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Publications
| State of the Chesapeake Forests |
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The Conservation Fund and the USDA Forest Service have collaborated to assess and report on the state of Chesapeake forests. This first-of-its-kind report synthesizes more than a decade's worth of data from public and private sources, highlights current forest conditions, forecasts future trends, and outlines key goals and strategies necessary to conserve and restore the forests of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The report calls for a strategic, long-term approach that identifies and focuses on forests with the highest environmental, economic, and social values.
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| Urban Watershed Forestry Manual |
The Center for Watershed Protection (CWP), in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, is producing a three-part manual series on using trees to protect and restore urban watersheds. The contents of the manual are the result of extensive research as well as design workshops on using trees for storm water treatment and planting trees in the urban landscape. These workshops were attended by more than 40 local, regional and national experts, including foresters, storm water engineers, landscape architects, arborists, urban soil scientists, watershed planners and representatives form parks, transportation and utility companies. The three parts of the manual series are described briefly below.
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Part 1: Principles of Urban Watershed Forestry - Conserving forests in a watershed– This manual introduces the emerging topic of urban watershed forestry and presents new methods for systematically measuring watershed forest cover and techniques for maintaining or increasing this cover. The audience for this manual includes the local watershed planner or forester. |
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Part 2: Conserving and Planting Trees at Development Sites – This manual presents specific ways to enable developers, engineers or landscape architects to incorporate more trees into a development site. The proposed approach focuses on protecting existing trees, planting trees in storm water treatment practices, and planting trees in other open spaces at the development site. This manual introduces conceptual designs for storm water treatment practices that utilize trees as part of the design (referred to as storm water forestry practices). |
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Part 3: Urban Tree Planting Guide – This manual provides detailed guidance on urban tree planting that is applicable at both the development site and the watershed scale. Topics covered include: species selection, site preparation, tree planting and maintenance techniques, and special considerations for urban tree planting. |
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Streamside forests are crucial to the protection and enhancement of the water resources in the Northeastern Area. These ecosystems help provide optimum food and habitat for stream communities as well as being useful in mitigating or controlling nonpoint source pollution. Used as a part of an integrated management system including nutrient management and sediment and erosion control practices, streamside forests can produce a wealth of benefits for the quality of water. Streamside forests are effective in removing excess nutrients and sediment from surface runoff and shallow groundwater and in shading streams to optimize light and temperature conditions for aquatic plants and animals. Streamside forests also ameliorate the effects of some pesticides, and directly provide dissolved and particulate organic food needed to maintain high biological productivity and diversity in the adjoining stream. This publication describes the basic science and application of riparian forest buffers as a best management practice in agricultural areas. |
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Wetlands are complex ecosystems that perform a variety of functions of vital importance to the environment and to the society. Wetlands regulate water flow by detaining storm flows for short periods thus reducing flood peaks. While many wetland functions are unaffected by land management activities, some functions can be compromised or enhanced by land management activities. In addition, management of the forest can actually improve wildlife habitat and produce revenue to offset the cost of retaining the wetland for flood control. The key is to recognize environmental values and incorporate them into management decisions. The purpose of this publication is to provide an understanding of some of the environmental and societal values of wetlands and to present an array of Best Management Practices, or BMP's to be considered and used us necessary to protect the environmental societal values of wetlands during harvesting and other forest management operations. |
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| Chesapeake Bay Riparian Handbook |
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Riparian restoration and protection is of interest nation-wide Increasingly, “buffers” of forest land next to a stream are being looked at as cost-effective and essential tools for reducing pollution from adjacent farms and cities as well as for restoring fish and wildlife habitat. This extensive reference provides information on the establishment and management of riparian forest buffers. Chapters cover water quality, wildlife habitat, design, application in agricultural and urban settings, maintenance and management, and strategies for determining buffer width. The Handbook also includes multiple references and appendices. While this Handbook was written for the Chesapeake Bay watershed, many of the sections are applicable in other areas of the country. |
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| Flooding and Its Effects on Trees |
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The 1993 floods along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and their tributaries caused tremendous losses in terms of human life, homes, businesses and crop production. Bottomland areas have been under water for many weeks. Landowners, homeowners, foresters, park managers, and others are concerned about the long-term effect of flooding on the forests of the Midwest and the Great Plains. The purpose of this publication is to assist on-the-ground natural resource professionals answer flood-related tree questions in both rural and urban areas. |
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| Riparian Forest Buffer Design and Maintenance |
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This guide was developed in partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Program's Forestry Work Group and MD DNR Forest Service. Based on the premise that the best way to minimize maintenance and repair is to do the best job of design, planting and preparing the site, this guide represents years of experience with a variety of hardwood reforestation techniques. Using input from riparian reforestation workshops and field practitioners from the Region, the guide presents the latest thinking on matching field conditions and suitable techniques to minimize common problems in buffer planting and maintenance It includes information about the purpose of the buffer, site preparation steps, species choices, density and spacing of trees and shrubs, post planting protection and maintenance tasks. |
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Publications and other files labeled as such are available to download as Adobe Acrobat Files. The free viewer is available to download from www.Adobe.com. |
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