Context
Several initiatives seek to increase the pace and scale of dry forest restoration and fuels reduction to enhance forest resilience to wildfire and other stressors while improving the quality and reliability of key ecosystem services. Ecological effects models are increasingly used to prioritize these efforts at the landscape-scale based on simulated treatment outcomes.
Objectives
Treatments are often simulated using uniform post-treatment target conditions or proportional changes to baseline forest structure variables, but do not account for the common objective of restoration to mimic the complex forest structure that was present historically which is thought to provide an example of structural conditions that contributed to ecosystem diversity and resilience.
Methods
We simulate spatially homogenous fire hazard reduction treatments along with heterogeneous restoration treatments in dry conifer forests to investigate how spatial complexity affects ecological indicators of (1) forest structural heterogeneity, (2) forest and watershed vulnerability to high-severity fire, and (3) feasibility of future prescribed fire use.
Results
Our results suggest that spatially explicit restoration treatments should produce similar wildfire and prescribed fire outcomes as homogeneous fuels reduction treatments, but with greater forest structural heterogeneity. The lack of strong tradeoffs between ecological objectives suggests the primary benefit of spatially complex treatments is to increase forest structural heterogeneity which may promote biodiversity.
Conclusions
We show that landscape-scale prioritization to maximize ecological benefits can change when spatially complex restoration treatments are modeled. Coupling landscape-scale management simulations and ecological effects models offers flexible decision support for conservation assessment, prioritization, and planning.
The change in wheel track surface soil bulk densities was determined after a mechanized thinning in a northern red oak stand. Mean bulk density values of the 0 to 5 cm surface of the wheel tracks immediately after felling, bunching, and skidding were: 0.80 g/cc on the high use areas; 0.77 g/cc on the low use areas; and 0.42 g/cc in the undisturbed areas. No significant differences in surface soil bulk densities were found between several loading treatments using a four-wheel drive articulated forwarder. The data indicate that initial passes of the equipment produce most of the disturbance. No significant recovery in wheel track soil bulk densities occurred during the year following harvest regardless of treatment. North. J. Appl. For. 5:120-123, June 1988.
If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. -Yogi Berra Above: Eastern hemlock by stream. Photo used with permission from Steven J. Baskauf, bioimages.vanderbilt.edu. Inset: Algoma. Photo used with permission from Wisconsin DNR.
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