Tree Biomass Productivity Project

Fast-growing tree species, such as cottonwood (Populus spp.) and willow (Salix spp.), grow naturally throughout the Midwest, primarily along streams, and are excellent candidates for a new crop to grow on floodable sites. Other species, such as certain hybrid cottonwoods, are well suited to highly erodible lands (HELs). All of these species might be productive on normal agricultural soils. These types of trees can be used to establish plantings that can be harvested in 8 to 10 years and will re-sprout after harvest to produce another crop

ISU Foresters Visit Mexico and Costa Rica

In the spring of 1989, a group of forestry faculty members and international graduate students were discussing opportunities to visit tropical countries where they could see tropical forestry and agroforestry activities, and explore opportunities to do research. As a result, the Forestry Department had a seminar during the Fall, 1989 semester on forestry in tropical countries, with an emphasis on Central America. Then on January 3, 1990, nine of us, Gary Bahr, Joe Colletti, William Edwards, Rob Hilken, Jim Rosacker, Dick Schultz, Cyndi Snyder, Jan Thompson, and myself, flew to Cancun, Mexico

On the First of Six Months in Mexico

On December 28 I left Ames for a 6 month faculty improvement leave (sabbatical) with the Forestry Department at the universidad Autonoma Chapingo (Mexico\u27s top agriculture school). I drove 2000 miles from Ames to Mexico City in 4 uneventful days. However, the day after I arrived at the house of some friends, I was involved in an automobile accident. Fortunately, I was the passenger or I would have had worse problems than having been knocked out and having badly sprained neck muscles. My friend and I were in a hospital and a police station for 12 hours before I was released. My friend spent 12 hours in jail before he was released. Mexican justice assumes you are guilty until proven not (or, on occasion, until a bribe is paid.

Evaluation of interactions within a shelterbelt agroecosystem

Yield data for corn (eight years) and soybeans (six years) were collected and analyzed to determine the impacts of a hybrid poplar shelterbelt on crop production on a central Iowa farm

Computers in Forestry- A Modem Tool

Foresters, like other professionals, are using computers more and more frequently in their daily decision-making routine. Modern computers are lighter, more powerful and offer more tailor-made means to solve forestry-related problems than they did only a few years ago. When Drs. Atanasoff and Berry invented the first electronic digital computer here at Iowa State University in 1939, they probably had no idea of the sweeping impact this tool would have on mankind. For sure, they did not envision dirt foresters or timber beasts using computers to process inventory data, or project the growth and development of mixed hardwood stands, or determine the cutting budget for a one million acre National Forest for the next ten years or more

An Agroforestry Project: Sustainable Tree-Shrub-Grass Buffer Strips Along Waterways

Iowa is a mosaic landscape of agricultural crops, pasture lands, native woodlands. Prairie remnants, wetlands, and a network of streams and rivers. With settlement and the increased mechanization of agriculture, many natural woodland corridors along these streams and rivers were removed. Present farming practices have resulted in: increased loss of soils, which diminishes soil fertility, and increased use of agri-chemicals, which threatens the quality of water. Today’s concerns about soil loss and ground and surface water contamination must be addressed by both the agricultural and nonagricultural communities of our state

Evaluation of interactions within a shelterbelt agroecosystem

A tree shelterbeit comprised of four rows of hybrid poplars was established near Ogden, Iowa in 1992 to evaluate shelterbeit characteristics and impacts on soil water content and crop growth andyieid. Major emphasis was on testing crops of corn and soybeans. The first three years saw little effects from the shelterbeit, and data from these years will be used to develop a baseline for future measurements. In the fourth and fifth years, corn yield patterns suggested that the shelterbeit increases yields in the zone leeward from the shelterbeit. Soybeans have not shown a response to the presence of the shelterbeit

Oak regeneration response to thinning from below

Most of the nation\u27s productive forests are in nonindustrial, private ownership. To meet projected demands, timber harvests will need to increase on these lands. Iowa, which has 0.61 million hectares (ha) or approximately 1.5 million acres of commercial forestland, could benefit from capitalizing on this demand. However, the state\u27s timber resource has been generally under-utilized. For example, Iowans have not harvested poletimber and low-grade sawlog materials from their woodlots because the market for such products has been lacking. Killing such trees to make room for better quality material involves costs that do not immediately increase net returns; thus, incentive to manage these woodlands has not been high

Demonstration of an agroforestry system to minimize pollution hazards from land application of treated municipal sludge

Iowa has over 700 communities that generate municipal biosolids by various treatment means. These biosolids contain valuable nutrients. In this study, municipal biosolids are applied to trees, perennial grasses, and corn/soybean crops in an alley cropping (repeated tree strips combined with crops) system. The goal is to produce economical quantities of biomass and grains with reduced use of fossil fuel-based fertilizers and minimal environmental impacts