Fuel reduction treatments are management activities implemented to reduce the quantity of hazardous fuels in forests to decrease the probability of severe and intense wildfires. As nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) landowners own most forests (77%) in Mississippi, their involvement is essential for effective and coordinated fuel reduction treatments to achieve a large-scale wildfire hazard reduction. However, NIPF landowner attitudes towards wildfire risk and mitigation activities implemented to reduce wildfire risk are not well understood. This study determined attitudes of NIPF landowners towards wildfires, current trends in implementation of fuel reduction treatments, socioeconomic and geospatial factors affecting treatment implementation, and landowner willingness to pay (WTP) for prescribed burning. Data were collected via a mail survey of NIPF landowners and public sources including Mississippi Forestry Commission and National Land Cover Database. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to quantify the WTP for prescribed burning. Data were analyzed using seemingly unrelated and binary probit, and binary logit models. Approximately 68% of landowners were concerned about wildfires, but only 45% implemented hazardous fuel reduction treatments. Prescribed burning was the most commonly implemented and the least costly treatment. Furthermore, only 30% of landowners were likely to implement fuel reduction treatments in the next five years. Past implementation of treatments, concern about property damages due to wildfires, familiarity with wildfire prevention and mitigation programs, size of forest land owned, ecological services ownership objectives, past experience with wildfires, and motivation from neighbors’ implementation of treatments were positively associated with the likelihood of implementing fuel reduction treatments in the next five years. Landowners were willing to pay from $14.70 to $66.86 per acre, with an average of $41.39 per acre, for implementing prescribed burning on their forest land. The payment amount was negatively related to WTP, whereas education level, tolerance of smoke from prescribed burns, concern about property damages due to wildfires, and consideration of liability issues as an important factor were positively related. Results will help better understand NIPF landowner wildfire mitigation activities and associated social and geospatial factors, and aid in the development of more effective strategies and resource allocation for wildfire prevention and mitigation.

The favorable growth of young loblolly pines (Pinus taeda L.) in response to controlling non-crop vegetation is well documented. However, the beneficial effects of non-crop vegetation on soil quality, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity have not been thoroughly explored. A study was conducted to determine the effects of harvesting-induced soil disturbance, bedding and chemical vegetation control on soil processes and productivity, and to characterize the effects of silvicultural treatments on non-crop vegetation dynamics. Study plots were established on a wet pine flat on South Carolina's lower Coastal Plain. Treatments included a range of 5 disturbance classes (undisturbed, compression tracked, shallowly rutted, deeply rutted and churned), two site preparation treatments (flat planted and bedded) and a gradient of vegetation control (no vegetation control, operational-level weed control and complete weed control). Soil disturbances had relatively small effects on soil quality. Soil compaction reduced soil aeration, but this condition was fully ameliorated by bedding. Churning did not degrade the soil physical environment in any measureable way, largely because slash and litter were incorporated into the surface soil. Bedding and churning increase soil biological activity, which increased nitrogen mineralization in excess of pine demand. When non-crop vegetation was chemically controlled, mineralization rates increased due to increases in surface soil temperatures. With less vegetation on the site, the amount of nitrogen sequestered was less, furthering the potential for nitrogen loss by leaching or denitrification. Soil quality improved somewhat with increasing levels of non-crop vegetation biomass; however, these beneficial effects were marginal during two years of operational vegetation control. The majority of dominant species on undisturbed treatment areas were woody, and soil disturbance, including bedding, reduced the proportions of these species. Silvicultural treatments had little effect on the prevalence of hydrophytic species on these wetland study sites. From a forest management point of view, for this site type, it appears that much is gained by reducing competition from non-crop vegetation; the benefits of controlling the density of non-crop vegetation for encouraging early pine growth are clear. While non-crop vegetation slightly improved system function by sequestering available nitrogen, increasing diversity and increasing soil quality, these improvements do not appear to be critical to forest function on these inherently high-quality sites. / Master of Science

Chemical site preparation is used to enhance the productivity of loblolly pine plantations; however, it is most often combined with other methods and/or chemical release, and has been studied little on its own. Our study, conducted in the Virginia piedmont, compares the effects of various site preparation applications of imazapyr and their timings (July 23rd, September 3rd, and October 1st 2005) against a year-two chemical release (September 12th 2007), and an untreated check, all following a site preparation burn (June 15, 2005). Testing for additive effects, site preparation treatments were conducted with and without, sulfometuron methyl (SMAX) which targets herbaceous vegetation. Half of all treatments, including the check and release, received a year-one weed control treatment (H) of imazapyr and SMAX. Pines were measured every few years, including the latest measurement in year 14 (2019). Competing hardwood vegetation basal area was measured in year 14. All site preparation treatments reduced competition levels compared to the check, and an inverse relationship exists between competition level and pine volume. Adding SMAX resulted in less effective competition control, but had little effect on pine volumes. Adding H decreased average competition levels, and increased pine volumes. H treatments had the most effect at improving early season (July) applications. September and October treatments generally had more effect than July and the year-two release at controlling competing vegetation, and also showed higher individual pine tree volumes than all other treatments. Chemical site preparation treatments, even performed alone, appear to be valid means of improving pine stands. / Master of Science / Competing vegetation has a negative effect on planted pine production. Areas are often prepared with herbicides or mechanical removal of vegetation before crop-trees are planted (site preparation), or receive herbicide treatments after planting (release), to reduce levels of competition. Our study focuses on pre-planting herbicide (imazapyr with and without sulfometuron methyl) use at different timings (July 23rd, September 3rd, and October 1st). A chemical that targets herbaceous vegetation (sulfometuron methyl) was included in half of the pre-planting treatments, and half of all treatments, including the otherwise untreated check and year-two release, received an added weed control treatment in year-one. This was done to test for potential additive effects of chemical vegetation control options on pine productivity. September and October treatments have a greater effect at controlling competition 14 years since treatment and increasing pine volumes than the July, year-two release, and check. The added herbaceous control increased competition levels on average, without having an effect on the planted pine volumes. The year-one weed control decreased competition levels, and increased pine productivity, particularly within the July treatments. Overall, preparing sites with herbicide is beneficial to the pine stand, even when performed alone. Adding the herbaceous vegetation control is likely not necessary, and the extra year-one weed control may provide a boost to herbicide treatments applied earlier in the season.

The successful regeneration of mature oak (<i>Quercus</i> spp.) forests is thought to be dependent on the presence of oak advance regeneration. However, the advance regeneration must be of sufficient size and density for oak to be competitive and become a dominant species after harvest. The presence of a dense midstory canopy of shade tolerant species has been implicated with the poor development of oak advance regeneration. Understory Vegetation Control was conducted in 1994 in average quality (SI₅₀ 17.7 - 21.9 m for upland oak) southern Appalachian forest stands to determine the effects on oak (<i>Quercus</i> spp.) and maple (<i>Acer</i> spp.) advance seedling abundance, growth, and development. Three study sites were located in southwest Virginia, and the following two treatments were implemented at each site: Understory Vegetation Control (UVC) and Control. Permanent sampling plots and individual seedlings were located to quantify the density, recruitment, and growth of advance regeneration. Competing vegetation was significantly reduced after one year by the UVC treatment, where the mean relative change in the sum of the heights of competing stems between 1 and 5 m in height was -15.9 percent for the UVC plots vs. 22.8 percent for the Control plots. Neither oak seedling recruitment nor height growth was enhanced by the UVC treatment after one year. Insufficient time has elapsed to allow for a growth response, or to determine if seedling recruitment will be enhanced by UVC. Several years may be required to determine if the UVC treatment can enhance the growth and competitive status of oak regeneration. / Master of Science