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Multi-Party Monitoring Group (MMG) Key Treatment Variables in Lodgepole Pine Units

Explore treatment prescriptions in Forsythe II project to reduce wildfire severity, emulate natural disturbances, and enhance lodgepole pine resilience. Discover factors influencing tree distribution, replanting timing, habitat stages, species composition considerations, treatment types, and more.

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Multi-Party Monitoring Group (MMG) Key Treatment Variables in Lodgepole Pine Units

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  1. Multi-Party Monitoring Group (MMG)Key Treatment Variables in Lodgepole Pine Units Angela Gee, US Forest Service July 22, 2019

  2. There are many ways to consider, revise, and refine treatment prescriptions in order to meet multiple interests. The variables in this presentation provide frameworks for thinking about potential variations in prescriptions for the Forsythe II project. Purpose of Presentation

  3. Reduce the severity and intensity of a wildfire within the wildland urban interface (WUI). Emulate natural disturbance in lodgepole pine dominated stands to mimic variable structural and spatial patterns across the landscape in order to increase resistance and resiliency to future natural disturbance. Objectives Related to Lodgepole

  4. Tree DBH PC: Harvard Forest Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) is a standard method of expressing the diameter of a tree trunk. Prescriptions can (for example) be tailored so that they affect trees within certain DBH ranges, allowing foresters to shape the distribution of different age and size classes of trees in a stand.

  5. Treatment location, timing, and sequencing PC: USFS • Some Options: • Identify critical treatment locations to achieve priorities/objectives • Consider adjacent forest treatments and the cumulative effect on the landscape of additional treatments • Stagger treatments over a period of time • Timing considerations to protect wildlife needs

  6. Replanting PC: USFS Replanting forest openings, patch cuts, or clear cuts allows foresters to shape the species composition and density of trees in a stand, particularly when a treatment has enough spacing for newly planted trees to grow without crowding each other out. Timing of replanting could be as soon as 2-3 years post treatment to fill in open/cut areas, depending on treatment method.

  7. Habitat Structural Stage PC: Powell 2012 Habitat Structural Stage refers to the stages of succession in a coniferous forest ecosystems following a stand-initiating disturbance event. The concept is that new forest develops by transitioning through predictable stages.

  8. Species Type PC: Colorado State Forest Service Landscape-scale species composition is factor in the drafting of prescriptions, particularly given our changing climate. For example, lodgepole pine are expected to move to higher elevations in montane forests along the Front Range as the climate becomes warmer and drier. Treatments can be conducted in a manner consistent with expected future species composition.

  9. Manual versus Mechanical PC: Kristin Anderson/Vail Daily file PC: Pinchot Institute The appropriateness of a mechanical or manual treatment varies by treatment unit. Mechanical treatments typically involve whole log removal, so there is typically less slash and fewer stumps. Manual treatments may be more appropriate on steeper ground or in sensitive areas like riparian corridors.

  10. Openings within Migration Corridor PC: Kansas State University Openings in lodgepole can be provide critical browse and forage opportunities for ungulates like elk.

  11. Suitability for Prescribed Fire PC: US Geological Survey When fuel loads are light, fire severity indices are low, and trees are well-spaced, prescribed fire can be introduced within treatment units to help restore stands to their historical conditions.

  12. PC: Dennis et al. 2009 Colorado State Forest Service

  13. Treatment Types • Primary Treatments • Patchcuts: 1-5 acres • Clearcuts: 5-10 acres • Considerations for treating aggregations • Aspen enhancement and restoration • Mixed conifer thinning • Thinning lodgepole pine regeneration

  14. Questions?

  15. Lodgepole pine change over 2.5 km west of Nederland Tree DBH 1910 1985 PC: Veblen and Lorenz, 1991 The Colorado Front Range: A Century of Ecological Change “ What was originally an open stand at the turn of the century is now a dense forest of mainly lodgepole pine. The former railroad bed is now covered by aspen.” (Veblen and Lorenz, 1991 pg. 99)

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