Fall 2005

New Products

Southern Pine Ecosystems

1 Ylioja, Tiina; Slone, Daniel H.; Ayres, Matthew P. 2005. Mismatch between herbivore behavior and demographics contributes to scale dependence of host susceptibility in two pine species. Forest Science. 51(6): 522-531.
[Editor’s note: Slone was a Southern Research Station scientist when he coauthored this paper.]

The impacts on forests of tree-killing bark beetles can depend on the species composition of potential host trees. Host susceptibility might be an intrinsic property of tree species, or it might depend on spatial patterning of alternative host species. We compared the susceptibility of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) and Virginia pine (P. virginiana) to southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis) at two hierarchical levels of geographic scale: within beetle infestations in heterospecific stands, and across a forest landscape dominated by monospecific stands. In the former, beetles preferentially attacked Virginia pine, but in the latter, loblolly stands were more susceptible. This hierarchical transition in host susceptibility was predicted from knowledge of (1) a behavioral preference of beetles for attacking loblolly versus Virginia pine, (2) a negative correlation between preference and performance, and (3) a mismatch in the domain of scale between demographics and host selection by individuals.

Wetlands, Bottomlands, and Streams

2 Barton, Christopher; Kinkead, Karen. 2005. Do erosion control and snakes mesh? Journal of Soil and Water Conservation. 60(2): 33- 35.
[Editor’s note: Barton wrote this article while employed at the Center for Forested Wetlands, Southern Research Station.]

Erosion control blankets provide an organic matrix to retain soil moisture, promote seed germination, and disperse erosion-causing energy from raindrops. Rolled erosion control blankets were used to help restore 15 degraded Carolina bay wetlands. The blankets were effective for their stated purpose, but were hazardous to snakes. The products’ mesh sizes of 10 mm2 and 20 mm2 provided easy entry for the black racer, rat snake, water snake, corn snake, and eastern hognose. Fourteen of the 19 trapped snakes died, either due to lacerations, overheating, or being unable to escape predators, including fire ants. A smaller mesh size would be safer for snakes and possibly other wildlife.

3 Devall, Margaret S.; Thien, Leonard B. 2005. Inland occurrence of the strand plant Ipomoea pes-caprae (Convolvulaceae) around Lake Nicaragua. Southwestern Naturalist. 50(3); 380-384.

Ipomoea pes-caprae (railroad vine, Convolvulceae) is a pantropical, perennial beach plant that forms large patches just above the high tide line on coastal beaches and dunes throughout tropical and subtropical areas of the world. In spite of its wide distribution, only rare occurrences of I. pes-caprae have been documented in inland habitats. We report on an extensive population of I. pescaprae growing on the shores of Lake Nicaragua in the interior of Nicaragua.

4 Horn, Scott; Hanula, James L.; Ulyshen, Michael D.; Kilgo, John C. 2005. Abundance of green tree frogs and insects in artificial canopy gaps in a bottomland hardwood forest. American Midland Naturalist. 153: 321-326.

We found more green tree frogs (Hyla cinera) in canopy gaps than in closed canopy forest. Of the 331 green tree frogs observed, 88 percent were in canopy gaps. Likewise, higher numbers and biomasses of insects were captured in the open gap habitat. Flies were the most commonly collected insect group, accounting for 54 percent of the total capture. These data suggest that one reason green tree frogs were more abundant in canopy gaps was the increased availability of prey and that small canopy gaps provide early successional habitats that are beneficial to green tree frog populations.

5 Kilgo, John C. 2005. Harvest-related edge effects on prey availability and foraging of hooded warblers in a bottomland hardwood forest. The Condor. 107: 627-636.

The effects of harvest-created canopy gaps in bottomland hardwoods on arthropod abundance and, hence, the foraging ecology of insectivorous birds is unknown. This study determined that arthropod prey abundance was highest in forested areas >100 m from a gap edge and that foraging attack rates were highest >30 m from a gap edge. Hooded warblers apparently encountered less prey and foraged less efficiently where arthropods were least abundant, near gaps. However, when birds were foraging for fledglings, attack rates did not vary by distance from gaps, suggesting that prey availability may not be limiting in these forests, despite the effects of harvest gaps on arthropods.

6 Lockhart, Brian Roy; Meadows, Steve; Portwood, Jeff. 2005. Southern hardwood forestry group going strong after 50 years. Delta Wildlife. 12(1): 5-6.

The Southern Hardwoods Forestry Group celebrated its 50th anniversary in November 2005. The group provides a medium for exchange of ideas on the management and utilization of hardwood timber. The focus has expanded through the years to include wildlife habitat management and other ecological values. The Southern Hardwood Forestry Group continues to serve as an important outlet for the dissemination of hardwood research and management information.

7 Richter, Stephen C.; Young, Jeanne E.; Siegel, Richard A.; Johnson, Glen N. 2001. Postbreeding movements of the dark gopher frog, Rana sevosa Goin and Netting: implications for conservation and management. Journal of Herpetology. 35(2): 316-321.

Conservation plans for amphibians often focus on activities at the breeding site, but for species that use terrestrial habitats for much of the year, an understanding of nonbreeding habitat use is also essential. We used radio telemetry to study the postbreeding movements of individuals of the only known population of dark gopher frogs,Rana sevosa during two breeding seasons. Movements away from the pond were relatively short and usually occurred within a two-day period after frogs initially exited the breeding pond. Dispersal distances for some individuals may have been constrained by a recent clearcut on adjacent private property. When implementing a conservation plan for Rana sevosa and other amphibians with similar habitat utilization patterns, we recommend that a terrestrial buffer zone of protection include the aquatic breeding site and adjacent nonbreeding season habitat.

8 Strayer, David L.; Downing, John A.; Haag, Wendell R. [and others]. 2004. Changing perspectives on pearly mussels, North America’s most imperiled animals. Bioscience. 54(5): 429-439.

Pearly mussels (Unionacea) are widespread, abundant, and important in freshwater ecosystems around the world. Catastrophic declines in populations have led to research on mussel biology, ecology, and conservation. Research has begun to benefit from and contribute to ideas about suspension feeding, life history theory, metapopulations, flow refuges, spatial patterning and its effects, and management of endangered species. Significant gaps in understanding and apparent paradoxes in pearly mussel ecology have been exposed. To conserve remaining mussel populations, scientists and managers must simultaneously and aggressively pursue both rigorous research and conservation actions.

9 Warren, Melvin L., Jr.; Haag, Wendell R. 2005. Spatio-temporal patterns of the decline of freshwater mussels in the Little South Fork Cumberland River, USA. Biodiversity and Conservation. 14: 1383-1400.

The Little South Fork Cumberland River, Kentucky and Tennessee, USA, was a globally important conservation refugium for freshwater mussels (Mollusca: Unionidae) because it supported an intact example (26 species) of the unique Cumberland River mussel fauna, including imperiled species. We used previous surveys and our 1997–1998 survey to reconstruct the historical fauna, to describe spatio-temporal patterns of density and number of species, and to evaluate the probable sequence and cause of observed mussel declines. We were interested in better understanding how mussel assemblages respond to chronic disturbances, and how these changes manifest in persistence patterns. Of the total species recorded from the Little South Fork, 17 (65 percent) are seemingly extirpated and .ve others appear near extirpation. Declines are associated with at least two, temporally distinct major insults. The river appears lost as a conservation refugium for mussels. We suggest that the river could be restored and mussels reintroduced if an interagency taskforce is formed to identify and mitigate specific stressors.

Mountain and Highland Ecosystems

10 Bragg, Don C. 2004. Historical reflections on the Arkansas Cross Timbers. Journal of Arkansas Academy of Science. 58: 32-36.

Küchler’s original map of potential natural vegetation suggested that the eastern-most extension of the “Cross Timbers” oak-dominated woodland reached into extreme western Arkansas. Recent investigations have found possible old-growth Cross Timber communities in narrow strips along steep, rocky sandstone and shale ridges near Fort Chaffee and Hackett. General Land Office surveyors before 1850 reported many ridges and slopes dominated by grassy, stunted oak woodlands, with extensive prairies and richer bottomland terraces. Historical accounts help show that, though far more restricted in this extent than comparable stands in Oklahoma or Texas, Cross Timber communities are possible in Arkansas.

Inventory and Monitoring

11 Chang, S.J.; Busby, R.L.; Pasala, P.R.; Goelz, J.C. 2005. VB Merch-Slash: a growth-andyield prediction system with a merchandising optimizer for planted slash pine in the west gulf region. RP SRS-36. Asheville, NC; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 16 p.

A Visual Basic computer model that can be used to estimate the harvest value of slash pine plantations in the west gulf region is presented. The model uses a dynamic programming algorithm to convert stand tables predicted by COMPUTE_P-SLASH into a listing of seven products that maximizes the harvested value of the stand.

12 Chang, S.J.; Busby, R.L.; Pasala, P.R.; Leduc, D.J. 2005. VB Merch-Lob: a growth-andyield prediction system with a merchandising optimizer for planted loblolly pine in the west gulf region. RP SRS-35. Asheville, NC; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 15 p.

A Visual Basic computer model that can be used to estimate the harvest value of loblolly pine plantations in the west gulf region is presented. The model uses a dynamic programming algorithm to convert stand tables predicted by COMPUTE_P-LOB into a listing of seven products that maximizes the harvested value of the stand.

13 Coulston, John W.; Ambrose, Mark J.; Riitters, K.H.; Conkling, Barbara L. 2005. Forest health monitoring: 2002 national technical report. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-84. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 97 p.

The Forest Health Monitoring Program’s 2002 national technical report presents results of forest health analyses from a national perspective. This annual report focuses on “Criterion 3—Maintenance of Forest Ecosystem Health and Vitality” from the “Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Forestry of the Santiago Declaration” as the reporting framework. The report provides background information about Forest Health Monitoring, details about the conceptual approach to the report, and details about data used in the analyses. The first indicator section focuses on abiotic, biotic, and anthropogenic disturbances, including drought, hurricanes, tornadoes, fire, insects and diseases, introduced species, and land development. The second section addresses air pollution data, including nitrate and sulfate wet deposition data and ozone data. The third section contains analyses of tree health data including tree mortality, crown condition, and damage. The final data section is a multivariate analysis, providing an integrated presentation of the data used in the report.

14 Coulston, John W.; Ambrose, Mark J.; Riitters, K.H.; Conkling, Barbara L.; Smith, William D. 2005. Forest health monitoring: 2003 national technical report. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-85. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 97 p.

The Forest Health Monitoring Program’s 2003 national reports present results from forest health data analyses focusing on a national perspective. The Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temperate and Boreal Forests are used as a reporting framework. Some indicators discussed include ozone bioindicator plants; changes in trees (crown condition, mortality, and stand age); and soils (forest floor depth). Other indicators or indicator groups use data about insects and diseases, and remotely sensed or ground-based data about distance to roads, forest edge, interior forest, drought, fire, and air pollution (sulfates, nitrates, and ozone). Identifying patterns and observing possible relationships is an important part of national level analysis and reporting. The report presents results of analyses designed to evaluate whether indicators discriminate between crowns in poor condition and crowns not in poor condition.

15 Zarnoch, Stanley J.; Turner, Jeffrey A. 2005. Adjustments to Forest Inventory and Analysis estimates of 2001 saw-log volumes for Kentucky. Res. Pap. SRS-38. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 4 p.

The 2001 Kentucky FIA survey overestimated hardwood saw-log volume in tree grade 1 because too many trees were classified as grade 1 trees. Quality assurance data generated two types of adjustments, one based on the proportion of trees misclassified, and the other on the proportion of saw-log volume misclassified. Both methods significantly reduced estimated sawlog volume in tree grade 1. We believe that the saw-log volume approach is superior to the tree approach, but that both approaches generate improved estimates of tree-grade saw-log volumes. Standard errors are given for adjustment proportions, based on a cluster sampling design.

Large-Scale Assessment and Modeling

16 Brandeis, Thomas J.; Suárez Rozo, María del Rocío. 2005. Effects of model choice and forest structure on inventory-based estimations of Puerto Rican forest biomass. Caribbean Journal of Science. 41(2): 250-268.

This paper describes young, secondary tropical forest structure and carbon sequestration in the Río Grande de Arecibo watershed using forest inventory results from the USDA Forest Service’s Southern Research Station’s Forest Inventory and Analysis and University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez Atmospheric Carbon Sequestration Project. Once heavily deforested, the watershed now holds relatively large, contiguous tracts of biologically diverse, secondary tropical forest, some of which is being considered for addition to the island’s public forests. As primary forests are being lost, secondary forests are on the increase worldwide, and their role in global biogeochemical cycling needs to be better understood.

17 Matta, Jagannadha; Alavalpati, Janaki; Kerr, John; Mercer, Evan. 2005. Agency perspectives on transition to participatory forest management: a case study from Tamil Nadu, India. Society and Natural Resources. 18: 859-870.

This paper reports on surveys of foresters involved with implementing India’s Joint Forest Management initiative to examine the impact of attitudes on the success of collaborative forest management. Despite foresters’ motivation toward implementing this policy, uncertain incentives and institutional complexities make the task complex and difficult. While decentralized decision making in the Tamil Nadu Forest Department could help mitigate the situation, the department’s culture limits feedback in the system and represents a strong barrier to organizational adaptation. Pragmatic strategies for promoting participatory forest management should focus first on improving the institutional conditions of foresters in order to develop a shared vision and a unified strategy.

18 Neale, Anne C.; Jones, K. Bruce; Nash, Maliha S. [and others]. 2003. Application of landscape models to alternative futures analyses. In: Rapport, David J.; Lasley, William L.; Rolston, Dennis E., eds. [and others]. Managing for healthy ecosystems. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press LLC: 577-587.
[Editor’s note: Southern Research Station scientist Kurt Riitters co-authored this publication.]

Different models have been proposed and used to predict future conditions, but the basic premise is the same: (1) what land managers and the public want based on needs and values; and (2) biophysical constraints of the environment. This chapter describes a model to predict nitrogen loading, one aspect important to water quality of streams, from a suite of landscape metrics and then will apply this model to a series of alternative future landscapes. This example illustrates important issues to consider when developing models for future conditions. Although we will describe only the process for modeling nitrogen loading, the methods presented could easily be applied to other environmental end points.

19 Prestemon, Jeffrey P.; Mercer, D. Evan; Pye, John M. [and others]. 2001. Economically optimal wildfire intervention regimes. In: Proceedings, 2001 American Agricultural Economics Association meeting. 18 p. http://agecon.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/detailview.pl?paperid=2872. [Date accessed: November 3, 2005].

Wildfires in the United States result in total damages and costs that are likely to exceed billions of dollars annually. Land managers and policy makers propose higher rates of prescribed burning and other kinds of vegetation management to reduce amounts of wildfire and the risks of catastrophic losses. Using data to quantify how wildfire responds to prescribed burning, we evaluate whether current rates observed in one county in Florida (Volusia) differ from what might be considered economically optimal. Results show that the optimal amount of annual prescribed fire is about 3 percent (9,000 acres/year) of the total forest area, which is very close to the actual average amount of prescribed burning (12,700 acres/year) observed in Volusia County between 1994 - 1999.

20 Riitters, Kurt H. 2005. Downscaling indicators of forest habitat structure from national assessments. Ecological Indicators. 5: 273-279.

Large-area assessments of forest spatial patterns for national and international reporting are only feasible when using relatively coarse data and indicators. More work is needed to enable more detailed and local interpretations of the national statistics. This paper identifies opportunities to incorporate local information, and demonstrates an application to forest habitat assessments in Oregon and New York.

21 Turner, James A.; Buongiorno, Joseph; Zhu, Shushuai; Prestemon, Jeffrey P. 2005. The U.S. [United States] forest sector in 2030: markets and competitors. Forest Products Journal. 55(5): 27-36.

The Global Forest Products Model was used to project international forest sector developments, conditional on the latest RPA Timber Assessment of future domestic changes in the United States. While the United States, Japan, and Europe were predicted to remain major importers of forest products out to 2030, the rapid economic growth of China would make it the world’s largest market for raw wood, and intermediate and final forest products. Mexico and the Republic of Korea would also become important markets for solid wood and fiber products. The U.S. share of global exports of industrial roundwood and other paper and paperboard were predicted to increase out to 2030. In competition with the United States, it was predicted that Finland, Austria, Latvia, Chile, and New Zealand would increase their share of global sawnwood exports, and Austria and the Republic of Korea would emerge as exporters of printing and writing paper.

22 Zarnoch, Stanley J.; English, Donald B.K.; Kocis, Susan M. 2005. An outdoor recreation use model with applications to evaluating survey estimators. Res. Pap. SRS- 37. Asheville, NC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station. 15 p.

An outdoor recreation use simulator (ORUS) has been developed to simulate recreation survey data collected by the USDA Forest Service, National Visitor Use Monitoring program’s survey of national forests. Statistical distributions represent recreationists’ behaviors, which include arriving times and last-exiting times, number of intermediate exits, times of exits, and trap shyness associated with the probability that recreationists will be captured by the interviewer. Functioning of the simulator is demonstrated with a simple example. The utility of ORUS in evaluating the bias and coefficient of variation of various survey scenario estimators of recreation use is also presented.

23 Wickham, James D.; Riitters, Kurt H.; Wade, Timothy G.; Jones, K. Bruce. 2005. Evaluating the relative roles of ecological regions and land-cover composition for guiding establishment of nutrient criteria. Landscape Ecology. 20: 791- 798.

To protect aquatic resources, goals are commonly established for nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations in streams based on ecological zone maps that reflect gross differences in climate, topography, geology, and land use, all of which affect nitrogen and phosphorous dynamics. This research shows that land-cover maps are better than ecological zone maps when predicting nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in streams, and, furthermore, that most differences among ecological zones are explained largely by differences in the types of land cover that they contain. The results suggest that land-cover maps could be used to help establish local nutrient goals for individual watersheds.

Wildland-Urban Interface and Urban Forestry

24 Butry, David T.; Prestemon, Jeffrey P. 2005. Spatio-temporal wildland arson crime functions. Selected paper presented at the 2005 American Agricultural Economics Association annual meeting. Providence, RI, July 24-27, 2005: American Agricultural Economics Association. 28 p. http://agecon. lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/pdf_view. pl?paperid=16442&ftype=.pdf. [Date accessed: November 3, 2005].

Wildland arson creates damages to structures and timber and affects the health and safety of people living in rural and wildland-urban interface areas. For high-arson Census tracts in Florida, we develop six statistical models of daily wildland arson ignitions that incorporate information about recent and nearby suspected arson fires, in addition to measures of weather, forest fuels, law enforcement, and socioeconomic conditions. The number of wildland arson ignitions today in the Census tract is positively related to such ignitions in the same tract for up to the previous 11 days and in neighboring tracts for up to four days. Other variables showing significance include weather and wildfire activity in the previous six years. Prescribed fire and several variables that would indicate evidence consistent with an economic model of crime were less commonly significant.

25 Cho, Seong-Hoon; Newman, David H.; Bowker, J.M. 2005. Measuring rural homeowners’ willingness to pay for land conservation easements. Forest Policy and Economics. 7: 757-770.

Population growth in the mountains of rural western North Carolina raises concerns over environmental quality and land-use policy. We examine the economic value of a conservation easement program designed to slow conversion of undeveloped land in Macon County. Although the county has struggled to adopt any land-use policy, our study shows a potentially high value for conservation easements. The estimated annual household willingness-to-pay to support an easement program ranges from $10.97 to $21.79 per year, depending on model assumptions. Added across all households, this value ranges from $109,825 to $360,772. At current prices, a range of 53–175 acres could be preserved annually. This would slow the rate of land conversion since 1987 by up to 46 percent.

26 Mercer, D. Evan; Prestemon, Jeffrey P. 2005. Comparing production function models for wildfire risk analysis in the wildland-urban interface. Forest Policy and Economics. 7: 782-795.

This paper evaluates and quantifies the roles that humans play in wildfire regimes in populated areas near and within fire prone areas. We use county level, time-series data from Florida to empirically estimate three broad classes of wildfire production functions: fire event (ignitions), fire aggregate extent, and a combination function of fire effect and aggregate extent. Although higher population and poverty are correlated with more wildfire (acreage) and more intense wildfires, higher levels of unemployment and poverty are associated with fewer wildfire ignitions. The number of police in a county is correlated with fewer ignitions. Discussing possible reasons for these results, we suggest that managers and decision makers should be aware of socioeconomic impacts on wildfire and consider them in wildland fire management decisions. Our results also emphasize the importance of including such variables in statistical models of wildfire risk.

Foundation Programs

27 Conrad, Robert F.; Gillis, Malcolm; Mercer, D. Evan. 2005. Tropical forest harvesting and taxation: a dynamic model of harvesting behavior under selective extraction systems. Environment and Development Economics. 10: 689-709.

A dynamic model of selective harvesting in multi-species, multiage tropical forests is developed. Forests are predicted to exhibit different optimal harvesting profiles, depending on the nature of their joint cost functions and own or crossspecies stock effects. The model is applied to the controversy about incentives produced by various taxes. The impacts of specific taxes are shown to depend on the composition of the forest stocks, growth rates, and joint cost effects. Therefore, specific taxes may create different incentives and impacts in Indonesia than in Brazil or Malaysia, for example, suggesting that no single uniform forest tax policy will be appropriate for all countries or all forests.

28 Wilson, A.D.; Lester, D.G.; Oberle, C.S. 2005. Application of conductive polymer analysis for wood and woody plant identifications. Forest Ecology and Management. 209: 207-224.

This paper describes an electronic aroma detection (EAD) technology known as conductive polymer analysis (CPA), developed to identify woody samples of hardwoods and conifers. CPA uses an electronic nose instrument that characterizes the aroma (smells) of vapors released from excised wood. Unique digital electronic fingerprints of wood aromas were obtained from woods of individual tree species. A reference library containing aroma signature patterns was developed and used to effectively identify unknown samples of individual tree species. Potential applications of CPA methods include research in ecology, forestry, plant taxonomy, and related disciplines. Other applications of this technology were discovered for the management of forested stands and ecosystems based on the identification of roles that wood-inhabiting organisms play in stand dynamics and long-term ecosystem functions.

29 Wilson, A. Dan. 2005. Recent advances in the control of oak wilt in the United States. Plant Pathology Journal. 4(2): 177-191.

Oak wilt, caused by Ceratocystis fagacearum, is the most destructive disease of oak trees (Quercus species) in the United States. The serious potential for damage prompted an increase in Federal funding for oak wilt research in the past 15 years. Benefits from this research have been extensive due to technological developments that have greatly improved our ability to manage this devastating disease nationwide. These improved methods for oak wilt control are reviewed and discussed in relation to current State forestry pestcontrol programs that have begun to implement these methods in their oak wilt suppression operations.

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