Northwest Forest Plan–the first 20 years (1994-2013): status and trends of late-successional and old-growth forests

Davis, Raymond J.; Ohmann, Janet L.; Kennedy, Robert E.; Cohen, Warren B.; Gregory, Matthew J.; Yang, Zhiqiang; Roberts, Heather M.; Gray, Andrew N.; Spies, Thomas A.

doi:10.2737/pnw-gtr-911

Cited by 74 publications

(102 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…We envisage the methods of assessing maturity will be useful for numerous applications, including: (1) prioritising stands for retention or harvesting; particularly through use within existing management frameworks (e.g. Landscape Context Planning; Forestry Tasmania, ); (2) assessing the spatial configuration of developmental stages within landscapes to provide information about habitat connectivity and resilience of certain maturity levels; (3) undertaking large‐scale monitoring of long‐term changes in maturity that occur as stands are altered by wildfires, harvesting and forest growth (similar to current practices in the Pacific North West of the USA; Davis et al., ); (4) monitoring the effectiveness of particular management or restoration practices (such as variable retention harvesting, Baker et al., or variable density thinning, Puettmann, Ares, Burton, & Dodson, ) and (5) providing information about potential habitat availability for species relying on conditions closely associated with forest developmental stage.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying floristic and structural forest maturity: An attribute‐based method for wet eucalypt forests

Galen

Jordan

Musk³

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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Maintaining developmental heterogeneity of ecological communities within landscapes is crucial for sustainable native forest management. Consequently, methods to assess forest maturity (i.e. the degree to which the forest contains attributes and supports processes characteristic of late‐successional forests) are valuable for making management decisions. However, no consistent, pragmatic method to quantify maturity that incorporates multiple ecosystem elements is available for many forest systems, including Australian wet eucalypt forests. We draw upon forest community dynamics theory to develop a method to quantify maturity based on forest attributes, and use this method to create two metrics of wet eucalypt forest floristic and structural maturity. We then test the ability of remotely sensed and field‐collected variables to predict these metrics. Both the floristic and structural maturity metrics performed well at capturing underlying trends of forest maturation. Remotely sensed LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and photo‐interpretation data provided estimates of moderate accuracy for both floristic and structural maturity (R2 = .57–.77). Field variables that are relatively efficient and accurate to measure provided greater model accuracy (R2 = .73–.85). Including more complex field variables increased model accuracy to high levels (R2 = .93). Therefore, while maturity predicted from remote‐sensing data enables a useful and accessible large‐scale maturity measure, field indices would provide a more accurate means of assessing maturity at the local stand level. Synthesis and applications. The metrics developed in this study provide a powerful tool for undertaking consistent assessments of wet eucalypt forest maturity. This assessment tool could improve forest management by providing information to optimise practices such as prioritising stands for retention or harvesting, determining the effectiveness of restoration or management practices and monitoring changes in maturity over time. The method could be adapted to any forest system that undergoes well‐defined directional development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantifying floristic and structural forest maturity: An attribute‐based method for wet eucalypt forests

Galen

Jordan

Musk³

et al. 2018

Journal of Applied Ecology

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“…Davis et al (2015) report that management actions reducing canopy cover in multi-layered mature and old growth forests in all federal land allocations occurred at an annual rate of about 0.1% from 1993 to 2012 in the eastern Cascades of Oregon and Washington. Although some timber harvest (e.g., restoration thinning) is allowed in late successional and old-growth forests in the eastern Cascades, including in reserves, it appears that very little management was implemented over the study period.…”

Section: Dynamics In Late Successional Reservesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1) using imputed maps of forest structure (i.e., tree size and canopy cover) and remotely sensed burn severity maps. There is considerable concern regarding the effects of high severity wildfire in late successional forests (Lee and Irwin 2005, Spies et al 2006, Davis et al 2015, but little is known about the cumulative effects of recent dynamics related to fire or other disturbances (e.g., thinning, insects, diseases) and succession. An extensive reserve network (~337,000 ha) was established in 1994 through the Northwest Forest Plan (Thomas et al 2006) to conserve dense, late-successional, and old-growth habitat for the federally listed Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis Caurina).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cumulative effects of wildfires on forest dynamics in the eastern Cascade Mountains, USA

Reilly

Elia

Spies

et al. 2018

Ecological Applications

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Wildfires pose a unique challenge to conservation in fire-prone regions, yet few studies quantify the cumulative effects of wildfires on forest dynamics (i.e., changes in structural conditions) across landscape and regional scales. We assessed the contribution of wildfire to forest dynamics in the eastern Cascade Mountains, USA from 1985 to 2010 using imputed maps of forest structure (i.e., tree size and canopy cover) and remotely sensed burn severity maps. We addressed three questions: (1) How do dynamics differ between the region as a whole and the unburned portion of the region? (2) How do dynamics vary among vegetation zones differing in biophysical setting and historical fire frequency? (3) How have forest structural conditions changed in a network of late successional reserves (LSRs)? Wildfires affected 10% of forests in the region, but the cumulative effects at this scale were primarily slight losses of closed-canopy conditions and slight gains in open-canopy conditions. In the unburned portion of the region (the remaining 90%), closed-canopy conditions primarily increased despite other concurrent disturbances (e.g., harvest, insects). Although the effects of fire were largely dampened at the regional scale, landscape scale dynamics were far more variable. The warm ponderosa pine and cool mixed conifer zones experienced less fire than the region as a whole despite experiencing the most frequent fire historically. Open-canopy conditions increased slightly in the mixed conifer zone, but declined across the ponderosa pine zone even with wildfires. Wildfires burned 30% of the cold subalpine zone, which experienced the greatest increase in open-canopy conditions and losses of closed-canopy conditions. LSRs were more prone to wildfire than the region as a whole, and experienced slight declines in late seral conditions. Despite losses of late seral conditions, wildfires contributed to some conservation objectives by creating open habitats (e.g., sparse early seral and woodland conditions) that otherwise generally decreased in unburned landscapes despite management efforts to increase landscape diversity. This study demonstrates the potential for wildfires to contribute to regional scale conservation objectives, but implications for management and biodiversity at landscape scales vary geographically among biophysical settings, and are contingent upon historical dynamics and individual species habitat preferences.

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“…). We used Program GUIDOS ToolBox (Vogt ) and the Morphological Spatial Pattern Analysis (MSPA; Soille and Vogt ) on our binary rasters to obtain measures of the distribution of forest canopy in our analysis circles (Davis et al ). The MSPA program divided the binary raster into 7 classes based on how each pixel related to the pixels surrounding it (Fig.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Activity center selection by northern spotted owls

et al. 2019

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The federally threatened northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) has been intensively studied across its range, and habitat needs for the species have influenced forest management in northwestern North America for decades. Dense forest canopies are often reported in the scientific literature and agency management plans as an important habitat attribute for spotted owls, though the means of measuring forest canopy and interpreting species requirements vary across studies and more importantly, among management plans. We used light detection and ranging (lidar) measurements of canopy cover, canopy surface heterogeneity, and upper canopy surface connectivity, and an index of the presence of a competitive invasive species, the barred owl (S. varia), in multinomial discrete choice models using a Bayesian framework to evaluate selection of forest cover types by spotted owls in Oregon, USA, 2008–2015. We designated yearly activity centers based on the most biologically significant observation during the nesting season (Mar–Aug), generally centered on the nest tree. Spotted owls selected activity centers with more canopy cover and higher heterogeneity of the canopy surface within 100 m than was available within their territories. The average proportion of canopy cover within 100 m of a spotted owl activity center was 0.79 ± 0.12 (SD; range = 0.34–0.99). The presence of barred owls did not explain variability in selection of spotted owl activity centers, but barred owls might not affect third‐order habitat selection within territories, or our index was too spatially coarse to detect these effects on spotted owl resource selection. We demonstrate that lidar provides researchers and managers with a tool that can accurately measure forest canopies over large areas, and assist in mapping spotted owl habitat. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.

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Northwest Forest Plan–the first 20 years (1994-2013): status and trends of late-successional and old-growth forests

Cited by 74 publications

References 4 publications

Quantifying floristic and structural forest maturity: An attribute‐based method for wet eucalypt forests

Quantifying floristic and structural forest maturity: An attribute‐based method for wet eucalypt forests

Cumulative effects of wildfires on forest dynamics in the eastern Cascade Mountains, USA

Activity center selection by northern spotted owls

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