Interdisciplinary research on the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest.

Abstract

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest is a 4,000 ha, pine-dominated tract in northeastern California, in the Lassen National Forest. Between 1934 and 1960 research at Blacks Mountain focused on various methods of harvest and bark beetle activity. These studies demonstrated the effectiveness of harvesting on tree growth and reducing widespread mortality from bark beetles. After a period of inactivity, research efforts accelerated in the early 1990s when a large-scale interdisciplinary research program was initiated, building on the foundation laid with the early harvest method studies. Although early in the life of the study, researchers have found that prescribed fire reduced surface fuel levels in stands with a pre-burn harvest. However, burning untreated areas of the forest resulted in high levels of mortality and elevated risk of high -severity fire in the short term. Thinning treatments in stands with a cohort of large-diameter trees increased survival and number of low-risk trees. In the short term there were no direct effects observed on small mammals from either treatment. Changes in stand structural diversity, while having no apparent effect on species richness of birds, did apear to cause shifts among a few individual species. In the aftermath of a recent fire, additional research in being conducted on the effects of fire salvage and artificial regeneration.

Citation

Ritchie, Martin; Skinner, Carl. 2014. Interdisciplinary research on the Blacks Mountain Experimental Forest. In: Hayes, Deborah C.; Stout, Susan L.; Crawford, Ralph H.; Hoover, Anne P., eds. USDA Forest Service experimental forests and ranges, research for the long term. New York: Springer: 129-146