Red-cockaded woodpeckers (Picoides borealis) forage on the boles of living pine trees for a variety of arthropods. To assess the availability of prey under differing stand conditions, we sampled arthropods that crawled up the boles of 300 living longleaf pine trees (Pinus palustrtis) ranging in age from 20-100 years with passive traps over a l-year period. We identified, counted, ovendried, and weighed >50,000 arthropods in 22 ordemand 470 genera. The most diverse orders were the Coleoptera (beetles), Araneae (spiders), and Hymenoptera (ants, wasps and bees). The most abundant orders were the Homoptera with large numbers of aphids (Aphididae) and the Hymenoptera with large numbers of ants (Formicidae). The Coleoptera and Araneae accounted for the greatest available biomass. Overall, arthropod biomass/tree increased with increasing stand age up to approximately 65-70 years, but arthropod biomass/ha was highest in the youngest stands. Abundance and biomass of arthropods on each tree bole were positively correlated with bark thickness and tree diameter, and negatively correlated with basal area (m2/ha). Arthropod biomass differed among seasons, with the highest arthropod biomass occurring in winter and spring. We found no correlation of diversity, abundance, or biomass of arthropods on the tree bole with site index, the numbers of herbaceous plant genera in the understory, the number of herbaceous plant stems, or the percentage of ground covered by herbs. Stand characteristics, such as average bark thickness and diameter, associated with increased arthropod abundance and biomass on the bark are positively correlated to tree age, but these relationships would change with management practices that either accelerated or slowed tree growth.

Inoculum densities of 25 × 103 to 200 × 103 per ml of basidiospores from single aeciospore isolates avirulent or virulent to the Fr1 (fusiform resistance-1) gene were used to inoculate a control-pollinated loblolly pine family heterozygous for this gene. With two avirulent isolates, the regression curve of gall frequency 9 months after inoculation went from 26 to 50% as inoculum density increased to 100 × 103 spores. The regression curve flattened at higher inoculum densities. With two virulent isolates, gall frequency increased from 47% to a plateau at 97% as spore density increased. A double-blind element of the study correlated the occurrence of the genetic marker (RAPD marker J7-485A) for Fr1 resistance in haploid megagametophyte tissuend the presence or absence of galls on seedlings after artificial inoculations. With avirulent isolates at the two higher densities of 100 × 103 and 200 × 103, marker presence-absence and phenotypic assessments of gall presence-absence agreed for 95% of the seedlings. At the 50 ×103 level, marker-phenotype agreed for 86% of the seedlings. The increased marker-phenotype association resulted from a reduction or elimination of disease escapes as Fr1 resistance remained stable even at higher spore densities. The double-blind study indicates that resistant individuals can be identified from the megagametophyte tissue of germinating seedlings. With virulent isolates, marker and disease phenotype did not correlate, even at the lowest inoculum density. The virulent isolates appear to be homozygous for virulence because infection of marker-positive resistant seedlings equaled or exceeded that of marker-negative susceptible seedlings at the lowest inoculum density.

A BSTRACTPrevious studies have shown that African Americans have less favorable impressions about wildlands and recreate on wildland areas less frequently than do whites. However, most of these investigations have been conducted on non-rural populations. Rural perceptions of wildlands and visitation to such areas have received relatively little attention. In this exploratory study, we propose that race operates on wildland recreation visitation through the different meanings rural blacks and whites attribute to wildlands. We examine this hypothesis with a structural model which specifies wildland meaning as an intervening factor between race and visitation. Single equation results show blacks visit wildlands less, and have less favorable definitions of wildlands, compared to whites. However, when wildland meaning is included in the structural model, racial differences become insignificant. This suggests that the meanings different racial groups attach to wildlands help explain visitation. Both sex and age are also significant predictors of both wildland meaning and visitation.

Active red-cockaded woodpecker (Picoides borealis) colonies in the Piedmont of Georgia are mature pine stands (mean age = 87 ± 1 yr old) with relatively sparse midstories (mean basal area = 31 ± 3 ft²/ac). Active and abandoned colony sites have similar overstory characteristics, but midstories are significantly denser in abandoned colony sites (mean basal area = 56 ± 3 ft²/ac). Previous studies have focused on the effect of hardwoods in the midstory, but we found that increases in both pine and hardwood midstory density are associated with colony abandonment. A logistic regression model based on field data suggests that the probability of a colony becoming abandoned increases considerably when midstory basal area is >30 ft²/ac. To maintain redcockaded woodpecker populations, managers should keep midstory basal area in colonies below 25ft²/ac. Treatments should be applied to entire stands and not just around individual cavity trees. South. J. Appl. For. 16(3):120-125.

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