Poplars and willows form an important component of forestry and agricultural systems, providing a wide range of wood and non-wood products. This book synthesizes research on poplars and willows, providing a practical worldwide overview and guide to their basic characteristics, cultivation and use, issues, problems and trends. Prominence is given to environmental benefits and the importance of poplar and willow cultivation in meeting the needs of people and communities, sustainable livelihoods, land use and development.
We must enhance the effectiveness ofland stewardship and management of the world's natural resources to meet a growing global population's need for conservation, sustainable development, and use of land, water, and other natural resources. Ecosystem-based, mul tiple-use land stewardship is necessary when considering the present and future uses ofland, water, and other natural resources on an operationally efficient scale. We need holistically planned and carefully implemented watershed management practices, projects, and pro grams to accommodate the increasing demand for commodities and amenities, clear water, open space, and uncluttered landscapes. An international conference in Tucson, Arizona, from March 13 to 16, 2000, examined these needs and increased people's awareness of the contributions that ecosystem-based, multiple-use watershed management can make to future land stewardship. The conference was sponsored by the School of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Arizona; the College of Agriculture, University of Arizona; the Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service; the Research Center for Conservation of Water Resources and Disaster Pre vention, National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan; the Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota; the Center for Integrated Natural Resources and Agriculture Man agement, University of Minnesota; the Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas del Noreste, Mexico; the International Arid Lands Consortium; the USDA Natural Resources Conserva tion Service; the Bureau of Land Management of the Department of the Interior; the Salt River Project, Phoenix, Arizona; the Southern Arizona Chapter, Southwestern Section of the Society of American Foresters; and IUFRO Working Party 8. 04. 04, Erosion Control by Watershed Management.
Both fire and climatic variability have monumental impacts on the dynamics of temperate ecosystems. These impacts can sometimes be extreme or devastating as seen in recent El Nino/La Nina cycles and in uncontrolled fire occurrences. This volume brings together research conducted in western North and South America, areas of a great deal of collaborative work on the influence of people and climate change on fire regimes. In order to give perspective to patterns of change over time, it emphasizes the integration of paleoecological studies with studies of modern ecosystems. Data from a range of spatial scales, from individual plants to communities and ecosystems to landscape and regional levels, are included. Contributions come from fire ecology, paleoecology, biogeography, paleoclimatology, landscape and ecosystem ecology, ecological modeling, forest management, plant community ecology and plant morphology. The book gives a synthetic overview of methods, data and simulation models for evaluating fire regime processes in forests, shrublands and woodlands and assembles case studies of fire, climate and land use histories. The unique approach of this book gives researchers the benefits of a north-south comparison as well as the integration of paleoecological histories, current ecosystem dynamics and modeling of future changes.