Environmental Issues in Pacific Northwest Forest Management (2000) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
8 A Framework for Sustainable Forest Management
8 A Framework for Sustainable Forest Management
Pages 171-198
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 171... ...
Maintaining these processes is being adopted as the fundamental goal for sustainable forest management. Not all goals can be maximized concurrently; therefore, balancing partly incompatible goals through forest-management practices is the major challenge facing forest managers.
|
From page 172... ...
Congress has used ant] continues to use, its plenary authority over the federal lands to designate national parks, wilderness areas, wild anct scenic rivers, national recreation areas, ancl others.
|
From page 173... ...
The major land avocations affecting forest land in the region are those in the Northwest Forest Plan. Those allocations of federal forests override previous allocations made in the planning process, but not those made by Congress.
|
From page 174... ...
Private forest owners other then fores/-industry firms are more likely to vary timber harvests based on market conditions and other factors, and they are unlikely to be committed to specific Tongterm harvest schedules. Timber-harvest schedules for a national forest or industrial forest are based on the size of the forest, the existing timber inventory, productivity of the land, expected investments in growing timber, and expected revenues, ah over a period of as much as several
|
From page 175... ...
Although timber harvest schedules were not set jointly for public and private forests (except in the special case of the Cooperative Sustained Yield Unit in Shelton, Washington) , expected harvests from federal and other public forests surely had some influence on harvest schedules for private forests.
|
From page 176... ...
implementecl uncLer the aegis of the Endangered Species Act that limit or eliminate harvest activities from particular public or private lancts will likely influence scheduling decisions on lands not included in the HCPs. Harvesting I egging is the most visible and probably the single forest-management action having the greatest impact on forests and their ecological processes.
|
From page 177... ...
Nonindustrial private forest owners are more likely to use some form of uneven-aged management or multientry even-aged management where overstories are partially removed (partial cutting) on the Westside, although clearcutting is still generally preferred.
|
From page 178... ...
Inasmuch as state forest regulations in all of the Pacific Northwest states except Montana require that logged areas be substantially regenerated to commercially desirable trees, site preparation is an economically integral part of timber harvesting. Silvicultural practices in the Pacific Northwest have been the subject of a great deal of scrutiny, and many new techniques and innovations are becoming evident.
|
From page 179... ...
As a result, most forest management is very capital intensive. Federal forests typically carry much heavier timber inventories—and thus have greater investments in timber—than private forests in the region.
|
From page 180... ...
Depending on the character of the forest, type of harvest, tree species wanted in the subsequent forest, and condition of the site following logging, site preparation can include broadcast burning of logging slash and undergrowth, piling logging stash with or without subsequent burning, scarification of the soil, killing brush with herbicides, and application of fertilizers. Reproduction.
|
From page 181... ...
Disincentives, such as uncertainty about the future, can reduce investments. For example, early in this century, perceived and real risks associated with wildfire and forest pathogens and pests were strong disincentives for forest investment on private lands (CIawson 1979~.
|
From page 182... ...
The latter costs include the opportunity costs of postponing timber harvests and reducing potential timber yields, and the direct costs of using more costly management and logging practices. Investments on private forests are guided largely by the marketplace—expected costs and returns—as bounded by regulations and supported in some cases by public incentives.
|
From page 183... ...
Today, we speak in terms of "sustainable forest management" or "ecosystem management," recognizing not only the complexity of forest-management goals, but the complexity of the systems necessary to meet them. With 100 years of experience, forest managers have become adept at managing at least one aspect of a biological system according to a welldefined set of scientific principles and restricted economic and ecological objectives.
|
From page 184... ...
Operational Goals Goals should be formulated so as to provide benchmarks for measuring the success of management policies and practices. Operational goals Adaptive management and monitoring are usually included in lists of key elements of ecosystem or sustainable forest management but are here discussed under the heading "Making Management Adaptable."
|
From page 185... ...
Strategies must be developed to reconcile the incongruity of political jurisdictions and ownership boundaries with ecosystem processes. Issues of scale head almost everyone's list of forest ecosystem management objectives, and for good reason; successfully achieving any set of management goals requires that each goal be addressed at appropriate spatial and temporal scales.
|
From page 186... ...
APPROACHES TO MANAGING FOR D/VERS/TY: GENERAL CONS/DERAT/ONS A primary challenge for forestry in the Pacific Northwest-indeed for forestry throughout the worId-is translating the guiding principles embodied in ecosystem management into specific practices on the ground and developing tools to assess how successfully goals are being
|
From page 187... ...
reflects the fact that not every piece of ground must function as suitable habitat all the time to maintain viable populations. The key scientific questions center on the proportion and spatial arrangement of the three types that give a reasonable probability of maintaining diversity through time, the time requirement implying that dynamics-disturbance and recovery-must be taken into account.
|
From page 188... ...
Throughout the region, but especially outside the range of the northern spotted owl, the degree to which changes are adequate to sustain ecological processes and old-growth dependent species remains to be seen. The interagency scientific analysis of the interior Columbia Basin recommended a management option for federal lands that emphasizes "active" management across the landscape rather than an increased commitment to reserves, arguing that was the best way to ensure restoration and maintenance of ecosystemhealth (USES 1996~.
|
From page 189... ...
Proponents of active timber harvest on all or most of the landscape argue their approach reflects current ecological thinking, which recognizes nature as inherently dynamic, from which it follows that attempts to freeze any particular set of conditions are futile and misguided. Only through active timber harvest can stands be maintained in a healthy condition that continues to supply habitat (Oliver et al.
|
From page 190... ...
1997~. Overstocking increases fire hazard in moist forest types west of the Cascades crest, and creates a variety of problems in dry forest types of the Klamath province and throughout the interior, including increased susceptibility to crown fires, insects, and pathogens (Perry 198Sb; Mutch et se.
|
From page 191... ...
Thinning may or may not reduce fire hazard, depending on which trees are dinned and how logging slash is treated. Thinning that lowers average stand diameter may well increase susceptibility to crown fires (Perry 1995a)
|
From page 192... ...
Variability and Change Forest ecosystems are constantly changing. Natural disturbances such as fire, windstorms, insect and pathogen epidemics, and floods are ubiquitous and, in many cases, critical to the maintenance of key ecosystem processes.
|
From page 193... ...
The following steps will be critical to dealing with this situation: thinning to reduce tree density; reintroduction of frequent ground fires; restricting any harvest in remnant old-growth stands to Winning understory trees; protection of any mature or old-growth ponderosa pine trees; maintenance of coarse woody debris as habitat for natural enemies; and longer rotations to restore the landscape to a high proportion of large, fire-resistant early successional tree species (primarily ponderosa pine) (Perry 1988a, Mutch et al.1993, Hessburg et al.
|
From page 194... ...
Institutional barriers to learning can limit our capacity to reduce uncertainty (I ee 1993~. For example, management agencies often lack systematic plans for learning, which should include prioritized listings of identified uncertainties, methods for reducing important and tractable uncertainties, procedures for evaluating existing actions, and mechanisms for retaining new krlowIedge in the memory of the institution (Hilborn and Mangel 1997, Christensen et al.
|
From page 195... ...
their effects as a result of nonindustrial private forests owners' decisions and goals. The principles outlined earlier in this chapter must form the foundation for forest management if the goals and challenges posed in this chapter are to be met over the long term.
|
From page 196... ...
, and institutional and policy issues involving responsibility and coordination all need to be considered In monitoring to support effective adaptive management. Because forest ecosystems can buffer environmental changes that can be deleterious
|
From page 197... ...
For example, under a process fostered by the Washington Forest Practices Board and enforced by the Washington Department of Natural Resources, landowners are cooperating in a program of watershed analyses to resolve issues involving timber, fish, and wildlife at the individual watershed level. Cooperative projects, some of which have been identified for "adaptive management units" under the Northwest Forest Plan, have been
|
From page 198... ...
and Endicott (1993~. The FEMAT process for federal lands is another approach, one that has been driven by the need to accommodate forest management of federal lands to the requirements of the Endangered Species Act (ESA)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.