Assessing Wood, Wildlife Habitat, and Carbon Outcomes of Current and Alternative Management to Restore Resilient Northern Mesic Forests

A recent issue for northern mesic forests of eastern North America is poor and unpredictable tree regeneration. For decades, conventional management of these forests has promoted natural tree regeneration. However, recent studies indicate the regenerating seedling and sapling layers of managed stands are understocked and dominated by a few undesirable species. If reforestation alternatives are not prioritized, these landscapes are vulnerable to unprecedented losses of forest goods and services in the future. Novel restoration approaches are urgently needed to secure resilient northern mesic forests.

A major knowledge gap for restoration is forecasting the long-term impacts of conventional management on resilience and sustainability of wood, carbon, and wildlife habitat. Projection tools developed from existing and emerging data could be used to estimate sustainability under future climate scenarios. These data include existing region-wide studies of alternative management, long-term studies of conventional forest management and FIA monitoring data. Combining these resources provides capacity to identify where, how, and when to implement restoration at the landscape scale.

To address existing uncertainty, this project has assembled an interdisciplinary applied science team to address the following questions:

1. Where current management practices are likely to remain successful under current and future conditions.
2. How to prioritize areas where alternative management systems, including reforestation treatments, are likely to have their greatest impact.
3. When and where projected gains/losses of wood, carbon, and wildlife habitat values will occur under differing management and climate scenarios without silvicultural intervention.

Scientists predict:

1. Current management practices will remain successful where local deer populations are low, desirable seed sources are available, and projected climate change is modest.
2. Alternative management methods will be needed when regeneration fails due to elevated deer populations and reduced seed source diversity.
3. A combination of alternative management methods and artificial regeneration will be needed to restore severely degraded forests under high levels of climate change.

This project will integrate existing data from silviculture/forest dynamics projects across the northern mesic forest landscape. Subsequent analyses, projection tools, and implementation guides will help forest managers promote resilient northern mesic forests.

Objectives

The overall objective is to identify needs, tools, and best management practices to develop healthy, resilient northern mesic forest landscapes that sustain ecosystem services under changing climate.

Expected Results

Outputs

• Research-Management Workshop Briefings.
• Research-management co-produced plans for research, communication, and technology transfer.
• Relevant forest plans summarized for conventional practice standards and opportunities for plan revision.
• Maps of regeneration deficits and threats (i.e., urgent need landscapes).
• Briefings on conventional and alternative management impacts on future wood, wildlife habitat, and carbon values.
• Applied science messaging on social media.
• Web-based interactive tools for managers.
• Best management practice guides by ownership/landscape.
• Apps to determine restoration need and management alternative.
• Scientific articles.
• Professional conference presentations.
• Field tours and practitioner trainings.

Expected Outcomes

• Interested managers from the Eastern U.S. informed on regeneration deficits and potential impacts to wood, wildlife habitat, and carbon values under changing climate.
• Managers informed and trained to implement alternative management practices.
• Alternative management options ready for Forest Plan revisions.
• NFs engage in landscape-scale restoration contracts for northern mesic forests.
• State-of-knowledge advanced through impactful, peer-reviewed journals.
• New research inspired and established on alternative management.

Metrics of Success

• Attendees at workshops, presentations, tours, and trainings provide positive feedback.
• Workshop attendees represent diverse ownerships from government, tribal, industry, and family organizations.
• Outputs shared and documented to support Forest Plans revisions and contracts; Study deliverables referenced in prescriptions, guides, or management plans/projects.
• Followers, views, comments, downloads, and web-based interactive tools.
• Study results published though respectable scientific journals.
• Cross-station collaborations established.