Density management in the 21st century: west side story

Abstract

Since adoption of the Northwest Forest Plan (NWFP) in the early 1990s, there has been a fundamental shift in forest management practices on federal lands in western Oregon and Washington. Commodity driven clearcut regeneration harvests have given way to thinnings intended to enhance development of late-successional forest habitats and to conserve important aquatic and riparian ecosystems. Density Management in the 21st Century: West Side Story presents abstracts and peer reviewed papers from a regional conference highlighting more than twenty years of research related to forest thinning in the NWFP area. Presentations from the BLM Density Management and Riparian Buffer Study provide a focal point, with presentations from additional studies providing for a more complete overview of the west-side thinning science. The contributions are organized as five topical themes: The Regional and Landscape Context for Density Management in the Northwest Forest Plan Era; Implementation and Influences of Density Management in the Terrestrial Ecosystem; Riparian and Aquatic Ecosystems and their Responses to Thinning and Buffers; Socioeconomics and Operations; and Thinning and Adaptation. Collectively, the contributions summarize many important forest dynamics and ecosystem responses to partial overstory removals. Interactions between aquatic and riparian ecosystem conservation measures and upland harvest are emphasized. Targeting resource management practitioners, decision-makers and researchers, the collected works provide a reference to the current and future roles and issues of density management as a tool for forest ecosystem management.

Titles contained within Density management in the 21st century: west side story

• Two decades of learning about thinning in the ecosystem management era
• The intertwining paths of the density managment and riparian buffer study and the Northwest Forest Plan
• Public perceptions of west-side forests: improving visual impact assessments and designing thinnings and harvests for scenic integrity
• Landscape context for density management: implications of land ownership and ecological gradients
• Short-term responses of overstory and understory vegetation to thinning treatments: a tale of two studies
• Making the little things count: modeling the development of understory trees in complex stands
• Thinning effects on tree mortality and snag recruitment in western Oregon
• Thinning effects on spotted owl prey and other forest-dwelling small mammals
• Above-ground carbon storage, downed wood, and understory plant species richness after thinning in western Oregon
• Managing for old-growth forests: a moving target
• Stand density relationships
• Westside thinning and underplanting study in 50- to 55-year-old Douglas-fir and Douglas-fir/hemlock stands
• The theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the impact of thinning on carbon stores in forests
• Western Washington and Oregon elk foraging: use and nutritional value by vegetative life-form
• Songbird response to alternative forest density management in young Douglas-fir stands
• Effects of forest thinning on bird-vegetation relationships in young Douglas-fir forests
• Lichen habitat may be enhanced by thinning treatments
• Conservation of ectomycorrhizal fungi: green-tree retention preserves species diversity
• Effects of varying levels of forest thinning on Tricholoma magnivelare (American matsutake)
• Leave islands as refugia for low-mobility species in managed forest mosaics
• Sampling and modeling riparian forest structure and riparian microclimate
• Riparian buffers and thinning in headwater drainages in western Oregon: aquatic vertebrates and habitats
• The riparian ecosystem management study: response of small mammals to streamside buffers in western Washington
• Evaluating headwater stream buffers: lessons learned from watershed scale experiments in southwest Washington
• Applying four principles of headwater system aquatic biology to forest management
• Integrated watershed analysis: adapting to changing times
• Quantifying fish responses to forestry—lessons from the trask watershed study
• Riparian microclimate and stream temperature: thinning and buffer-width influences
• Stream temperature responses to timber harvest and best management practices—findings from the ODF RipStream project
• Initial riparian down wood dynamics in relation to thinning and buffer width
• Thinning and riparian buffer configuration effects on down wood abundance in headwater streams in coniferous forests
• Slope failure as an upslope source of stream wood
• Plethodontid salamander population ecology in managed forest headwaters in the Oregon coast range
• No effects of thinning with riparian buffers on terrestrial salamanders in headwater forests 5 to 6 years post-harvest in western Oregon
• Log and soil temperature profiles in managed headwater sub-basins in the Oregon coast range: implications for wildlife habitat
• Managers’ perspectives: practical experience and challenges associated with variable-density operations and uneven-aged management
• Growth and yield considerations and implications for alternative density management objectives and approaches
• Harvest operations for density management: planning requirements, production, costs, stand damage, and recommendations
• Geometry of forest landscape connectivity: pathways for persistence
• Headwater stream flow, climate variation, and riparian buffers with thinning in western Oregon
• Thinning impacts on the resilience of wildlife habitat quality under climate change in coniferous forests of western Oregon

Citation

Anderson, Paul D.; Ronnenberg, Kathryn L., eds. 2013. Density management in the 21st century: west side story. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-880. Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 249 p.