Genetic and Silvicultural Foundations for Management
Silvicultural Options for Harvesting Young-Growth Production
David D. Marshall, Robert O. Curtis, Dean S. DeBell,
USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, 3625 93rd Avenue
SW, Olympia, WA 98512-9193
Jeffrey D. DeBell, Washington State Department of Natural
Resources, P. O. Box 47018, Olympia, WA 98504-7018
Introduction: Public and private forest managers
are experiencing greater public concern about the aesthetics of traditional
management practices. This study was jointly developed by the WA State
DNR and the PNW Research Station in response to these concerns.
Objectives: The objectives of the study are
to evaluate forestry practices and silvicultural systems that can be used
to reduce visual impacts of harvesting operations while maintaining a
productive forest for future generations. Results will to provide managers
with experience with a range of contrasting silvicultural systems and
quantitative information about public response, economic performance and
biological responses of the treatments.
Methods: The experimental design is 6 silvicultural
treatments (options) randomly assigned to 30-75 acre plots and replicated
at 3 different sites on the Capitol State Forest in western Washington.
||Clearcut - a
conventional and well understood, even-aged system that dominates
most production forestry in this region and provides a quantitative
assessment of the production of wood and non-timber values for comparison
with other treatments.
- a two-aged system that leaves approximately 15 trees per acre in
the overstory and resembles a shelterwood, but with overstory trees
(or a portion of them) retained through the rotation. Understory is
||Small Patch Cutting
- a system involving regeneration in open patches of 1.5 to 5 acres
with surrounding area thinned as needed. Twenty percent of the total
stand area will be regenerated at 15-year intervals, resulting in
5 age classes over a 75-year period. Patches are planted.
- an uneven-aged system in which trees are cut in groups occupying
less than 1.5 acre and thinning throughout the stand to maintain the
same average basal area as the patch cutting treatment. Regeneration
harvests occur at 15-year intervals. All openings 0.1 acre and larger
||Extended Rotation With
Commercial Thinning - defers regeneration harvest, but uses
repeated thinnings as needed to maintain high growth rates for extended
||Extended Rotation without
Thinning - defers regeneration harvest without harvest or management
of any kind. All areas 0.1 acres and larger are planted.
||Current Status and Preliminary
The first replication (called Blue Ridge) was installed during the
summer of 1998 in a 69-year-old, naturally regenerated high site II
Ongoing studies include:
- Tree growth and stand development
- Harvesting production and impacts stand damage and soil disturbance)
- Visual quality and public response
- Wildlife (song bird and wildlife tree surveys)
Cooperators include the PNW Research Station, WA State DNR, University
of Washington and the University of Idaho.
The Blue Ridge installation has served as a demonstration area for resource
managers and others interested in management options. Valuable experience
has already been gained with planning, layout and harvests using alternative
Over the long-term, this study will provide information and experience
needed to select and defend management options and improve management
of many forest resources.
- The second replication of the study, Copper Ridge, was harvested during
the summer of 2002 using a cable logging system.
- The third replication, Rusty Ridge, will be harvested during the summer
- The B.C. Ministry of Forests Research Branch installed an installation
of the study during 2002 on Vancouver Island near Campbell River. The
same treatments, plot design, and measurements were used, plus one additional
aggregated variable rentention treatement was added. This is called
the STEMS (Silvicultural Treatments for Ecosystem Mangement) project.
- B.C. Ministry of Forests Silviculture Treatments for Ecosystem Management
in the Sayward (STEMS) Study
weblink is http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hre/stems/