Late-successional and old-growth forests in the northeastern United States: Structure, dynamics, and prospects for restoration.

Abstract Restoration of old-growth forest structure is an emerging silvicultural goal, especially in those regions where old-growth abundance falls below the historic range of variability. However, longitudinal studies of old-growth dynamics that can inform silvicultural and policy options are few. We analyzed the change in structure, including stand density, diameter distribution, and the abundance of large live, standing dead, and downed dead trees on 58 late-successional and old-growth plots in Maine, USA, and compared these to regional data from the U.S. Forest Inventory and Analysis program. Structural dynamics on the late-successional plots reflected orderly change associated with density-dependent growth and mortality, but dynamics on the old-growth plots were more variable. Some plots experienced heavy mortality associated with beech bark disease. Diameter distributions conformed poorly to a classic exponential distribution, and did not converge toward such a distribution at the plot scale. Although large live trees showed a broad trend of increasing density in regional forests, recent harvesting patterns offset a considerable fraction of those gains, while mean diameter was static and the number of large dead trees was weakly declining. Even though forests of the northeast are aging, changes in silviculture and forest policy are necessary to accelerate restoration of old-growth structure

Survey of Recent Developments in the North Carolina Law of Eminent Domain

The recent opinions of the North Carolina appellate courts include a strikingly large proportion of eminent-domain cases. Two factors combine to explain the unusual frequency with which these cares are tried and appealed. The first is the elaborate activity of the federal government in funding local and state projects involving the acquisition of land. The Interstate Highway program probably accounts for the predominant portion of this activity, with other shares attributable to urban renewal, public housing, and airport improvement. When the more traditional activities of local government, such as street-widening and other public improvements, are added to the above list eminent domain assumes a major role in the spectrum of litigation in state courts. The second factor explaining the large number of eminent domain cases, and one that probably accounts for many appeals that would not otherwise be taken, is the morass of divergent procedures that may be used by governmental entities in North Carolina to acquire land. The perplexities arising from this lack of procedural uniformity have been previously documented. Because nice questions of procedure that may be litigated on appeal by one condemnor do not necessarily apply in actions brought by other types of governmental units, the law develops slowly and uncertainly, with a good deal of needless expenditure of legal talent and fees

Preface: Missouri Law Review--1913-1936-1986

The half-century from 1936 to 1986 has seen astonishing growth in the law and in legal education. Among countless illustrations are the enormous expansion of the law of products liability, the promulgation and adoption of numerous Model and Uniform Acts and Codes, and the adoption of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and of Evidence. In Missouri, procedural civil and criminal codes have been created, a new Constitution has been adopted, and the judiciary has recently abandoned the doctrine of contributory negligence in favor of a system of pure comparative fault, working a fundamental change in our common law of torts

ARE WE THERE YET? THE CASE FOR A UNIFORM ELECTRONIC RECORDING ACT

To implement digital recording, a confluence of several factors is necessary: political will on the part of the public officials involved (recorders and their political masters, usually county commissioners or supervisors), legal authority, and budgets adequate to the task. Without all of these factors, little progress is likely

Proposal for a National Mortgage Registry: MERS Done Right, A

In this Article, Professor Whitman analyzes the existing legal regime for transfers of notes and mortgages on the secondary market, and concludes that it is highly inconvenient and dysfunctional, with the result that large numbers of market participants simply did not observe its rules during the huge market run-up of the early and mid-2000s. He also considers Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS), which was designed to alleviate the inconveniences of repeatedly recording mortgage assignments, but concludes that it was conceptually flawed and has proven to be an inadequate response to the problem. For these reasons the legal system was ill-prepared for the avalanche of foreclosures that followed the collapse of the mortgage market in 2007, and continues to be beset by litigation and uncertainty. This Article then provides a conceptual outline for an alternative National Mortgage Registry, which would supplant the present legal system and would provide convenience, transparency, and efficiency for all market participants. He concludes with a draft of a statute that could be enacted by Congress to create such a registr

Chinese Mortgage Law: An American Perspective

My objective in this paper is to compare and to evaluate some of the features of the American and Chinese systems. I do so without any preconception that the American system provides better answers, but with the recognition that it is far more mature and provides more answers. Hence it provides a reference point from which the Chinese system can be considered. Perhaps each system has something to teach the other

Transferring North Carolina Real Estate Part II -- Roles, Ethics, and Reform

As we have seen in Part I of this article, prevailing practices in the transfer of North Carolina real estate are seriously deficient in their substantive protection of the buyer. Part II will explore whether these practices also violate the norms of professional conduct and will conclude with some proposals which should ameliorate both the substantive and ethical deficiencies which face the real estate buyer. Before doing so, however, it seems appropriate to discuss in some detail the roles of various actors in the typical transaction and the types of persons who fill those roles