Large-Scale Thinnings, Ponderosa Pine, and Mountain Pine Beetle in the Black Hills, USA

Negrón, José F.; Allen, Kurt K.; Ambourn, Angie K.; Cook, Blaine; Marchand, Kenneth

doi:10.5849/fs-2016-061

Cited by 20 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Increased resistance to bark beetle attack following thinning has been reported in ponderosa pine forests of other regions (Fettig et al 2007, Zhang et al 2013, Negrón et al 2017), but additional work is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms and how long the effects persist. Thin and burn treatments may increase tree defenses by increasing the number and sizes of resin ducts (Hood et al 2016), and thereby increase resin flow (Kolb et al 1998, McDowell et al 2007).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Forest restoration treatments in a ponderosa pine forest enhance physiological activity and growth under climatic stress

Tepley

Hood

Keyes

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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As the climate warms, drought will increasingly occur under elevated temperatures, placing forest ecosystems at growing risk of extensive dieback and mortality. In some cases, increases in tree density following early 20th-century fire suppression may exacerbate this risk. Treatments designed to restore historical stand structure and enhance resistance to high-severity fire might also alleviate drought stress by reducing competition, but the duration of these effects and the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. To elucidate these mechanisms, we evaluate tree growth, mortality, and tree-ring stable-carbon isotope responses to stand-density reduction treatments with and without prescribed fire in a ponderosa pine forest of western Montana. Moderate and heavier cutting experiments (basal area reductions of 35% and 56%, respectively) were initiated in 1992, followed by prescribed burning in a subset of the thinned units. All treatments led to a growth release that persisted to the time of resampling. The treatments had little effect on climate-growth relationships, but they markedly altered seasonal carbon isotope signals and their relationship to climate. In burned and unburned treatments, carbon isotope discrimination (D 13 C) increased in the earlywood (EW) and decreased in the latewood (LW) relative to the control. The sensitivity of LW D 13 C to latesummer climate also increased in all treatments, but not in the control. Such increased sensitivity indicates that the reduction in competition enabled trees to continue to fix carbon for new stem growth, even when the climate became sufficiently stressful to stop new assimilation in slower-growing trees in untreated units. These findings would have been masked had we not separated EW and LW. The importance of faster growth and enhanced carbon assimilation under late-summer climatic stress became evident in the second decade post-treatment, when mountain pine beetle activity increased locally, and tree mortality rates in the controls of both experiments increased to more than twice those in their respective treatments. These findings highlight that, when thinning is used to restore historical forest structure or increase resistance to high-severity fire, there will likely be additional benefits of enhanced growth and physiological activity under climatic stress, and the effects may persist for more than two decades.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Forest restoration treatments in a ponderosa pine forest enhance physiological activity and growth under climatic stress

Tepley

Hood

Keyes

et al. 2020

Ecological Applications

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“…The restoration of degraded forest ecosystems is a crucial endeavor for the conservation of biological diversity, protection of natural resources, human life and property, and maintaining resilient ecosystems, especially in the face of a changing climate. Stand density reduction is considered to be the most effective way to mitigate MPB-caused mortality in ponderosa pine forests [17,23]. The implementation of restoration efforts, however, is costly and requires extensive resources, so managers must consider the unintended effects of restoration efforts.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a history of low-level and periodical eruptive populations of MPB, which can cause varying levels of tree mortality in host trees [21]. In general, the approach to manage bark beetle populations is to mitigate tree mortality in high-value sites, such as campgrounds and ski areas, and across landscapes with vegetation management [22,23]. More recently, management within stands has increased in importance, as it is practiced in the implementation of forest restoration projects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Within-Stand Distribution of Tree Mortality Caused by Mountain Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins

Negrón

2020

Insects

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The mountain pine beetle (MPB) (Dendroctonus ponderosae) is a bark beetle that attacks and kills ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), among other pine species throughout the western conifer forests of the United States and Canada, particularly in dense stands comprising large trees. There is information on the stand conditions that the insect prefers. However, there is a paucity of information on how small-scale variation in stand conditions influences the distribution of tree mortality within a stand. I examined the small-scale distribution of ponderosa pine basal area pre- and post a mountain pine beetle infestation, and used geostatistical modeling to relate the spatial distribution of the host to subsequent MPB-caused tree mortality. Results indicated increased mortality in the denser parts of the stand. Previous land management has changed historically open low-elevation ponderosa pine stands with aggregated tree distribution into dense stands that are susceptible to mountain pine beetles and intense fires. Current restoration efforts are aimed at reducing tree density and leaving clumps of trees, which are more similar to historical conditions. The residual clumps, however, may be susceptible to mountain pine beetle populations. Land managers will want to be cognizant of how mountain pine beetles will respond to restoration treatments, so as to prevent and mitigate tree mortality that could negate restoration efforts.

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“…While stand-scale management actions may mitigate local losses, they do little to reduce the likelihood of an outbreak unless they are performed over a sufficiently large proportion of the landscape [1,11]. For example, Negrón et al [25], working with ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson var. scopulorum Engelm.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Subwatershed-Level Lodgepole Pine Attributes Associated with a Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak

Williams

Hood

Keyes

et al. 2018

Forests

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Mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins; MPB) is an aggressive bark beetle that attacks numerous Pinus spp. and causes extensive mortality in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon; LPP) forests in the western United States and Canada. We used pre-outbreak LPP attributes, cumulative MPB attack severity, and areal extent of mortality data to identify subwatershed-scale forest attributes associated with severe MPB-caused tree mortality that occurred across the Northern Rockies, USA from 1999–2014. We upscaled stand-level data to the subwatershed scale to allow identification of large LPP areas vulnerable to MPB. The highest mortality occurred in subwatersheds where LPP mean basal area was greater than 11.5 m2 ha−1 and LPP quadratic mean diameter was greater than or equal to 18 cm. A coarse assessment of federally-owned LPP-dominated forestland in the analysis area indicated about 42% could potentially be silviculturally treated. Silvicultural management may be a suitable option for many LPP forests, and our hazard model can be used to identify subwatersheds with LPP attributes associated with high susceptibility to MPB across landscape spatial scales. Identifying highly susceptible subwatersheds can help prioritize general areas for potential treatments, especially where spatially extensive areas of contiguous, highly susceptible LPP occur.

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Large-Scale Thinnings, Ponderosa Pine, and Mountain Pine Beetle in the Black Hills, USA

Cited by 20 publications

References 44 publications

Forest restoration treatments in a ponderosa pine forest enhance physiological activity and growth under climatic stress

Forest restoration treatments in a ponderosa pine forest enhance physiological activity and growth under climatic stress

Within-Stand Distribution of Tree Mortality Caused by Mountain Pine Beetle, Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins

Subwatershed-Level Lodgepole Pine Attributes Associated with a Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak

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