Local Partnerships for Health on National Forests

The USDA Forest Service has recently piloted health partnerships that facilitate therapeutic outdoor experiences on national forests, building on the growing evidence of the multiple health benefits of activities and time spent in nature. This article presents brief case studies of three pilot partnerships between national forests and health organizations in California, Indiana, and Georgia (USA). These partnerships deliver nature-based programming for the general public as well as those who are in recovery from major surgeries, have been diagnosed with cancer, and face chronic health challenges. To help recreation managers and policy makers understand the potential for such local health partnerships in a federal context, we describe the programs’ enabling conditions, their incorporation of service and stewardship activities, and the challenges and successes they have faced. Insights inform an expanding variety of health partnership models that advance the interconnectedness of human and ecosystem health on public lands as a fundamental dimension of sustainable recreation management.

The National Environmental Policy Act and the USDA Forest Service: Where We Agree, Where We Disagree, and Why

In this article, we respond to a critique of our earlier work examining the USDA Forest Service’s (USFS’s) planning processes. We appreciate that our critics introduce new data to the discussion of USFS planning. Further data integration is a promising path to developing a deeper understanding of agency activities. Our critics’ analysis largely supports our original claims. Our most important difference is in our conceptualization of the planning process’s relationship to agency goals. Although our critics conceive of the USFS’s legally prescribed planning processes as a barrier to land management activities, we believe that public comment periods, scientific analysis, and land management activities are tools the agency uses to achieve its goals of managing land in the public interest. Study Implications: The USDA Forest Service’s current planning process has been critiqued as a barrier to accomplishing land management activities, but it is also an important tool for insuring science-based management and understanding public values and interests that the agency is legally bound to uphold.

Westward Expansion by Juniperus virginiana of the Eastern United States and Intersection with Western Juniperus Species in a Novel Assemblage

Eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana L.) is increasing in density in the eastern United States and expanding in range to the west, while western Juniperus species also are increasing and expanding, creating the potential for a novel assemblage. I estimated range expansion and intersection by comparing recent USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis surveys (mean year = 2009) to the oldest available surveys (mean year = 1981), with adjustments for sampling changes, and predicted climate envelopes during the following year ranges: 1500–1599, 1800–1849, 1850–1899, 1900–1949, and 1960–1989. During approximately 28 years, eastern redcedar range expanded by about 54 million ha (based on ≥0.5% of total stems ≥12.7 cm in diameter in ecological subsections). Combined range of western species of juniper did not expand. Range intersection of eastern redcedar and western Juniperus species totaled 200,000 km2 and increased by 31,600 km2 over time, representing a novel assemblage of eastern and western species. Predicted ranges during the other time intervals were 94% to 98% of predicted area during 1960–1989, suggesting major climate conditions have been suitable for centuries. The southern western Juniperus species and Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum Sarg.) have the greatest potential for intersection with eastern redcedar, whereas eastern redcedar may have concluded westward expansion.

Economic Contributions from Conserved Forests: Four Case Studies of the USDA Forest Service Forest Legacy Program

Privately-owned forests provide important environmental, economic, and cultural benefits to the general public. Resulting impacts from landownership changes and conversion of working forests to other land uses threaten these benefits. The USDA Forest Service Forest Legacy Program (FLP) permanently protects threatened private forests that are of environmental, cultural, and economic importance to the greater public while keeping land ownership and forest management at the private or local level. FLP provides grants to state agencies to purchase conservation easements on private forestlands or, less frequently, acquisition by public agencies. We employed IMPLAN’s input-output model of the 2016 economy to estimate how land protected by FLP in four regions of the United States contributes to the economy. FLP land adds tens of millions of dollars of value annually and supports thousands of jobs in the four study areas and, due to the permanent protection of these lands, they will continue to do so in perpetuity. Nonfederal partners contributed 34%–60% of total project costs, highlighting the importance of land conservation to multiple stakeholders and the ability to leverage federal resources. The permanent nature of FLP protection provides long-term security for the economic and cultural benefits these lands provide. Study Implications: The Forest Legacy Program (FLP) is administered by the USDA Forest Service to protect historic forest uses and intact working forest landscapes. This study quantified economic activities on FLP land in four areas to assess how these activities contribute to the economy of the multistate region in which the projects are located. The substantial economic contribution in natural resource industries suggests that permanent protection of forests provides economic and cultural benefits in perpetuity. This information illustrates the contributions of FLP to local economies and can be used to assess the value of the program and the potential for future funding.

Estimates of air pollution mitigation with green roofs using the UFORE model

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of green roofs on air pollution in urban Toronto. The researchers looked for synergistic effects in air pollution mitigation by manipulating quantities and species of trees and shrubs at grade level and grass on roofs within the study area. The effect of these vegetation manipulations were simulated using the Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) computer model developed by the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Regional Station, Syracuse, New York. Originally UFORE was developed to help forestry managers and researchers quantify urban forest structure and risks based on standard field, meteorological and pollution data. While UFORE contains four different assessment modules A - D, Module D quantifies the effect of vegetation on air contaminants such as NO₂, SO₂, CO, PM₁₀ and ozone. UFORE also provides data about hourly air contaminant removal rates and it predicts an economic externality value in USD for total air contaminant levels. Results of the study indicate that grass on roofs (green roofs) could play a significant role in air pollution mitigation in an urban neighbourhood. By extension, a 10-20% increase in the surface area dedicated to green roofs on downtown Toronto buildings would improve air quality and quality of life for citizens of Toronto.

Estimates of air pollution mitigation with green roofs using the UFORE model

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of green roofs on air pollution in urban Toronto. The researchers looked for synergistic effects in air pollution mitigation by manipulating quantities and species of trees and shrubs at grade level and grass on roofs within the study area. The effect of these vegetation manipulations were simulated using the Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) computer model developed by the USDA Forest Service Northeastern Regional Station, Syracuse, New York. Originally UFORE was developed to help forestry managers and researchers quantify urban forest structure and risks based on standard field, meteorological and pollution data. While UFORE contains four different assessment modules A - D, Module D quantifies the effect of vegetation on air contaminants such as NO₂, SO₂, CO, PM₁₀ and ozone. UFORE also provides data about hourly air contaminant removal rates and it predicts an economic externality value in USD for total air contaminant levels. Results of the study indicate that grass on roofs (green roofs) could play a significant role in air pollution mitigation in an urban neighbourhood. By extension, a 10-20% increase in the surface area dedicated to green roofs on downtown Toronto buildings would improve air quality and quality of life for citizens of Toronto.

When Biomass Electricity Demand Prompts Thinnings in Southern US Pine Plantations: A Forest Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions Case Study

Increasing demand for woody biomass-derived electricity in the UK and elsewhere has resulted in a rapidly expanding wood pellet manufacturing industry in the southern US. Since this demand is driven by climate concerns and an objective to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the electricity sector, it is crucial to understand the full carbon consequences of wood pellet sourcing, processing, and utilization. We performed a comparative carbon life cycle assessment (LCA) for pellets sourced from three mills in the southern US destined for electricity generation in the UK. The baseline assumptions included GHG emissions of the UK’s 2018 and 2025 target electricity grid mix and feedstock supplied primarily from non-industrial private forest (NIPF) pine plantations augmented with a fraction of sawmill residues. Based on regional expert input, we concluded that forest management practices on the NIPF pine plantations would include timely thinning harvest treatments in the presence of pellet demand. The LCA analysis included landscape carbon stock changes based on USDA Forest Service Forest Vegetation Simulator using current USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis data as the starting condition of supply areas in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. We found that GHG emission parity (i.e., the time when accumulated carbon GHG emissions for the bioenergy scenario equal the baseline scenario) is more than 40 years for pellets produced at each individual pellet mill and for all three pellet mills combined when compared to either the UK’s 2018 electricity grid mix or the UK’s targeted electricity grid mix in 2025. The urgency to mitigate climate change with near-term actions as well as increasing uncertainty with longer-term simulations dictated a focus on the next four decades in the analysis. Even at 50% sawmill residues, GHG emission parity was not reached during the 40 years modeled. Results are most likely conservative since we assume a high share of sawmill residues (ranging from 20 to 50%) and did not include limited hardwood feedstocks as reported in the supply chain which are generally associated with delayed GHG emission parity because of lower growth rates.

A Unique Academic–Government Collaboration Yields First Report of Detailed Habitat Description for Haemaphysalis longicornis (Ixodida: Ixodidae) in Madison County, KY

Haemaphysalis longicornis Neumann, Asian longhorned tick, was collected in Madison County, Kentucky, United States as part of an ongoing collaborative-tick surveillance project. This is the first collection of this invasive tick that includes ancillary data on habitat and landscape features derived from the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program.

Changes in Relationships between the USDA Forest Service and Small, Forest-Based Communities in the Northwest Forest Plan Area amid Declines in Agency Staffing

This article explores the changing relationships between the USDA Forest Service and 10 small, forest-based communities in the Northwest Forest Plan area in Washington, Oregon, and California. Interviews with 158 community members and agency personnel indicated that community member interviewees were largely dissatisfied with the agency’s current level of community engagement. Interviewees believed that loss of staff was the primary factor contributing to declining engagement, along with increasing turnover and long-distance commuting. Interviewees offered explanations for increasing employee turnover and commuting, including lack of housing, lack of employment for spouses, lack of services for children, social isolation, improving road conditions making long-distance commuting easier, agency incentives and culture, decreasing social cohesion among agency staff, unpaid overtime responsibilities, and agency hiring practices. Community member perceptions regarding long-term changes in community well-being and agency-community relationships were more negative than agency staff’s perceptions. Study Implications: We found evidence that staffing declines, turnover, and long-distance commuting may contribute to decreasing agency engagement in some communities, and that diminished engagement by federal forest management agency employees may contribute to negative attitudes toward the agency. Agency employee interviewees suggested that incentives (i.e., promotions, opportunities to live elsewhere), internal conflicts, and a lack of opportunities and services for their families are reasons that staff commute from neighboring communities or leave their jobs. Our findings suggest that the USDA Forest Service may improve agency-community relationships by supporting its staff in ways that reduce turnover and long-distance commuting and incentivize community engagement.

USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory: Acetylation of Wood 1945–1966

The first research on acetylation of wood started in 1928, and the first research done on acetylation of wood at the USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) started in 1945. This is a review of the research done between 1945 and 1966 at the FPL. This research was the first to show that acetylated wood was both decay-resistant and dimensionally stable. It was the pioneering research that ultimately led to the commercial production of acetylated wood.