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Abstract: In September 2003 Hurricane Isabel swept through eastern North Carolina and Virginia, destroying most of what formerly ranked among the most extensive remaining stands of Atlantic White-cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides L., cedar). As Atlantic White-cedar communities are dependent on irregular, large-scale disturbances, the hurricane event can be viewed as an opportunity for perpetuating cedar populations in the Great Dismal Swamp. The success of cedar regeneration in the Dismal Swamp has been influenced by the management strategies employed by Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge (active management) and by the adjacent Dismal Swamp State Park (passive management). We investigated the regeneration success of Atlantic White-cedar 5years following Hurricane Isabel by sampling five stands at the Dismal Swamp State Park withstanding varying impact from the storm and previous windthrow events. We compared our findings to regeneration surveys completed at the adjacent Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge. Atlantic White-cedar seedling densities were up to 100 times higher in the actively managed Wildlife Refuge compared to the passively managed State Park. We also determined the seedbank of viable cedar seeds and we described the vegetation at the State Park. The stands at the State Park are now dominated by red maple (Acer rubrum) with a dense shrubby understory. Since viable cedar seeds were still present in the seedbank (>800,000ha−1), future seedling establishment is possible at the State Park. However, active management is essential for achieving sufficient seedling densities and survival for regenerating a mature cedar stand. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Surveys of corporate real estate executives in North America and elsewhere in the world indicate significant shifts in their thinking in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Aside from the predictably much greater concern with planning for emergency escape from buildings, executives indicated that the greatest shifts in their thinking centred around issues of security of information technology and communication systems; greater use of teleconferencing and video-conferencing (reducing travel); and more new ways of working such as homeworking, satellite and neighbourhood work centres, and hotelling. Along with such changes in practice, executives also indicated the desire to create stronger communities within their organisations, even as they also expect further to disperse their activities across locations. There is a slight shift in preference away from downtown locations and a much higher overall concern with occupancy control over the spaces that they occupy. In North America especially, there is a shift away from occupancy of high-profile named buildings. Overall the surveys indicate that corporate real estate executives are moving ahead with distributed work-location strategies, increasing their reliance on virtual technologies for collaboration, and re-thinking the branding of their physical assets and the nature of community in their organisations. All of these changes further indicate the increasingly integrative role of corporate real estate within wider business strategy and a closer alignment of corporate real estate activities with human resources, organisational development and infor-mation technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]