Black ash (Fraxinus nigra), the most highly preferred and vulnerable host of emerald ash borer (EAB) in North America, has cultural and spiritual significance to many Native American and First Nations tribes across its range. This presentation details the EAB invasion, loss of black ash resources, and associated cultural impact. Presented by Nathan Siegert at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

FAO established four forest invasive species networks: APFISN (Asia-Pacific), FISNA (Africa) NENPHIS (Near East), REUFIS (Europe & Central Asia). Objectives are to raise awareness, share information, facilitate access, build capacity and regional cooperation and collaboration. A global forest biosecurity framework is being developed under a OneHealth approach through among-network collaboration. Presented by Bruce Moltzan at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

Invasive insects and pathogens devastate forest ecosystems along with climate change; Forest health is a global public good but due to conflicts of interest, the forest health crisis is a social dilemma; Collective action will depend on exchange of pest biodiversity and biogeography data to assess risk Presented by Geoffrey Williams at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

The native fungus, Verticillium nonalfalfae along with several other Verticillium species has been identified to kill the invasive Ailanthus altissima. Verticillium can be applied to a subset of Ailanthus stems, and through time, will spread naturally with minimal impact to native species. Presented by Lauren Pile Knapp at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

The Inland Northwest Active Management Tour highlights active management in the region to SAF students, for students to make connections with professional SAF members, and provide continuing education. Typical management activities include prescribed burning, harvesting, and reforestation. Participation remains strong and this presentation will discuss the tour model and outcomes. Presented by John Riling at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

Unsold (“no-bid”) timber offerings from the National Forest System can result in delays, additional cost, and missed targets. Over 2007-2020, the timber volume not sold at first offering was 11.9% nationally. We developed a framework for understanding the causes. Presented by Gregory Frey at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

The U.S. Forest Service’s Office of Sustainability and Climate is developing an environmental justice mapping effort to provide agency decision-makers with information about potentially underserved populations that are affected by operational decisions of specific programs and land management units. Presented by Mark Adams at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

Forest health challenges and past mismanagement in northeastern forests have yielded degraded conditions in some stands at or nearing maturity with little advance regeneration and critically limiting seed source.  Foresters in the Allegheny Plateau collaboratively developed systematic silvicultural recommendations for realizing acceptable outcomes in these stands; we present that work. Presented by Susan Stout at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

In 2020 the Bureau of Land Management formed the National Salvage Implementation Team (NSIT) to assist field offices with the implementation of salvage projects following disturbances. This team can serve as a model for building capacity for forest management across public lands in the U.S. Presented by Emily Dolhansky at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

The wildland-urban interface (WUI) is the fastest-growing land use type in the United States, with widespread impacts on forests and other natural ecosystems. In this study, we investigate effects of human development in the WUI on forest extent and structure for a 24-state region of the northern U.S. Presented by Nancy Sonti at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

Tamarack (Larix laricina) is perceived as one of the most shade-intolerant conifers in North America, unable to survive in the understory. However, ring analysis on 150 tree cookies collected in 2020 and 2021 revealed understory tamarack saplings aged 9 to 83 years old, suggesting a more robust shade tolerance. Presented by Amy Shaunette at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

We map forests patches across the Baltimore region and investigate ownership and land use for each forest patch, determining who owns forest patches (government, residents, institutions) and how they are used, providing new insight into the complexity of forest conservation and management across an urban to rural gradient. Presented by Miranda Mockrin at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

This work provides a synthetic view of hickories in the Central Hardwood Region, including their growth, physiology, and successional dynamics using datasets from individuals to populations and sources that span long-term and contemporary trends. Presented by Lauren Pile Knapp at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

This presentation provides examples of how the Forest Service Office of Sustainability and Climate is responding to Executive Order 14008, the Justice40 Initiative, and the whole-of-government approach to environmental justice. Activities include launching a webinar series and creating a cross-Deputy team tasked with developing the new Climate Adaptation Plan. Presented by Mark Adams at the 2022 SAF National Convention in Baltimore, MD.

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.