Through a partnership between U.S. Forest Service programs iTree and Forest Inventory and Analysis, and Texas A&M Forest Service, an inventory of the urban forest of San Antonio, Texas was conducted. Using a sample-based inventory approach, the inventory was collected across all land ownerships and uses. Preliminary analysis of the collected data revealed that this area had an estimated 137.8 million live trees (73.8% were saplings) and 8.3 million standing dead trees (69.9% saplings). Of the 64 species found, Ashe juniper was the most common (29.6% of total). These trees held an estimated above ground net volume of about 206.4 million cubic feet, and stored around 3.5 million tons of carbon. Evaluations were made of traditional forest health categories (e.g., insects, diseases, weather) referred to as “damages”, as well as urban specific parameters (e.g., overhead wires, improper planting) referred to as “infrastructure issues”. The only damage recorded on more than 1% of trees was stem decay (34% of trees), while bark inclusion, affecting 2% of trees, was the most common infrastructure issue. Of the 267 plots in the survey, 17.9% had at least one invasive species observed. Japanese privet was found on the greatest number of plots, but Chinaberry was the invasive species estimated to cover the greatest area, at 3201 acres or 0.5% of total survey area. The trees of San Antonio contributed many ecosystem services. They were estimated to annually remove about 320,000 tons of carbon, valued at $54.5 million per year; removed about 6,600 tons of air pollution (valued at $61.9 million) per year; provided an estimated 381.7 million cubic feet of avoided stormwater runoff, valued at $25.5 million per year; and were estimated to reduce annual energy costs of residential buildings by $21.4 million per year. Presented by Kerry Dooley from USFS, Forest Inventory and Analysis at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Agroforestry practices such as windbreaks play an important role in agricultural areas of the United States. These trees provide many ecological functions on the landscape such as protecting soil, crops, wildlife habitat, and storing carbon. Thousands of miles of windbreaks were planted between 1935 and 1942 from Texas to North Dakota as a response to the Dust Bowl. Current anecdotal evidence suggests widespread decreases in the number of windbreaks from both natural decline and human removal. There is, however, little consistently collected data at the scale required to monitor changes to these linear patches of trees. We propose using high-resolution mapping methods to quantify change in the windbreak resource in Antelope County, NE, between 2006 and 2016. This period of time is of particular interest because it includes years with very high crop prices due to a variety of factors including drought-impacted supply and biofuel policies. In turn, these factors may have led to increased removals. We used NAIP imagery from the aforementioned years to conduct a change analysis of existing windbreaks and validated the results using line-intersect sampling and manual photo interpretation. This information is useful for natural resource professionals and land managers to help fill in the data gaps regarding these important working trees and to identify trends for future resource planning. Presented by Todd Kellerman from USDA Forest Service at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Tools to help select woody species that will function more effectively than other species for production and conservation purposes are generally lacking. To fill this gap, the USDA National Agroforestry Center has developed a decision support tool to help landowners and planners select better species of trees and shrubs to achieve a suite of user-defined purposes. In this online tool, over 90 species of trees and shrubs are rated for 14 different purposes in the northern and central Great Plains. Purposes rated in this tool include: 1) alley cropping, 2) aquatic habitat, 3) carbon sequestration, 4) flood protection, 5) native ecosystem restoration, 6) particle drift reduction, 7) pollinator habitat, 8) polluted runoff treatment, 9) streambank stabilization, 10) storm & wastewater treatment, 11) wetland restoration, 12) wildlife habitat, 13) visual aesthetics, and 14) view & noise screen. “Higher-rated” species of trees and shrubs are those that function relatively better than other species for specific purposes. Ratings were developed by considering geographic suitability of each species for 12 different sub-regions and algorithms based on plant characteristics that make a species relatively better (or worse) for each specific purpose. The tool also allows searching for specific plant attributes, including products that can be produced from the species. This resource enables the user to quickly develop a short list of the better species to use which can be refined based on suitability under local site conditions, commercial availability, and availability of locally-adapted cultivars and hybrids. This tool can be found at: www.fs.usda.gov/nac-plant-guide and may serve as a prototype for developing multi-purpose woody plant selection guides for other U.S. regions. Presented by Gary Bentrup from USDA National Agroforestry Center at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Silvopasture management is the deliberate integration of trees and livestock grazing operations on the same land. These systems are intensively managed for both forest products and livestock, providing both short- and long-term income sources. Research suggests that silvopasture systems can store significant amounts of carbon in both soils and tree biomass, while maintaining or increasing productivity and providing a suite of additional benefits under a warming climate. Observational evidence also indicates that silvopasture adoption is increasing across the U.S. Studies exploring silvopasture adoption at the state and regional level have also been increasing in the past decade. However, most of these studies are of small sample size, making it difficult to assess whether there are broader trends that help or hinder silvopasture adoption. To address this issue, we conducted a systematic review of 37 U.S. silvopasture adoption studies published between 1983 – 2021. Our objectives were to: 1) understand the primary benefits and challenges being reported by U.S. producers using silvopasture, 2) assess how satisfied producers are with their silvopasture systems, 3) summarize what maintenance and management activities producers are using, 4) assess the primary drivers affecting willingness or intent to adopt silvopasture, and 5) understand how resource professionals view silvopasture management. Our presentation will summarize key findings from this synthesis and will conclude with a discussion of future research needs necessary to advance silvopasture adoption. Presented by Matthew Smith from USDA Forest Service National Agroforestry Center at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Five-needle white pine species in the western US have suffered high mortality due to multiple interacting stressors, including warmer temperatures, insect epidemics, nonnative pathogens, and altered disturbance regimes. We characterized broad-scale species assessments of five-needle white pine species in the western US using data from the US Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program. Use of FIA data allowed us to quantify the demographic status of six five-needle pine species using consistently collected data from a probabilistic sample design that encompassed not only forest types dominated by five-needle pines but also forest types where these species are present as minor components. The six species included whitebark, limber, foxtail, Great Basin bristlecone, Rocky Mountain bristlecone, and southwestern white pine. Broad-scale indicators for each species included numbers of trees, tree density, size-class distributions, recruitment, growth rates, mortality rates, and mortality causes. Although four of the six species exhibited reverse-exponential size-class distributions, Great Basin bristlecone and foxtail pines showed flat size-class distributions as well as a recruitment gap in sapling-sized individuals; however, these two species also experienced lower mortality than other five-needle white pine species. Both whitebark and limber pines have experienced mortality rates that exceed growth of young and surviving trees. Although growth relative to mortality was lower for limber pine than whitebark pine, limber pine’s net growth rates and percentage of trees that are live versus dead are similar to those observed for whitebark pine in the 2000s. For most five-needle white pine species, regeneration of seedlings is most abundant in forest types that are not dominated by five-needle pines. Presented by Sara Goeking from US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

By the end of August 2021, wildfires in Oregon and Washington had burned nearly 850,000 acres on National Forest lands. These fires intersected with hundreds of treatments, some of which were designed to reduce risk and assist with manage fires, others that were focused on timber harvest, and some that were hybrids of the two. Federal land managers are required in policy to assess the effectiveness of all hazardous fuels treatments when they are impacted by wildfire to help inform future management. In the Northwest, we expand this effort to look at all active vegetation management work towards the same end. In the fall of 2021, we have undertaken a regional effort to complete as many of these assessments as possible. We will share preliminary data from these assessments along with discussions related to fuel conditions and fire behavior in this session. Presented by Dana Skelly from US Forest Service at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

The Terrestrial Condition Assessment (TCA) is a mid-scale evaluation of ecological conditions and stressors occurring across National Forest System (NFS) lands. The primary goals of the TCA are to assist land managers in identifying restoration needs at a national scale and to provide the tools necessary for Regional and local applications, including science delivery, data access, and guidance on analytical procedures. The TCA uses the Ecosystem Management Decision Support (EMDS) logic model to evaluate 12 indicators of ecological integrity. Indicators include tree mortality due to insects and pathogens, invasive species, road density, climate exposure, air pollution, uncharacteristic disturbance, wildfire hazard potential, forest insect and pathogen hazard, vegetation departure from historical conditions, deficient fire, grassland productivity, and grassland encroachment. Indicators are characterized by 29 metrics based on nationally available datasets summarized within landscape-scale analysis units. The EMDS model computes overall terrestrial condition ratings and ratings for individual indicators and metrics for nearly 18,000 landscape analysis units that comprise NFS lands in the conterminous United States. Overall terrestrial condition is rated as Very Good or Good on approximately 110 million acres (53% of NFS lands). Nearly 45 million acres (21.5%) are rated as Very Poor or Poor, and the remaining acres are in Moderate condition. By scoring overall condition and each indicator and metric, TCA identifies areas with restoration potential as well as the causes of impaired ecological integrity. This assists in determining what restoration actions may be needed. The TCA is an assessment of terrestrial ecological conditions, and although it can inform the process of setting restoration priorities, it is not a prioritization process or rating. The TCA results are informing forest planning, climate vulnerability assessments, and they support an agency-wide performance measure to track ecological outcomes of management activities. Presented by Sarah Anderson from USDA Forest Service at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Society looks to its forests to provide multiple values and ecosystem benefits in a sustainable manner. Prominent among them is wood supply, which is tied to biomass production and carbon sequestration. Forests face enormous threats from many stressors, such as wildfires, pathogens, and climate change, which severely constrain our management options. Therefore, it is imperative for forest practitioners to manage forests for sustainable production of these values and benefits while promoting forest resilience, a capability of resisting to and recovering quickly from disturbance. We present results based on several well-designed, continuously measured experiments established over fifty years ago in Arizona, California, and Oregon by the U.S. Forest Service. The original objectives of these silvicultural plots were to determine the optimum stand densities for achieving maximum growth of usable wood over a range of site qualities. Since establishment, trees in these forest plots have experienced many disturbances and a consistent increase of temperature and CO2. These studies allow us to be able to both determine whether forest stands similar to these thinned plots can sustain productivity and to explore which thinning intensity or stand density has showed the greatest resilience to disturbance and climate variability. Resilience was measured by mortality and tree-ring derived resistance indices. We found that regardless of site quality, thinning an existing ponderosa pine or true fir stand to half of original basal area (50% thinning intensity) would not reduce biomass accumulation or carbon sequestration but would increase the usable wood volumes. Furthermore, thinning would significantly reduce tree mortality and sensitivity to climate change. Finally, thinning would also result in a considerable decrease in fuel loads while promoting larger tree growth. Presented by Jianwei Zhang from USDA Forest Service at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Forest managers face many challenges to sustaining forest ecosystems and the diverse services they provide, particularly when it comes to the increasing pace and scale of wide-spread disturbances driven by climatic changes. These challenges require mangers to implement climate-adaptive strategies; however, few on-the-ground examples exist to indicate what adaptation strategies are effective in preparing local forest ecosystems to deal with emerging changes in disturbance regimes. This creates additional challenges in translating adaptation concepts into operational silvicultural prescriptions relevant for individual forest types that vary in structure, composition, and function. The Adaptive Silviculture for Climate Change (ASCC) project is a collaborative network of experimental sites testing ecosystem-specific climate change treatments across a gradient of adaptive approaches: creating resistance, promoting resilience, and facilitating forests’ response to change (i.e., transition). Here we present examples from this multi-region network of how different ASCC sites are testing specific silviculture treatments to respond to observed and projected changes in disturbance regimes, including severe droughts, storms such as hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding. Highlights will include a discussion of how adaptation approaches were developed into specific treatments by ecosystem type to meet local management goals and objectives. A second highlight will examine sustaining forest biomass under threats from multiple disturbance types based on the longleaf pine ASCC site in southwest Georgia, where Hurricane Michael stress-tested treatments primarily designed to counter drought. One ultimate goal of the ASCC Network is to identify strategies that sustain forests as forests wherever possible to continue providing essential ecosystem services, including biomass, in the face of increased climate-driven disturbance. Presented by Courtney Peterson and Christopher Looney from Colorado State University and the USDA Forest Service at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Maintaining forest biomass for carbon sequestration and storage is difficult in today’s climate due to changing natural disturbance regimes. Models of potential biomass changes under changing climate and natural disturbance are needed. To address this issue, we used the LANDIS forest landscape model, which integrates natural disturbance, to estimate forest biomass using alternative cutting and planting practices under three climate change scenarios. Our objective was to assess the relative ability of actionable components of climate-adaptive silvicultural strategies to produce diverse and functioning forests under future climates compared to a business as usual (BAU) silviculture scenario. We identified five general insights from our results. First, our results suggest that novel forest management strategies can produce significant improvements in outcomes compared to BAU under all climate scenarios. Second, the longevity of trees results in considerable inertia against change that gives management strategies considerable time to be implemented to produce desired species composition before the existing forest dies off. Third, CO2 and temperature are in tension as causal agents. CO2 fertilization stimulates tree growth, but heat stress can reduce competitiveness of some species such that niches open up to non-endemic species that may or may not provide similar ecosystem goods and services. Fourth, climate-adaptive silviculture may provide sufficient versatility to produce favorable outcomes regardless of the future climate. Lastly, our results suggest that the forests of today cannot be maintained in their current state under likely climate futures, but diverse and productive forests can nevertheless be produced to continue to provide ecosystem goods and services, made possible by a combination of thoughtful forest management and the fertilization effect of elevated CO2. Our study offers some hope that creative silvicultural practices can be developed (and tested) to maintain productive and ecological healthy forests under future climate. Presented by Christel Kern from USDA Forest Service NRS at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

This study looks at forest inventory modeling with auxiliary lidar data for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. We examine the capacity for lidar to predict both gross forest attributes such as volume, biomass, and trees per acre, as well as components such as volume by diameter and species groups (hardwood, softwood). Unlike many lidar studies, we assess lidar predictive capacity at both plot and stand scales, where stand scale inference is the scale of operational management. We compare multiple approaches to predict forest attributes at the stand level including post-stratification (PS), Ordinary Least Square regression (OLS; commonly just “linear regression”), k Nearest Neighbors (kNN), and Random Forest (RF). Models were fit using a grid of 550 fixed radius plots, and validated against 50 x 5 acre stands. PS was pursued because it is frequently used operationally, but the other methods explained a greater proportion of variation (higher R2). RF and kNN fared the best for a wide variety of attributes and modeling scenarios. kNN achieved a slightly higher maximum R2 in a few cases, but RF performed better than other methods for the greatest number of attributes, especially components, and was the least sensitive to changes to model scenarios, such as number of predictor variables. This study demonstrates that lidar can be implemented in operational forest inventory and provide a broad range of forest attributes including components such as species groups and diameters. We also demonstrate both theoretically and empirically that stand level performances generally exceed plot-level performances, facilitating adoption of methodologies that are only demonstrated at plot scales. Presented by Jacob Strunk from USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sponsored the collection of airborne LiDAR data for five large areas (each over 500,000 hectare) located in Western Oregon. In addition, BLM contracted for the measurement of nearly 2,000 field plots within the areas. Field plot locations were developed using metrics derived from the LiDAR data to sample the full range of conditions within each area but field plots were only measured on BLM lands. These data were used in an area-based modeling approach to predict forest inventory attributes for each area separately. In general, models for the individual areas performed well with R2 values ranging from 0.7 to 0.9 for inventory attributes such as volume, biomass, basal area, and lorey’s height and lower R2 values (0.3 to 0.5) for stem density and quadratic mean diameter. The resulting models were used to map the inventory attributes across the entire area covered by each LiDAR acquisition using 0.05 ha cells. This presentation describes the sample design and modeling approach for the individual areas along with an aggregated approach that combined all LiDAR and plot data to develop prediction models that encompass all five areas. Individual and aggregate model performances are summarized and the resulting inventory predictions are compared to data collected by the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program. Presented by Robert McGaughey from USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

The attributes of dead wood (DW) are an important determinant of numerous forest ecosystem functions such as carbon cycling and tree regeneration, particularly following wildfires and other stand-replacing disturbances. In the context of tree regeneration, DW may not only provide a substrate for seedling establishment but also protection from browse and microclimate buffering to diurnal temperature/moisture stress. As there is an increasing focus on the quantity and dynamics associated with DW across US forests due to climate change and related carbon cycling concerns, establishing relationships between DW and tree regeneration using a nationwide forest inventory is paramount. This study aimed to use a DW and seedling inventory at national and regional scales (USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program) to jointly examine DW and tree regeneration dynamics. Results suggest that DW attributes and regeneration abundance may be temporally disassociated (i.e., temporal lags of several years between canopy disturbances and resulting seedling response) at the national scale and vary among species in relation to silvical characteristics at regional scales. For instance, increased hurricane blowdowns in the southeastern US and wildfires in the western US have generated large swaths of dead wood, with snags expected to subsequently become downed logs. A regional seedling demographic inventory suggests refinement of seedling “stocking” models to address emerging resource questions using data sources across spatial scales and platforms (e.g., strategic-scale inventories and terrestrial laser scanning). Findings support the refinement of silvicultural prescriptions for management of deadwood as a component of stand regeneration treatments, especially against a backdrop of global change (e.g., episodic precipitation, blowdowns, wildfires, and insects/disease induced tree mortality). Presented by Christopher Woodall from USDA Forest Service at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

This review (a) assessed the degree to which reference scenarios are explicitly defined when the effects of bioproducts are assessed; and (b) identified any published guidelines or rules for defining appropriate reference scenarios when assessing bioproducts. This review used an electronic search of the literature, carried out using 2 databases. Literature that used a reference scenario for assessing bioproduct effects were included. Study selection was conducted by one reviewer who screened the titles, then abstract, and finally the full articles. Throughout the review process, the list of candidate literature was refined, resulting in a final sample of articles. All articles included in the review were published between 1990 and 2020, and spanned a broad multi/interdisciplinary selection of journals. Life-cycle assessments, technical-economic assessments, and sustainability assessments generate results based on an assumed reference scenario. Because the impacts attributed to a specific process or product must be interpreted in terms of a “business as usual” case, the reference scenario is a key factor in interpreting assessment results. Presented by Maggie Davis from Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

The USFS Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Program provides unbiased estimates of aboveground biomass (AGB) nationally that provide critical ground truth for validating mapped estimates derived from remote sensing (RS) data. As interest in managing forests for carbon sequestration grows, alternative AGB map products derived from different RS datasets, or different modeling approaches, create potential for confusion in the user community over which map products to use. This study compared alternative AGB map products derived from either airborne lidar or from Landsat multispectral imagery but without using FIA data. This provided the opportunity to independently assess the accuracy and precision of mapped AGB estimates at 1) FIA plot, 2) FIA panel, and 3) county levels, across 46,147 km2 and 1,133 FIA plots in Oregon where lidar data were available and consistently processed into rasterized metrics for predictive AGB modeling. We assessed the mapped AGB estimates for the same years that the lidar data were acquired using 1) confidential FIA plot locations at plot level, 2) publicly available FIA county level estimates, and 3) the Menlove and Healey (2020) product at the FIA panel level. [A FIA panel is a fixed fraction of the sample plots (10% in the western states) measured annually within a 64,000 ha hexagon that contains 25–30 plots, which is enough to provide an annual estimate at the highest possible spatial resolution.] Preliminary results suggest that lidar-based estimates better capture AGB variation than Landsat-based estimates, and with less bias, compared to FIA. Thus, while lidar is more useful at the local project level, the coarser scale of panel- and county-level FIA estimates show that interpretation and utility of patchy, single-year lidar collections is more problematic at regional scales more relevant to regional forest planners and policymakers. Presented by Jennifer L Bakken from USFS, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Forest Inventory and Analysis at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Black spruce (Picea mariana) is an important commercial tree species in northern Minnesota. Eastern spruce dwarf mistletoe (Arceuthobrium pusillum) is a native parasitic plant that commonly attacks black spruce, impacting regeneration success and leading to mortality of infected trees. Treatments for dwarf mistletoe (DM) involve removal of infested material, which is typically done utilizing a clearcut system to mimic stand-replacing fires. Interviews and focus groups were conducted with loggers and foresters and an on-line survey was administered to foresters who work in northern Minnesota. Information was collected about their knowledge and treatments used for DM eradication, and perceptions of DM impacts and treatment effectiveness and barriers. Respondents generally believe they are knowledgeable about DM and that their timber sale appraisal methods are effective at detecting its presence in black spruce stands. However, concerns were raised about the effectiveness of stand assessment methods in detecting DM, particularly in early infection phases. Respondents identified concerns about DM’s impact on overall forest health, as well as the timber industry. However, some suggested they were not greatly concerned about DM because it’s native, widespread, and other forest issues are of higher concern. The most commonly prescribed management treatment was to sever, tramp or run over all non-merchantable black spruce stems over 5-feet tall. Participants were unsure about the effectiveness of DM treatments due to the long black spruce rotation and a lack of knowledge of DM treatment effectiveness. Insufficient time or financial resources to adequately address DM treatments or follow-up monitoring were commonly cited barriers to effective treatment. Other barriers included differing approaches to treatment enforcement among agencies, a lack of treatment coordination on adjacent stands, and the need to retain leave trees for wildlife purposes that may result in residual pockets of DM-infected trees that conflict with timber production and forest health goals. Presented by Stephanie Snyder from USDA Forest Service at the 2021 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Forestry is often an appropriate land use choice for African American families, yet it is hindered by heirs’ property, lack of knowledge, and poor access to assistance. Based on qualitative and ethnographic research, we discuss the diverse situations, challenges, and opportunities for engagement in forestry faced by African American landowners. Presented by John Schelhas, USDA Forest Service, at the 2020 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data can be combined with existing large-sample hydrology datasets to illuminate how water resources respond to forest disturbances and dynamics. An example from dozens of watersheds across the western US illustrates the value of such broad-scale analyses for providing context to managers of forested watersheds. Presented by Sara Goeking, US Forest Service, at the 2020 SAF National Virtual Convention.

The Gowanus Canal Conservancy has developed the Gowanus Tree Network, a group of engaged and educated neighborhood stakeholders that is building a more sustainable urban forest in the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY.   The Network is improving street tree health, stormwater management, reducing heat island effects and improving neighborhood livability. Presented by Karl Honkonen and Natasia Sidarta, US Forest Service/Eastern Region, State & Private Forestry and Gowanus Canal, at the 2020 SAF National Virtual Convention.

Here we use national forest inventory data from the US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program to develop online, interactive tools that allows users to customize the results based on their needs. The presentation will include training on how the tools can be shared and customized by the user. Presented by Randall Morin, USDA Forest Service, at the 2020 SAF National Virtual Convention.