Management implications of recent changes in spatial patterns of interior northwest forests.

Abstract

Declining health of forest ecosystems in the interior West has been the subject of much study, concern and controversy in recent years (e.g., Everett et al. 1994, Harvey et al. 1995, Lehmkuhl et al. 1994, O'Laughlin et al. 1993, Wickman 1992). Land-use practices of this century have altered disturbance regimes and spatial and temporal patterns of vegetation, and reduced ecosystem resilience to native and human disturbances. Concern for "declining forest health" centers around the human perception is founded on a widely held social value that forest (and rangeland) ecosystems ought to appear "natural" and be allowed to function "naturally." In that context, significant departure from native conditions in the appearance of forests, in attributes of disturbance regimes (e.g., disturbance frequency, duration, distribution, intensity, and extent), and in other vital ecosystem processes (e.g., succession, species migration, species migration, speciation, extinction) indicates anamolous functioning and uncertain outcomes. Hence, by virtue of the perceived deviant functioning and unease with expanding uncertainty, a negative connotation is applied to altered and unprecedented ecosystem states in the notion of "declining ecosystem health

Citation

Hessburg, Paul. F.; Smith, Bradley G. 1999. Management implications of recent changes in spatial patterns of interior northwest forests. In: Transactions of the 64th North American Wildlife and Natural Resource Conference. Washington, DC: Wildlife Management Institute: 55-78