R. James Barbour

Simulated stand characteristics and wood product yields from Douglas-fir plantations managed for ecosystem objectives

Abstract Hundreds of thousands of hectares of Douglas-fir ( Pseudotsuga menziesii [Mirb.] Franco) plantations in coastal forests in the U.S. Pacific Northwest were established over the past 40 years. Density management regimes designed to increase structural and compositional diversity in these plantations are being tested and implemented on an operational scale. These regimes are designed to promote various tree and stand characteristics, such as trees with large limbs, stands with multi-layered canopies, and dense unthinned patches. Changes in management policy associated with these types of regimes raise questions about the potential to manage for both ecosystem values and timber production. We used state-of-the-art models to simulate stand growth and wood product yields under several silvicultural prescriptions. The results indicated that timing and intensity of early thinnings are critical in determining both stand structure and wood quality. We concluded that it should be possible to manage Douglas-fir plantations to provide a high degree of structural diversity and wood products with quality similar to that grown in many industiral plantations.

Evaluation of silvicultural treatments and biomass use for reducing fire hazard in western states

Several analyses have shown that fire hazard is a concern for substantial areas of forestland, shrubland, grassland, and range in the western United States. In response, broadscale management strategies, such as the National Fire Plan, established actions to reduce the threat of undesirable fire. Available budgets are insufficient to pay for vegetative management on all acres where fire threat is considered unacceptable. The purpose of this report is to begin to identify locations in the west where fire hazard reduction treatments have a potential to “pay for themselves” at a scale and over a long enough time to make investment in additional forest product processing infrastructure a realistic option. The resulting revenues from these activities could presumably subsidize treatment for other locations. Accordingly, we concentrate on areas where wood removed during fire hazard reduction treatments has the potential to support a forest products infrastructure. Areas for treatment were selected by the criterion where either torching or crowning is likely during wildfires when wind speeds are below 25 mph. We considered thinning treatments designed to result in either evenaged or uneven-aged stand conditions. If there are ecological limitations on basal area that is allowed to be removed and there is a need to obtain a certain amount of merchantable wood volume to help cover costs, then uneven-aged treatments appear more likely to achieve one of our hazard reduction targets. Thinning to maintain an uneven-aged structure could be more controversial because it removes larger trees, although the revenue from such treatment covers harvest costs more frequently than does revenue from thinning to maintain an even-aged structure. The removal of large trees by uneven-aged thinning may be reduced by supplementary treatments to increase torching index rather than thinning to reach a high crowning index. Treatments analyzed would treat 7.2 to 18.0 million acres, including 0.8 to 1.2 million acres of wildland urban interface area, and would provide 169 to 640 million oven-dry tons of woody biomass (e.g., main stem, tops, and limbs). About 55% of biomass would be from sawlogs. Sixty to 70% of acres to be treated are in California, Idaho, and Montana. To prepare an example estimate of annual harvest amount for the 12 selected western states, we assume acres needing treatment are divided into two parts of equal area. For half the acres, an uneven-aged treatment would be applied if at least 300 ft3 of merchantable wood is removed; for the other half, an even-aged treatment would be applied if at least 300 ft3 of merchantable wood is removed. Under this scenario, treatment of 0.5 million acres/year would generate 14.6 million oven-dry tons of biomass per year or about 29% of the current level of roundwood removals for the selected states.

Methods for integrated modeling of landscape change: Interior Northwest Landscape Analysis System.

The Interior Northwest Landscape Analysis System (INLAS) links a number of resource, disturbance, and landscape simulations models to examine the interactions of vegeta-tive succession, management, and disturbance with policy goals. The effects of natural disturbance like wildfire, herbivory, forest insects and diseases, as well as specific management actions are included. The outputs from simulations illustrate potential changes in aquatic conditions and terrestrial habitat, potential for wood utilization, and socioeconomic opportunities. The 14 chapters of this document outline the current state of knowledge in each of the areas covered by the INLAS project and describe the objectives and organization of the project. The project explores ways to integrate the effects of natural disturbances and management into planning and policy analyses; illustrate potential conflicts among current policies, natural distrubances, and management activities; and explore the policy, economics, and ecological constraints associated with the application of effective fuel treatments on midscale landscapes in the interior Northwest. Abstract The concept of a process for evaluating policy direction and management options for subbasin-size landscapes in the interior West evolved from the Pacific Northwest Research Stations Research Initiative for Improving Forest Ecosystem Health and Productivity in Eastern Oregon and Washington. The Interior Northwest Landscape Analysis System (INLAS) project was initiated to explore this concept and began with meetings of resource managers and scientists from various disciplines and institutions. This group suggested ways to build an integrated set of tools and methods for addressing resource management questions on large, multiowner landscapes. The papers in this volume are the outcome of these meetings and document our initial approach to developing an integrated landscape analysis framework. Collectively, the papers illustrate the diversity of methods for modeling different resources and reflect the inherent complexity of linking models to create a functional framework for integrated resource analysis. We are still a long way from a perfect tool, the linkages among the chapters are not always apparent, and integration issues have not been consistently addressed. We cannot yet address the interrelationships between many key natural and anthropomorphic processes on large landscapes. We also found that integration forced scientists to generalize relationships and to summarize detailed research findings in order to incorporate their disciplines at the landscape scale of the INLAS framework. With a growing interest in integrated natural resource modeling, we concluded that, despite the fact that we have not solved all the problems associated with integrating information from different scientific disciplines, …

Financial analysis of fuel treatments on national forests in the western United States

The purpose of this note is to provide a starting point for discussion of fire hazard reduction treatments that meet the full range of management objectives, including budget priorities. Thoughtful design requires an understanding not only of the physical and biological outcomes, but also the costs and potential revenues of applying variations of fire hazard reduction treatments in a wide range of stand conditions. This analysis was done with My Fuel Treatment Planner software and provides estimates of cost and net revenue from fire hazard reduction treatments on 18 dry forest stands from 9 national forests in the Western United States. The data and software tools used in this analysis are all available, so these analyses can be easily modified to address a wider range of treatments and conditions.

Using Basic Geographic Information Systems Functionality to Support Sustainable Forest Management Decision Making and Post-Decision Assessments

Abstract Sustainable management of natural resources requires informed decision making and post-decision assessments of the results of those decisions. Increasingly, both activities rely on analyses of spatial data in the forms of maps and digital data layers. Fortunately, a variety of supporting maps and data layers rapidly are becoming available. Unfortunately, however, user-friendly tools to assist decision makers and analysts in the use and interpretation of these data generally are not available. Such tools would properly be in the form of decision support systems that incorporate basic geographic information system (GIS) functionality. A spatial decision support system featuring basic GIS functionality was designed to illustrate how such systems may be used to support decision making and post-decision assessments. This utility is illustrated with four sustainable forest management examples. Decision making is the focus of three of the examples: (1) allocating funding for forest wildfire mitigation purposes, (2) identifying forested watersheds at risk of conversion to non-forest land uses, and (3) identifying lands in the Rocky Mountains with potential for management for water yield. An assessment of the results of previous decisions is the focus of the example: (4) evaluating the socio-economic effects of the allocation of wildfire mitigation funds.