The state, resilience, and potential future of oak-dominated forests in the Driftless Area of the midwestern U.S.

Forest surveys over the last several decades indicate a decline in oak regeneration in the midwestern United States with a high potential for future replacement by later successional forest types. The current state of oak systems may be nearing critical thresholds, which, if reached, their restoration could become markedly more challenging, if not impossible. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, I evaluated the state, resilience, and potential future of oak forest ecosystems within the Driftless Area of the midwestern U.S., with the intention of providing information that can inform the design of timely and targeted oak-specific policy and management strategies. In-depth interviews with 32 regional natural resource professionals suggested a widespread decline in the extent of oak-hickory timberland and a shift towards more shade-tolerant forest types (i.e., maple-basswood forests). Analyses of forest surveys, collected through the U.S .Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) national program, supported interviewees\u27 perceptions of the trajectory of forest change and revealed that the composition and age structure of timberland across ecoregion subsections is becoming less variable. I also found a general shift towards the elm-ash-cottonwood forest type group; system state deemed undesirable by the professionals. The interviewees identified private landowner decision making as central to oak regeneration success. Ecological, economic, and social factors---including but not limited to deer herbivory, understory competition, forest parcelization, exurban housing development and short land tenure---were thought to constrain landowner decision making regarding oak at multiple spatial scales, and to decrease system resilience. Conversely, interpersonal relationships between natural resource professionals and landowners, in addition to economic incentives, were identified as promoting landowner adoption of oak management practices. A holistic and in-depth understanding of the complex system relationships, feedbacks, thresholds, and uncertainties offered potential leverage points from which to enhance oak system resilience. Experimental knowledge (e.g., quantitative evaluation of thresholds related to understory competition and the economic expense of oak regeneration) is now needed to isolate cause and effect and provide access to those seeking action

Watershed Learning Activity: Coming to Terms with Geographic Scale

Want better dialogue in your watershed group? Proles may result from participants\u27 misunderstanding of geographic scale. The Watershed Learning Activity can foster an understanding of the importance of geographic scale through group-based experiential learning that combines aerial photography and conceptual change theory. Try it at your next watershed meeting

What Influences Whether Family Forest Owners Participate in Outreach Campaigns?

We used an experimental design to analyze factors affecting participation rates for family forest owner outreach campaigns. Through logistic regression, we assessed the participation rates as a function of campaign and landowner attributes. Participation rates ranged from 3% to 14%. Owners offered a publication were on average 4.3 times more likely to participate than those offered a forester visit. Owners with a college degree were on average 1.5 times more likely to participate than those with lower levels of formal education. Extension and other outreach professionals can use knowledge of these factors to design more effective outreach campaigns

The State of the System and Steps Toward Resilience of Disturbancedependent Oak Forests

Current ecological, economic, and social conditions present unique challenges to natural resource managers seeking to maintain the resilience of disturbance-dependent ecosystems, such as oak (Quercus spp.) forests. Oak-dominated ecosystems throughout the U.S. have historically been perpetuated through periodic disturbance, such as fire, but more recently show decline given shifting disturbance regimes associated with human land management decisions. We characterized the state of the social-ecological oak forest ecosystem in the midwestern U.S. through the perspectives of 32 natural resource professionals. Data from interviews with these change agents provided an integrative understanding of key system components, cross-scale interactions, dependencies, and feedbacks. Foremost, private landowner management decisions figured prominently in influencing oak regeneration success and were directly and indirectly shaped by a suite of interdependent ecological, e.g., deer herbivory, invasive shrub occurrence; economic, e.g., the cost of oak regeneration practices, the stumpage value of maple as compared to oak; and social forces, e.g., forestland parcelization, and personal relationships. Interviewees envisioned, and often preferred, a decline in oak dominance throughout the region, pointing to issues related to general landowner unwillingness to restore oak, the current trajectory of forest change, the threat of forest loss due to parcelization and housing development, and a combination of ecological and social factors that decrease the economic feasibility of restoration efforts. However, a decline in oak dominance may result in ecological communities that have no compositional equivalent on record and may not offer a desirable endpoint. Increasing social support offers the potential to enhance system capacity to manage for oak

Using Social Marketing to Engage Extension Audiences: Lessons from an Effort Targeting Woodland Owners

Social marketing involves applying traditional commercial marketing techniques to public good outcomes. We share findings from use of this approach in reaching woodland owners to promote sustainable forestry in southwest Wisconsin. We experimentally tested three direct mail campaigns. Each included two offers—a free handbook and a free forester visit, but the campaigns varied in terms of landowner segments and marketing messages. Key results across the campaigns include consistent performance of the offers (handbook 17%–19%, forester visit 3%–5%) but varied effects of segment and message. Our results suggest that social marketing can pay dividends in reaching landowners and, potentially, other Extension clientele, but there is more to learn

Forest Change in the Driftless Area of the Midwest: From a Preferred to Undesirable Future

In the midwestern and eastern U.S., oaks (Quercus spp.) have been a dominant component of forests for at least the last 10,000 years, providing vital habitat for numerous wildlife and plant species that have adapted to oak forest conditions. However, the current state of these oak systems, in which there has been a general lack of successful oak regeneration and recruitment and an increase in the relative dominance of mesophytic species, may be nearing critical thresholds. If reached, restoring oak systems through natural regeneration and other methods, such as prescribed fire, may become especially challenging if not impossible. An understanding of spatial variation in oak dominance over time can inform and potentially improve the efficacy of intervention strategies. Using Public Land Survey and Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) inventories, we evaluated changes in the composition of timberland across ecoregional subsections in the Driftless Area of the Midwest at three time periods (pre-settlement 1800s, 1990s, and 2000s). We identified an overall decrease in oak dominance, and particularly dominance of the white oak (Quercus alba L., Q. macrocarpa Michx., and Q. bicolor Willd.) species group since the presettlement era, and an increase in other eastern soft hardwoods. Within the last 20 years, both the red oak (Q. rubra L., Q. ellipsoidalis E.J. Hill and Q. velutina Lam.) and white oak species groups decreased in dominance, with an increase in hard maple-basswood (A. saccharum Marsh., A. nigra L., and Tilia americana L.) species group dominance, indicating further mesophication of forests in the region. However, we found a notable decrease in hard maple-basswood relative dominance within the small diameter class across most of the regions within the last 10–20 years, with an increase in dominance of other, non-oak, species. Our findings complement qualitative evidence from interviews with natural resource professionals from the region and offer further information on the potential for forest conversion to ‘‘undesirable’’ forest conditions, as identified as a source of concern by some professionals. There was spatial variation in these trends, however, with some pronounced differences across adjacent state boundaries. The variation in forest change across state boundaries suggests the role of state-level socioeconomic and policy factors in affecting forest conditions, and thus the potential for a targeted and timely approach to promoting preferred pathways of change

The University of Iowa Biomass Partnership Project

Biomass may be obtained from existing sources, such as industrial co-products (e.g., oat hulls and paper sludge), from the forest using managed timber stand improvement, and from growing perennial dedicated energy crops on marginal lands. Each of these sources may be developed in a manner that improves the sustainability of the University of Iowa energy supplies

The state, resilience, and potential future of oak-dominated forests in the Driftless Area of the midwestern U.S.

Forest surveys over the last several decades indicate a decline in oak regeneration in the midwestern United States with a high potential for future replacement by later successional forest types. The current state of oak systems may be nearing critical thresholds, which, if reached, their restoration could become markedly more challenging, if not impossible. Through a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, I evaluated the state, resilience, and potential future of oak forest ecosystems within the Driftless Area of the midwestern U.S., with the intention of providing information that can inform the design of timely and targeted oak-specific policy and management strategies. In-depth interviews with 32 regional natural resource professionals suggested a widespread decline in the extent of oak-hickory timberland and a shift towards more shade-tolerant forest types (i.e., maple-basswood forests). Analyses of forest surveys, collected through the U.S .Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) national program, supported interviewees' perceptions of the trajectory of forest change and revealed that the composition and age structure of timberland across ecoregion subsections is becoming less variable. I also found a general shift towards the elm-ash-cottonwood forest type group; system state deemed undesirable by the professionals. The interviewees identified private landowner decision making as central to oak regeneration success. Ecological, economic, and social factors---including but not limited to deer herbivory, understory competition, forest parcelization, exurban housing development and short land tenure---were thought to constrain landowner decision making regarding oak at multiple spatial scales, and to decrease system resilience. Conversely, interpersonal relationships between natural resource professionals and landowners, in addition to economic incentives, were identified as promoting landowner adoption of oak management practices. A holistic and in-depth understanding of the complex system relationships, feedbacks, thresholds, and uncertainties offered potential leverage points from which to enhance oak system resilience. Experimental knowledge (e.g., quantitative evaluation of thresholds related to understory competition and the economic expense of oak regeneration) is now needed to isolate cause and effect and provide access to those seeking action.</p