Federal Forest Research Articles

Monitoring late-successional forest biodiversity in the Pacific Northwest, U.S.A.

The era of ecosystem management for federal forest lands in the Pacific Northwest began in 1994 with the adoption of the Northwest Forest Plan. This plan was designed to maintain and restore species and ecosystems associated with late successional and old-growth forests on over 10 million ha of federal lands in Washington, Oregon and California. The plan called for implementation monitoring, effectiveness monitoring, and validation monitoring for a variety of ecological and socio-economic components. Monitoring has become a central part of management of the federal forests in the region and managers and scientists have gained considerable experience in implementing this large and complex program. The components of the monitoring plan include late-successional/old growth vegetation, northern spotted owls, marbled murrelets, aquatic habitat and social conditions. The monitoring plan is strongly based on vegetation layer created with TM satellite imagery and on a regional grid of forest inventory plots. The lessons learned from the implementation of this monitoring plan include: 1) agencies need to devote considerable resources to insure that effective monitoring will occur at broad scales; 2) aggregation of local monitoring efforts is not a substitute for a designed regional monitoring plan; 3) vegetation structure and composition, measured with satellite imagery and inventory plots, is a cost-effective, broad-scale indicator of biological diversity; 4) some species, such as threatened and endangered species, are not necessarily covered with habitat approaches and may require population monitoring; 5) our scientific understanding of monitoring components will vary widely as will the approaches to data collection and analysis; 6) monitoring requires research support to develop and test metrics and biodiversity models; 7) links of monitoring to decision-making (adaptive management) are still being forged. Key words: aquatic ecosystems, endangered species, old-growth forests, Pacific Northwest, USA, regional ecosystem management

The Northwest Forest Plan as a Model for Broad‐Scale Ecosystem Management: a Social Perspective

I evaluated the Northwest Forest Plan as a model for ecosystem management to achieve social and economic goals in communities located around federal forests in the US. Pacific Northwest. My assessment is based on the results of socioeconomic monitoring conducted to evaluate progress in achieving the plan's goals during its first 10 years. The assessment criteria I used related to economic development and social justice. The Northwest Forest Plan incorporated economic development and social justice goals in its design. Socioeconomic monitoring results indicate that plan implementation to achieve those goals met with mixed success, however I hypothesize there are two important reasons the plan's socioeconomic goals were not fully met: some of the key assumptions underlying the implementation strategies were flawed and agency institutional capacity to achieve the goals was limited. To improve broad-scale ecosystem management in the future, decision makers should ensure that natural-resource management policies are socially acceptable; land-management agencies have the institutional capacity to achieve their management goals; and social and economic management goals (and the strategies for implementing them) are based on accurate assumptions about the relations between the resources being managed and well-being in local communities. One of the difficulties of incorporating economic development and social justice goals in conservation initiatives is finding ways to link conservation behavior and development activities. From a social perspective, the Northwest Forest Plan as a model for ecosystem management is perhaps most valuable in its attempt to link the biophysical and socioeconomic goals of forest management by creating high-quality jobs for residents of forest communities in forest stewardship and ecosystem management work, thereby contributing to conservation.

The Northwest Forest Plan: Origins, Components, Implementation Experience, and Suggestions for Change

In the 1990s the federal forests in the Pacific Northwest underwent the largest shift in management focus since their creation, from providing a sustained yield of timber to conserving biodiversity, with an emphasis on endangered species. Triggered by a legal challenge to the federal protection strategy for the Northern Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina), this shift was facilitated by a sequence of science assessments that culminated in the development of the Northwest Forest Plan. The plan, adopted in 1994, called for an extensive system of late-successional and riparian reserves along with some timber harvest on the intervening lands under a set of controls and safeguards. It has proven more successful in stopping actions harmful to conservation of old-growth forests and aquatic systems than in achieving restoration goals and economic and social goals. We make three suggestions that will allow the plan to achieve its goals: (1) recognize that the Northwest Forest Plan has evolved into an integrative conservation strategy, (2) conserve old-growth trees and forests wherever they occur and (3) manage federal forests as dynamic ecosystems.

Variation in microclimate associated with dispersed-retention harvests in coniferous forests of western Washington

Green-tree or structural retention is becoming increasingly common as a method of regeneration harvest in the Pacific Northwest. Amelioration of microclimatic stress is assumed to be one mechanism by which overstory retention enhances the survival of forest organisms and the potential for ecosystem recovery following timber harvest. We examined patterns of transmitted light (photosynthetic photon flux density, PPFD), air and soil temperature, and soil moisture across a broad gradient of dispersed retention in mature, coniferous forests at three locations in western Washington. Treatment means and within-treatment variation (coefficients of variation among sample points within treatments) were compared for warm, sunny days in 6–7-year-old experimental harvest units representing 0, 15, 40, and 100% retention of original basal area. Multiple linear regression was used to explore relationships between microclimate and plot-scale measures of forest structure (including overstory attributes, understory vegetation, and logging slash). PPFD and mean and maximum air and soil temperatures decreased with level of retention. PPFD showed the strongest response, but did not differ between 40 and 100% retention. Mean and maximum air temperatures were significantly greater at 0 and 15% retention than at 100%. Among harvest treatments (0, 15, and 40%), mean air temperature was significantly lower at 40 than at 0%, but maximum air temperature did not differ among treatments. Mean and maximum soil temperatures differed only between 0 and 100% retention. Minimum air and soil temperatures and late-summer soil moisture did not differ among treatments. Within-treatment variability (coefficient of variation, CV) did not differ significantly with level of retention for any of the variables sampled, but CVs for soil temperature showed a consistent increase with decreasing retention. In combination, topography, residual forest structure, and understory variables were good predictors of PPFD and mean and maximum temperatures ( R 2 of 0.55–0.85 in multiple regression models), but were poorer predictors of minimum temperatures and soil moisture ( R 2 of 0.10–0.51). Canopy cover appeared most frequently in the models and cover of understory vegetation was a significant predictor in models of soil temperature. Trends in microclimate among experimental treatments were consistent, in large part, with the early responses of bryophyte, herbaceous, and fungal communities at these sites. Our results suggest that 15% retention, the current minimum standard on federal forests within the range of the northern spotted owl, does little to ameliorate microclimatic conditions relative to traditional clearcut logging.

Unilateral Powers: A Brief Overview

To advance their policy agenda, presidents have two options. They can submit proposals to Congress and hope that its members faithfully shepherd bills into laws; or they can exercise their unilateral powers--issuing such directives as executive orders, executive agreements, proclamations, national security directives, or memoranda--and thereby create policies that assume the weight of law without the formal endorsement of a sitting Congress. To pursue a unilateral strategy, of course, presidents must be able to justify their actions on some blend of statutory, treaty, or constitutional powers; and when they cannot, their only recourse is legislation. But given the ambiguity of Article II powers and the massive corpus of law that presidents can draw upon, as well as the well-documented travails of the legislative process, the appeal of unilateral powers is readily apparent. Not surprisingly, almost all the trend lines point upward. During the first 150 years of the nation's history, treaties (which require Senate ratification) regularly outnumbered executive agreements (which do not); but during the last 50 years, presidents have signed roughly ten executive agreements for every treaty that was submitted to Congress (Margolis 1986; Moe and Howell 1999b). With rising frequency, presidents are issuing national security directives (policies that are not even released for public review) to institute aspects of their policy agenda (Cooper 1997, 2002). Since Truman fatefully called the Korean War a police action, modern presidents have launched literally hundreds of military actions without first securing a formal congressional authorization (Blechman and Kaplan 1978; Fisher 2004b). Though the total number of executive orders has declined, presidents issued almost four times as many significant orders in the second half of the twentieth century as they did in the first (Howell 2003, 83). Using executive orders, department orders, and reorganizations plans, presidents have unilaterally created a majority of the administrative agencies listed in the United States Government Manual (Howell and Lewis 2002; Lewis 2003). These policy mechanisms, what is more, hardly exhaust the options available to presidents, who regularly invent new ones or redefine old ones in order to suit their own strategic interests. For years, political scientists paid precious little attention to these trends. Until recently, only one book had been written on the president's unilateral powers (Morgan 1970), and most journal articles on the topic were published in law reviews (see, e.g., Cash 1963; Fleishman and Aufses 1976; Hebe 1972). There are signs, though, that change is afoot. In the past several years, three books have focused exclusively on the president's unilateral powers (Cooper 2002; Howell 2005; Mayer 2001), and others are in the works. A number of articles on executive orders have been published in mainstream political science journals (Cooper 2001; Deering and Maltzman 1999; Howell and Lewis 2002; Krause and Cohen 1997, 2000; Mayer 1999; Mayer and Price 2002; Moe and Howell 1999a, 1999b). And for the first time, edited volumes on the general topic of the presidency are devoting full chapters to unilateral powers (Edwards 2005; Rockman and Waterman, forthcoming). The nation's recent experience under the last two presidential administrations makes the subject all the more timely. From the creation of military tribunals to try suspected enemy combatants to tactical decisions made in ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq to the freezing of financial assets in U.S. banks with links to bin Laden and other terrorist networks to the reorganization of intelligence gathering domestically and abroad, Bush has relied upon his unilateral powers in virtually all facets of his war on terror. And to the considerable consternation of congressional Democrats, Bush has issued numerous rules that relax environmental and industry regulations concerning such issues as the amount of allowable diesel engine exhaust, the number of hours that truck drivers can remain on the road without resting, and the logging of federal forests. …

A density-dependent stand-level optimization approach for deriving management prescriptions for interior northwest (USA) landscapes

Stand-level forest management prescriptions for federal forests in the interior northwest (USA) have changed emphasis in the past decade from being influenced by economic criteria to being influenced by ecological criteria. The design of forest management prescriptions that maintain stand density levels within a target range is now preferred over the design of prescriptions that maximize net present value. We describe a stand-level optimization process for developing efficient management regimes that uses dynamic programming and a region-limited search strategy. The process develops management regimes by penalizing deviations from a preferred range of stand density. Operational considerations, such as minimum harvest levels, can be important, and are considered as constraints in this modeling process. The timing of harvests is such that entries are only permitted when a minimum harvest can be obtained, when a minimum residual basal area can be maintained, and when harvests are limited to trees with a certain diameter range. Lists of residual, harvested, and dead tree records are available for each decade of the optimal regime. These records of information can facilitate further forest product or habitat suitability analysis associated with forest policy analyses.

Common Property and Conservation: The Potential for Effective Communal Forest Management Within a National Park in Mexico

Common property regimes may contribute to environmental conservationand offer a complementary institutional model to state-run protected areas. The potential conservation value of common property management is of particular significance in Mexico, where a large majority of forests are held communally. Systems of common property management often exist in a context of close institutional overlap with state institutions. This project assessed the function of a common property regime nested within Lagunas de Montebello National Park (PNLM) in Chiapas, Mexico. We documented forest status and analyzed common property forest management institutions following severe fires that threatened forest conservation. Forests managed by the common property regime are less intact than federal forests, yet still moderately conserved, and many attributes necessary for common property management are functional, despite the recent fire crisis. Yet external authorities contest common property management by local institutions, resulting in limited joint management by the national park and the community. Formalization and expansion of de facto cooperation between the federal and community institutions may enhance forest conservation within PNLM.

Ecological Restoration and its Role in Federal Forest Policy

Ecological Restoration and its Role in Federal Forest Policy

Abundance and Demography of the Hawaiian Hawk: Is Delisting Warranted?

To provide the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) with updated information on the Hawaiian hawk ('io, Buteo solitarius) for reconsideration of its current endangered status, we determined population size, distribution, habitat availability, survival, fecundity, and finite rate of increase (λ) of 'io during 1998 and 1999 on the island of Hawaii. We estimated the total population at 1,457 ± 176.3 SE 'io. Birds were broadly distributed around the island, but highest densities were found in mature native forest with a grass understory (0.57 ± 0.12 'io/km 2 ). We estimated that 58.7% of the island (6,144 km 2 ) was usable habitat for 'io. Of the usable habitat, 31.8% (1,954 km 2 ) currently is protected by state and federal forests, parks, and refuges. Based on an average density of 0.24 ± 0.08 'io/km 2 in those areas, we calculated that protected areas currently support 469 'io (95% CI: 244-901). In all habitats combined, first-year and adult survival was 0.50 ± 0.10 and 0.94 ± 0.04, respectively, and fecundity was 0.23 ± 0.04 female young/breeding female. Overall, λ was 1.03 ± 0.04. Elasticity analyses showed adult survival to be the most important parameter regulating finite growth of this population. The population appears viable based on λ is approximately 1 and high adult survival. Additionally, substantial areas of habitat are protected, 'io appear resistant to avian diseases found on the island, no evidence exists of negative impacts from contaminants, and the birds show the ability to use human-altered landscapes and exotic prey. Because of the short study duration, relatively low population size, variance around our estimates (abundance, fecundity, survival, λ), and environmental stochasticity, we believe that delisting to a nonthreatened status is unwarranted. However, we believe that downlisting to threatened status would be appropriate for this species, or embracing a listing as near threatened under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List categories. Regardless of a change in political status, population size and especially adult survivorship should be routinely monitored.

Kantonale Ausführungsgesetzgebungen zum eidgenössischen Waldgesetz – ein Überblick | Cantonal execution regulations of the Federal Forest Law – an overview

Ten years after the Federal Forest Law came into force all cantons have adjusted their execution regulations to fit the new Federal Laws. The legislative steps taken by the cantons have led to a considerable standardisation of Forest Law, in both formal and material procedures. In the near future there are no major legislative activities to be expected at the cantonal level. In future the emphasis will lie in the implementation and execution of Cantonal and Federal Forest Law.

Zehn Jahre Waldgesetzgebung des Bundes: Eine Zwischenbilanz aus kantonaler Sicht | Ten years of Federal Forest Law: an interim report from a cantonal point of view

In a formal way the new Federal Forest Law, in force since 1993,has rendered good service at the cantonal level in establishing Cantonal Forest Law thanks to its clear and systematic approach. Cantonal implementation, based on the Federal Law and the complementing cantonal regulations, has posed no problems in the majority of cases and any appeals have usually been confirmed by the cantonal legislative institutions. Difficulties with implementation arise, however, in the area of clearing rights (creation of added value among other things), buildings and installations in the forest, as well as spaces between the forest and building projects. A definition of uncertain legal terms at federal level would have been of help here.

Erste Erfahrungen mit der neuen Waldgesetzgebung | Initial consequences of new forest legislation

On the 1st July 1995 the new cantonal glarner forest law came into force, the first such law based on the federal forest law of 4th October 1991. Experiences gained with regard to those articles which brought changes are of particular interest, such as the level of compensation for clearing, management of the forest, prohibition of traffic on forest roads, forestry organisation,the handling of natural catastrophes, forestry planning and the forest conservation concept.

Development of ecosystem management in the Pacific Northwest

ABSTRACT During the last decade, the concept of ecosystem management has increasingly influenced forestry practice, but in different ways on federal and private forests. In western Oregon, about two thirds of federal land is reserved for non-commodity use and federal forest managers follow a strict path of ecosystem management. Stands are managed to retain or develop structural complexity and species diversity while landscapes are managed to mimic natural disturbance patterns. On private lands, state and federal regulations and incentives such as Habitat Conservation Plans (HCP) and green certification influence how private forestlands are managed. Large industrial owners continue to focus on timber production within the limits of state and federal laws, with some adopting HCP's that increase landscape planning and landscape diversity. Small private forest managers are more likely to define sustainable forestry in terms of balancing ecological requirements defined in state and federal laws against their aesthetic preferences and how to derive income from their forest. Some have chosen green certification as a way to assure themselves, neighbors and perhaps wood buyers that they are practicing sustainable forestry. At a landscape level these differences are sometimes complimentary. For example, late successional wildlife species are provided for on federal lands, while early successional wildlife species are provided for on large private land. The patch size for disturbance can be large on federal (50–1000 ha) lands where large contiguous areas are designated as late successional reserves or wilderness. Patch size tends to be medium on state and large private (20–50 ha) and small on small private (2–30 ha) forestland. Because ecosystem management varies by forest type and management objectives it is unlikely that the practices adopted in the Pacific Northwest will be applicable in all regions of the world.

Entwicklung der Finanzierung einer multifunktionalen Waldbewirtschaftung in den Forstbetrieben öffentlicher Waldeigentümer im schweizerischen Alpenraum | Development of Financing of a Multi-Functional Forest Management for Forest Enterprises of Publicly Owned Forest in the Alpine Region of Switzerland

With the federal forestry legislation coming into force in 1993, a multi-functional forest management has been established as the fundamental objective of national forest policy in Switzerland. This modern concept was already developed with the beginning of the federal forest policy during the second half of the last century with the effect that forest enterprises already perform extensive activities in the service sector. For publicly owned forest enterprises in the Alpine region the payment flows clearly show at which degree multi-functional management takes effect on the corresponding financing. Services provided by forest enterprises in the sectors of protection(safe-guarding) and well-being are not only financed by the profits obtained from wood production, but also by budget positions especially established for this purpose. Since the 1980s, the sectoral financing for providing services by the forest enterprises has at least partially contributed to the off-setting of the impact caused by unfavourable economic conditions in wood production. Due to the on-going planning process for the realisation of co-ordinated regional or cantonal policies as well as inter-country developments within the realms of the Alpine convention,the basis for the financing of public forest enterprises based on multi-functional forest management will be even more strongly differentiated in coming years. Pilot projects carried out under the new financial equalisation system between the federal and cantonal governments suggest that multifunctional forest management will form a solid basis for the development and implementation of forest enterprises strategies. On the operational level it is necessary to develop and apply suitable instruments for cost and management control.

A New Elevation Record for the Red Tree Vole in Oregon: Implications for National Forest Management

Abstract We document the capture of a red tree vole (Arborimus longicaudus) at a new location and higher elevation than previously recorded for the species. This finding shows that the red tree vole occurs outside the current survey and management areas designated for its protection in Oregon federal forests.

Ecosystem management decision support for federal forests in the United States: A review

Ecosystem management has been adopted as the philosophical paradigm guiding management on many federal forests in the United States. The strategic goal of ecosystem management is to find a sensible middle ground between ensuring long-term protection of the environment while allowing an increasing population to use its natural resources for maintaining and improving human life. Ecosystem management has all the characteristics of `wicked' problems that are tricky, complex, and thorny. Ambiguities, conflicts, internal inconsistencies, unknown but large costs, lack of organized approaches, institutional shock and confusion, lack of scientific understanding of management consequences, and turbulent, rapidly changing power centers all contribute to the wickedness of the ecosystem management paradigm. Given that ecosystem management, like human survival and welfare, is a wicked problem, how can we proceed to tame it? Managers need to use the same tools that people have always used for handling such problems – knowledge, organization, judicious simplification, and inspired leadership. The generic theory of decision support system development and application is well developed. Numerous specific ecosystem management decision support systems (EM-DSS) have been developed and are evolving in their capabilities. There is no doubt that given a set of ecosystem management processes to support and adequate time and resources, effective EM-DSS can be developed. On the other hand, there is considerable doubt that sufficiently detailed, explicitly described and widely accepted processes for implementing ecosystem management can be crafted given the current institutional, educational, social and political climate. A socio-political climate in which everyone wants to reap the benefits and no one wants to pay the costs, incapacitates the federal forest management decision making process. Developing a workable ecosystem management process and the decision making tools to support it is probably one of the most complex and urgent challenges facing us today. This paper offers a concise review of the state of the art of decision support systems related to implementing ecosystem management. A conceptual model of the context in which ecosystem management is expected to function is presented. Next, a candidate for an operational ecosystem management process is described and others are referenced. Finally, a generic ecosystem management decision support system is presented and many existing systems briefly described.

The Federal Forests Are Not What They Seem: Formal and Informal Claims to Federal Lands

The Federal Forests Are Not What They Seem: Formal and Informal Claims to Federal Lands

The Pacific Northwest Forest Debate: Bringing Religion Back In?1

AbstractThis paper puts into relief the religious dimension of the fierce fight over the federal forests in Oregon. My purpose is to describe and comment on some of the religiously based normative pictures that underlie the institutional dynamics of the dispute. Oregon's religious contours are sketched as backdrop. Strands of civil religion Oregon style are teased out. Oregon Lutheran and Catholic visions are examined. Based on field observations, interviews and analysis of public documents, the essay finds a vital, though marginalised, religious dimension to the debate. Yet, moral vocabularies of a religious nature, evident in the personal convictions of forest debate participants, tend to drop out in public discourse, especially at the level of policy. While preserving the Enlightenment critique of religion, I argue, religion should be brought back in to the public square to give voice to religious persons and groups. Citizens and national forest policy makers must create the conditions in which religious voices are heard along with biological and economic ones. Not doing so violates a fundamental principle of political liberalism: inclusion. Suggestions are made as to how public debates, which include religious voices, might proceed.

II risanamento pedemontano castanile nel canton Ticino: 1956-1992: un bilancio di politica forestale | Program to Re-Establish Chestnut Forests in the Ticino (Switzerland): 1956-1992: a Forest Political Assessment

Since 1956, the canton of Ticino has carried out an extensive program to re-establish chestnut forests damaged by chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica). This program was concluded in 1992 when the new federal forest law came into effect. Its realization has met difficulties of all kinds and was marked by a drastic change of sylvicultural methods. Various objectives have not been achieved; however, the project went hand in hand with many other realizations such as the professional training of forest workers, the creation of new forest enterprises, forest research within the chestnut region, the improvement of accessibility and the combatting of forest fires.

Environmental Values and Popular Conflict over Environmental Management: A Comparative Analysis of Public Comments on the Clinton Forest Plan

/ Public participation in environmental management decisions has frequently led to conflict. This paper examines the role of environmental values in fueling these conflicts, based on a data base and sample content analysis of written public comments solicited in 1994 regarding the highly contentious Clinton Forest Plan (also known as Option 9) proposed for management of federal forests in the US Pacific Northwest. The analysis considered whether those respondents favoring more versus less environmental protection than was offered in Option 9 held entirely different values, identifying which antagonistic values appeared to be most fundamental and where (if at all) values consensus occurred. It also compared values emanating from respondents within and outside the affected region, although few major differences were detected in this regard. Results suggest that strong values differences did exist among those preferring greater versus less environmental protection, in particular as concerned the extent, form, and spatial and temporal scope of justification of their positions, their ideas of forests, and the appropriate role of people in forest management. Disagreement concerned far more than purely environmental values: a major point of difference involved human benefits and harms of the proposed forest plan. Indeed, both sides' positions were overridingly anthropocentric and consequentialist-a values orientation that almost inevitably spells conflict in light of the commonly differentiated social impacts of environmental management decisions. Although public involvement in environmental management thus cannot be expected to lead to a clear and consensual social directive, the Pacific Northwest case suggests that viable environmental management solutions that take this range of values into account can still be crafted.KEY WORDS: Environmental values; Public participation; Clinton Forest Plan; Pacific Northwest