Understory

Spawning surveys were conducted for three years in Mendocino County streams. The results from the last two years of surveys are reported here. Surveys were conducted in seven watersheds in 1991 1992 and in ten watersheds in 1990-1991. These surveys were conducted to as a means to evaluate the effectiveness of restoration efforts to restore salmon populations. The populations of chinook and coho salmon were estimated by several methods including marking and recapture of carcasses, area-under-the-curve (AUC) method and from numbers of redds. A new model was developed to estimate spawning numbers...

For the past three decades, researchers from the Pacific Southwest Research Station's Redwood Sciences Laboratory in Arcata, California, and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF), Jackson Demonstration State Forest near Fort Bragg, have been studying the effects of logging northern California watersheds. Their findings have identified the extent and nature of hydrologic, erosion, and sedimentation impacts of logging operations on watersheds in this area.Cooperation between CDF and the Station dates from 1962. It has been a productive division of labors, with CDF super...

The Forest Service Research Natural Areas (RNA's) Program maintains a network of 289 established areas and over 300 candidate areas representing common and unique natural ecosystems on National Forest System lands in the United States. These areas are managed in conditions minimally disturbed by human activities for nonmanipulative research, monitoring, education and to maintain natural diversity and ecological processes. Prompted by desires to improve the effectiveness of the current program and realizing that opportunities exist for an expanded role for RNAs in ecosystem management, RNA Coor...

The Lyon Peak/Needle Lake Research Natural Area (LNRNA) is located within the Truckee Ranger District of the Tahoe National Forest. It represents the mountain hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) target element for the Northern Sierra Nevada Physiographic Province of California. Located just west of Lake Tahoe, the LNRNA also includes other Sierran montane and subalpine communities, aquatic communities, and geologic features.

Babbitt Peak Research Natural Area occupies the highest crests and surrounding slopes of the Bald Mountain Range, one of the most eastward ranges with typical Sierran coniferous vegetation in this part of California. The coniferous vegetation of the RNA not only includes the previously mentioned pure western white pine forest and Washoe pine forest, but also includes extensive stands of white fir-dominated forest and smaller areas of mixed red fir and western white pine forest. Plant communities with Great Basin affinity include several patches of low aspen forest, extensive areas of big sageb...

Sugar Pine Point Research Natural Area consists entirely of a one square mile (2.6 sq. km) area on a south facing slope of the North Fork American River canyon. The RNA is situated on the slopes and peaks south of Sugar Pine Point, a 6325 ft (1928 m) elevation promontory at the southern terminus of the divide between Big Valley Canyon and Little Granite Creek. Most of the RNA consists primarily of a bowl-shaped slope enclosed by descending ridges on the east and west edges of the section. Within this overall form, additional relief is present as small drainages and benches. Topography is gener...

The American Canyon Research Natural Area (ACRNA) is characterized by the presence of Coulter pine forest, northern mixed chaparral, Central Coast live oak riparian forest, and valley needlegrass grassland. Seven plant species found within the area are listed by the California Native Plant Society as rare, threatened, endangered, or of limited distribution; one of these is a forest sensitive species. Most of the vegetation in the ACRNA burned in 1939. The patches left untouched by this fire had burned in previous fires in 1921 and 1926.

The Peavine Point Research Natural Area is distinguished by the presence of old growth westside Ponderosa pine forest. Other plant communities include black oak forest, canyon live oak forest, Sierran mixed conifer forest, and white alder riparian forest. Most of the area lies on the south slope between Peavine Ridge and the South Fork of the American River drainage. Grandiorite underlies most of the unit, while Tertiary volcanic rocks cap Peavine Ridge directly north of the area. Soils are predominantly of the Mariposa and Josephine series.

The Church Dome Research Natural Area (CDRNA) is underlain primarily by granitic basement rocks. However, a small area long the southeastern boundary is Pleistocene basalt flow. This forms the top and sides of Black Mountain. The CDRNA occupies a part of the southeast-flowing Manter Creek drainage. This broad basin (up to 4 miles or 6.4 km wide) is rimmed on the northwest by the Sirretta Peak highlands (approximately 10,000 ft. 3048 m elevation), and the south by the precipitous battlements and spectacular chasms and escarpments of Church Dome.The RNA contains a large portion of the southern M...

The King Creek Research Natural Area (KCRNA) is underlain primarily by gabbroic basement rocks, with small areas of granitic rock in the southern portion. The KCRNA occupies part of the upper drainage of the southwest-flowing King Creek. This is a relatively small drainage heading at the Cuyamaca Peak-Japacha Peak ridge just northeast of the RNA and flowing into Conejos Creek. The western part of the RNA is bounded by the Boulder Creek Road and the southern part by private land. Highest elevations are in the northeast near the summit of Cuyamaca Peak and lowest elevations are along the bottom ...