Natural and anthropogenic disturbances have influenced forest stand structure and affected species compositions within forests for millennia. Disturbances such as fire, severe weather events, and forest management practices may result in significantly reduced tree biomass. Thus, these disturbances may lower canopy closure and stem density in support of forest management goals, such as open oak woodland restoration, or promote an increase in species richness within the forest understory. However, these types of disturbance may also produce the unwanted consequence of opening pathways for the invasion of non-native species. Once established, these non-native species may threaten native plant communities and biodiversity. Here, we elucidate how varied natural and anthropogenic disturbances have altered forest stand structure. One consequence of disturbance has been the increase in the presence and cover of non-native species within upland oak forest sites located in the Daniel Boone National Forest, Kentucky. The results of these studies suggest that timely and effective management strategies are needed to minimize non-native species impact on forested habitats following disturbance, and to promote the desired structural shifts that will sustain diverse habitats and support biodiversity.

Keeping forestland intact has emerged as a critical policy objective at state and federal levels. This target has been supported by substantial public investment. The collective impact from the bequest decisions of millions of landowning individuals and families has the potential to affect the extent and functionality of future forests in the United States. Despite a growing body of research devoted to studying these transitions in forest ownership, much remains unknown about how family forest owners make decisions in this arena. The social and emotional dimensions of woodland succession planning have been particularly under-examined. This thesis explores the process of planning for the future use and ownership of woodlands through in-depth analysis of 32 semi-structured interviews with family forest owners in Massachusetts, Maine, New York, and Vermont. The first article investigates how family forest owners evaluate and integrate stories derived from their social networks when planning for the future of their woodlands. Analysis of the themes contained in stories framed as “cautionary tales” revealed common fears surrounding succession planning. The second article explores the complexity of emotional relationships with family forests showing how emotional geographies manifest in the succession planning process. Together, these studies deepen understanding of how family forest owners plan for the future of private woodlands and offer implications for Extension and outreach.

Silviculture practices interact with multiple sources of variability to influence regeneration trends in northern hardwood forests. There is uncertainty whether low-intensity selection harvesting techniques will result in desirable tree regeneration. Our research is part of a long-term study that tests the hypothesis that a silvicultural approach called "structural complexity enhancement" (SCE) can promote accelerated development of late-successional forest structure and functions. Our objective is to understand the regeneration dynamics following three uneven-aged forestry treatments modified to increase postharvest structural retention: single-tree selection, group selection, and SCE. In terms of regeneration densities and composition, how do light availability, competition, seedbad, and herbivory interact with overstory treatment effects? To explore these relationships, manipulations and controls were replicated across 2-hectare treatment units at two sites in Vermont, USA. Forest inventory data were collected pre-harvest and 13 years post-harvest. We used linear mixed effects models with repeated measures to evaluate the effects of treatment on seedling and sapling abundances and diversity (Shannon-Weiner H'). Multivariate analyses evaluated the relative predictive strength of treatment versus alternative sources of ecological variability. Thirteen-years post-harvest, the harvested treatments were all successful in recruiting a sapling class with a significantly higher mean than the control. However, in all of the treatments prolific beech regeneration dominated the understory in patches. Seedling densities exhibited pulses of recruitment and mortality with a significant positive treatment effect on all harvested treatments in the first four years post-harvest. Seedling diversity was maintained, while sapling diversity was negatively influenced by herbivory (deer and moose browse) and leaf litter substrate. Multivariate analyses suggest that while treatment had a dominant effect, other factors were strongly influential in driving regeneration responses. Results indicate variants of uneven-aged systems that retain or enhance stand structural complexity, including old-growth characteristics, generally regenerate at adequate and desirable densities depending on site conditions.

The index-removal method estimates abundance, exploitation and catchability coefficient, given surveys conducted before and after a known removal. The method assumes a closed population between surveys. Index-removal has seldom been applied due to its strong assumption of constant survey catchabilities. This work generalizes the method to allow multiple years of data to be incorporated, and the assumptions of the original model to be relaxed. If catchability is constant across years, precision can be improved by analyzing multi-year data simultaneously. Two multiple-year models were developed: the first, 1qIR, assumes constant catchability within and among years; the second, 2qIR, allows catchability to change between surveys within years, but assumes survey-specific catchability constant across years. The new models were tested by Monte Carlo simulation then applied to data from two southern rock lobster (Jasus edwardsii) populations. The 1qIR model produced reasonable estimates in one application, but the 2qIR model was required to produce reasonable estimates for the second population. A likelihood ratio test found 1qIR to be the most parsimonious model, even when, the assumption of constant survey catchability appeared to be violated. In that case, diagnostic plots suggested that the 2qIR model provided the most reliable estimates. However, when the constant catchability assumption is tenable, the 1qIR model offers the greatest precision for parameter estimates. Size- and sex-specific heterogeneity of catchability introduces bias in model estimates. Field experiments were performed to test whether the catchability of small lobster was constant for southern rock lobster during two seasons when fishing occurs. No evidence of heterogeneous catchability was observed during the spring. However, significantly more small lobster were caught in control traps and traps seeded with one large adult male lobster than were caught in traps seeded with one large adult female during the summer, when females are preparing to molt and reproduce in Tasmania. Because heterogeneous catchability occurred during the summer, but not the spring, an index of recruitment based on the catch of lobsters one molt size below legal size might be developed for the spring, however, more sampling is needed to resolve the annual timing of sex- and size-specific catchability changes.

Providing adequate outdoor recreational opportunities to the public is now a national problem. Of the many influences affecting the demand for recreation, increased income, population increase, sociological changes, and rapidly increasing technological developments are the more important. In the face of these factors, we must plan better to insure sufficient future needs. This will require evaluation and development of many recreation opportunities. The Bear Lake are of northeastern Utah and southeastern Idaho is situated along U.S. 89 and within close driving distance of much of Utah's population. Up to the present there has been little orderly or planned development of Bear Lake. Nevertheless use of the area has been increasing, particularly for water-oriented sports. Many parties traveling through the area are on their way to the Northern parks, i.e., Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and Glacier, or from these parks to Salt Lake City and points south or west. Thus, if the Bear Lake area were developed to provide services to the tourist, economic benefit to the area may be increased. To date, lakeside development by farmers has resulted in a "shanty" appearance, with old barns, sheds, and various log structures. No zoning regulations have been initiated for the lake shore areas. A local service group, the Bear Lake Improvement Association, is considering various ideas to improve the existing facilities as well as ideas for developing new facilities. The group's primary purpose at the present is to improve the lake's appearance by clean-up efforts and to advertise the area through the use of pamphlets and signs. This attempt may acquaint more people with the recreational opportunities and facilities offered in Bear Lake Valley. Currently, the economy of the Bear Lake area is primarily agricultural. However, the limited amount of tillable soil and the short growing season greatly restrict the agricultural potential of the area. Additional income-producing endeavors of a recreational nature could be explored. The Bear Lake area has many undeveloped attractions which could be developed to draw tourists. Because of these opportunities, research has been undertaken to examine the possibility of expanded recreational development by private operation in the Bear Lake area.

Forest canopy structure is strongly influenced by stand density due to changing competitive interactions among the individual trees and in turn directly influences stemwood volume production. The structure and dynamics of forest canopies, particularly in relation to the production of stemwood, were examined in unmanaged, even-aged stands of two dissimilar tree species, Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm. and Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt. The analysis of structure-production relationships was guided by a conceptual model which generated hypotheses and led to examination of assumptions incorporated in the model. Mean crown dimensions were related to stand density through a negative exponential function for both species, but because of differing shade-tolerances, mean crown size of lodgepole pine was affected more by increasing density than was mean crown size of subalpine fir. More importantly, examination of the model assumptions indicated that adequate characterization of canopy structure should account for the influence of both crown shyness and stand height. Stand density also influenced the amount and distribution of leaf area in these forest stands. The more plastic mean leaf area of lodgepole pine led to a constant leaf area index over a range of density and, thus, was consistent with conventional wisdom which assumes closed canopied forest stands support stable leaf area indices across a wide range of densities. The less plastic mean leaf area of subalpine fir, however, led to positive correlation between leaf area index and density. Changes in mean crown dimensions and mean leaf area influenced the production of stemwood volume such that large mean crown sizes were less efficient than small mean crown sizes. The decrease in efficiency was attributed to accumulation of large branch biomass in large crowns to support foliage far from the stem. Increased support costs were indicated by the increasing proportion of crown volume which was nonfoliated as mean crown size increased. The assumption that accumulated branch biomass was responsible for the observed declines in efficiency for forest trees was reinforced by a comparison of structure-production relationships for lodgepole pine and the annual Helianthus annuus L.

Survival, growth and biomass accumulation of 19 year-old trees planted on an Appalachian surface mine site were evaluated to determine the effect of spoil grading and surface amendment treatments. Three spoil grading treatments (loose-dump, strike-off and graded control) were established to create a range of operationally feasible spoil compaction capable of impacting tree establishment and growth. Likewise, three surface amendment treatments (straw/manure mulch, hardwood bark mulch and control) were applied to determine their effects on tree development. Trees grown under low-compaction grading treatment levels (strike-off and loose-dump) consistently outperformed trees planted in a high-compaction control treatment. Loose-dump preparation resulted in higher survival for five of six tree species and greater biomass in three species for which this metric was estimated. Strike-off preparation resulted in higher diameter at breast height (DBH) values. The addition of straw/manure surface amendment increased biomass for hardwood species for which this value was estimated. Volunteer woody vegetation growing in the same experimental plots was measured and characterized by species. Loose-dump plots exhibited highest overall volunteer stem and native stem density and compacted control plots had lowest volunteer stem density and lowest proportion of native stems. Strike-off plots exhibited intermediate values for both of these measures.

Land Use Land Cover (LULC) changes can take place at the expense of degrading environmental conditions and undermining ecosystem’s capacity to deliver benefits to people. In the Appalachian region, surface mining for coal is a major driver of LULC change. The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977 requires mine site reclamation but typical reclamation practices often result in land cover dominated by grass and shrubs. The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) is a promising reclamation strategy but not in widespread use by industry. Assessing ecosystem services that can be obtained from a forest landscape may help policy-makers and other stakeholders fully understand the benefits of forestry based reclamation. The objectives of this study are to 1) identify how surface mining and reclamation changed the LULC of a watershed encompassing the north fork of the Kentucky River 2) assess the biophysical value of four major ecosystem services under the contemporary LULC condition and 3) assess the benefits of the FRA scenario in the provision of ecosystem services. Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to study the LULC change and InVEST software models for ecosystem services assessment. The results indicate that watershed’s forest area has decreased by 7,751 hectares from 2001 to 2011 and mining activity may have contributed 75% of the change in LULC. Barren and grassland land covers provide less carbon storage, yield more water, and export more sediments and nutrients than forests. At the watershed level, the FRA modeled scenario increased carbon storage (13%) and reduced water yield (5%), sediment export (40%) and nutrient export (7%). This study provides critical information regarding the ecological benefits of Forestry Reclamation Approach to assist policy and decision making in this region even considering the modeling and data limitations.

Global environmental change represents one of the greatest challenges facing forest resource managers today. The uncertainty and variability of potential future impacts related to shifting climatic and disturbance regimes on forest systems has led resource managers to seek out alternative management approaches to sustain the long-term delivery of forest ecosystem services. To this end, forest managers have begun incorporating adaptation strategies into resource planning and are increasingly utilizing the outcomes of forest landscape simulation and climate envelope models to guide decisions regarding potential strategies to employ. These tools can be used alongside traditional methods to assist managers in understanding the potential long-term effects of management and climate on future forest composition and productivity. This study used a spatially explicit forest landscape simulation model, Landis-II, to examine and evaluate a range of long-term effects of current and alternative forest management under three projected climate scenarios within a 50,000-hectare forested landscape in southeastern Vermont, USA. Multiple scenarios were examined within this mixed ownership landscape, allowing for an evaluation of the influence of management and climate on future forest conditions in the region. These simulations indicate that land-use legacies and the inertia associated with long-term forest successional trajectories are projected to be an important driver of future forest composition and biomass conditions for the next 100 years. Nevertheless, climate is projected to have a greater influence on species composition and aboveground biomass over the next two centuries, with forests containing a greater abundance of species from more southerly regions and lower levels of aboveground biomass, resulting in shifts in the future provisioning of ecosystem services. Key words: Vermont, USA; climate change; forests; LANDIS-II; forest adaptation; forest management; above ground biomass; landscape inertia; land use recovery; forest composition

A persistent and reliable future terrestrial carbon (C) sink will depend on how stable forest production is under more variable climate conditions. We examined how age, forest structure, and disturbance history relate to the interannual variability of above-ground wood net primary production (NPPw). Our site in northern Michigan spans two experimental forest chronosequences and three late successional stands; the chronosequences have distinct disturbance histories, originating following either clear cut harvesting (“Cut Only”) or clear cut harvesting and fire (“Cut and Burn”), and range from 21 to 108 years old. Annual NPPw was estimated using dendrochronology and site specific allometric equations. We used a portable canopy LiDAR (PCL) system to derive canopy rugosity, a measure of the variability and heterogeneity of vertical and horizontal leaf arrangement, to quantify plot level canopy complexity. Counter to our hypothesis, we found that NPPw stability was greatest in the most frequently disturbed, Cut and Burn stands and lowest in less recently disturbed, late successional forest communities. Opposing trends in chronosequence interannual variation of NPPw indicated that stand age and canopy complexity are not consistently related to production stability. Furthermore, sub-canopy leaf trait properties and breadth were not, as hypothesized, correlated with canopy complexity or NPPw stability. Our mixed findings suggest that multiple factors, including stand age and disturbance history, interact to influence NPPw stability, but also highlight an unexpected dichotomy in which disturbance legacies at our site negatively impact the long-term trajectory of annual forest NPPw, but enhance its interannual stability.