Assessing The Damage Of Mountain Pine Beetle Infestation

Every forest has a story to tell. By looking closely at its habitants, that story can be interpreted. Much of this narrative is written in the trees: their age, their tolerance to shade, and the rate at which they grow are all characteristics that can imply a lot about their environment. Exploring these relationships and how they connect with each other can indicate the health and history of the land. Heiberg Forest, located in northern New York, was once used for agricultural purposes in the 1800-1900’s. (Nowak, Lecture Notes) Much of the land once used for farming was left to regrow back into a young forest. The life history of different tree species can be determined by examining the most common species in Heiberg.

Insecticides have been used to try to control the emerald ash borer. However, there are guidelines for the use of these chemicals. There is a per acre use limit which means that all ash trees in the same area can be treated more than once in a year with the same chemical. Before treating an area one should pro-rate the acre use limit to match the size of the treatment area in order to control the concentration of the chemicals being used. Insecticides used against the borer may be soil applied, trunk injected and cover sprays. The soil applied treatment has been tested and has proved to be very inconsistent. Therefore, environmental activists concerned about the use of insecticides moved towards using a trunk injected treatment, but this has too been proven inconsistent in their trials. Cover sprays, however, seem to be providing mediocre results. While this treatment

The government of Canada has decided to implement a 30 year plan, which will cost over 2 billion dollars, it includes using insecticides and traps to eliminate Emerald Ash Borers and further infections in ash trees. Another negative effect is Emerald Ash Borer’s ability to consume white fringe tree, a close relative of ash trees, which is a sign that Emerald Ash Borers might be able to infect different types of tree in the future. Emerald Ash Borer has caused a slowdown in Canada’s forestry industry due to the death of many ash trees, which will mean slower economic growth for Canada, since we rely a lot on forestry products. Emerald Ash Borer has been increasing in population rapidly due to a lack of enough predators. As Emerald Ash Borer continue to threaten our forests, which has provided us with camping grounds, shade, and oxygen for years will be at risk. Ash trees are also an important part in preventing clogged river, streams, and water-treatment plant because of soil slides resulting from rain. Trees normally holds on to the soil to prevent clogged rivers and streams, but with Emerald Ash Borers wiping out million of ash tree and putting billions more at risk, it could disrupt the delicate balance between trees and soil. Researchers expect ash tree mortality rates will have ecological impacts on animals that rely on ash

The topography of the island is also of note. The west end of the island features a closed-canopy forest with more hardwood trees. The east end of the island is better characterized as a “boreal forest,” a term used to describe regions that are mostly covered by coniferous forests. It is good to note that the balsam fir is found on both ends of the island, but that samples used in the study from the west end of the island were, on average, older, but shorter, than those samples found on the east side of the island.

Proper removal and disposal of the dead Ash Trees can help with eliminating the spread of the disease to other areas of the city and replanting a variety of trees in the affected Ash Tree areas can help with biodiversity of tree species in the city to prevent another spread from destroying many of our trees. With many different tree species, if there is another beetle or borer outbreak that affects a certain species of tree, It would not be as devastating to the entire tree population because it would only affect a select few trees throughout the

The ancient forests of the Northeast aren’t the only aspect of the bioregion that’s fate have been at perpetual risk since the early settlement of Europeans. There is no question that forests still dominate the landscape of Northeastern region accounting for “60% of the total land area, and in New England alone, the coverage is 80%”. Still the species that exist within the understory of the forests have undergone an equally dramatic transformation because of human interaction with the land and the harvest of its resources. Some species in the understory of the mixed forests of the Northeast have been driven out of the region, are under intense ecological pressure, are on the brink of extinction, or have already gone extinct in the region. Perhaps one of the most harmful and impactful effects colonization of the Northeast has had on the resources of the land is the introduction of non-native species and diseases into the region. Over time the overall makeup of the forests have changed drastically as an example, “…the American chestnut once made up as much as 25% of the trees in some areas and was economically the most important hardwood in the Eastern forests”. The introduction of chestnut blight at the turn of the century accounts for

Brooks (EPA), J. Heinrichs (UW), S. McMillin (California Department of Fish and Wildlife) and C. Wilsey (UW). Landuse change scenarios were developed by Jim Thorne and the Information Center for the Environment at UC Davis. The information in this document has been funded in part by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It has been subjected to review by the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory’s Western Ecology Division and approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents reflect the views of the Agency, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for

Based on the current conditions of the area, we hypothesis that tree survivability will be highest in elevations above 3,000 feet and below 3,300 feet, highest in slopes between 0 - 45 degrees, and highest in aspects between 0 - 33 degrees. Tree survivability will also be highest in area with the best soil, water quality, and forest health conditions for successful tree sapling growth.

Can the most high-tech, compact, thoroughly monitored development still pose an unacceptable risk to the wilderness? In a situation such as this where the natural environment is at a serious risk and the public and decision makers are in a dispute, we must all turn to trained scientists in order to more precisely determine what is at risk and which outcome will serve all parties the best.

Forests in Northern Arizona that the tribal communities depend upon are currently threatened by climate change. Ecosystems with high and rising temperatures, such as Northern Arizona, are susceptible to drought. In turn, the decrease in precipitation due to droughts leads to an overall reduction in growth as well as health for plants. A study concerning Northern Arizona forest found that tree mortality increased 200% from 1997-2002 to 2002-2007 in mixed-conifer forests and 74% in ponderosa pine forests. This tree mortality can be traced back to forest insects like bark beetles as well as long-term drought stress throughout the ecosystem (Ganey & Vojta, 162). Insects such as the spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis), pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae), and especially piñon ips beetle (Ips spp.) threaten forests (MacDonald & Turner, 21260). Climate change causes tree mortality as overall warming leads to greater beetle reproduction as well as greater range of beetle territory (MacDonald

This region is “heavily influenced by natural disturbances”. Species here have adapted to large wildfires; some, including the jack pine and black spruce, require these fires to reproduce. Heat is needed to release their seeds, and seed germination only occurs in favourable conditions produced by the fires.

People living in the wildland urban interface area need to consider the impact of risk toward their choice. The involvement of first responders affected by emergency services in and around wildland urban interface areas is a major concern. The impacting loss covered by insurance is reaches into rather large sums over just a decade of time even.

Over the summer of 2015, the air quality has never been poorer. This poor air quality was due to one of the worst fire seasons in past memory. These fires that originated across the northwestern hemisphere, showed an increase length and danger of fire seasons for the United States. With climate change increasing the temperature of the country, the hot and dry season that comes with summer has been expanded. This lack of moisture and increase in temperature causes forests to become even more dry, and even more susceptible to fire. These dry forests in the summer are also aided by an increase in tree deaths cause by the death of trees from mountain pine beetle infestations in Montana. The increase in the beetles'

What made this location different than the other two locations was that it was set on private land rather than public land. The vegetation was dominated by sugar maple, with more red oaks than in the first site. The canopy was not as closed as the first location but still consisted of coverage of about 90%. Pleasant Mile Woods had less foot traffic than that of the Kettle Moraine State Park, being that it is a private land, and had more wind than the previous location due to the increase in farmland surrounding the patch of woods. The final location, Kohler-Andrae State Natural Area, is right off the shore of Lake Michigan and the part of the site which was surveyed was the woody area off of Black River Trail. Once again, this area was heavily shaded and dominated with sugar maple. This site had the most foot traffic due to the occurrence of more trails and surrounding lakeside suburbs along with having more wind than the other two locations. At each of the locations, square quadrats of 10 meters in length were sampled using a stratified random sampling technique. At each location, a total of 25 quadrats were analyzed leading to a total of 75 total

In 1993 Volkswagen had record low sales but by the end of 1997 the VW brand had sold 137,885 cars. That was an increase of 178% from it’s 1993 slump. It is safe to say that the the ’94 relaunch of VW on the American Market was a success. The “Drivers Wanted” campaign, developed by Arnold Communications, I believe was successful as a result of excellent market research and positioning.