Explore the vast range of titles available.

Following a wildfire, regeneration to forest can take decades to centuries and is no longer assured in many western U.S. environments given escalating wildfire severity and warming trends. After large fire years, managers prioritize where to allocate scarce planting resources, often with limited information on the factors that drive successful forest establishment. Where occurring, long‐term effects of postfire salvage operations can increase uncertainty of establishment. Here, we collected field data on postfire regeneration patterns within 13‐ to 28‐yr‐old burned patches in eastern Washington State. Across 248 plots, we sampled tree stems <4 m height using a factorial design that considered (1) fire severity, moderate vs. high severity; (2) salvage harvesting, salvaged vs. no management; and (3) potential vegetation type (PVT), sample resides in a dry, moist, or cold mixed‐conifer forest environment. We found that regeneration was abundant throughout the study region, with a median of 4414 (IQR 19,618) stems/ha across all plots. Only 15% of plots fell below minimum timber production stocking standards (350 trees/ha), and <2% of plots were unstocked. Densities were generally highest in high‐severity patches and following salvage harvesting, although high variability among plots and across sites led to variable significance for these factors. Post hoc analyses suggested that mild postfire weather conditions may have reduced water stress on tree establishment and early growth, contributing to overall high stem densities. Douglas fir was the most abundant species, particularly in moderate‐severity patches, followed by ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, western larch, and Engelmann spruce. Generalized additive models (GAMs) revealed species‐level climatic tolerances and seed dispersal limits that portend future challenges to regeneration with expected future climate warming and increased fire activity. Postfire regeneration will occur on sites with adequate seed sources within their climatic tolerances.

Abstract The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) has affected millions of acres of forests in the Rocky Mountain region in the United States. This study quantified the difficulty of harvesting beetle-killed stands caused by downed trees. A detailed time study was conducted on a whole-tree clearcut harvest using a ground-based system in western Montana in August 2015. Our study shows that the productivity of the feller-buncher was highly affected by the number of downed trees. The feller-buncher average cycle time per tree was 7.0 s when only standing trees were cut and bunched whereas it took 13.2 s per tree when the bunch included one or more downed trees. Our results also indicate that stand conditions with various levels of downed trees affect the unit production cost and productivity of the entire harvesting system by increasing operational delays in the combined felling, skidding, and delimbing operation. This research provides insight into how optimized system configurations may help cope with the increase in harvesting cost caused by beetle-killed stand conditions and helps quantify the potential financial impacts of delayed stand management decisions in the wake of high-mortality forest disturbances.

Two ground-based timber harvesting methods have been commonly used for beetle-kill salvage treatments after a bark beetle epidemic in northern Colorado. A “lop and scatter” method uses a mobilized stroke delimber to delimb and buck trees at the stump, leaving tree tops and limbs on the forest floor, while a whole-tree harvesting method brings the entire tree to the landing where it is delimbed and bucked, and thus produces logging residue piles at the landing as a byproduct. We conducted a detailed comparative time study of the two harvesting methods to develop productivity and cost models and compared the performance of the two methods under various site conditions. We applied the productivity and cost models to lodgepole pine forest stands totaling 3400 hectares of the Colorado State Forest State Park to estimate salvage harvesting costs for each forest stand and identify the least costly harvesting options. The results show that the estimated stump-to-truck timber production costs were $30.00 per oven dry ton (odt) for lop and scatter and $23.88 odt−1 for the whole-tree method in our study harvest unit. At the forest level, the estimated average stump-to-truck costs were $54.67 odt−1 and $56.95 odt−1 for lop and scatter and whole-tree harvesting, respectively. Skidding distance and downed trees affect the harvesting costs of both methods, but their influence appears to be more significant on the whole-tree method.

In North American boreal forests, wildfire is the dominant agent of natural disturbance. A natural-disturbance model has therefore been promoted as an ecologically based approach to forest harvesting in these systems. Given accelerating resource demands, fire competes with harvest for timber, and there is increasing pressure to salvage naturally burned areas. This creates a management paradox: simultaneous promotion of natural disturbance as a guide to sustainability while salvaging forests that have been naturally disturbed. The major drivers of postfire salvage in Canadian boreal forests are societal perceptions, overallocation of forest resources, and economic and policy incentives, and postfire salvage compromises forest sustainability by diminishing the role of fire as a critical, natural process. These factors might be reconciled through consideration of fire in resource allocations and application of active adaptive management. We provide novel treatment of the role of burn severity in mediating biotic response by examining its influence on the amount, type, and distribution of live, postfire residual material, and we highlight the role of fire in shaping spatial and temporal patterns in forest biodiversity. Maintenance of natural postfire forests is a critical component of an ecosystem-based approach to forest management in boreal systems. Nevertheless, present practices focus heavily on expediting removal of timber from burned forests, despite increasing evidence that postfire communities differ markedly from postharvest systems, and there is a mismatch between emerging management models and past management practices. Policies that recognize the critical role of fire in these systems and facilitate enhanced understanding of natural system dynamics in support of development of sustainable management practices are urgently needed.

Literature on logging after wildfire is reviewed, with a focus on environmental effects of logging activity and the removal of large woody structure. As in unburned stands, log retrieval systems vary considerably in their immediate effect on soils in the postfire environment, with ground-based systems generally causing more disturbance than aerial systems. Timber harvest methods used by managers can mitigate erosion effects—for example, logging residue can decrease erosion by impeding overland flow. Ground disturbance from postfire logging can encourage establishment of different plant species (including nonnatives) and can influence the growth of trees. The removal of large woody structures typical in postfire logging operations can change plant species composition, reduce plant species richness, and increase conifer growth in the first years after logging, but can also reduce the probability that insect pest populations will build up and infest adjacent stands. Removal of large woody structures can cause declines in the abundance of several cavity-nesting bird species, including mountain bluebird, and black-backed, hairy, and three-toed woodpeckers; Lewis woodpecker tends to increase after postfire logging. Overall, studies on the environmental effects of postfire logging are limited, arguing for the use of adaptive management to monitor effects of logging and to adjust practices accordingly. West. J. Appl. For. 16(4):159-168.

Extreme climate events are increasingly damaging forests, particularly in Europe’s Alps. These disturbances lead to more damaged timber, necessitating rapid salvage operations to preserve timber value and protect ecosystems. However, salvage logging, though essential, raises concerns about its environmental impact, especially on soil conservation and forest regeneration. To mitigate these effects, best practices such as leaving logging residues and avoiding wet soils are recommended. Nevertheless, fuel efficiency remains a critical concern. This study focuses on addressing gaps in understanding forwarder productivity in salvage logging, considering factors such as assortment number, extraction distance, and payload. Utilizing Automatic Work-Element Detection (AWED) for data collection, this study enhances fuel efficiency analysis. Findings show that the average cycle time was 27.4 min, with 4.9 L of fuel consumed per cycle. Each cycle covered 241.3 m, extracting 11.7 m3 of timber, yielding a productivity rate of 31.6 m3 per machine hour and a fuel efficiency of 0.4 L per m3 and per 100 m. Traveling was the most time- and fuel-intensive task. Assortment type significantly impacted loading time and fuel consumption, with short sawlogs requiring fewer crane cycles. Key factors influencing productivity and fuel efficiency were average log volume, distance, payload, and slope.

A low-cost apple ( Malus domestica ) harvest-assist unit was recently developed to assist employees with fresh apple harvesting. This study reports on the economic analysis of this apple harvest-assist unit. Annual costs of the harvest-assist unit were calculated, including ownership and operational cost. Annual cost savings by increasing apple harvest efficiency, decreasing occupational injuries, improving work productivity in training, pruning, and thinning, and eliminating expenditures on purchasing ladders were calculated. When the annual costs are smaller than annual savings, the unit benefits apple orchard owners positively. Economic analysis results using orchard yields ranging from 25 to 45 Mg·ha −1 demonstrated that when the apple orchard area was larger than 7.6 ha, the unit always benefited orchard owners positively; when the orchard area was smaller than 4.2 ha, the unit always benefited orchard owners negatively. For large orchards, more than one unit was required to satisfy the operational needs. Of the top four U.S. apple production states, Washington, New York, and Michigan, benefitted from purchasing four units, three units, and two units, respectively, per typical farm. However, an average-sized orchard in Pennsylvania, would not benefit, due to small orchard size and low yield. A net present value (NPV) analysis was determined using data from Washington State, which yielded a return on the 8-year investment in the machinery of $888.44.

The red king crab (Paralithodes camtschaticus) is a highly valued delicacy on the international market and currently contributes significantly to the income from fisheries in the regions where it is harvested. Russian income from red king crab export is $200–250 million per year. We review both the biology and fishery of the two largest populations of this species in Russia, i.e., in western Kamchatka (Sea of Okhotsk) and in the Barents Sea. The latter was established in the mid-1990s after introduction of red king crab to the area in the 1960s. The Barents Sea crabs are larger, grow faster and mature earlier than the crabs from the Sea of Okhotsk owing to more favorable temperature conditions in the Barents Sea. Additionally, we provide fishery information for the Prymorie population of red king crab (Sea of Japan) that remains depressed and closed for commercial fishery at present. Although the fishery period of red king crab in western Kamchatka is much longer than in the Barents Sea (1930–present time vs. 2004–present time), similar patterns were observed for the exploited king crab populations. High annual landings led to a pronounced decrease in population density and total abundance that, in turn, led to closures or some limitations of fisheries. Subsequent rehabilitations of the populations provided an opportunity for reopening of the fisheries and further exploration of red king crab populations under sustainable management. The main reason explaining a decline in red king crab populations both in the North Pacific and in the Barents Sea is high, mainly illegal, fishing pressure. Sustainable harvest strategies for the fisheries could prevent negative scenarios (overfishing) in the future.

The Battle Creek watershed in northern California was historically important for its Chinook salmon populations, now at remnant levels due to land and water uses. Privately owned portions of the watershed are managed primarily for timber production, which has intensified since 1998, when clearcutting became widespread. Turbidity has been monitored by citizen volunteers at 13 locations in the watershed. Approximately 2000 grab samples were collected in the 5-year analysis period as harvesting progressed, a severe wildfire burned 11,200 ha, and most of the burned area was salvage logged. The data reveal strong associations of turbidity with the proportion of area harvested in watersheds draining to the measurement sites. Turbidity increased significantly over the measurement period in 10 watersheds and decreased at one. Some of these increases may be due to the influence of wildfire, logging roads and haul roads. However, turbidity continued trending upwards in six burned watersheds that were logged after the fire, while decreasing or remaining the same in two that escaped the fire and post-fire logging. Unusually high turbidity measurements (more than seven times the average value for a given flow condition) were very rare (0.0% of measurements) before the fire but began to appear in the first year after the fire (5.0% of measurements) and were most frequent (11.6% of measurements) in the first 9 months after salvage logging. Results suggest that harvesting contributes to road erosion and that current management practices do not fully protect water quality.

The mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins) (MPB) has infested and killed millions of hectares of lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta var. latifolia Engelm) forests in British Columbia, Canada, over the past decade. It is now spreading out of its native range into the Canadian boreal forest, with unknown social, economic and ecological consequences. This review explores the ramifications of the MPB epidemic with respect to mid-term timber supply, forest growth, structure and composition, vegetation diversity, forest fire, climate change, and ecosystem resilience. Research confirms that, in British Columbia, all of these variables are more significantly impacted when salvage logging is used as management response to the outbreak. We conclude that appropriate management in response to MPB is essential to ensuring ecologically resilient future forests and reliable mid-term timber supplies for affected human communities. We highlight knowledge gaps and avenues for research to advance our understanding in support of sustainable post-disturbance forest management policies in British Columbia and elsewhere.