products (SFP) from national forest lands has led to the development of new Forest Service policy directives.

Forest managers are seeking practical guidance on how to adapt their current practices and, if necessary, their management goals, in response to climate change. Science-management collaboration was initiated on national forests in eastern Washington where resource managers showed a keen interest in science-based options for adapting to climate change at a 2-day workshop. Scientists and managers reviewed current climate change science and identified resources vulnerable to expected climate change. Vulnerabilities related to vegetation and habitat management included potential reductions in forest biodiversity and low forest resilience to changing disturbance regimes. The vulnerabilities related to aquatic and infrastructure resources included changing water quality and quantity, the risk to roads and other facilities from changes to hydrologic regimes, and the potential loss of at-risk aquatic species and habitats. Managers then worked in facilitated groups to identify adaptations that could be implemented through management and planning to reduce the vulnerability of key resources to climate change. The identified adaptations were grouped under two major headings: Increasing Ecological Resiliency to Climate Change, and Increasing Social and Economic Resiliency to Climate Change. The information generated from the science-management collaborative represents an initial and important step in identifying and prioritizing tangible steps to address climate change in forest management. Next would be the development of detailed implementation strategies that address the identified management adaptations..

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.

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.

Nontimber forest products from southern Alaska (also called special forest products) have been used for millennia as resources vital to the livelihoods and culture of Alaska Natives and, more recently, as subsistence resources for the welfare of all citizens. Many of these products are now being sold, and Alaskans seek additional income opportunities through sustainable harvest and manufacture of such forest resources. We discuss the unique legal, regulatory, land tenure, geographic, vegetation, and climatic context that southern Alaska presents for marketing nontimber forest products; summarize the various species and types of products being harvested; and consider the marketing challenges and opportunities new entrepreneurs will encounter. The information and resources we provide are intended to enhance income opportunities for all Alaskans, while sustaining the organisms harvested, respecting traditional activities, and ensuring equitable access to resources.

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.

WestProPlus is an add-in program developed to work with Microsoft Excel to simulate the growth and management of all-aged Douglas-fir-western hemlock (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco-Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.) stands in Oregon and Washington. Its built-in growth model was calibrated from 2,706 permanent plots in the Douglas-fir-western hemlock forest type in Oregon and Washington. Stands are described by the number of trees per acre in each of nineteen 2-in diameter classes in four species groups: Douglas-fir, other shadeintolerant species, western hemlock, and other shade-tolerant species. WestProPlus allows managers to predict stand development by year and for many decades from a specific initial state. The simulations can be stochastic or deterministic. The stochastic simulations are based on bootstrapping of the observed errors in models of stand growth, timber prices, and interest rate. When used in stochastic simulations, this bootstrap technique simulates random variables by sampling randomly (with replacement) from actual observations of the variable, rather than from an assumed distribution. Users can choose cutting regimes by specifying the interval between harvests (cutting cycle) and a target distribution of trees remaining after harvest. A target distribution can be a reverse-J-shaped distribution or any other desired distribution. Diameterlimit cuts can also be simulated. Tabulated and graphic results show diameter distributions, basal area, volumes by log grade, income, net present value, and indices of stand diversity by species and size. This manual documents the program installation and activation, provides suggestions for working with Excel, and gives background information on West-ProPlus's models. It offers a comprehensive tutorial in the form of two practical examples that explain how to start the program, enter simulation data, execute a simulation, compare simulations, and plot summary statistics.

This problem analysis describes a variety of human-resource interaction issues and identifies related social science research and development needs that serve as the foundation for the Alaska Communities and Forest Environments Team within the Pacific Northwest Research Station. The document lays out a research agenda that focuses on understanding relations between human communities and natural resources.

This report examines socioeconomic changes that occurred between 1990 and 2000 associated with implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan) in the Olympic National Forest in western Washington. We used a combination of quantitative data from the U.S. census and the USDA Forest Service, historical documents, and interviews from Forest Service employees and members of three case study communities-Quilcene, the Lake Quinault area, and the Quinault Indian Nation. We explore how the Plan affected the flow of socioeconomic benefits associated with the Olympic National Forest, such as the production of forest commodities and forest-based recreation, agency jobs, procurement contract work for ecosystem management activities, grants for community economic assistance, payments to county governments, and opportunities for collaborative forest management. The greatest change in socioeconomic benefits derived from the forest was the curtailment of timber harvest activities. This not only affected timber industry jobs in local communities, but also resulted in declining agency budgets and staff reductions. Mitigation efforts varied. Ecosystem management contracts declined and shifted from labor-intensive to equipment-intensive activities, with about half of all contractors from the Olympic Peninsula. Economic assistance grants benefited communities that had the staff and resources to develop projects and apply for monies, but provided little benefit to communities without those resources. Payments to counties served as an important source of revenue for rural schools and roads. We also examine socioeconomic changes that occurred in the case study communities, and the influence of forest management policy on these changes. Between 1990 and 2000 all three communities showed a decrease in population, an increase in median age, a decline in timber industry-related employment, and an increase in service-industry and government jobs. Quilcene's proximity to the larger urban centers has attracted professional and service industry workers that commute to larger economic hubs. Lake Quinault area residents are increasingly turning to tourism, and its growing Latino population works in the cedar shake and floral greens industries. For the Quinault Indian Nation, employment in tribal government and its casino has helped offset job losses in the fishing and timber industries. Many changes observed in the communities were a result of the prior restructuring of the forest products industry, national economic trends, and demographic shifts. However, for Quilcene and Lake Quinault, which were highly dependent on the national forest for timber and served as Forest Service district headquarters, the loss of timber industry and Forest Service jobs associated with the Plan led to substantial job losses and crises in the economic and social capital of these communities.

This case study examines the socioeconomic changes that took place between 1990 and 2000 in and around lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Coos Bay District in southwestern Oregon for purposes of assessing the effects of the Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan) on rural economies and communities in the Coos Bay region.

This report traces the flow of Oregon's 2003 timber harvest through the primary timber-processing industry and describes its structure, operations, and condition. Pulp and board, lumber, and plywood and veneer sectors accounted for 96 percent of total industry sales of $6.7 billion. Oregon's 2003 timber harvest of just over 4 billion board feet was 95 percent softwood species; 65 percent of the total was Douglas-fir. As a result of improved technology, lumber overrun increased 32 percent since 1988 to 2.07 board feet lumber tally per board foot Scribner of timber input. Despite decreases in amount of timber harvested, the industry has remained important to Oregon's workforce: average earnings for a worker in Oregon forest products industry was about $50,200; Oregon's average for all industries was $32,400.

Provides current information on lumber and plywood production and prices; employment in the forest industries; international trade in logs, lumber, and plywood; volume and average prices of stumpage sold by public agencies; and other related items.

The Northwest Forest Plan (the Plan) identifies adaptive management as a central strategy for effective implementation. Despite this, there has been a lack of any systematic evaluation of its performance.

Changing patterns of land use are at the heart of many environmental concerns regarding U.S. forest lands. Of all the human impacts to forests, development is one of the most significant because of the severity and permanency of the change.

The distribution of a forest decline of yellow-cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis (D. Don) Orsted) has been documented in southeast Alaska, but its occurrence in British Columbia was previously unknown. We conducted an aerial survey in the Prince Rupert area in September 2004 to determine if yellow-cedar forests in the North Coast Forest District of British Columbia were experiencing a similar fate as in nearby Alaska. Numerous large areas of concentrated yellow-cedar mortality were found, extending the known distribution of the decline problem 150 km south of the Alaska-British Columbia border. The forests with the most concentrated tree death occurred at 300 to 400 m elevation, frequently on south aspects. The appearance of these forests including proximity to bogs; mixtures of dying, recently killed, and long-dead trees; and crown and bole symptoms of dying trees were all consistent with the phenomenon in southeast Alaska.

This report summarizes timber resource statistics for the 20 counties in eastern Washington. The inventory sampled all private and public lands except those administered by the National Forest System in 2001, and those that were reserved from management for wood products.