Announcements

MDPI will be attending the 8th International Wildland Fire Conference (IWFC), which will take place in Porto, Portugal, from 16 to 19 May 2023. The first IWFC meeting was held in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1989. Since then, a series of conferences have been initiated to promote the exchange of expertise and international cooperation in wildland fire management. Previous conferences have helped organizations and professionals from over 70 countries develop common firefighting vocabulary, theory, training manuals, techniques, and operational standards. The 8th IWFC aims to create a space for researchers to present their latest work in the field of wildland fire. The conference welcomes institutional or professional case studies, scientific work, and papers detailing operational successes or failures in dealing with complexity and uncertainty when governing or managing wildfire risk.

MDPI invites researchers from different backgrounds to attend this conference to share their latest views and research with us.

The following MDPI journals will be represented:

• Forests;
• Land;
• Safety;
• Fire;
• Fuels.

If you plan on attending this conference, please feel free to stop by our booth and start a conversation with us. Our delegates look forward to meeting you in person and answering any questions that you may have.

We hope you will join us in celebrating and further protecting the planet’s forests this International Day of Forests, which takes place on the 21st of March. The theme for the 2023 International Day of Forests is "Forests and Health”. Forests give so much to our health, they purify the water, clean the air, capture carbon to fight climate change, provide food and life-saving medicines, and improve our well-being. It is up to us to safeguard these precious natural resources. At MDPI, our open access journals are primarily available online, reducing the company’s impact on deforestation and helping to protect the world’s forests.

Location: Nalati Grassland, Xinjiang, China Photo by Carolyn Chen, Sydney University	Location: Jiangshan, Zhejiang, China Photo by Pengcheng Ye, Nanjing Institute of Environmental Science	Location: Qinling, Shanxi, China Photo by Yuan Li, Shaanxi Normal University

To access more content about Nature Photography Campaign and other related series activities, please click here.

• “Facilitating Prescribed Fire in Northern California through Indigenous Governance and Interagency Partnerships”
  Fire 2021, 4, 37; https://doi.org/10.3390/fire4030037
• “Capitalization and Capital Return in Boreal Carbon Forestry”
  Earth 2022, 3, 204-227; https://doi.org/10.3390/earth3010014
• “A Knowledge Review on Integrated Landscape Approaches”
  Forests 2022, 13, 312; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13020312
• “National Implementation of the Forest Europe Indicators for Sustainable Forest Management”
  Forests 2022, 13, 191; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13020191
• “Carbon Footprint and Feedstock Quality of a Real Biomass Power Plant Fed with Forestry and Agricultural Residues”
  Resources 2022, 11, 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/resources11020007
• “The Necrobiome of Deadwood: The Life after Death”
  Ecologies 2023, 4, 20-38; https://doi.org/10.3390/ecologies4010003

As a leading open access publisher, MDPI provides scholars with a high-quality and rich academic exchange platform by continuously expanding into new and exciting research areas.

In December 2022, MDPI launched five new journals, covering multiple subjects such as life sciences, biology, medicine and pharmacology, social sciences and humanities. These new journals are being edited by established scholars across the world.

If you are interested in creating more open access journals with us to publish cutting-edge research, please send your journal proposal application to newjournal-committee@mdpi.com.

MDPI is pleased to announce that we now display the co-authors’ email addresses in addition to the corresponding author’s email address on the webpage of published papers, protected by Captcha. For more information about this change, please visit the journal’s instructions for authors page. 

We believe this change will facilitate academic discussions and advance our cause of open science and research. The corresponding authors are responsible for communicating with their co-authors and indicating in our system (https://susy.mdpi.com/) if co-authors would prefer for their email addresses not to be displayed.

We are pleased to share the following 10 Editor's Choice Articles published in Forests (ISSN: 1999-4907). Our Editors-in-Chief selected these papers from the most notable papers published in Volume 13, Issues 10‒12. They are all of particular interest or importance to readers and are all well received by researchers.

1. “Water in Wood: A Review of Current Understanding and Knowledge Gaps”
by Emil Engelund Thybring, Maria Fredriksson, Samuel L. Zelinka and Samuel V. Glass
Forests 2022, 13(12), 2051; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13122051
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/12/2051

2. “Forest Management, Barred Owls, and Wildfire in Northern Spotted Owl Territories”
by Monica L. Bond, Tonja Y. Chi, Curtis M. Bradley and Dominick A. DellaSala
Forests 2022, 13(10), 1730; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13101730
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/10/1730

3. “Contribution of Dry Forests and Forest Products to Climate Change Adaptation in Tigray Region, Ethiopia”
by Musse Tesfaye, Ashenafi Manaye, Berihu Tesfamariam, Zenebe Mekonnen, Shibire Bekele Eshetu, Katharina Löhr and Stefan Sieber
Forests 2022, 13(12), 2026; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13122026
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/12/2026

4. “The Macroeconomic Implications of the Transition of the Forestry Industry towards Bioeconomy”
by Alin Emanuel Artene, Lucian-Ionel Cioca, Aura Emanuela Domil, Larisa Ivascu, Valentin Burca and Oana Bogdan
Forests 2022, 13(11), 1961; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13111961
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/11/1961

5. “The Role of Provenance for the Projected Growth of Juvenile European Beech under Climate Change”
by Peter Petrík, Rüdiger Grote, Dušan Gömöry, Daniel Kurjak, Anja Petek-Petrik, Laurent J. Lamarque, Alena Sliacka Konôpková, Mohammad Mukarram, Harish Debta and Peter Fleischer Jr.
Forests 2023, 14(1), 26; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14010026
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/14/1/26

6. “Water Retention Characteristics of Mineral Forest Soils in Finland: Impacts for Modeling Soil Moisture”
by Samuli Launiainen, Antti-Jussi Kieloaho, Antti-Jussi Lindroos, Aura Salmivaara, Hannu Ilvesniemi and Juha Heiskanen
Forests 2022, 13(11), 1797; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13111797
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/11/1797

7. “Critical Aspects of People’s Participation in Community-Based Forest Management from the Case of Van Panchayat in Indian Himalaya”
by Kazuyo Nagahama, Satoshi Tachibana and Randeep Rakwal
Forests 2022, 13(10), 1667; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13101667
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/10/1667

8. “A Dynamical Model Based on the Chapman–Richards Growth Equation for Fitting Growth Curves for Four Pine Species in Northern Mexico”
by Joao Marcelo Brazao Protazio, Marcos Almeida Souza, Jose Ciro Hernández-Díaz, Jonathan G. Escobar-Flores, Carlos Antonio López-Sánchez, Artemio Carrillo-Parra and Christian Wehenkel
Forests 2022, 13(11), 1866; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13111866
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/11/1866

9. “Assessing Structural Complexity of Individual Scots Pine Trees by Comparing Terrestrial Laser Scanning and Photogrammetric Point Clouds”
by Paolo Baldi and Nicola La Porta
Forests 2022, 13(12), 2016; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13122016
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/12/2016

10. “Linking Bacterial Rhizosphere Communities of Two Pioneer Species, Brachystegia boehmii and B. spiciformis, to the Ecological Processes of Miombo Woodlands”
by Camilo B. S. António, Chinedu Obieze, João Jacinto, Ivete S. A. Maquia, Tara Massad, José C. Ramalho, Natasha S. Ribeiro, Cristina Máguas, Isabel Marques and Ana I. Ribeiro-Barros
Forests 2022, 13(11), 1840; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13111840
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/11/1840

We thank all the research groups behind these exceptional papers for their contributions to Forests. You are welcome to circulate this announcement among your colleagues or through your network.

If you want to learn more about the contributions published in Editor’s Choice Articles, please click here.

On 9 February 2023, Clarivate, a global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics, added the Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science platform, streamlining the research process by allowing researchers to locate and link to preprints alongside other trusted content in the database.

The Preprint Citation Index will act as a bridge to connect cutting-edge preprints with peer-reviewed journal articles published within the Web of Science Core Collection. Alerts can be easily set to monitor new research across several repositories and authors will also be able to include preprints on their Web of Science Research Profile to more accurately display their various research outputs.

As of its launch, the Preprint Citation Index will provide nearly two million preprints from various repositories, including MDPI’s own Preprints.org.

MDPI's Preprints Platform – Preprints.org

To advance Open Science and the fast dissemination of research, MDPI offers researchers a free multidisciplinary preprint platform. Preprints.org accepts submissions from all research areas and offers authors high visibility, permanent archiving, article-level Metrics and immediately citable content by assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to all preprints.

During submission to any MDPI journal, authors have the option to share their research as a preprint. After an initial screening, the manuscript is available online in 48 hours or less. Once online, preprints can be downloaded, shared, commented on, and cited, providing authors maximum visibility.

We invite you to join the ranks of the over 100k researchers using Preprints.org and share your research.

For more information, please visit Preprints.org.

We are delighted to share with you 10 reprints of Special Issues published in 2021–2022 in Forests (ISSN: 1999-4907). They were selected by the Forests Editorial Office, each with 10 or more articles published. You can read more reprints of the Special Issue published by Forests here. If you are interested in editing a Special Issue, you are welcome to check out our new initiative—the Special Issue Mentor Program.

The articles below have been selected as 2022 Issue Cover papers by the Editorial Office of Forests (ISSN: ISSN 1999-4907). These articles came from multiple fields within the scope of Forests, including forest fires, forest ecology and management, forest health, forest ecophysiology and biology, urban forestry, forest products, and forest modeling. We hope they can provide insights and references for scholars in these fields.

We are pleased to share the following 10 Editor’s Choice Articles published in Forests (ISSN: 1999-4907). The Editor’s Choice Articles were selected from the most notable publications in Volume 13, Issues 7‒9 by our Editors-in-Chief. All these papers are of particular interest or importance to readers and are all well received by researchers.

1. “Wood Preservation Practices and Future Outlook: Perspectives of Experts from Finland”
by Jami Järvinen, Hüseyin Emre Ilgın and Markku Karjalainen
Forests 2022, 13(7), 1044; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13071044
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/7/1044

2. “A Small Target Forest Fire Detection Model Based on YOLOv5 Improvement”
by Zhenyang Xue, Haifeng Lin and Fang Wang
Forests 2022, 13(8), 1332; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13081332
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/8/1332

3. “Psychological Well-Being and Nature Relatedness”
by Olga Grabowska-Chenczke, Sandra Wajchman-Świtalska and Marcin Woźniak
Forests 2022, 13(7), 1048; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13071048
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/7/1048

4. “Twelve Years into Genomic Selection in Forest Trees: Climbing the Slope of Enlightenment of Marker Assisted Tree Breeding”
by Dario Grattapaglia
Forests 2022, 13(10), 1554; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13101554
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/10/1554

5. “Culturable Endophytic Fungi in Fraxinus excelsior and Their Interactions with Hymenoscyphus fraxineus”
by Marek Barta, Katarína Pastirčáková, Radovan Ostrovský, Marek Kobza and Miriam Kádasi Horáková
Forests 2022, 13(7), 1098; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13071098
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/7/1098

6. “A National Map of Snag Hazard to Reduce Risk to Wildland Fire Responders”
by Karin L. Riley, Christopher D. O’Connor, Christopher J. Dunn, Jessica R. Haas, Richard D. Stratton and Benjamin Gannon
Forests 2022, 13(8), 1160; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13081160
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/8/1160

7. “Effect of Wild Boar (Sus scrofa) Rooting on Soil Characteristics in a Deciduous Forest Affected by Sedimentation”
by Natalia Pitta-Osses, Csaba Centeri, Ádám Fehér and Krisztián Katona
Forests 2022, 13(8), 1234; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13081234
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/8/1234

8. “Towards Continuous Stem Water Content and Sap Flux Density Monitoring: IoT-Based Solution for Detecting Changes in Stem Water Dynamics”
by Shahla Asgharinia, Martin Leberecht, Luca Belelli Marchesini, Nicolas Friess, Damiano Gianelle, Thomas Nauss, Lars Opgenoorth, Jim Yates and Riccardo Valentini
Forests 2022, 13(7), 1040; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13071040
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/7/1040

9. “Assessing Structural Complexity of Individual Scots Pine Trees by Comparing Terrestrial Laser Scanning and Photogrammetric Point Clouds”
by Noora Tienaho, Tuomas Yrttimaa, Ville Kankare, Mikko Vastaranta, Ville Luoma, Eija Honkavaara, Niko Koivumäki, Saija Huuskonen, Jari Hynynen, Markus Holopainen et al.
Forests 2022, 13(8), 1305; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13081305
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/8/1305

10. “Recreational Visit to Suburban Forests during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Taiwan”
by Yung-Chih Chen, Frank C. Tsai, Ming-Jer Tsai and Wan-Yu Liu
Forests 2022, 13(8), 1181; https://doi.org/10.3390/f13081181
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/13/8/1181
We would like to thank all the research groups behind these exceptional papers for their contributions to Forests. We would greatly appreciate it if you would circulate this document among your colleagues or through your network.
If you want to learn more about the contributions published in Editor’s Choice Articles, please click here.

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new initiative—the MDPI Special Issue Mentor Program.

This program will enable early career researchers (who must hold a Ph.D. in a related field) to experience editing a Special Issue in MDPI journals, under the mentorship of our experienced Editorial Board Members or other experienced scientists. The mentor program will provide an excellent opportunity for early career scientists to gain editorial experience, and to cultivate their ability to edit scientific research.

The mentee’s responsibilities include:

• Proposing a Special Issue title and assisting the mentor in preparing a summary (around 200–400 words) and 3–10 keywords describing the background, importance, and goal of the Issue;
• Writing a brief promotion plan for the Special Issue;
• Preparing a list of scholars who may be interested in the Issue and personally e-mailing invitations on behalf of Guest Editors;
• Writing an editorial for the online Special Issue together with the mentor.

The mentor’s responsibilities include:

• Conducting a final check before the Special Issue is published online;
• Performing editorial control of the Special Issue and quality control of the publications, both of which must be carried out in a timely manner;
• Providing suggestions to younger scholars if they have any doubts or concerns regarding submissions;
• Organizing video calls with young scholars and the Editorial Office regularly to discuss problems and improvement suggestions for the Special Issue;
• Making and submitting decisions regarding submissions with the assistance of mentees.

Certificates and awards:
After the Special Issue closes, the Editorial Office will provide official certificates for all the mentors and early career researchers.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please send your Special Issue proposal to the Editorial Office of a journal you choose, and we will discuss the process (i.e., mentor collaboration, Special Issue topic feasibility analysis, etc.) in further detail. The full list of MDPI journals is as follows: https://www.mdpi.com/about/journals.

In addition to the new Special Issue Mentor Program, we will continue to welcome all Special Issue proposals focusing on hot research topics.