This book provides a uniquely detailed and systematic comparison of environmental forest policies and enforcement in twenty countries worldwide, covering developed, transition and developing economies. The goal is to enhance global policy learning and promote well-informed and precisely-tuned policy solutions.

This book examines the economic impacts of government investments in renewable energy on rural areas and how such investment can bring the greatest benefit to those areas.

This book is the only comprehensive summary of natural resources of Oregon and adds to World Soil Book Series state-level collection. Due to broad latitudinal and elevation differences, Oregon has an exceptionally diverse climate, which exerts a major influence on soil formation. The mean annual temperature in Oregon ranges from 0°C in the Wallowa and Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon to 13 °C in south-central Oregon. The mean annual precipitation ranges from 175 mm in southeastern Oregon to over 5,000 mm at higher elevations in the Coast Range. The dominant vegetation type in Oregon is temperate shrublands, followed by forests dominated by lodgepole pine, Douglas-fir, and mixed conifers, grasslands, subalpine forests, maritime Sitka spruce-western hemlock forests, and ponderosa pine-dominated forests. Oregon is divided into 17 Major Land Resource Areas, the largest of which include the Malheur High Plateau, the Cascade Mountains, the Blue Mountain Foothills, and Blue Mountains. The single most important geologic event in Oregon was the deposition of Mazama ash 7,700 years by the explosion of Mt. Mazama. Oregon has soil series representative of 10 orders, 40 suborders, 114 great groups, 389 subgroups, over 1,000 families, and over 1,700 soil series. Mollisols are the dominant order in Oregon, followed by Aridisols, Inceptisols, Andisols, Ultisols, and Alfisols. Soils in Oregon are used primarily for forest products, livestock grazing, agricultural crops, and wildlife management. Key land use issues in Oregon are climate change; wetland loss; flooding; landslides; volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis; coastal erosion; and wildfires.

During the five decades since its origin, law and economics has provided an influential framework for addressing a wide array of areas of law ranging from judicial behaviour to contracts. This book will reflects the first-ever forum for law and economics scholars to apply the analysis and methodologies of their field to the subject of wildfire. The only modern legal work on wildfire, the book brings together leading scholars to consider questions such as: How can public policy address the effects of climate change on wildfire, and wildfire on climate change? Are the environmental and fiscal costs of ex ante prevention measures justified? What are the appropriate levels of prevention and suppression responsibility borne by private, state, and federal actors? Can tort liability provide a solution for realigning the grossly distorted incentives that currently exist for private landowners and government firefighters? Do the existing incentives in wildfire institutions provide incentives for efficient private and collective action and how might they be improved?

Forests are important for carbon sequestration and how they are manipulated either through natural or human induced disturbances can have an effect on CO2 emissions and carbon sequestration. The 2009 National Silviculture Workshop presented scientific information and management strategies to meet a variety of objectives while simultaneously addressing carbon sequestration and biomass utilization. The focus areas were: the role of climate change in science and management; silvicultural methods to address carbon sequestration and biomass utilization; alternative silvicultural strategies to address the growth and development of forests; and current applications of computer simulation models or modeling techniques designed to provide decision support.

The Almanac provides facts on various issues including: Economics, statistics, noted personalities, science and astronomy, U.S facts and nations of the world.

This book takes a fresh look at the most disliked tree in Britain and Ireland, explaining the reasons it was introduced and why it became ubiquitous in the archipelagos of northwest Europe. Sitka spruce has contributed to the Pacific Coast landscapes of North America for over ten millennia. For the Tlingit First Nation it is the most important tree in terms of spiritual relationships, art, and products in daily use such as canoes, containers, fish-traps and sweet cakes. Since the late nineteenth century it has also been the most important tree to the timber industry of west coast North America. The historical background to the modern use of Sitka spruce is explored. The lack of cultural reference may explain negative public response when treeless uplands in the UK and Ireland were afforested with introduced conifer species, particularly Sitka spruce, following two World Wars. The multipurpose forestry of today recognizes that Sitka spruce is the most important tree to the timber industry and to a public which uses its many products but fails to recognize the link between growing trees and bought goods. The apparently featureless and wildlife-less Sitka spruce plantations in UK uplands are gradually developing recognizable ecological features. Sitka spruce has the potential to form temperate rain forests this century as well as to produce much-needed goods for society. The major contribution of Sitka spruce to landscapes and livelihoods in western North America is, by contrast, widely accepted. But conserving natural, old-growth forests, sustaining the needs of First Nations, and producing materials for the modern timber industry will be an intricate task.