Where Have All the Young Trees Gone? A Big Picture Look at the Lack of Seedlings and Saplings in Urban Forests

We take a big picture look at the lack of seedlings, saplings and young trees in urban forests using our research in Forest Park in Portland, Oregon. Broshot, who measured vegetation at 25 sites in Forest Park, recorded significantly fewer live seedlings, saplings and young trees and significantly more dead seedlings, saplings and young trees in 2003 than in 1993. The percent mortality of western red cedar seedlings that were planted at 9 sites in Forest Park in 2005 ranged from less than 5% to over 70%. Investigations into the cause of seedling death has discounted predation by deer, elk or invertebrates, leaf disease, soil moisture, site aspect, and light as factors. The site with the highest mortality is located directly above the St John’s Bridge, suggesting air pollution. More recent work with lichens has provided evidence that nitrogen deposition related to air pollution may be the cause. We outline our past work and report preliminary results from our 2012 lichen survey analysis to support our hypothesis that pollution is a cause of the lack of young trees

Review of A.E. Grant, 'Roman military objectives in Britain under the Flavian Emperors'

No abstract available

Russia’s Energy Diplomacy in the Baltic States

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, or, “The Baltic States,” are unique in that they are the first and only former Soviet Republics to join institutions aligned with the West, joining both the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 2004. This move was a reflection of clashing cultural and political values that had been present before their integration into the Soviet Union during the Second World War as a result of the Soviet-Nazi non-aggression Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Additionally, after years of Soviet repression, the Baltic States developed a distinctly anti-Russian stance, as Russia was the most dominant country of the Soviet Union and after its dissolution in 1991 (Dudzińska, 2011). In the two decades since the Soviet Union fell and the Baltic States gained their independence, Russia has been asserting both soft and hard power in nearby nations. Additionally, Russia’s energy policy towards their neighbors has significantly affected their relationship with European Union countries through their role as the primary supplier of natural gas

Limiting the Mortgage Interest Deduction by Size of Home: Effects on the User Cost and Price of Housing Across Metropolitan Areas

In this paper, I examine the user cost and home price implications of limiting the federal mortgage interest deduction (MID) based on the square footage of a home. I extend the standard user cost model to include a square footage-based cap on the tax-favored status of mortgage interest. I compare two policy alternatives: one that limits the marginal deduction based on home size, and another that removes the deduction on the home based on home size. There is substantial variation across metropolitan areas in both the number of homes exposed to each type of cap, the user cost increase, and the resulting expected price declines