Forest ThreatNet
Eastern Threat Center Highlights
Does Salvaging Beetle-Killed Timber Make Economic Sense?
Standing dead pine trees resulting from a mountain pine beetle epidemic are a common sight across the western United States. Salvaging this wood for timber is an option that could also address safety issues and lessen the threat of severe wildfires. A Southern Research Station-led study involving Eastern Threat Center research ecologist Frank Koch and North Carolina State University cooperating scientist Kevin Potter assessed the economics of salvaging dead pines in several western states to determine which areas may benefit from revenues--and which may not. Read more in CompassLive...
Right: Dead lodgepole pines - Photo by Whitney Cranshaw, Colorado State University, Bugwood.org
Researchers Take Biodiversity Studies in New Directions
Biodiversity (the variety of species occurring in a given area) is often studied in terms of patterns across a horizontal landscape, but researchers are beginning to understand the vertical patterns of biodiversity as well. Eastern Threat Center research ecologist Qinfeng Guo led a study of mountainous regions across the world to examine how elevation influences biodiversity and how elevational biodiversity patterns differ between the northern and southern hemispheres and across latitudes. The study, published in Scientific Reports, provides information that can support conservation efforts as plant and animal species are increasingly stressed by climate change and human actions.
TACCIMO Aids Future Forests
From the North Carolina mountains to South Carolina’s coastal plain to the tropics of Puerto Rico, climate change is on the minds of forest planners. They are revising their land and resource management plans under the Forest Service’s new Planning Rule with help from the Template for Assessing Climate Change Impacts and Management Options (TACCIMO). Read more in CompassLive...
Left: TACCIMO team members Lisa Jennings and Emrys Treasure presented climate change projections for Francis Marion National Forest during an Ecological Sustainability Forum.
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