Early Seral Forestry: A State Trust Lands Perspective

01/30/200701/30/2007 [email protected]@wadnr.gov

Early Seral Forestry: A State Early Seral Forestry: A State Trust Lands PerspectiveTrust Lands Perspective

“Keeping Common Species Common”

01/30/200701/30/2007 [email protected]@wadnr.gov 22

AgendaAgenda

• Policies

• Planning as Related to Early Seral Stages

• Silviculture & Other Disciplines

• Examples

• Techniques and Field Craft

• Summary—The Process


PoliciesPolicies• Tenets of The Trust Mandate

– Prudent person doctrine– Undivided loyalty to the trusts– Intergenerational equity of benefits– Maintaining future options

• WA-DNR’s Policy for Sustainable Forests– Forest land planning determines rotation age– Landscapes are issue driven

• WA-DNR’s HCP– Multi-species — entire Endangered Species Act spectrum– Adaptive management based

• Cohort Management– Enables managing single stands for multiple objectives– Identifies and manages objective-specific stand cohorts– Accounts for silvics of tree species


Planning as Related to Early Seral Planning as Related to Early Seral StagesStages

• Northern Spotted Owl—NSO Landscapes– Longer rotations—At least 50 percent of each landscape in structural

stages– SO: Up to 50 percent of each landscape could be in early seral stands

• General Ecological Management (GEM) Landscapes

– Shorter rotations– Most of landscapes in competitive exclusion or earlier seral stages

• KEY: Formulating and Integrating Objectives for:– Landscape– Unit-Rotation– Unit-Activity


Techniques and Field CraftTechniques and Field Craft

• At the Unit Scale: Cohort Management– Unit Rotational Objectives Represented by Distinct Stand Cohort(s)– Rotational Silvicultural Prescriptions (Chronology of Events—Over

a Rotation—That Best Achieve Unit/Stand Objectives) Include Activities of:

• Planting (early seral): mix shade tolerant and intolerant species • Variable Density Thinning (VDT): retains a portion of early seral• Variable Retention Final Harvest: around 15 percent left in late seral

cohort aggregates; remainder is early seral

• At the Landscape Scale:– Ample opportunities – accidental or not – for early seral habitat– Sustain between 30 and 60 percent of landscapes in early seral

conditions, depending upon landscape objectives


Summary—the ProcessSummary—the Process• Objectives for early seral management are defined and Objectives for early seral management are defined and

quantified by disciplines from whom concerns emanate quantified by disciplines from whom concerns emanate – Unit-rotational scaleUnit-rotational scale– Landscape scaleLandscape scale

• Foresters devise unit-level rotational silvicultural Foresters devise unit-level rotational silvicultural prescriptions that best achieve unit-rotational objectivesprescriptions that best achieve unit-rotational objectives

• Foresters define objective-specific stand cohorts and plan Foresters define objective-specific stand cohorts and plan their presence on appropriate spatial and temporal scalestheir presence on appropriate spatial and temporal scales

• Activity objectives are drawn from rotational prescriptions Activity objectives are drawn from rotational prescriptions with a focus on refinement of imminent activitieswith a focus on refinement of imminent activities

• Landscapes are perpetuated in desired proportions of early Landscapes are perpetuated in desired proportions of early and later seral stand conditionsand later seral stand conditions


Questions?Questions?


Q&A Slides onQ&A Slides on--What is Silviculture?--What is Silviculture?--Early Seral TTs in Older Forest Objectives--Early Seral TTs in Older Forest Objectives


Silviculture & Other DisciplinesSilviculture & Other Disciplines

• “. . . the art and science of cultivating forests to achieve objectives”

• Thus, silviculture is the tool; it does not have its own objectives

• Objectives at stand and landscape levels must be expressed by their associated disciplines (i.e., wildlife biologists, financial interests, etc.)

• Objectives must be defined in terms of arrays of threshold targets i.e., discrete and measurable stand parameters


Older Forest Objectives: Older Forest Objectives: SomeSome Retention of Early Seral ConditionsRetention of Early Seral Conditions

• Landscape: Sustain at least 50% of SOMU in sub-mature NSO habitat (i.e., 50% of SOMU could be early seral stands)

• Unit-Rotational: Attain sub-mature NSO habitat– Main canopy at least 30 percent conifer– Curtis’ RD > 50 for trees > 4 inches DBH– 115 to 270 trees per acre for trees > 4 inches DBH– Dominant and co-dominant trees > 85 feet in height– At least 3 snags or cavity trees per acre > 20 inches DBH– At least 5 percent of the ground covered with LDWD

• Activity: VDT to average Curtis’ RD 45 for trees > 12 inches DBH– Vary RD by +/- 8 RD points over 85% of area on a scale of ½ to 5 acres– Create skips and gaps over 15% of area on a scale of ½ to 5 acres– Leave/create > 3 snags/ac > 20 inches DBH– Leave/create at least 5 percent ground cover of LDWD– Leave all bigleaf maple with 3 stems or less

Early Seral Forestry: A State Trust Lands Perspective

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